Paxar is a company involves in the business of computer animated feature films, short films and television commercials which was established in 1986 by Steve Jobs who is also the CEO of the Apple Computers Incorporation. Paxar was widely known after the presentation of their preliminary public broadcast In 1 995 by award winning movie “ Toy Story’ which was produced with Disney Interactive, a subsidiary of Disney. The acquiring of Paxar by Walt Disney In 2006 was a major step forward for Paxar to gain synergistic advantages to perform successfully within the industry.
The main reduces of Paxar are the production soft ware that they have developed for film making. They are Marionette, Render Man and Ringmaster which are used internally and licensed for the external companies. (Denominator, 2009) the globe. It is proven by the Ironically report on computer animation industry which shows the continuous growth of the industry throughout the years from 1995-2004 (Appendix A). It was due to the expansion of the users and applications and the increasing popularity for computer imaginary of the viewers (Ironically, 2001).
It is predicted that the growth will be continuing in the future (Doyle, 1996). The industry is highly competitive and the success of the company totally depends upon the creativity of the company. According to the Animation Magazine Paxar has managed to place at the top amongst the other competitors in the industry such as Trademarks, skids Entertainment, Universal studios, Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Pictures (Rosenthal, 1997). The main strength of the firm depends on its artistic and technically driven employees.
Paxar has a well heeled asset of creative workforce with diversified skills (Cowlings, 2008). Although the recent economic downturn was affected many industries, computer animation sector has managed to minimize its effects by reducing the budgets but producing the films or commercials of the same quality as before by using various techniques. In addition recession has lead to new path ways for the industry from moving on to high cost commercials to cost effective short films (Creamer, 2009). Although Paxar is in a dominant position in the industry it has pressures from growing Asian rivals.
Korea and Japan are becoming highly competitive on their animations in the market (Cruz, 2004). With the improvements of IT, India is budding in animation with their low cost budgets and turning out to be attractive as a good market for outsourcing in post production processes in animation (in theatres soon,’ 2001). But companies like Paxar have to be mindful in involving with third parties (Itching & Goldstein, 2004) in order to protect their core competencies of intellectual property because it is the company’s creativity which is turning in to income.
Paxar is always concentrating on the company’s objective of using the latest technology with superlative creativity to develop impressive and unforgettable animated films for all ages throughout the world which will steer them to be ahead from competitors (Obstreperousness’s, 2009) Paxar is a company that has a creative vision of bringing imagination to ground braking entertainment that brings huge earnings for the company (Rosenthal, 1997).
Therefore the creative companies have to provide favorable work environment in the organization that helps to enhance the productivity and the motivation of the creative workforce (Lolled ; Cummings, 1996). Consequently the following theoretical framework can be identified to describe how the workplace design, organizational culture and the leadership style bring together a successful creative organization. 2. 1 Organizational Culture and Leadership developments by Handy (1985) demonstrate how the organization cultures can fit in to achieving their goals and employee interests (Lintiest, Flop ; Lilly, 2009).
Further discussion of how different leadership styles are adopted for different organization cultures using the leadership continuum of Attainable ; Schmidt(1973) (Appendix B) and the concept of management styles by Rosetta Moss Canter(1982). Role culture Mainly this culture is adopted in more hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations that have clearly separated departments. The communications between the divisions are controlled by well structured procedures of communication and rules to minimize disputes.
The effectiveness of the culture depends on the allocation of work and responsibility rather than individual performance. And it provides a clear path for career development throughout the organizational ladder. Role culture is suited for government organizations and companies with technical expertise and specialization and concerned on the economies of scale (Phases, 1993). Referring to the leadership continuum of Attainable and Schmidt the managers ‘ sells’ their decisions in this type of culture. (Attainable ; Schmidt, 1973).
Task culture This culture brings together the appropriate expertise of the right people to the right level of the organization creating a matrix structure. It suits for the organizations which are flexible, creative and sensitive to the market environment. Usually the work in these companies is project based merging individual and group objectives directing towards achieving organizational goals (Handy, 1985). According to Attainable ; Schmidt the managers raise the problem and gets ideas by “ consulting” subordinates to make a decision at this stage (Attainable ; Schmidt, 1973).
Similarly the concept of Rosetta Moss Canter in this culture “ the managers have a participative management style and encourages the subordinates to be a part of the team, share the rewards and deliver on their promises” (Canter, 2004). Power culture Herein the organization depends on a central power source and controlled centrally by few management personals. This culture mainly relies on individuals and less on team performance. Subordinates in these organizations have to comply with the leaders and willing to do what the leaders say.
This culture is mainly resource based with the personal power of the leaders (Lintiest, Flop ; Lilly, 2009) and the leader makes the decision himself and “ tells” to the employees within the company (Attainable ; Schmidt, 1973). Person culture This is based on the individual being in the centre of the organization. Generally these organizations offer the employee satisfaction by relationships, mutual environment for the employees to get along with the informal standards developed y team members (Handy, 1985).
Attainable ; Schmidt suggests the manager allows the subordinates to function within their limits by “ participating” the decision making process (Attainable ; Schmidt, 1973). According to Becker (1995) the organizations have to provide well designed, planned and high functioning work places that affect the performance and make them more competitive. It facilitates to manage the physical facilities, employees, management style and the procedures as a whole (Becker ; Steele, 1995).
Duffy (1997) introduces the concept of workplace design based on organizational variables of interaction and autonomy (Duffy, 1997). To “ energize physical office design with the sense of organizational strategy’ (Duffy & Tania, 1993). He demonstrates four types of office design models such as hives, cells, dens and clubs (Appendix C). The Hive – This design is suitable for more individual routine process work. The office lay out will be open planned, screened and impersonal. F.
W Tailor’s (1911) concept of scientific management is also complying with this style of a work place (Fischer & Assyrian, 1984). Alt is more suitable for a role culture of the Harridan’s (1972) ramekin. Furthermore Minimizes concept of Machine bureaucratic organization can also be related to this type of work environment (Integers, 1989). The Cell – This type of office design is appropriate to an organization with concentrated work and less interactions. The physical layout of the organization has to be designed in a way that the employees can perform a variety of tasks.
Harridan’s (1972) Power culture can said to be best in this context. The Den – This is relating to a company with involvement of teamwork and a high level of interactions but not necessarily highly independent. This type of an organization can be linked to Harridan’s task culture. Therefore the office has to be arranged in a way that employees have their own desks and spaces for group activities and shared equipments. The Club – The aspects in a club culture is in line with Integer’s notion of innovative organization (Integers, 1989) which is highly autonomous and interactive.
The work place design in concentrated on both individual and team based work. According to Trucker (1992) employees in these companies are more knowledge workers who are creative and shares knowledge (Trucker, 2000). Additionally it is associated with the person culture of Harridan’s (1972) framework. Deviant & Itchy (1990) suggests that modern day organizations are transforming to be more flexible, exchange ideas and creative oppose to the traditional view of being bureaucratic and hierarchical (Deviant & Itchy, 1992)(Appendix D).
Herbert (1965) has encountered the importance of creating a favorable Job environment as a hygiene factor in order to increase employee satisfaction and capability leading towards the growth of the organization (Herbert, 1965). Finally we can determine that to be a successful organization, the management have to take steps to build up the organization culture and design the workplace according to the nature of the industry that the company is involved in. Appendix E) (3) Key Issue Chine (1993) states that learning about work place design in a company are a useful way for cultural understanding of an organization (Chine, 1993). For a organization to be successful the work place design has to be helping to facilitate communication, sharing information and supporting each other by developing mutual reassurance which is one of the most powerful motivating factors for employees (Handwritten, 990). As well as the right work setting is the key factor for the success of the company.
As Paxar is in a dominant position in the Animation industry there is a significant impact of the flexible working conditions contributing the sustainability of the company (Overdo, 2003) helping to achieve Pixie’s core operating principals of “ freedom to communicate, safe for everyone to offer ideas, and staying close to innovations happening in the industry’ (Catcall, 2008). As the CEO of Paxar, Steve Jobs plays a major role of a supportive leader who is innovative and believes in sense f informality helps to achieve creative outputs (Burrows & Grover, 2006). ND have realized the importance of integrating the physical layout , design and communications to support organizational objectives (Stone & Luckiest, 2001). As Paxar is said to have ideal work environment to foster the company’s innovative minds (Richmond, 2009) and it will be beneficial to find out how the work place design has help the employees and the support of the management to gain successful accomplishments. 4) Critical Analysis of the Central Issue Paxar Animation Studio has work environment that is based on artistic abilities and reiterative. Company facilitates its person culture according to Handy’ framework to enhance the talents and team work and Duff’s Club design has supported the Paxar culture. This demonstrates how it affects their productivity, creativity, attitudes about work and to better understand the relationship between workplace design and the business outcome (Schneider, 2007).
Basically, Paxar has designed their building with a large atrium at the centre (Figure 1) where people can see each other which contains cafeteria, meeting rooms, bathrooms and mail boxes which is similar to Frank Lloyd Writers Larkin building. Figure 2) Paxar has a peer driven culture where the employee relations are vital for the productions of the company. Computer animations involve complex product development and creativity involves a large number of people from different disciplines working effectively to create a production.
Therefore the management of Paxar had to construct an environment that nurtures trusting and respectful relationships and unleashes every one’s creativity. (Catcall, 2008) In relation to Duffy Club design, specially Paxar building has “ Bump Zones” to encourage its employees to create communications within the immunity to facilitate the spontaneous meetings where they can “ bump” in at work and the feeling of “ all for one & one for all” at all the levels of the organization which is a key element of an open culture and Trucker’s(2000) Concept of “ Knowledge Worker”.
So the members of any department should be able to approach anyone in another department to solve problems without having to go through proper channels. The open and closed team pods including private offices and accessible work stations help them to interact with all the employees at any level at any time (Richmond, 2009). Creating computer animations are large projects that are processed through a considerable period of time. As a result employees have a “ work hard play hard” culture.
Accordingly the workplace is designed being mindful about the resting times which are equally important as the performed tasks. Therefore they have created rest rooms and mini homes with kitchen, living room and family rooms with lounge seating, gaming consoles and coffee bars that offers enough privacy to meet everyone’s productivity needs. Also it is designed to feel getting closer to external and natural environment by using large glass windows and sing natural lighting. Richmond, 2009) Paxar studios has been designed in a way that considering every aspects of open culture and employee requirements such as focused work (uninterrupted activities like thinking & reflecting) (Figure 3), collaborating (sharing information, problem solving, innovative creations) (Figure 4)interpersonal learning & socializing (Vogue, 2009)(Figure 5). Also not forgetting the physical aspects that suits the culture of the work place such as positioning the furniture suitably, comfort , air quality and lighting.
Management of Paxar has understood physical office environment as a fundamental factor that drives for efficiency in the company specially being a highly technological and a creative company because it is proven that it helps to combat stress, employee morale, improves creativity and productivity (the impact of office design on business performance,’ 2005) Figure: 1 Figure: 2 Figure: 3 Figure: 4 Figure: 5 4. Positive Facts on Work Place Design Presently the work place has to be designed in a way that it improves the visibility [more face to face communications], high density [more areas where lot of people an interact] and oases [workers with many informal meeting places] (Striker, 2009). This can be related to Deviant ; Twitchy (1990) concept of new information to improve the flexibility, networking and knowledge creation within Paxar animation studios. According to Duffy (1969) work place design can be beneficial for both management and the employee.
Benefits for the employee are identified as flexibility for an employee to change from a group activity to an individual activity. Paxar animation studios have common work stations as well as private work pods to switch between them. Rest areas like lounges and coffee bars give the benefit for the worker to have spontaneous breaks and time for themselves. Paxar has provided flexible and coos furniture, natural lighting for make the office more comfortable for employees. Although Paxar has open culture they have provided private cubicles who wish to use them to foster the needs of all the employees. Duffy, 1969) On the other hand management can also gain advantages by carefully landscaping the workplace. After the salaries of the employees the expenses of the office building is the most vital. Therefore a carefully designed workplace reduces the expenses (Marmot ; Eely, 2000). Paxar office had been an abandoned wear house and they have made the best use of the left over elements like truss ceilings, exposed bricks and sash windows to make the building more attractive.
Open work places assists informal exchange of knowledge and assign people for different work teams and increases mobility of the employees within the organization which ensures the smooth workflow of day to day activities (Stone ; Luckiest, 2001). Ultimately the employer will be able to secure the employees by building a good image of the company by providing them a favorable work environment. . 3 Drawbacks of Open Work Place ; Culture Although open work place design and the person culture have its merits organizations may face its disadvantages.
Paxar culture encourages employees to work on their own by using the time and the resources on to increase the creative performance. But the employees may lose control over the workers because some may take more free time and lead to less productivity which may even cause delays in final productions and extended deadlines. Sometimes it will result in poor team performance and interrupt the smooth work flow for companies like Paxar. In a peer driven culture it is very hard to measure individual performance since the effort may vary according to the employee. Most of the Paxar productions are done in team projects.
Therefore some employees may be discouraged because they might possibly feel that they have not being rewarded for their endeavourer. This may even result in Job dissatisfaction for employees and they may leave the company. A situation like this has to be handled carefully by Paxar to secure valuable employees in the creative industry. Even though the open workplace design of Paxar contributes awards employee interactions and relationships, some workers may find that it is too noisy which is created by conversations and distraction of seeing people moving around to concentrate on work.
Therefore those employees may find it difficult to fit into the culture. In addition Paxar management should strictly concentrate on a clean desk policy for shared workstations in order to keep the workplace attractive to everybody (Marmot ; Eely, 2000). (5) Suggestions and Evaluations For a creative organization like Paxar it is important that people, processes and the lace is interconnected and has a huge impact on creating a sustainable work place employee behavior and performance (Allen et al. 2004). Therefore it is essential to evaluate the degree of the effectiveness of the current work place design to make changes if required and to maintain the success continuously. According to Overdo (2003) productivity of a working environment can be measured in five ways as follows by using employee feedbacks. (1) Satisfaction with specific aspects In this employees can get the feedback from workers about the physical aspects of he work place (desk sharing, size of the work stations, etc). T measures the level of satisfaction for the worker by using a five point scale. (2)The extent to which these users think the above aspects are important (3)Overall Assessment Measuring the general impression of the overall work place by assessing the workers are positive, negative or neutral about the whole work place design. (4)Most positive and most negative characteristics This is the most straightforward way of getting the feedback from the employees about their suggestions and further developments. 5)Comparison with the original situation Finally the company can evaluate the feedback and get the most productive ideas to make the decisions (Overdo, 2003). The ultimate objective of designing the workplace is to increase the worker’s productivity. Company like Paxar which has a person culture which is comparatively difficult to control can use the evaluation methods suggested by Fischer (2007) to assess the productivity of individuals, groups and the organization as a whole.
The individual productivity is measured how fast the individual carries out the delegated task. This is a difficult measurement for Paxar because the most projects are carried UT on team basis. Currently top managers are also involved in groups and a daily procedure called ‘ dailies’ which is processing work is given a constant feedback for the other team members gives the opportunity to evaluate them in an informal manner (Catcall, 2008).
This method can be recommended as a productive because directors can continuously measure the productivity of the individuals. Productivity of the groups can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively in relation to the sharing work places. In Paxar qualitative outcomes can be measures as the number of successful new ideas and practical recommendations. The outcome is may differ according to the number of team members. This is useful to determine the effectiveness of the workplace helping the team members to interact and communicate.
Finally the company have to evaluate whether the work place design has helped to meet the organization’s objective and to maintain a competitive position within the industry (Fischer, 2007). In addition the work place design may impact the recruitment procedures of organizations due to the disorganized work places. (Work place said to affect recruitment, 1999) But in a well planned offices like in Paxar can easily overcome this problem by ‘ hot disking which is shared use of non assigned desks.
But this needs careful planning and preparation and strict consideration of the clear desk policy (Allen et al. , 2004). In line with idea of Franklin Becker(1995) managers should always get the employee’s involvement when changing or developing the physical setting and letting the control over their own Finally the analysis of the work place design demonstrate that the physical comfort of the work place design leads to the psychological factors of the employees influencing hem to belong to the organization culture and the feeling of the ownership within them. Fischer, 2005) Work places and the buildings of the organizations are the physical appearance of the culture and the vision of the company and its performed tasks. Most importantly well designed work places influences behavior of the employees that is directed towards the achievement of organizational objectives (Marmot ; Eely, 2000) as well as it affects almost all the functions of the company such as organizational design, facilities management, financial management and information technology (Chain, Beckman ; Lawrence, 2007).
