I want to discuss Facebook's reputation about its working environment and culture in this case because I was impressed by it. I used read some articles about Facebook's working environment and I think Facebook is reknown for it.
In order to complete this blog, I searched some pictures and reviews about it. I could not imagine how a company like this could incent its employees instead of making them lazy in the office. I believe the most important reason for Facebook to create such as open and relaxed working culture is to "free" people because it needs innovations instead of conventions. I have noticed a small detail from one picture: chairs are not in their regular forms but look like books. These innovative lead Facebook employess to be innovative and compose one of the greatest company in the world. The other reason that I can think of is that Facebook create this working environment in order to attract the most talented people. We all know that the importantce of human capitals begins to exceed that of physical capitals in such a highly competitive market. Facebook has many competitors such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Therefore, it needs to create this kind of reputation in order to attract the best employees and become more competitive. Last but not least, I believe Facebook's working load is high although it has relaxed working environment. Free working environment allows employees to relieve from heavy working load.
Many companies these days begin to learn from Facebook about this reputation in order to attract qualified employees, especially in high technology makets. Although I am not a "Science" person, I do want to have an opportunity to work or at least visit in Facebook and feel its working environment by myself one day.
Did you see the movie about how Facebook started called The Social Network? I didn't think it was a great picture, but it does give some context for what Facebook was like at the beginning. I believe that a lot of the culture in startups is to stay true to the how the company was founded. That may explain the very casual style at Facebook as much as whether that is the best way to attract new talent.
ReplyDeleteI like how Professor Arvan asked you if you have seen the film called The Social Network. I was going to ask you the same thing, but it seems as if he has beaten me to the punch, but it does offer a high quality insight into Facebook's environment during the birth of the company. I agree with you that the freedom applied to the working environment is essential to innovative minds. Workplace constraints can often squander imagination and creativity, but by reducing the restrictions Facebook holds on its employees, ideas are granted to flow freely throughout the workplace. This is a huge reason that Facebook has flourished.
ReplyDeleteThey continue to allow their employees to think outside the box, targeting more and more consumer groups through different, inventive techniques. The only problem I can foresee with this reasoning, relates to a topic we discussed in class. By allowing too much freedom, individuals will act according to what they feel is best for the company. However, everyone may not share the same idea for what is optimal for the Facebook organization. Conflict can easily stem from this dilemma, and from this logic I feel that there may be more oversight in the working environment than may appear at first glance.
I do agree though the workplace set up is key for creative thinking. It facilitates the thinking-outside-the-box mentality, which is imperative to attracting young, inspired minds of our generation.
I should admit that there are some limitations for me to view Facebook's "freedom". It indeed has both positive and negative effects.
DeleteI have not seen the film and maybe I should try it later. Mostly, I got my points of view from the book "Facebook Effect". I think Facebook is free because it is young and most of their employees are young. This fact, for sure, can generate creativity but might cause further operation problems as well.