An analysis of strong company culture - positives and negatives, using Facebook as it's prime example.

1. Facebook
Strong Culture and It’s Effects
Dustin Commet

2. Article 1 Analysis - Fast Company
● Trying to keep it’s original environment / feel
● Small, start-up feel culture
○ Personal
○ Cultivated to employees and task
● Specifically simple

3. Analysis 1 Continued
● Culture isn’t the biggest part though
● Most important to Zuckerberg is the company’s goal
○ "Facebook’s mission is to give everyone in the world the power to share, and to make the
world more open and connected.."
● Companies change as they grow, and staying focused on keeping the same
culture will eventually become a hindrance
● As long as they follow their mission, the culture will change - just as the
company does - to maintain advancement towards their goal

4. How does it form?
● Company culture will form naturally as a company exists
● However, it can be cultivated in a specific way
● Most companies cultivate their culture to meet a specific feel
● Examples include:
○ Facebook
○ Zappos
○ Google

5. Impact on Company - Individual Worker
● Helps a worker to feel like they a part of something
● Forms identity
● Emphasizes their role as a worker as important
● Not just a replaceable part, but a valuable member

6. Impact on Company - Department
● Effects of a small team are felt
● A sense of unity and higher purpose to accomplish a task together
● Strong connection to co-workers
● Can lead to feeling as if you are part of a family or something of that sort

7. Impact on Company - As a Whole
● Unity is increased, under a company’s mission statement
● Sense of community grows to include the entire staff
○ Extremes like Zappos as a small city
○ Facebook seems to feel almost like a town from the way it is laid out
● Individual workers and departments alike can see the full effects of their
work in the company

8. As a Whole - Continued
● Creates an image for the company, and what it presents itself as
● Company forms into it’s own society
○ In that the company runs differently in the way it communicates and runs than another
company or even just the city outside the company

9. A Strong Company Culture...
● Has core values or missions
○ Facebook uses its mission statement
● Has company “heroes”
○ People like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg
● Rites and Rituals
○ Catering their offices to their specific interests and tasks

10. Shifting Tides...
● Not everybody thinks strong culture is a great thing however
● One example is a former employee, Garcia Martinez, who had various
thoughts about his time with the company

11. Article 2 Analysis - Breitbart
● Former employee reveals insider information about Facebook’s culture
● “Facebook’s company culture was like a religion, and Mark Zuckerberg like
notorious cult leader Jim Jones.” - Garcia Martinez, former employee
● Traditions
○ “Faceversary” - a celebration of your first day as an employee.
○ Treating employees leaving the company as if they had died, posting pictures of their
company id as a tombstone on the site.

12. Analysis 2 continued
● Not necessarily a bad thing
● Dedication became more motivating than money
○ Workers almost obsessed with the company
● Mark Zuckerberg personally cultivated this culture

13. Negative Impact - Worker
● May feel excluded if they don’t “get” the culture
● Might be alienated by employees because they don’t seem to fit
● Could feel less attached to their work due the feelings of being out of place

14. Negative Impact - Department
● Too much connection within the department
● Once again, possible exclusion of individuals
● Possible separation from company as a whole
○ Individual separation issues but on a larger level

15. Negative Impact - Company as a Whole
● Can create a weird image for the company as a whole, an image of being
too different from the norm
● Split of departments with different cultures of their own
● Dangerous levels of self-containment and ritual
○ Too different for workers to want to join or for them to feel comfortable in another job

16. Company as a Whole - Continued
● I believe all of these negatives can be avoided, and that the culture at
Facebook is not nearly as creepy as Martinez makes it out to be
● Job of the company, this case - Mark Zuckerberg, to cultivate a culture that
won’t let these negatives exist
● Comfortability for everyone

17. Good Vs Bad
● I believe that a strong company culture is only bad when you let it get that
way
● The higher-ups should work to create a culture that helps their company
grow / avoid negative aspects of culture

18. “Day Vs Night” - Lex Luthor (Mark
Zuckerberg)
● The employees should then, in turn, help to create the culture that helps
them to perform their best
● A strong culture that is tailored by the company together is ideal, and can
lead to a nearly all positive experience

19. Conclusion
● Strong culture is cultivated and has many specific elements that are
important in it’s creation
● Some people see a strong culture as negative because it can be
uncomfortable and alientating

20. Conclusion - Continued
● Uncomfortability and alienation aren’t inherently part of a culture
○ Companies should strive to eliminate problems like these
● I believe that a strong company culture is always ideal for a company to
reach for
○ Creates purpose and something more than money to strive for

21. Sources
● Mccracken, H. (2015, November 24). How Facebook Keeps Scaling Its
Culture | Fast Company ... Retrieved October 22, 2016, from
https://www.fastcompany.com/3053776/behind-the-brand/how-facebook-k
eeps-scaling-its-culture
● Bokhari, A. (2016, June 06). Former Facebook Employee Compares
Company Culture To A Religion - Breitbart. Retrieved October 25, 2016, from
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/06/06/former-facebook-employee-co
mpares-company-culture-to-a-religion/
●