Tony Hsieh started the online shoe company, Zappos in 1999. Hsieh has always been a strong supporter of teamwork, especially through Zappos. Even though he is now the CEO of the company, he wants his employees to see him as part of the team. He still has a cubical in the middle of the office for easy access to him and doesn’t make over $40,000 a year. By doing this, he thinks that the employees will still see him as a team player, not a team dictator. One of Zappos’s core values is teamwork and Hsieh makes sure that everyone is aware of Zappos’s 10 core values when they start at his company. He has all of his new employees attend a 4 week class that discusses all of the values, the most important one being teamwork. If an employee going through the 4 week class doesn’t agree with any of the core values, they can then be leave for $2000.
Zappos thinks that teamwork can encourage new ideas that help the company grow. It is also important to Hsieh so his employees can all work together for the good of the company. In the book, Organizational Behavior by Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan, it states that a formal work group is made up out of managers and close associates among group members that influence the behavior of individuals in the group. I think that Hsieh was going for this sort of work group with Zappos. He makes sure that he, as a manager, works closely with his employees, or his group members, to influence them to enjoy teamwork and make it work towards the best for the company. Hsieh also wants a high level of cohesion, or the degree of camaraderie, in his work place (Bauer and Erdogan). He gets this by having after work parties and having a high energy work place. Another one of his core values is creative and a little weirdness. This too, works to create a high level of cohesion.
So what do you think classmates…Is Hsieh doing the right thing to create teamwork at Zappos by making himself more available to the workers? Do after work parties really create high levels of cohesion? Could cohesion lead to teamwork? Let me know your thoughts!
--Kristi Rudin
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/04/in-his-shoes-zappos-ceo-credits-success-to-having-fun-2/
I believe Hsieh is doing the right thing to create teamwork at Zappos. A big part of teamwork is communicating among members and by having a cubicle in the center of the office amongst other employees he is making himself very available for employees to come to him with questions, comments, or ideas. Also, by putting himself amongst other employees he is showing his coworkers that he is no different than them. This would make the employees feel more comfortable if they needed to go to him for any reason.
ReplyDeleteAfter work parties would lead to high levels of cohesion. By having parties coworkers can get to know each other better than if they were just to show up at the office to work. Cohesion would lead to teamwork. When you are more comfortable with the people around you, you are more likely to interact and communicate with them. This would lead to more creative ideas by employees.
-Steven Stanek