Herman Miller is a Michigan-based furniture company that is known for its innovative design products. The company, which is publicly owned and over 75 years old, operates in over 110 countries on seven continents. Since its inception, Herman Miller has made a huge impact in the furniture industry. In fact, the company is credited with changing the entire concept of office design by implementing the first office cubicle. This triggered an entire new trend in the business world. Organizations moved away from using small, closed-in work spaces to common, open-air spaces that allowed for better communication and collaboration amongst employees. The employees at Herman Miller design holistic products and services that improve the human experience in built environments. The company invents solutions that help people to perform better. The motivation for this comes from "a passion for creating a better world around you". Tony Cortese, Senior VP of People Services at Herman Miller, describes the company's structure as being fairly traditional with both a vertical and a matrix design. The company's vision, mission and goals are directed by leaders who provide general guidance and support. Herman Miller employees take responsibility for coming up with new and innovation designs, and turning those ideas into actual products. Cortese says that Herman Miller empowers its employees to approach their work in whatever fashion makes sense to produce the most innovative and creative solutions. Herman Miller uses project teams to make new design products from start to finish. The teams themselves change constantly based on the evolving needs of the team members. Mark Schurman, Director of Corporate Communications, says that the teams are amorphous and come together and separate continually, depending on what is required. If a team needs the expertise of company outsiders during a project, staff can call them in. By empowering its employees, Herman Miller trusts its workers to use their resources responsibly and make good decisions. However, even when a design fails, valuable lessons can still be learned. During the 1970's, Herman Miller ditched a team project that had focused on helping baby boomers to age gracefully. However, through the design process, employees developed some unique ideas and materials that proved to be very useful when businesses started using personal computers. Herman Miller was able to apply some of what it had learned from the failed project to design a product called the Aeron Chair. Cortese says that the company has sold over 6 million units of the chair and has made over 3 billion dollars in revenue. Leadership at Herman Miller is key to the company's many successes and multiple awards. Employees who work closely together in teams can get sidetracked by disagreements and difference in opinion. It is important for the company's managers to lead the teams to be productive and efficient. Cortese says that it is important to balance autonomy with accountability, and to provide teams with a clear vision and a set of goals. At the very core of the company is the belief that employees should be strongly encouraged to be as creative and innovative as they can. Managers and team leaders at Herman Miller must be able to communicate effectively with employees in order to resolve problems and keep projects on track. The company strives to hire people who have excellent interpersonal skills. Cortese says that it does not matter how extraordinarily talented a person is in terms of technical proficiency. If that person cannot work well with others, they will not be able to succeed in the company's team based structure. A great deal of attention is paid to how employees at Herman Miller perform and participate. Employees must demonstrate a balance between their technological and interpersonal skills. Cortese explains that the company's performance review form consists of two halves. The first half focuses on accountability and technical skills. The second half looks at traits like integrity, trust, and leadership skills. Employees who demonstrate that they can work cooperatively with others have the greatest chance of excelling. The collaborative and team oriented culture at Herman Miller has helped the company to achieve multiple acclaims for its creative designs. In 2010 the company was one of only six to be recognized by FORTUNE magazine as "100 Best", "Most Admired" and "Most Innovative" companies. Over the years, Herman Miller has produced some of the most renowned and functional designs used in offices around the world. For example, the Aeron Chair, which is referred to as the most well-known ergonomic chair ever made, is both innovative and environmentally responsible. The chair is available in three sizes, is made of breathable fabric, and can be adjusted in nine different ways. It is also 94% recyclable. Bill Stumpf, a Herman Miller designer, is credited with coming up with the chair's unique suspension which helps to reduce back pain by providing a posture friendly design that enables users to sit comfortably for long periods at a time. In fact, the response from consumers about the Aeron Chair was so extensive that in 1992, the New York Museum of Modern Art included one of the chairs in a permanent display. Herman Miller keeps a competitive edge in the furniture industry by providing solutions to challenges in the business world. As Allison Arieff writes in Opinionator, "the company has recognized that the work we do and the spaces we conduct it in have shifted radically - and we all need to adapt at every level." Herman Miller's ability to adapt is sure to keep the company delivering fresh, innovative new designs that will help us all do our jobs a little better. 1. What is organizational behaviour? How is the concept relevant to a company like Herman Miller? 2. The textbook notes that there are workplace "challenges" at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Explain the extent to which these challenges are evident at Herman Miller. How might Herman Miller address these challenges? 3. What does it mean to take a contingency perspective to organizational behaviour? How does the contingency idea apply to Herman Miller? 4. What is organizational citizenship behaviour? Why might it be particularly important at a company like Herman Miller? 5. Can you describe a work situation you were in where the company's approach to organizational behaviour either matched or didn't match your values and needs and how it affected you?