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Attached is the data analysis extracted from my final paper.
It's a small sample, *not* claiming to be representative of
anything, but I think the data is interesting nevertheless. I
received two additional surveys after this analysis was complete.
If that data adds new info to this, I'll post it later. The data
does map to previous studies of Digital and its values:
PEOPLE come first.
Thanks to all who participated ( I got an A on the paper!).
asd
btw -- "ALS Corporation" is Digital; "Mr. P" is KO; "Mr. N" is Palmer.
For this study, I interviewed employees from one facility of the
company and surveyed a general population of self-selected employees.
The data was collected from thirteen employees (n=13). Four interviews
were conducted. All interviews included the same questions. The survey
was conducted over two days. The survey instrument was posted to a
company-wide notes conference, an electronic bulletin board. The
conference file is available to all employees world-wide. Readers of
the conference were invited to respond. All responses were included in
this analysis, a total of nine. Demographic information about the
responders is attached.
Values Supporting Transition
Two questions address the current values that are perceived to support
the transition: " Which ALS beliefs, values, norms, 'the way we do
things' do you think will/are supporting the current transition in the
company?" and "Which of these beliefs, values, norms, etc. do we want
to retain after the transition?"
The responses are both consistent with each other and consistent with
the values found in previous studies. The most important value is the
value of the employees, "the people". Ten of the thirteen respondents
specifically mentioned "the people".
The respect for people, and trying to do the best for
them.
When Mr. P. agreed to make cuts, we knew it hurt him
deeply because he cares about people.
We are like a family; people care about each other.
Managers care for people.
Employees are our greatest asset.
The knowledge of the company is in its people.
The inherent goodness of people and their commitment is also valued.
People are trustworthy, hard working, and honest.
People are fair.
People work to do the best they can. Their success is
tied to the success of the company.
Open communications is another value shared by this group of employees.
Communications includes the ability to talk and be heard about what one
wants to discuss including "taboos". The "open door" policy provides a
mechanism for any employee to communicate with any manager, including
the senior management.
Individuals have some voice. People can say what they
think and feel and know it will be listened to.
The freedom with which we are able to talk about Taboo
subjects (i.e. unions, violence after layoffs,...back
to work rules) via e-mail or notes.
People can be themselves.
Uninhibited communication.
The open door policy. This is essential to future
growth and employee morale.
People can network and stay in touch with each other.
Two respondents, however, note that communications during the
transition have been poor, perhaps indicating inconsistent management
behavior. These comments indicate that open communication is important,
valued and expected, but absent.
A continued lack of communication is supporting the
poor method of transition going on.
There is no timely, clear communication. [The group
VP's] memos are not coming from our organization.
There's not enough high-bandwidth communication from
my management chain.
An overriding value continues to be "do the right thing". This was
mentioned in the context of the employees, the customers, and people's
work.
ALS values its customers by protecting their
investments through upgrades and product
compatibility.
Responding to customer needs regardless of your
proscribed role. So, if the customer gets in touch
with you and its not your job to answer the question,
you answer anyway.
Managers care for their people.
People do meaningful work.
[Keep our ability to] change bureaucratic policies
when they get in the way.
Other values and beliefs were identified.
Honesty, integrity, concern for people,
accountability. These all still exist, sometimes more
than ever before.
In our group, individual contributors have a norm of
keeping their heads down and focusing on their
[work]...This keeps the rank and file away from the
water cooler and rumor mills.
Survival coupled with compassion for doing the right
thing.
Engineering excellence.
Manufacturer of superior quality [products].
One value was mentioned as supporting the transition is employee
loyalty. Employees are seen as loyal to the company, but most of all to
the founder and president. He provided vision, leadership, and judgment
that could be trusted.
I believe ALS has many loyal employees.
Our loyalty to Mr. P. is a belief in his judgment. He
said he picked Mr. N. Therefore I'll go along with
his choice. If he had said, I don't want him, but the
BOD foisted him upon us; we'd have had a different
scenario, I think.
I believe ALS...[has] always subscribed to the
philosophy of trying to do what's right. The reason I
mention Mr. P. explicitly is because I believe what
made ALS so unique was Mr. P...When you came to work
for ALS, you came to work for Mr. P. and his ideals.
This bond has proven to be a real positive in these
negative times.
There is a bittersweet eagerness for the new
leadership.
Only one traditional value was noted as "in the way" that should be
replaced. That value is the "internal competition" between groups and
organizations.
Competition between groups and one hand not knowing
what the other is doing is still going on.
There are too many internal voices to listen to.
Downsizing is pushing stovepiping even more -- you
can't do things outside 'your job'.
The "Bottom Line"
To get at the fundamental values for which there is no compromise, I
asked the question "What values and/or beliefs that if they were lost
or changed would cause you to leave ALS? Is there one that would be
'the bottom line' for you?" The values of honesty, integrity and trust
are very important. The loss of these would, for many respondents, mean
that they could no longer work at ALS. These are "bottom line" values.
If people ask me to misrepresent data that I
collected, ask me to be dishonest or misleading...I
would push back if there is a habitual pattern of
being asked to find data to support a pre-determined
conclusion -- "collect some data to prove this". It
came up years ago, and I said I would not do that.
If the company somehow managed to speak as one voice
to mandate my performing some illegal or immoral task,
I would leave.
You hear a lot these days about corporations invading
the privacy of its employees under the banner that
they are doing this for our own good...I view my
coming to work for ALS, or any corporation, as a
partnership...A level of trust must be maintained for
the partnership to evolve and prosper for both me and
ALS. When a corporation adopts practices which
communicate distrust, as these types of invasions do,
then the bond between me and the corporation is
broken.
Integrity. You lose that, and there's nothing left.
Other "bottom line" issues reinforce the importance of valuing people,
open communications, and individual freedom.
If people are not respected, could not say what they
felt, I would leave. [Company x] was like that and it
was awful and I left.
If people stop caring about each other and their work.
If the "supply chain" mentality from [other parts of
the company] pervades [this organization].
If the open door policy [became a paper policy rather
than] a practicing and functional synergy.
If the company decided to muzzle employees by
censoring e-mail...I would be very unhappy, but I
would not leave ALS. If [they] mandate some illegal or
immoral task, I would leave.
If we lost the freedom of individualism and individual
judgment.
If the supervisor's job is to direct rather than help.
Two employees indicate a reluctance to have a "bottom line" either for
economic or age reasons.
I've seen changes which have impacted me negatively,
and they regrettably are too numerous to mention. In
tough economic times, you keep lowering the bottom
line. That puts an employer in a rather unique
position.
Having worked at other companies, including __ and __,
I don't feel ALS presently has many values that
would keep me here instead of going to another
company, if I were younger. At 50, however, it would
be very difficult to find a job, especially with the
economy as it presently is.
Emerging Values and Beliefs
The last area for investigation is new values and beliefs that may be
emerging during the transition. Some emerging values are the
re-discovery of those that were present in the past and somehow lost.
Others are the less positive version of existing values.
Concern for the loss of valuing people was identified by six
respondents. Valuing profitability and efficient operations was
identified by five respondents. Other emerging values were mentioned by
one to three people. A new definition of "success" and what it means to
be "successful" appears to be evolving.
I see a new 'leaner, meaner' ALS eventually emerging
where profits and market share are the primary goal,
with concern for employees being low on the totem pole
of concerns.
A new bottom-line perspective. Doing a good job isn't
enough anymore for individual's success.
Hopefully less politics and more cutting edge
products. I believe we will become much more efficient
in how we do business.
Do what it takes to become profitable.
Historically, the company was driven by individuals
and their visions. It is changing toward more
groups... leads to "group mind" rather than "private
vision". There's a renewed emphasis on quality; we had
that but it was lost.
It seems that the decision to move toward involuntary
layoffs was sufficient in and of itself to redefine
ALS in the minds of employees. And this redefinition
in turn has and will generate new values, beliefs and
norms:
- The company's success and your own personal
success are not necessarily linked
[as they were in the past]
- Where you are organizationally may be arbitrarily
more important than how you perform.
A no-BS, "let's go do it, do it now, and do it right"
attitude.
A new mind set of cooperation between organizations
with a common goal of achieving an efficient and
effective solution for the customer.
Two employees did not see any new values emerging. And, they saw the
loss of some that are valuable and important.
Sorry, I don't see any emerging. What I see is a lot
of nervous apprehension, distrust of management, [and]
impersonality.
None, right now. I see massive paralysis and dragging
out decisions. But, I have hope and see others have it
too.
Appendix Respondent Demographics
Time with company
< 6 years 4
6 - 12 years 2
> 12 years 7
Organization
Hardware engineering 4
Software engineering 6
Marketing 1
Sales 1
Services 1
Manufacturing 0
Internal operations 0
Gender
Male 8
Female 5
Work Role
Individual Contributor 12
Manager 1
Country of work
USA 13
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