Microsoft Corporation, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, is an American global technology business. It makes, sells, and maintains computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. The Microsoft Windows operating system, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers are some of the company’s most well-known software products (Sehgal et al, .2020). Xbox video gaming consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet line are the company’s major hardware products. It was the world’s most profitable software company in 2016. The core processes at Microsoft have been evolving since it was founded but one thing remains constant that is innovation. In recent years, Microsoft has moved to cloud computing and mobile devices with Azure, and Office. In the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings (Sehgal et al,.2020) of the largest US firms by total revenue, Microsoft is ranked 30th. Along with Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, it is regarded one of the Big Five businesses in the US information technology industry.
The Behaviors of the Organization
The company currently operates under a divisional organizational structure, which has shown to be effective where business culture is one of accountability. I was able to build our strategies and judgements while keeping the larger organizational picture in mind as a member of the C-suite as the chief marketing officer, who is in charge of the company’s sales and helping growth (Vlaicu et al,.2019). As a result, efforts have been made to ensure that, despite their independence, the various divisions work toward the same goals and that employees obey Microsoft’s standards (Vlaicu et al,.2019) and objectives in the computer hardware and software industry.
The beliefs, values, and assumptions of the organization
Microsoft’s corporate culture is based on innovation and collaboration, with a focus on learning and development. The company’s mission statement is “to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential”. This mission statement is reflected in the culture that attracts employees who want to use their skills to create innovative solutions that positively impact the world (Vlaicu et al,.2019). Despite its size, Microsoft fosters an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit among its employees through small teams that are empowered to make decisions about projects they are working on. On most occasion, I would get permission from the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) by encouraging us to speak up about new ideas or concerns about operations and take charge of the organization’s technology infrastructure, and ensures that the organization’s short and long-term technology needs are met from start to finish (Vlaicu et al,.2019). The senior believes that everyone contributes ideas that can help solve problems faced by customers, so it encourages all the employees.
Espoused Culture
In terms of its formal documents, such as its mission statement or policy manuals, Microsoft’s culture emphasizes individualism and achievement. In the case of Microsoft, this means that employees who work hard at their jobs and reach their goals are rewarded with various benefits and bonuses. This type of reward system is a way for Microsoft to motivate their employees to continue working hard by showing that there is a direct benefit for them when they succeed. The fact that Microsoft emphasizes individual achievement in its formal documents shows that it is an espoused culture because this ideal is not necessarily reflected in the rest of the company.
Lived Culture
In the day-to-day work of improving sales and assisting growth, I value action and results, dissent and risk-taking, participative and collaborative working practices, quality products, and prompt responses to feedback. Therefore, the history of development is very significant. Many factors contributed to Microsoft’s success. First, The Chief Executive Officer’s (Bill Gates) passion and personal commitment to the company enabled him to attract other talented people to expand the company’s core business into many derivative areas (Vlaicu et al,.2019) and helped employees understand what was important in an organization and what needed to be done to achieve these values. This encourages everyone in their organization to take initiative and push boundaries to develop new products and services to keep them at the top of the technology industry. In doing so, they can fulfill all needs of their customers and provide them with something they may not have even known they wanted or needed.
When I encounter discrepancies between the Espoused and Lived Cultures
Microsoft espouses a culture of promoting hard work to achieve success. There are also discussions on its website that promote diversity in the workplace and encourage youth empowerment through technology. For example, there is a section dedicated to including women in technology. This is an excellent way to demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to diversity and equal opportunity for all employees.
Microsoft’s lived culture illustrates traits such as Aggression – A key quality in Microsoft’s lived culture is aggression; an example of this is that the company does not tolerate any infringements of its intellectual property rights, but will aggressively pursue legal action against offenders. This also extends to business practices; for example, when Google launched Chrome OS in 2009, Microsoft responded with an aggressive marketing campaign (Vlaicu et al,.2019) that accused Google of having stolen Windows XP security features, citing the use of the demand-dial interface and plugging into Windows Update as why Google “doesn’t get to play by different rules”.
Conclusion
Microsoft is practicing cultural analysis at the micro-level. The Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft stated (Vlaicu et al,.2019) that the company looks at how to improve the culture of employees individually in terms of their attributes and characteristics using data collection and measurement. He added that one of the characteristics of employees which is considered when distributing bonuses is morale. This shows that employees are surveyed regularly to improve morale within an organization.
Reference
Sehgal, G., Kee, D. M. H., Low, A. R., Chin, Y. S., Woo, E. M. Y., Lee, P. F., & Almutairi, F. (2020). Corporate social responsibility: A case study of Microsoft Corporation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education (APJME).
Vlaicu, F. L., Neagoe, A., Țîru, L. G., & Otovescu, A. (2019). The organizational culture of a major social work Institution in Romania: A sociological analysis. Sustainability.
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