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The Organizational Culture and Organizational Structure of Zendesk
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The Organizational Culture and Organizational Structure of Zendesk
Introduction
Video an engaging visual content is taking over recruitment. Companies are using videos to achieve their talent acquisition objectives. Visual comprehension makes the target audience to better comprehend and retain the information sent, particularly concerning the culture of an organization. Video content is important because people are predisposed to share video content, and media video usage stands at more than 10 million daily minutes spent daily on viewing, which means it’s a platform with an unmatched audience. There are certain things to consider when creating a recruitment video. The video does not use boring corporate language and ensures that employees enjoy creating the video. Having fun ensure that the employees’ energy is captured with authenticity and show good vibes. Most importantly, the video shows the company culture. This report interprets a recruitment video from Zendesk in terms of underlying concepts, its organizational culture and structure.
Organizational culture
Organizational culture is the expectations adopted within an organization that guides the behavior of employees and is communicated through employee self-image, inner workings, and how they relate with the world. Organizational culture determines how employees identify with their organization and affect the way they interact among themselves, clients, and stakeholders. The culture of an organization is perceived through what people hear, see or feel about an organization and within it. Although people may come from varied backgrounds or hold high or low positions in an organization, they describe the culture of an organization in the same way.
Zendesk believes that it has created a culture where everyone belongs. At the end of the video, people who work at Zendesk are shown indicating the diversity in the company’s workforce (Zendesk). Their inclusion culture comes from their slogan of people first. The company strives to build a diverse team and considers diversity and inclusion as a cultural priority. Despite having such a large employment base, the company CEO gets to interact with the employees on a personal basis. The video shows team meetings led by the CEO who appears approachable based on how he chooses to approach the meeting, standing and very close to his employees. The employees also work quite closely, which indicates that they may have close relationships and identify each other. The part where the people working at the reception are introduced means the company recognizes all its employees as people and appreciates every member.
The involvement of every employee in this video might be an indication that employees are included at every level in matters of change. Working in group dynamics creates a culture that does not value individual performance. The mention of the team at every turn in the video may be a suggestion of the obstruction of individual roles from Zendesk’s mission. Involving every employee also shows that they perform their duties in line with the objectives of the organization. A recruiter will consider the diversity of the applicants knowing that the leadership team is emphasizing on diversity.
Seven dimensions of culture
There are seven dimensions that interact to capture the core of organizational culture. They include:
Innovation and risk-taking: today tech companies are encouraging their employees to be innovative and have the confidence to take risks
Attention to detail: this dimension requires employees to be focused on details, showcase precision and analysis.
Outcome orientation: this applies when managers pay attention to the results and not the techniques applied to achieve these results.
People orientation: the management consider the effects of decisions on employees
Team orientation: work is organized around teams rather than individuals
Aggressiveness: this asks the extent to which people are aggressive with a competitive spirit rather than easy-going and conforming
Stability: the extent to which activities within an organization maintain the status quo instead of growth or change
How Zendesk Uses Its Corporate Culture to Create a Competitive Advantage
Zendesk is a company that is able to put a hundred people in a single room and expect them to work together without any problems. For a company to reach such a point, it means the culture was developed from the beginning. In their recruitment video, one can see that the groups work in open spaces where many share the same space. Also, certain clips in the video show that Zendesk does not have a culture that is so corporate but rather one that is laidback.
With its twelve offices around the world, the company has been able to maintain an open culture that communicates widely and clearly. The company has also brought in different committees to take on group decisions. Zendesk’s culture has been able to retain its employees for many years because of its favorable culture. Since their talents have been associated with the company’s success, retaining these employees through a conducive culture creates a competitive advantage. The culture has also facilitated the recruitment of the best talent. As a software company, brilliant minds are a crucial asset in ensuring the competition does not surpass the business and take on its market.
Zendesk’s Organizational structure
Organizational structure directs how certain activities, including rules, roles, and responsibilities, are directed in order to achieve the objectives outlined by the organization. It also determines how information travels within the organization. Zendesk from the video appears to have a functional organizational structure where the company is subdivided into various departments on the basis of specialization. The employees of the company are shown in groups based on their departments. There is the marketing with their fish, sales and services team, engineering team, IT, support department, documentation department, finance and human resource. It is assumed that the executive team mention in the video is made of heads of these departments and may not possibly be a department.
Conclusion
Organizational culture is the beliefs that guide how certain things are carried out within an organization and how people within the organization conduct themselves. Zendesk has strived to create a culture of inclusivity that is not so technical and corporate looking. The company also operates under a team dynamic where group performance appears more important than individual performance. A good company culture translates to increased employee retention and an attractive work environment to capture more talent. The low turnover rate at Zendesk is a significant contributor to its superior competitive position. Zendesk’s functional organization structure subdivides the company into units based on specialization.
Works Cited
Zendesk. “This is Zendesk.” YouTube, 16 May, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0uaSU6IVN4&feature=youtu.be.
Develop the fiscal policies
Fiscal Policy
Introduction
Fiscal policy entails controlling government spending and tax regime by a central government. In the US, fiscal policy is principally implemented at the federal level via acts of Congress as well as presidential actions. In the government sector, there are three optional tools in the employment of fiscal policy. These tools are government procurement, transfer payments, and taxation. The fiscal policy is founded on the assumption that aggregate expenditures, particularly business investment, are the key sources of business-cycle volatility. The objective of fiscal policy is to influence aggregate expenditures, and consequently the macro-economy, directly through government procurement or indirectly through taxation and transfer payments.
HOW THE CURRENT ECONOMY IS DOING AND CURRENT GDP GROWTH
In regard to the U.S. fiscal policy, the sluggish pace of economic recovery and fragile job creation, in spite of the broad margin of surplus capacity, argues for sustaining supportive fiscal and monetary policies in the near term. In reality, the expansionary fiscal policy played a vital role in forestalling a deeper recession. In reference to IMF analysis, the fiscal measures contribution to GDP growth was approximately 2% points in 2009 and an additional one percentage point in 2010. In the same period, the public held federal debt rose from approximately 36% of GDP in 2007 to approximately 62% of GDP in 2010. In the absence of remedial measures, and considering fundamental fiscal pressures predating the predicament, debt might reach approximately 95% of GDP by 2020. In the absence of policy adjustments, consequently the debt would continue rising. It is in this perspective that, the necessity for urgent measures to secure fiscal sustainability appear to be patently obvious (Romina, The Heritage Foundation 19/01/12).
Current State of Inflation in the US Economy. The reactions Federal Reserve System in response to the latest credit crisis have caused the creation of surplus reserves that are held by banks. If allowed to run free in the economy too fast, the excess reserves would certainly activate an extended interlude of fast rising prices. A significant new approach recently offered to the Federal Reserve System by Congress, is the capability to pay interest on the new surplus reserves. Hypothetically, this new tool ought to be adequate to facilitate the Federal Reserve System to restrain inflation, particularly when implemented used together with other supportive tools such as increasing the Federal funds rate. For that reason, the primary basis of risk is that theory may backfire in practice, but there are no signs currently to indicate that the hypothesis is illogical. The outstanding risk is that the Federal Reserve System may underestimate the situation and linger too long to squeeze monetary conditions. Receding monetary accommodation to circumvent inflation, whilst permitting the recovery to progress rapidly is always a complex exercise. A viewpoint that appears to be extensively held is that persistent economic weakness presents sustained inconsistency to inflationary pressure. Even in the perspective that an under-performing economy and a high unemployment rate present a level of indemnity against inflation over duration of time, that duration is not indefinite (Robert, S. EPI, 05/12/11).
Job Creation in the Economy. Unemployment continues at 9.5%. Approximately 45.5% of the unemployed human resources have been jobless for in excess of six months. There are 25.8 million human resources who are either underemployed or unemployed. The labor force is essentially lesser than at the beginning of the recession. This is another indicator of an underperforming economy. With a shortfall of 10.6 million jobs, an unemployment rate of 9.5%, and the private sector still unable to grant a robust upturn, Congressional failure to act in enacting appropriate policies that sustain job creation as well as economic growth, together with renewing comprehensive unemployment insurance and offering fiscal reprieve to the states, is unwarrantable (Alex Adrianson, NYT, 9/16/10).
Appropriate Fiscal Policies for the US Economy. Development of fiscal policy is a complex process. The US economy has experienced a squall of lowering rates and rising rates, market hurdles, increases and decreases in taxation. I would ponder as to where can we find the appropriate balance. Candidly, I do not believe there ought to be a balance. However, even if a balance was found, I believe that the economy would assume its course and unhinge the balance. In my opinion, the expenditure of the government from budget is the basis of the ripple effect that results in rising taxation, the rising debt, and influences each economic indicator. Increased taxation in my opinion, would affect the entire economy, particularly GDP.
Despite a fragile economy, the Obama Administration continues to enlarge the regulatory burden. From the inauguration of the Obama Administration 75 new key regulations, with costs in excess of $38 billion, have been implemented. Whilst Obama acknowledges the necessity restrain regulation, the steps that the administration has taken have significantly backfired. The administration must take significant and real measures to restrain it. Simultaneously, Congress ought to establish critical institutions and mechanisms to guarantee that gratuitous and excessively expensive regulations are not forced on the economy.
In my opinion, the government ought to spend more on Unemployment Insurance benefit. This would provide a very constructive way to infuse money into the economy. This is because; the injected money would be spent instantaneously by long-term unemployed, cash-strapped workers. This spending would consequently create demand for services and goods. It is essential to note that goods and services are generated by workers, and hence this would generate additional jobs.
In my opinion, the expansionary fiscal policy is the most appropriate tool for the ailing economy, particularly in regard to job creation. The proponents on either side of the current debate may make strong arguments in relation to whether a particular policy would generate or wipe out jobs. It is essential to note that, only those policies that enhance the general demand for services and goods in the economy will radically lower the rates of unemployment.
CONCLUSIONIt is essential to note that the government spending cannot stimulate economic growth nor can it stimulate job creation. The money that the government would redistribute in its fiscal stimulus must in the first place originate from somewhere. Whether the government stimulus embodies current or the future taxes, the consequences would be the same. By drawing finances from the private sector in order to provide the same to preferred industries, the government diminishes long-term production as limited resources are relocated to less productive firms and sectors. Policymakers should institute the set of measures presented in this paper, and subsequently pursue supplementary reforms including restructuring of Medicare.
Works Cited
Alex Adrianson. “Spending Cuts Are Good For the Economy”, The New York Times, 16 Sept 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2012.
Robert, S. “Inflation: Whose Fault Anyway”, Economic Policy Institute, 05, Dec 2011. Web. 02 Feb 2012.
Romina Boccia. ‘New Stimulus Plan Same as the Old: Spend, Spend, Spend’, The Heritage Foundation, 19 Jan 2012. Web. 02 Feb. 2012.