Stories in Your Organization
Working at Boeing means stories from every mouth and all the
time. It is such a big company that something keeps happening all the time and
the employees always have something to tell to each other. Most of the common
stories are about new developments and the direction in which company is
heading. These days, there are three new airplanes that are under development
and everyone is looking forward to their getting into production. Resources are
being moved here and there, which means people are getting reshuffled into
different programs on monthly basis. So everyday there is a new story about
where the movement is going to be for an individual. This whole situation has
created a sense of suspense amongst the employees, not so much as for losing
the job but being moved to a program or location which they might not prefer.
Well stories are stories but they become true when there is a real movement and
I have seen a number of employees being moved in the last couple of months.
But this is the Boeing culture. There is always the movement
of the people when other programs need people and almost all the employees are
used to such a process. This way Boeing keeps its employees as an intellectual
property and also keeps their job changing so people do not just get stuck to
one job and get bored. Not much get bored, but start making non productive
contribution to the job. The movement of employees is encouraged and promoted
by the management as a part of organizational culture to give employees
different opportunities to learn about more than one job. On an average, an
employee at Boeing changes about ten to fifteen jobs inside Boeing in their
lifespan. I think this is a very positive approach by the management and good
strategy to keep employees engaged in different kinds of learning activities. It
has always had positive effect on the employees and they feel proud to work on
different airplanes and programs that also enhance their resumes.
This does describe “who we are and what we stand for” because
for Boeing employees are first, even before the customer. Employees are the
biggest property that Boeing is proud of. It is the employees who carry the
company vision to its fruition and give company the identity and the brand for
which it is known for. The always new story about movement of employees is so
common that the company has its resources planned accordingly. Each employee
has their own laptop and a set of monitors so that if they move to a different
location, they carry their laptop and monitors with them. I have personally
been moved three times in the last six years. It looked awkward in the
beginning but then, I just became used to it and now it looks like a new
opportunity every time I am asked to move to a new program. In the whole
process I have learned so much about three airplanes and different Boeing
processes and systems. The culture still remains the same everywhere you go in
the company.
In the end I would say that the most told story in our
organization is actually a part of the culture.
