Wl Gore Essay

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Wl Gore

The organization that I have chosen to study is WL Gore. The company specializes in one technology -- a fluropolymer -- and finding adaptations for that technology to create consumer products, which it then either produces or licenses. The company's best-known product is Gore-Tex fabric, which is used in winter clothing and ski apparel, but there are many other products as well including guitar strings, Glide dental floss and synthetic vascular grafts (Hamel, 2012).

Unique Culture

WL Gore has a unique corporate culture, based on innovation. Using what they call a "lattice structure," the company has a non-hierarchical system based on interconnection between associates. There is a high level of individual accountability within the company. Innovation and creativity are two of the most important elements of the organization's strategy and therefore they are two of the most important elements in the organizational culture as well (WL Gore, 2014).

Evidence

There is considerable evidence of the unique innovation culture at WL Gore. First, the company has a unique organizational structure that is essentially free from hierarchy. What this does is it removes key institutional barriers to innovation. In many companies, projects need to be approved, financed and will be managed from above. At Gore, the person who originated the project is going to be in charge and there is not much in the way of an approval process. This allows for a higher level of creativity and innovation by removing the barriers to these things that would be present in most companies.

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There is also evidence of the culture in the way that management talks about the company. This innovation and "lattice" culture is fully embedded. It started with WL Gore, and managers today express not only the culture constantly but they point out how the culture has helped the company to achieve its objectives (Caulkin, 2008). The company sells itself to prospective new hires on the basis of these traits -- its culture is one of the biggest elements of its employer brand. This creates a brand promise that the company must subsequently live up to.

Institutionally, the culture is also embedded in the compensation system. At Gore, innovation is rewarded because that is the key element of the company's strategy. Because there are no managers, people's peers are the ones who do the evaluating. Compensation is based on other company's success that year, combined with the associate's ranking. This is reasonable because the associates all seem to have equal opportunity to contribute to that success, and their peers will recognize those contributions. That system of peer review does depend on honestly of those doing the reviewing, but that does not seem to be a problem, as again this is something that is strongly supported by the culture -- abuse of this system would….....

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