Organizational Behavior BOS 1 Mini-case Hodari/Naoui

Artifacts:
Elisa Echo’s Job Search

Elisa Echo, an HES 8 student at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, is a hardworking, very orderly and
serious person. Elisa is someone who has really enjoyed her studies, though she has preferred working
alone to working in teams as the latter often times resulted in conflicts or challenges that she did not
wish to take on. Working alone, at her own pace, was more peaceful and rewarding for her. Her
apartment was designed for maximum work efficiency, with everything in the right (best) place and her
favorite soft music always playing. A conservative person by nature, Elisa is not someone who looks
for extreme challenges or risks. For example, she prefers reading or going to the movies rather than
skydiving or bungee jumping as do some of her classmates. Her dress reflects this too, as she chooses
dark colors, basic patterns and common textures for her clothing. She liked having a dress code at
EHL as it helped guide her decisions and confirmed her views about appropriateness. She never once
missed a deadline at school and was never once late for school. In essence, she was a model EHL
student.

While she has enjoyed her time at EHL she realizes it is time to move on and has been looking for a
job for the past few months. She recently had an interview at a very prestigious hotel company that has
made her a very nice offer both in terms of money (25% more than any other place) and job (assistant
sales manager for the youth tourism market). She thinks back to the day she visited the company. . .

The first thing that struck her when she arrived at the company was the office space. In fact, there were
no offices. There was just one big room, a loft sort of, with about 100 people’s desks there. It was a bit
noisy, but also quite busy. She asked the receptionist where she could find the desk of Mr. Magoo. “I
am not sure what his title is,” Elisa said, “it didn’t say on the letter I received.”

“Oh, we don’t have titles here,” the receptionist said. “We are all just ‘associates.’ And I am not sure
where his desk is today. Let me see. . . ”, she stood up, looked around and pointed. “Yes, he’s over by
the window there. That’s usually where he likes to sit when it rains. You can just go over there.”

Elisa, a bit surprised, gathered her bag and walked over to the man that had been pointed out to her.
On her way she saw that no man was wearing a tie and most people were in blue jeans or gym clothes.
“Hello Mr. Magoo,” she said. “I’m Elisa Echo. You sent me a letter asking me to stop by some time
this week for a job interview.”

“Oh, Elisa, sure,” he said, “wonderful that you could come. Here, sit down and let’s talk. Let me tell
you about The Hood Hotels. Three local college students who were tired of all the serious and boring
hotels in the world founded the company in 1980. They decided that times had changed and many
young and successful people were looking for something more adventurous and physically stunning in
terms of design. You probably know that we have grown to over 30 hotels since then worldwide and
are planning on opening more, all with the same philosophy.”

“Could you tell me more about the work philosophy?” Elisa asked.

“Sure. If you look around you can get a fair idea of what it is. See, no one here has a set place for him
or her. The owners believe that that makes us become very set in our ways and they want to encourage
more free thinking and “out of the box” ideas. So we all sit wherever we feel like it each day, and that
way we get to know every one better and not just those people who sit near us every day. And you
probably noticed I don’t have a title. No one does. We all have “missions”. Mine, for example, is to
“ensure that the company consists of the best people in the world.” Right now I take this to mean
recruiting the best young candidates for our expansion plans. “

“And what would my mission be?” Elisa asked.

Organizational Behavior BOS 1 Mini-case Hodari/Naoui

“Whatever you decide it is,” Magoo answered. “It’s up to you to find your own way to add value here.
No one is going to tell you or control you with job descriptions, or rules, or due dates.”

At that point Magoo took her over to the other side of the loft where some people were gathering.

“It’s Friday. That means ‘group hug’ time. We do this every week as we think it brings everyone
closer together. I mean, if you can hug someone, you can probably work even better than them, don’t
you think? “

Elisa shrugged.

“Here,” he said as she started to say goodbye, “let me give you this.” He handed her a coffee mug that
had a very strange pattern on the side. From one angle it looked like a cloud, but when she turned it a
bit it looked like a mountain peak, and if she angled it down it looked like the ocean with a sun rising
behind it. “That’s our company logo.”

“What does it mean?” she asked.

“Anything you want it to.”

Assignment: Making sure to link theory from the article by Kemp & Dwyer to the case above, please
create the appropriate tables that help you to:

1. Analyze the culture of the organization.

2. Give Elisa advice, based on your analysis, of whether or not she should take the job.