Stephanie Douglas

Dr. Elijah Wee

MGMT 300E

20 May 2019

Snapchat Case Assignment

Snap Inc. has innovative technology and a growing audience, but the company is not

successful in all areas of business. Snap Inc.’s organizational environment hinders the progress of

the company and leaves employees feeling unwelcome and bitter. The company should evaluate

and address these internal problem areas in order to create a healthier company environment.

One of the major issues faced by Snap Inc. is a sense of isolation and disconnection felt by

employees. This is in large part due to the physical setup of offices. Employees are scattered

across the neighborhood of Venice, working in various buildings such as converted beach houses.

Because employees are physically separated from one another, employees must spend time

travelling to speak with coworkers. Additionally, this distance creates mental and emotional

separation. Working apart from others can lead to feelings of isolation and segregation.

Employees may not feel as though they are working toward the same goal or that they can trust

their colleagues. Coworkers may not even have the chance to encounter each other due to the

physical divisions. In all of these ways exchanges are impaired.

Based on these situations, organizational commitment is likely low among Snap’s

workforce. If employees cannot easily get to know their coworkers, they are more likely to

become victims of the erosion model, which states that employees with fewer coworker bonds are

more likely to quit. In addition, lacking these links may lead employees to feel less embedded in

the company culture, which reduces continuance commitment. Affective commitment is also less
expected if individuals are not close to those that they work with. The remaining type of

organizational commitment, normative, is expressed when employees feel indebted to the

company, which Snap Inc. has not appeared to focus on. Reduced organizational commitment

leads to an increase in withdrawal behaviors, which are behaviors that employees engage in to

avoid work situations. These behaviors include both physical withdrawal, such as tardiness, and

psychological withdrawal, such as “cyberloafing.” Withdrawal behaviors can be very detrimental

to a company. For example, a 2002 estimate found that absenteeism, a form of physical

withdrawal, costs employers about $789 per employee (Kocakülâh et al., 2011). It is ideal to have

a committed workforce that does not engage in these negative behaviors, and therefore Snap Inc.

should take steps to reduce isolation and increase the organizational commitment at the firm.

To address these problems related to employee isolation, Snap Inc. should build a central

campus facility for employees to work in. By bringing the employees together, instead of spread

out across the neighborhood, employees can be physically and emotionally closer. Transportation

times to meet with coworkers are reduced which makes work more efficient and allows for easier

collaboration, and employees can bond with others and feel more connected to their organization.

In the article “The Rise of the Corporate Campus,” Chevez and Huppatz explain, “As well as a

physical workspace, the campus [is] a symbolic, cultural and social place” and the corporate

campus suggests a sense of community (Chevez & Huppatz, 2018). By restructuring the

organization into a more connected environment, employees can feel more integrated into the

company and united toward a common purpose. And it will be easier to easier make work

connections that embed them in the company and influence organizational commitment. Many

technology companies already use this campus model. For example, Google’s sprawling

“Googleplex” campus is well known, and Apple recently opened a new campus known as Apple
Park. If Snap Inc. was to build a central campus for its employees, communication would

increase, organizational commitment would go up, and employees would be more willing to

remain at the company and less likely to participate in withdrawal behaviors.

Another major problem that Snap Inc. faces is lack of transparency. The company’s

culture promotes secrecy at the expense of communication. Employees cannot easily exchange

information and they are consistently left clueless about important projects. This model creates

frustration among employees, who sometimes don’t find out about major product updates until

they are announced to the public. The lack of communication has led to resentment by Snap

employees, with workers reporting feeling foolish or like outsiders.

These sentiments lead to lower job satisfaction and decreased motivation. Employees are

not satisfied with their work because they have little knowledge of results due to relatively no

feedback from their work as well as low levels of responsibility of outcomes, which comes from

low levels of autonomy. In addition, job satisfaction suffers due to poor supervision satisfaction.

With constant secrets and a strict top-down leadership system, employees do not experience high

levels of satisfaction. Job satisfaction has a moderate correlation with job performance, meaning

that if employees are dissatisfied, they will perform worse. Organizational commitment also

suffers from low job satisfaction, so employees are more likely to quit or engage in behaviors

damaging to the company.

Motivation is also a concern because at Snap Inc. there is not a significant sense of

psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment is the belief that your tasks are

contributing to a larger purpose. Snap Inc. does not spend time communicating a clear backstory

or company vision, and the constant secrecy contributes to the ambiguity of Snap’s purpose.

Without a compelling story or idea, employees are left feeling as though they are completing
mindless tasks. Therefore motivation and effort are reduced. Because motivation has a strong

correlation with job performance, it is in Snap’s best interest to find improvements in these areas.

In order to deal with these issues, Snap Inc. should reevaluate its communication methods.

The firm should focus less energy on keeping secrets and more energy on sharing the company’s

goals and aspirations. If employees are invested in the goal, they will be more willing to work

toward it. And allowing for more transparency will decrease frustration among employees and

they will feel more valued and therefore more satisfied. Snap Inc. should also consider a system

in which employees are encouraged to contribute ideas. At present, the CEO makes all product

decisions without input from those around him. In order to give employees more autonomy and

room to be creative, the company should allow individuals to participate in the idea generation

process. Employees will feel more involved and organizational commitment will rise. This

process may also result in a successful innovation that wouldn’t have been developed otherwise.

For example, Google’s well-known email service “Gmail” was developed as an employee side-

project under a system called “20% time” that encouraged company-wide innovation (Mims &

Mims, 2013). Whether successful products arise or not, offering autonomy and freedom to be

creative and communicate ideas will increase motivation and job satisfaction among Snap

employees.

Snap Inc. is developing steadily, but some of its management practices may inhibit

growth. With scattered office buildings, a culture of secrecy, and an unclear company purpose,

Snap Inc. is not cultivating a committed and satisfied workforce. In order to create a healthier

work environment that employees can thrive in, the company should build a central campus

facility and should reevaluate the company’s communication values. These changes would greatly

benefit Snap Inc. moving forward.

 References

Chevez, A., & Huppatz, D. (2018). The Rise of the Corporate Campus. The Conversation.

Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2019). Organizational Behavior (5th ed.). New

York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Kocakülâh, M. C., Kelley, A. G., Mitchell, K. M., & Ruggieri, M. P. (2011). Absenteeism

Problems And Costs: Causes, Effects And Cures. International Business & Economics

Research Journal (IBER),8(5).

Lee, S. (2016). What it's Like to Work at Snapchat, One of Tech's Most Secretive

Companies. Business Insider.

Mims, C., & Mims, C. (2013). Google's "20% time," which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is

now as good as dead. Quartz.