ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

166 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPpermit everyone to see over the tops. At Ciba-Geigy the offices werearranged along corridors and had heavy doors that were kept shut.The Symbolics of SpaceOrganizations develop different norms of who should have howmuch and what kind of space. They also hold different implicitassumptions about the role of space utilization in getting workaccomplished. In most organizations the best views and locationsare reserved for the highest-status people. Senior executives are typicallyon the higher floors of buildings and often are allocated specialspaces such as private conference rooms and private bathrooms.Sociologists point out that one important function of private bathroomsis to preserve the image of leaders as “super-human” beingswho do not have the ordinary needs of those at lower levels. Insome organizations, it would not be comfortable for the employeeto find himself urinating next to the president of the corporation.Some organizations use very precise space allocation as a directstatus symbol. As was mentioned before, the headquarters buildingof General Foods was designed with movable walls so that, as productmanagers were promoted, their office size could be adjusted toreflect their new rank. At the same time the company had a departmentthat allocated the kind of carpeting, furniture, and wall decorationsthat went with particular rank levels. In contrast, DECaggressively tried to reduce status and privileges by not allocatingprivate parking spaces; by reserving the good locations, such as corners,for conference rooms; and by putting higher-status managersin inside offices so that clerical and secretarial employees couldwork on the outside, next to windows. Whereas in many organizationsthe way in which the employees can decorate their own workspace is prescribed, in DEC employees were left entirely on theirown with regard to decoration.Where buildings are located, how they are built, and the kindof architecture involved will vary from one organization to the nextand may well reflect deeper values and assumptions held in the