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Pixar- Culture and Organisations Essay

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Culture and Organisations Pixar case study
HRO372
1. Background
Pixar Animation Studios was founded in 1979, initially specializing in producing state of the art computer hardware (Carlson, 2003). In 1990, due to poor product sales the company diversified from its core business and began producing computer animated commercials for outside companies. Success came for Pixar after the production of its first computer animated film ‘Toy story’ in 1995 (Hutton and Baute, 2007). Since then, Pixar has made many innovative animated feature films, with well known ones including - A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and WALL-E, six of which are in the top grossing animated …show more content…

Schein states that “these artifacts are those aspects, at the surface, that can be easily discerned, yet are hard to understand.” At Pixar these artifacts are as follows: 1. Pixar University
The key to Pixar’s success is its talented employees which lie at the heart of the organisation. The company promotes a learning culture and all employees are encouraged to devote at least four hours a week to their education. In house courses are provided through the company’s own established university- Pixar University (PU). Pixar University is responsible for training and cross training people, helping them progress in their careers (Catmull, 2008). Educational classes include screenplay writing, drawing and sculpting, however there are optional classes such as Pilates and yoga that encourage people from all disciplines to interact and value one another. Through expanding knowledge in and outside of their areas, employees become more resilient to change. Redman and Wilkinson (2006), support this view stating that through training and development, organizations are readily able to adapt to changes in the business environment. 2. Building structure
The Pixar building is designed for a functional purpose- to maximize interaction between all Pixar employees. Schein suggests that if you want to understand organizational culture have a look at their work place environment. The building typically represents a “den” culture (Duffy, 1997-) and is designed to allow for high

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