Organization Culture and Organizational Structure

Organization Culture and Organizational Structure

Zendesk Inc. is one of the leading players in customer service software business alongside the likes of Freshdesk. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California, in the United States of America (Zendesk, 2012, 1:56). A constituent of the Russell 2000 Index, Zendesk is listed on the New York Stock Exchange represented by a symbol ZEN. Zendesk is among the most successful business today and it is unquestionable that the bulk of its success has emanated from its corporate culture. This paper assesses the organization culture, competitive advantage and organizational structure of Zendesk in a bid to understand its path to greatness.

Organizational Culture

Also known as corporate culture, organizational culture is characterized by the underlying values, dogmas, assumptions, and ways of interacting within an organization, which contribute to a unique psychological and social environment of the firm (Principles of Management Module 9). Zen’s first core value team orientation. It has various departments such as the engineering team and the support crew just to mention a few (1:03). Thus, the firm organizes its practices along teams as opposed to individuals.

Cooperation is Zen’s other organizational culture element. It would be unfair to argue that its workers are not aggressive. However, there is a moment where a male worker is making a mistake in the office (2:56). Practically, this points to lack of strictness in a workplace (Module 9). Socialization is also evident. Workers hug freely and hang out and or in together (2:33). In workplaces, according to Module 9, such factors are crucial in making a workplace fun and enjoyable. Then Zendesk must be outcome oriented. The processes and personal positions of workers are not important but the outcomes. Such is what the orator in the clip refers to when he states that people the engineering team have their own differences but it does not matter because they are one team (3:27). Moreover, Zen thrives by prioritizing change and particularly growth as opposed to stability, which from our readings, is all about maintaining the status quo. From the pictures of where it started and where it is today, a lot of change I detected and from the orator’s word, a growth margin of about 1000% separates the two versions of the same organization (2:48). There is also an indirect evidence that the organization also believes in innovation and risk-taking. It is well said that Zendesk hires interesting people with interesting backgrounds (3:15). Practically, this means the organization considers diversity, and with diversity comes creativity but also risks, principally in terms of culture conflicts.

There is no clear information on whether Zen is people oriented. People orientation refers to the degree to which management decisions strongly considers the effect of decisions on workers in a firm (Module 9). The same is the case with attention to detail. It is also unclear whether Zen expects its workers to exhibit precision and analysis.

Other Zen’s core values include greetings. The firm strongly believes in this art such that it has a unique way of doing it to customers. On entry, a special salutation is offered to customers and visitors by a smartly dressed guard while a smiling lady waves bye to them on leaving (0:20). Zendesk also thrives on simplicity. A perfect incidence that demonstrates this value is that fact that its CEO always wears a hard hat (0:56). Hard hats epitomizes uncomplicatedness and as well as lack of superiority (Module 9). Thus, it creates a sense of equality in the workplace. Corporate social responsibility is another key constituent of Zen’s organizational culture. There is moment in the video when the organization is giving back to the society by volunteering in the city (0:57). Organizational volunteering is a strong element of corporate social responsibility.

Zen’s Competitive Advantage

In the initial stages of this paper there is a point that Zen’s organizational culture is arguably the main factor behind its profound success. The rationale is that its corporate culture has put it ahead of its competitors. Such is what competitive advantage is all about. With a fun and enjoyable workplace, for example, Zen is able to attract exceptional human resources ahead of its competitors, which works well for the quality and quantity of its merchandizes. Quality products and services have high potentials of meeting customers’ needs (Module 10). For this reason, Zen has been able to keep its old customers while attracting new ones. Additionally, the social corporate responsibility role of the firm that entails giving back to the society by volunteering in the city has earned it a good reputation in the society winning it more investors besides customers.

Zen’s Organizational Structure

There are arguments that Zen’s organizational structure is horizontal or flat. This type of structures are usually characterized by the lack or rather missing of some few levels of middle management right between the workers and the managements (Module 6). From the video, Zen’s structure looks more of line. Line organizational structure are arguably the simplest organizational structures and they are signalled by an arrangement where authority flows from top to bottom (Module 6). Categorically, there is a CEO who is the supreme authority and downwards, there are directors and or managers of different teams or departments. From the video, Zendesk is headed by a CEO who resides at the headquarters in San Francisco. The CEO appears twice in the clip; first he appears in a hard hat (0:56) and second he appears talking to a group of workers in an office (1:17).

While there is no direct mentioning of team leaders or managers or directors, it is clear that Zendesk is made up of different departments. Among them includes the engineering team, the support crew, and the IT department (3:27). Departments usually have heads known as heads of department (HODs). In other contexts they are referred to as departmental managers. From the existing of these teams, it is safe to conclude that below the CEO, there are managers who report to the CEO. Such are valid pointers that Zen has a line organizational structure.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that Zendesk is one of the most successful companies across the world and that is mainly because of its effective organizational culture and structure. With the simplest organization structure, Zendesk have a simple and appealing organizational culture characterized by cooperation, innovation and risk-taking, and change and growth among others. From its strong organizational culture and structure, Zendesk have been able to mount a competitive advantage that is set to put it miles ahead of its competitors for decades.