My literature research focused on the following areas: organizational culture, defining a tech company, indicators of organizational ethics, and industry organizational trends.<\/p>\n
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Using literature by\u00a0Peter and Edgar Schein,\u00a0David Ravasi and Majken Schultz, and Michael D. Watkins, I developed the following definition for\u00a0organizational culture:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most companies in the 21st centuries rely on technology to efficiently serve their customers. Thus, to be able to effectively analyze the tech industry, I had to define what constitutes a tech company compared to a company that has a strong digital presence. I developed the following definition, and thought map to define a\u00a0tech company:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Below is the thought map that can be used to determine if a specific company is a “tech company”:<\/p>\n (If \u201cNo\u201d – it is likely a tech company; if \u201cYes\u201d – move onto next question) <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n (If \u201cNo\u201d – it is likely <\/span><\/i>not<\/i><\/b> a tech company; if \u201cYes\u201d – move onto next question)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n (If \u201cYes\u201d – it is likely a tech company; if \u201cNo\u201d – it is likely an electronic retailer or other\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>retail <\/span><\/i>store) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mission and values statements can offer insight into a company\u2019s\u2019 guiding principles, but are meaningless if they are not ingrained into company behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n The mission statement,\u00a0also known as a values statement, serves as a company\u2019s declaration of the company\u2019s purposes, goals and values (“Mission and Vision Statements”, 1).<\/span><\/p>\n Some examples of tech companies\u2019 mission statements include:<\/span><\/p>\n A company\u2019s \u201cvision statement\u201d declares the company\u2019s ultimate aspiration upon accomplishing its mission. It serves to demonstrate the company\u2019s end-goal as it pertains to both its mission and business model (Kolowich, 8).<\/span><\/p>\n Some examples of tech companies’ vision statements include: <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A code of ethics is essentially a more value-based code of conduct, can positively guide company behavior and employee actions. Similar to mission statements, creating a corporate code of ethics is much easier than implementing one. Codes of ethics have the potential to positively guide both internal and external company actions, but they must be respected and upheld by the employees, especially the leadership.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Codes of ethics, similar to mission and vision statements, should be updated as a company grows and evolves. A famous code of ethics edit was Google\u2019s decision to replace its notorious clause \u201cDo no evil\u201d with \u201cDo the right thing\u201d in its corporate code of ethics (Mayer, 1). The justification for this is that people should be encouraged to <\/span>do good<\/span><\/i> rather than to <\/span>avoid doing harm<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n While taglines primarily serve to trigger a company\u2019s image and brand in a customer\u2019s mind, slogans typically are aimed to incorporate and reflect the mission of the company. Slogans encompass both the company\u2019s brand and mission in a short, catchy phrase. Taglines are also short and catchy, but typically do not reflect ethics or values.<\/span><\/p>\n Some examples in the tech industry include: <\/span><\/p>\n Taglines<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Slogans<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many historically white dominated companies and academic institutions are beginning to recognize the need (or have been requested) to reflect U.S. racial and gender demographics to their own employee demographics.\u00a0The tech industry, a very white male dominated space, has long been criticized for its lackluster representation of blacks, hispanics, and other racial minorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tech executive Bar\u00ed Williams and Harvard historian Leah Rigueur claim that a more diverse tech corporation will be more ethical in the long-run, because there will always be a variety of perspectives and opinions in the room, thus a higher probability of ethical decision making (Williams 1-4; Rigueur 14-19). Thus, c<\/span>ompanies that are more diverse may reflect both inclusive hiring practices as well as more ethical decision-making. However, some companies may only care about their public image or hitting quotas.<\/span><\/p>\n Since determining which companies are primarily concerned about hitting diversity quotas from those that actually <\/span>value<\/span><\/i> diversity can be difficult by solely looking at racial and gender demographics, minority retention rate may possibly be a better indicator of ethics. Bar\u00ed Williams\u2019 motto is \u201cDiversity gets people in the door; inclusion keeps them there.” (Fluker, 3-15).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A company\u2019s policies and practices and their willingness to change them according to internal or external demand can reveal a good amount about their workplace ethics.\u00a0<\/span>Companies that offer parental leave (includes fathers and LGBTQ partners), enforce zero-tolerance harassment policies, and do not require forced arbitration are more likely to have positive, healthy workplace cultures. Many tech employees have been protesting forced arbitration clauses in their contracts that block their ability to sue the company for misconduct and harassment. The Google Walkout For Real Change and Riot Games case studies will explore employee reaction and protest to these policies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The role of the Chief Diversity Officer<\/strong> is dedicated to developing initiatives to attract and retain minorities and to establishing conversations about diversity and inclusion among leadership at the respective organization (Williams, ix). This role could potentially be a marker of an organization that truly prioritizes inclusion and diversity. However, as this role becomes more commonplace, it may also become less of a reliable signal of ethical culture because it has become a social expectation of corporations and academic institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n The same arguments can be made for other new positions gaining popularity at tech companies such as Chief Ethics Officer (CEO).<\/strong> Ethics has been a buzz-worthy concept in the last few years, as major tech companies have found themselves under harsh scrutiny in the media regarding controversial ethical issues such as sexual harassment, user privacy violations, and intellectual property rights disputes. Thus, tech companies have an incentive to demonstrate their ethical commitment to their employees, customers, and the general public.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction My literature research focused on the following areas: organizational culture, defining a tech company, indicators of organizational ethics, and industry organizational trends. Organizational Culture Using literature by\u00a0Peter and Edgar Schein,\u00a0David Ravasi and Majken Schultz, and Michael D. Watkins, I developed the following definition for\u00a0organizational culture: A set of shared values and principles which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/computer-science-2971-spring-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What is a “tech company”?<\/h2>\n
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Indicators of Organizational Ethics<\/h2>\n
Mission and Vision Statements<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n
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Code of Ethics\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n
Slogans and Taglines\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Demographics\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Policies and Practices\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n
Trends in Tech Organizational Ethics<\/h2>\n
New Positions: Chief Diversity Officer + Chief Ethics Officer\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n