Organizational development is an improvement strategy which has transformed into an “integrated framework of theories and practices” aimed at solving the most critical and relevant issues facing the human element of enterprises (French and Beli, 1995). Organizational change is complex, occurring at many levels and requiring an application of various models of action as well as different approaches to the planned change and management styles. This paper will focus primarily on applying the framework for management, leadership, and change to the company Meta (formerly known as Facebook), the social networking and technology conglomerate that has faced significant challenges in recent years.
Organizational Context
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is a major social networking corporation founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. It has since grown to become the largest global social network with 2.82 billion monthly active users across its platforms. Meta Platforms has over 70,000 employees (Hall, n.d.). Besides the primary ‘Facebook’ social network, the parent company also owns the popular image sharing app Instagram and the messenger WhatsApp. The organization also has key sectors such as its virtual reality experience through the Oculus headset that the company deems to be a strong component of future social networking in the so called ‘metaverse’ – a virtual reality world where people can interact both personally and professionally in a variety of contexts.
Meta has been involved in a number of controversies in recent years, highlighting both external and internal issues that it faces. Some of the most prominent scandals have involved user data collection and handling, political radicalism and propaganda, copyright issues, hate speech and incitement of criminal and hateful acts, data leaks, and censorship. Internally, it is faced with a dysfunctional workplace culture, development potentially socially dangerous products, and having significant losses in user trust and engagement, the foundation to the success. The company is facing issues with the loss of users, decreased popularity with younger populations, and increased regulatory pressure as Zuckerberg has had to testify before Congressional committees multiple times (Dwoskin and Timberg, 2021). Meta’s primary platform Facebook has become a part of the zeitgeist of the digital age, but the increased negative social impacts have significantly undermined both the appeal and reputation of the company.
In late 2021, the company rebranded itself from Facebook to Meta. It is meant to represent its future ambition to develop and evolve the virtual reality world of the ‘metaverse,’ largely seen as the next step in social networking. However, that was a project and department that the firm had been working on for some time, not necessarily presenting anything new in terms of products. The rebrand was largely seen as an attempt by the company to distract from the numerous issues and criticisms that it has faced and attempt to ‘start fresh.’ However, many aspects such as organizational culture, leadership, and management processes remained largely the same, with the problems not going away (Yohn, 2021). Meta is facing greater competition than ever before for the attention of the users and the social networking experience. Therefore, in order for Meta to maintain its leadership position and ensure sustainability of the company through increased user participation and engagement again, the company needs to undergo significant change in its internal organizational structure, processes, and culture.
Application to Organization
The framework for management, leadership and change presented by Burnes demonstrates four quadrants which help to identify the form of management or leadership is best applicable to each form of change and change management. According to Burnes (2017), issues that concern the cultural aspect of the organization by the leadership at all levels, if treated as mere structural or policy problems as in quadrant 2, are unlikely to lead to sustainable change in structures, attitudes, and behaviors. However, if these issues are viewed as ones that need to be embedded into the organizational culture, quadrant 1 is the best fit where the changes are managed and the shifts in behaviors and attitudes will occur.
This can be strongly applied to Meta, which is struggling with many fundamental issues of ethics, privacy, appropriate use of information and prevention of disinformation that may harm so many people. Furthermore, Meta has a deep internal culture problem, ranging from a toxic culture to intentional ignorance to a cult-like obsession. The company culture is strong but it also discourages dissent, seeks to artificially encourage collaboration, and uses a highly controversial ‘stack rating’ system (Knee, 2021). Pioneered by Jack Welch at General Electric in the 1980s, stack ranking is a system where managers are asked to rate employees on a bell curve as either exemplary, meeting expectations, and need of improvement. The distribution typically fell at 15%/70%/15% and meant to create a competitive culture and environment. The top 15% would receive promotion and bonuses, while the bottom 15% would be slated for layoffs, thus encouraged to significantly improve performances to avoid it (Tansey, 2020).
These managerial practices are largely considered inaccurate and toxic in a modern business environment. Furthermore, it is not only the maniacal commitment to continuous improvement that is an issue at Meta, but also the narrowness of the objectives on which these improvements focus and the structure fragility it represents (Knee, 2021). The range of objectives before Facebook should embrace a more broad and nuanced set of corporate aims with an emphasis on openness, transparency, and integrity rather then the narrow-minded focus on optimizing customer engagement and short-term monetization.
Therefore, quadrant 1 in the framework is best fitting in many ways. It is in the upper section that indicates a turbulent environment with a need for large-scale transformation under transformational leadership which is exactly what Meta requires. It is also in the left section, with slow transformation that is focused on innovation. That is also fitting as Meta currently does not need rapid solutions, it needs sustainable and consistent change. In turn, that will lead it to be an effective technological leader within the innovational technologies of the future such as the metaverse, so that similar mistakes are not repeated. The Q1 focuses on organizational change with an emphasis on culture as the primary underlying concept of change. It suggests for the use of emergent change as the managerial approach (Burnes, 2017). In the next paragraphs, the aspects of transformational leadership, cultural shifts, and emergent change will be discussed in the context of Meta.
Meta’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is generally seen as a transformational leader. He has grown the company from the very beginning, implementing his vision, taking risks, and learning from mistakes. Zuckerberg is known for his self-awareness and determination, with the aim to push his company and employees forward in terms of innovation and performance. Zuckerberg is an authoritative leader, which aims to mobilize individuals in the organization, projects self-confidence, and sets a clear direction for the company. He has a clear vision for the company’s future, such as the metaverse which he is personally overseeing, and motivates his employees to achieve his industry-disrupting goals. In fact, Facebook is largely leading the industry in the development of the virtual reality and working prototype of the metaverse.
It is also the transformational leadership of Zuckerberg that could be used to implement the necessary cultural and organizational changes. Zuckerberg is largely responsible for creating the intensive environment at the company, but his method of leadership that typically is meant to empower employees to success had led to toxic interactions focused on narrow objectives (Clark, 2021). As a transformational leader, Zuckerberg can redefine organizational goals the approach taken to achieve them. He should inspire freedom of expression, security, and trust rather than eliminate dissent. His leadership should be challenging but in a positive way, rather than aggressive demand, it should aim towards motivational encouragement.
Organizational and cultural change is incredibly difficult to achieve competently and requires the coming together of multiple factors. Some of the key attributes of organizational development for betterment of culture include empowering employees, creating openness in communication, taking ownership of the change process and the outcomes, and finally the promotion of a collaborative culture. One of the key approaches to sustainable cultural change is to ensure that the company strategy inherently matches its cultural background (Katzenbach, Steffen and Kronley, 2012). Making small but significant interventions that lead to behavior changes can revitalize the culture and build the company’s future based on its past ingrained strengths
For example, Facebook was built on the premise of social connection. It was an innovative way in the digital age for people to connect, share, and interact. A decade ago, it was far from the conglomerate it is today that focuses solely on engagement and monetization off advertisers. The culture needs to shift away from performance metrics on advertisement and user data towards the inherent care towards people connecting and wanting to use Facebook as a social platform, as an organization that they could trust to do the right thing. In order to see through that type of change, the team management approach at 9.9 on the Managerial Grid is required. This is the most effective management style which emphasizes both high production and high people, a leader that is both passionate about their work and who cares for the people that they work with. There is a prioritization of production needs with the people’s needs, and this is done by ensuring that the team members understand the organization’s purpose, and directly involving them in determining production needs and critical decision-making (MindTools, n.d.). Zuckerberg can meet such criteria as Meta maintains a highly talented staff, many of whom can advise and guide the CEO towards a better team management approach and cultural change.
Finally, the emergent approach is based on the concept of modern organizations that are seen as a ‘work in progress’ with implementation of continuous learning. The emergent approach stems from the assumption that change is an open-ended, continuous, and sometimes unpredictable process, and has become increasingly popular over the highly rigorous planned approach of the 20th century. Emergent change being a dynamic process focuses on on-the-go accommodations, adaptations, and alterations to create fundamental change when necessary but without the specific intent (Burnes, 2017). These are typically small changes, as discussed earlier, that when combined together produce and effective result.
Meta as a technology company is always moving at a fast pace as it must adapt to new realities, technologies, and consumer expectations. As a multibillion-user social network with the presence of artificial intelligence, Facebook almost has a life on its own. Its employees and developers seeking to both control it while also building it into something bigger and more beneficial to the users whilst being responsible to shareholders and maintaining profitability. Emergent change is a continual process of experimentation, which is usually messy and multi-level, but it requires managers to be less controlling and maintain a healthy culture. If Meta seeks to change its fundamental values and structure, it needs to do so in the process of its rapid operations. This is achieved by making the small changes via interactions of managers and employees, shifting decision-making contributions to a wider range of employees, becoming more sensitive to the issues of the organization. Meta may be in a position of chaos and loss right now, but emergence consists of order arising out of chaos, so positive can be achieved at the organizational level.
Commentary
The legacy of Facebook can be compared to that of many other corporations that continue to carry their damaged reputation. Even if it is not a reputational change, but solely a legal one such as Google’s parent company rebranded to Alphabet Inc. in 2010, the name change is largely irrelevant. The transition has identified areas where the company sees a potential of growth and investment, but that is at least 10 years from being mainstream. Social media remains their major project and revenue bringer. Meta itself did not change in terms of orientation, structure, and priorities (DiMolfetta, 2021). The company is experiencing is range of issues, and while legal or financial troubles are temporary and fixable, it faces an existential threat, one that is seen in slowly dying companies. As a result, it influences every managerial objective and product decision as the company seeks to desperately find a way to survive. This is best seen from inside the company through aspects such as leaving of talent, growth hacks, and rapid pivots without the necessary stability (Roose, 2021).
In the fourth quarter of 2022, for the first time in its 17-year history, the company lost users, at about half a million. While seemingly insignificant in comparison to billions of active users, it does represent a general trend in the decline of Meta’s social media. Due to the outlined issues and strong competition, it is now more than ever critical for Meta to change its strategy and underlying foundational problems within the firm (Adizes, 2021). Artificial intelligence has gone from a buzzword to applicable technology. If Meta has any hopes of adopting changes, it will occur through these machine learning technologies that supplement their current measurement tools. However, to do so effectively, competently, and sustainably, it must adopt changes internally.
Reference List
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