Organizational Culture at Hands-On Labs

Hands-On Labs (HOL) is an online science education organization that produces and sells science “wet” labs for distance learners in higher education. This company has undergone several leadership styles, as well as high employee turnover, and an identity crisis. Considering HOL’s instability and that “Culture helps us cope with uncertainty” (Trice & Beyer, 1993), HOL needed a positive culture change. Consequently, HOL’s president brought in new leaders who adopted the mentality that the employees should come first and a culture of unity should be formed. Therefore, the culture involved rituals such as regular happy hours, company lunches, barbeques, holiday parties, and company gatherings that included team-building games. In addition to the rituals, HOL’s leaders created a bonus incentive that would be divided amongst all employees at the end of the year based on the final revenue of the company.

Cultural Artifacts

The cultural artifacts that surround HOL involve the product lines of LabPaqTM and LabBridgeTM, as well as a symbolic frog named Einstein Frog. The Einstein Frog character was built from the original poison dart frog in the logo. He became a personality rather than a frog. Einstein Frog walked on two legs, had Einstein’s white, crazy hair, wore glasses and a lab coat. This character was created to form a connection with the students, as well as move the focus away from the company’s president onto the product. Einstein Frog originally appeared in the lab manuals to walk the students through the lab instructions. As Einstein Frog became more popular, he appeared in advertisements, packaging, trade shows, and the new logo. In addition to adding a connection to the students, Einstein Frog also became the office personali...

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... subcontractors. HOL outsourced areas including large portions of the I.T. department, Human Resources, and our Research and Development but maintained a liaison within the company to coordinate the projects.

Conclusion

In summary, HOL was an interesting and challenging company to work for due to the constant evolution of organizational styles and culture. Nonetheless, the adaptation the company took with the new matrix, network organization was a positive influence on the company culture. Once the culture became more unified and team-oriented, the company was able to lower the employee turnover as well as increase revenue.

Works Cited

Conrad, C. R., & Poole, M. S. (2012). Strategic organizational communication: In a global economy (7th ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Trice, H. & Beyer, J. (1993). The cultures of work organizations. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.