Case Study: Organisational Behaviour and Open Office Culture at Google

This case study examines the open office culture implemented at Google and Pixar, highlighting the varying effectiveness of this approach depending on the organization's specific work environment. While open office spaces can foster innovation and collaboration, as seen in Google's case, they can also lead to distractions and reduced productivity, as observed at Pixar. The analysis employs the Force Field Model of Change to understand the driving and restraining factors associated with the open office concept. The study emphasizes the importance of carefully evaluating the potential benefits and drawbacks before implementing an open office culture to ensure it aligns with the organization's goals and employee needs, ultimately promoting innovation, decision-making, and employee motivation.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The Analysis
The case study takes the example of Google and Pixar and the open office culture that
has been implemented in their organisation. The findings of the case study suggests that
every organisation have a different setting and culture depending on the type of work that
they do. Even though there are many advantages of open office culture, every office would
not be able to adapt to it. As mentioned in the case and the literature it can be seen that the
culture of open office is quite a disadvantage for Pixar whereas it is somewhat of an
advantage for Google. According to De Been and Beijer (2014), open office spaces provide
satisfaction and inculcates innovation as mentioned in the case study. However, in case of
Pixar it becomes a reason for distraction and low level of productivity since the huge amount
of noise becomes an issue for the employees to work properly. On the other hand, the culture
is somewhat advantageous for Google since the interaction helps to form new ideas and make
decisions regarding any new program or innovations.
The open office culture have both pros and cons which makes it hard to decide if the
culture should be adopted or not. This phenomenon provides various channels of
communication between the employees which is helpful as it brings several ideas in one place
without needing to decide a fixed time for meeting. Moreover, the employee could
collaborate their ideas with each other (Bodin Danielsson, 2013). However, this could
become a distraction for the employees who are not involved in the process. The long
discussions and noise could stop the other people from working productively. Therefore, it is
important to understand if the open office culture is beneficial for the organisation or not
before implementing it.
The Force Field Model of Change can help to understand the different factors that
allows the change to happen and also restricts it from happening. Van der Hoorn (2016) states

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that there are two aspects to this model which states that there are two divisions of factor
which comes into view when a change occurs in an organisation. These are the factors which
drive the change and the factors which restrain the change. The complete evaluation of these
factors would help to complete the change in the organisation in a proper manner so that the
implementation of the change is accepted by the employees of the organisation. The pros of
the open office concept are the factors which helps to fulfil the changes, whereas, the cons of
the open office concept are the factors which resists the change. The end solution can only
take place when both of these factors are understood properly by the organisation and a
middle ground is found which will enable innovation and decision making in the organisation
and motivate the employees to work better and with each other so that new ideas can be
formed which can help in the betterment of the organisation (Pierrette, Parizet & Chevret,
2013). Therefore, it can be said that the open office culture is a beneficial concept to ensuring
better results but it should be implemented with extensive thoughts and evaluation of the kind
of work done in the organisation.

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References:
Bodin Danielsson, C. (2013). An explorative review of the Lean office concept. Journal of
Corporate Real Estate, 15(3/4), 167-180.
De Been, I., & Beijer, M. (2014). The influence of office type on satisfaction and perceived
productivity support. Journal of Facilities Management, 12(2), 142-157.
Pierrette, M., Parizet, E., & Chevret, P. (2013, June). Perception and evaluation of noise
sources in open plan office. In Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics ICA2013 (Vol.
19, No. 1, p. 040127). ASA.
Van der Hoorn, B. (2016). The Project-space Model: Visualising the enablers and constraints
for a given project. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), 173-186.