A company’s organizational structure refers to the mode of conduct of employees in a corporate setting. It refers to the relationship among employees and between employees and the organization. The study of organizational behavior provides knowledge about what organizations deem as an acceptable code of conduct and professional performance and what is deemed unacceptable. Organizational behavior helps a company’s management team understand the various aspects that increase employee motivation and performance (Champoux, 2020). It also allows companies to create strong and trusting relationships with employees based on the nature of the relationship between employees and management. Organizations must emphasize proper organizational behavior because it determines how employees react to different situations. This paper seeks to analyze how organizational behavior affects an organization’s healthy performance by analyzing Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft Corporation is a renowned technology company that has an exemplary reputation and business portfolio. Microsoft’s official website illustrates that there is much to be desired about the organizational behavior embraced by this corporation. Just like a vast majority of companies, the organizational culture of Microsoft Corporation has undergone several alterations to get to where it is currently. The organizational behavior of Microsoft Corporation changed as a result of the alteration of this company’s organizational culture. The alterations that were made have manifested excellent progress for this company.
Corporate culture dictates what employees should do and refrain from doing. Therefore, it influences the overall behavior of a company’s employees (Warrick, 2017). When Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched the company back in 1975, the initial corporate culture of Microsoft solely focused on innovation. However, the growth and development of this organization emphasized the need for a more advanced organizational culture to improve the operations in the company.
The new organizational culture that was implemented in Microsoft entails five pillars. The first pillar was borrowed from the initial corporate culture, innovation. Microsoft emphasizes that employees should display creativity in innovative ideas that they brainstorm. One way that Microsoft encourages innovation is by holding research summits where employees from affiliate branches worldwide meet to discuss existing issues in technology and brainstorm their ideas.
Microsoft also trains its employees to have a growth mindset by encouraging them to identify and present prospective avenues to manifest the growth of its business ventures (Ibarra & Rattan, 2018). Employees that provide the best solutions and ideas are rewarded for their contribution. This was a wise decision by Microsoft because it motivates employees to contribute to its growth. Still, it has also helped Microsoft Corporation consistently launch unique products that offer maximum utility to its consumers. This strategy has helped Microsoft maintain consistent growth and development despite the emergence of competition from multiple global corporations which offer similar products and services.
The second pillar of Microsoft’s organizational culture is openness. Microsoft has a policy of transparency where employees are given fair opportunities to express their personal opinions regarding the organization’s management. The higher ranking employees are encouraged to accommodate the views of their subordinates. The policy of openness has helped the employees of Microsoft to understand that they have a fundamental role in ensuring that the products Microsoft introduces to the market offer the utmost value to consumers. Therefore, employees at Microsoft understand that their liberty to express their opinions comes with the condition that executive officials can also express their disappointment when these employees produce poor-quality work (Ibarra & Rattan, 2018). As a result, the pillar of openness encourages employees to react positively when they are reprimanded or pressured by their senior colleagues.
The third pillar is accountability. All the employees at Microsoft understand that they have responsibilities. Thus, these employees understand that actions have repercussions in the organizational context. Accountability at Microsoft is implemented through regular employee surveys and reward programs. For instance, an excellent way employees in this organization are tested for fault is through the customer and partner experience (CPE) strategy. Customer and partner experience involves a survey carried out twice every business year (Microsoft, 2022). The survey is carried out by a third party that collects customer information to identify the areas where this organization can improve and maintain good performance.
The employees that report good performance are recognized and rewarded by the company. Similarly, those that illustrate professional negligence are reprimanded and kept under a higher level of scrutiny. The story of institutionalized accountability in Microsoft hugely influences its personnel to follow the rules and regulations stipulated by the company. The customer, partner, and experience project entails other surveys, which help ensure accountability on all facets of the organization. These surveys include; product satisfaction surveys, research forums, product-feedback technologies, usability studies, and enterprise customer satisfaction surveys.
The fourth pillar in Microsoft’s organizational culture is responsiveness to consumers. The workers of Microsoft are trained to prioritize the consumers because they are an essential part of a business. The emergence of competition in the technological industry deems it imperative for organizations to retain existing consumers while attracting new ones. As a result, Microsoft ensures that its organizational culture implements customer satisfaction by making responsiveness to customers a key element in its corporate behavior. For example, Microsoft has feedback systems that inform the working staff about the opinions of various hardware and software products sold by Microsoft. It collects consumer feedback using social media platforms and product support facilities. Microsoft encourages employees to heed feedback from consumers to develop intelligent ways to improve consumer satisfaction.
The fifth pillar is diversity and inclusion, where the human resource management of Microsoft Corporation has strict policies to ensure inclusivity when hiring employees. Microsoft employs people based on the value they can offer. Microsoft is one of the few organizations with a section that employs people with special needs. Doing so helps Microsoft Corporation to enrich the scope of its perspectives. It has proved helpful for this organization as it has offered helpful hardware and software products to consumers with various special needs.
The five pillars of organizational culture mentioned above have positively influenced the organizational behavior of employees at Microsoft and have helped enhance its healthy growth and development. The pillar of openness ensures that this company shares its objectives with employees to understand the part they have to play to achieve organizational goals. Transparency encourages teamwork because employees feel that their opinions are valued, regardless of their position within the corporation (Aguinis & Solarino, 2019). Employee morale is boosted when they feel like a valuable part of the business. Poor performance is handled in a friendly manner, as employees have been conditioned to be accountable for their actions.
The employees at Microsoft enjoy time off as Microsoft offers 15 vacation days, ten sick-leave days, 10 U.S. holidays, and two personal days every business year. Personnel can enjoy all these days off with an assurance of payment. Moreover, Microsoft offers its workers a healthy work-life balance by accommodating flexible work schedules to effectively manage other aspects of their lives.
Microsoft Corporation is invested in the well-being of its personnel, which is vividly illustrated through the generous benefits it offers to them. One of the most imperative benefits involves the well-being of staff. Microsoft Corporation helps them to cater to their medical, visual, and dental care through options like a flexible spending account and a health savings plan account. Microsoft offers its workers a $1,200 annual reimbursement for any monetary expenses incurred to stay fit financially, physically, or emotionally.
In addition to this reimbursement, Microsoft offers physical health programs, such as biometric screenings, on-site flu injections, autism/ABA therapy, and 24-hour access to a nurses’ line (Microsoft, 2022). These perks are also applicable to an employee’s family members. Microsoft’s organizational behavior of inclusivity is made apparent in the disability support program, which helps employees with special needs to make their lives easier.
Employees of Microsoft are encouraged to improve their skills and capabilities through various programs. For instance, employees who desire to finance their education to enhance their input in Microsoft can access financial assistance to facilitate their learning. Employees also have access to all relevant learning resources available at Microsoft, including an on-site library. Inspirational speakers are also invited to motivate and impart knowledge to the employees at Microsoft. Moreover, Microsoft helps its employees invest in their future through the financial planning and education plan, employee stock purchase program, and loan payment program.
The pillar of diversity and inclusion significantly influences the human resource policy of Microsoft because it encourages inclusivity. As a result, Microsoft’s organizational behavior is free of discrimination. The human resource department of Microsoft Corporation holds all employees equally accountable for their professional mistakes. Similarly, it also rewards employees equally for excellent work execution.
The pillars of organizational culture, employee benefits, and employee assistance programs have all proved effective in creating a sustainable environment in which the organization will thrive. The organizational behavior present at Microsoft Corporation encourages employees to provide superior quality services to guarantee top-notch performance. Microsoft ensures that these employees provide excellent services by offering benefits and empowering employees to become better professionals. Microsoft’s conducive work environment makes employees feel part and parcel of the organization.
As a result, there is a relatively high level of organizational citizenship behavior current among the employees of this organization, which encourages them to provide optimal performance. By definition, organizational citizenship behavior refers to how the employees of companies feel contented and happy to be associated with the particular company (Podsakoff et al., 2018). Therefore, the employees of Microsoft are proud to work in this organization, which motivates them to ensure that their organization is able to conquer all competition. Microsoft uses the supportive organizational behavior model, allowing employees to be self-motivated. This organization’s type of organizational behavior is effective; hence, it does not need much improvement. Microsoft illustrates the importance of implementing an effective model of organizational behavior, as it has been able to manifest significant achievements for this organization.
References
Aguinis, H., & Solarino, A. M. (2019). Transparency and replicability in qualitative research: The case of interviews with elite informants. Strategic Management Journal, 40(8), 1291-1315.
Champoux, J. E. (2020). Organizational behavior: Integrating individuals, groups, and organizations. Routledge.
Ibarra, H., & Rattan, A. (2018). Microsoft: instilling a growth mindset. London Business School Review, 29(3), 50-53.
Microsoft. (2022). About – Company. About Company. Web.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of organizational citizenship behavior. Oxford University Press.
Warrick, D. D. (2017). What leaders need to know about organizational culture. Business Horizons, 60(3), 395-40