Reflection on the Organizational Culture of Blizzard Entertainment

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Table of Contents

Background
Approach to Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture Analysis
Recommendation on Organizational Culture
References

Background

Organizational culture is one of the most influential factors that determine the company’s performance, reputation, and leadership. Hence, selecting a suitable approach to corporate culture is a relevant problem for managers of all levels. The current paper examines how Blizzard Entertainment – one of the largest companies in the video game industry – applies organizational culture to boost employee performance and adhere to sustainable values.

Approach to Organizational Culture

The two primary approaches to organizational culture are pragmatist and purist models. According to Mumby and Kuhn (2018, p. 203), the former builds a framework where “culture is viewed as an independent variable that can be manipulated to achieve particular organizational consequences.” On the other hand, a purist model implies that “organization is a culture,” and the two definitions cannot be separated (Mumby & Kuhn, 2018, p. 187). These two polar frameworks have unique advantages and drawbacks, and it is essential to analyze the company to determine the most suitable approach.

Blizzard Entertainment is one of the largest and most well-known companies in the video game industry with an extensive number of employees and a definite corporate culture. Moreover, managers deliberately shape the organizational culture to unify the staff and promote endorsing values, such as togetherness and equality (“Welcome to Blizzard,” 2022). In this sense, the company adheres to the pragmatist approach since it intentionally transforms the culture according to the executives’ vision. This model has allowed Blizzard to create a reputation as a caring employer that provides the best working conditions for its employees in the whole industry. Moreover, it is a more efficient approach merely due to a large number of employees whose cultures might conflict or overlap.

Organizational Culture Analysis

Understanding the organizational layout and corporate culture of Blizzard Entertainment is relatively simple due to a large number of reviews, office tours, and transparent company/customer communication. The lunch rooms and other common areas are utilized as non-working spaces where people can relax and enjoy a friendly conversation. Communication is predominately informal since even the top managers tend to use easy-to-understand language and colloquialisms in their “official” messages and when talking to the team members. Nevertheless, this freedom of culture has boundaries, primarily regarding the company’s vision, such as the support of diversity, gender equality, and other relevant social topics. In this sense, managers prohibit any behavior that contradicts these values to ensure the chosen organizational culture in the workplace.

The space allocation in the offices promotes the idea-driven and community-focused approach. Namely, the walls are decorated with various assets and artifacts from the Blizzard games. A large number of rituals, organization traditions, and other associated activities are closely connected to game development, and both the interior and exterior of the office reflect this approach. Moreover, employees are encouraged to socialize and customize their workplace desks if they wish so. Lastly, there is no distinct difference in the location and size depending on the authority levels, but different departments have their unique offices and workspaces.

Recommendation on Organizational Culture

As seen from the analysis, Blizzard’s organizational culture allows a high degree of autonomy and freedom, but the managers still address any issues that could harm the company’s values. In this sense, they are shaping the organizational culture by implementing a pragmatist approach. While it is generally good to support diversity and equality, the customers might perceive this explicit behavior as virtue signaling and deviation from making games to merely pleasing the public. One of the potential recommendations to slightly mitigate this issue and improve the public image and employee productivity is to return to the company’s focus on making quality games. Moreover, it would help Blizzard to regain its uniqueness, as the overly exceeding focus on diversity and equality values has caused a uniqueness paradox. This term implies that by pursuing “unique” and relevant values, the company loses its characteristics that have made the public support Blizzard initially (Mumby & Kuhn, 2018). Therefore, Blizzard Entertainment might benefit from reconsidering its vision by addressing the needs of the primary consumer demographic group.

References

Mumby, D. K., & Kuhn, T. R. (2018). Organizational communication: A critical introduction (2^nd edition). SAGE Publications.

Welcome to Blizzard.(2022). Blizzard.

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Reflection on the Organizational Culture of Blizzard Entertainment

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