The Organization Behavior of PIXAR Research Paper

The Organization Behavior of PIXAR - Research Paper Example Pixar animation studios is built upon a family style structure in which stakeholder interests are a priority and quality is the highest goal over financial concerns. The objective of their enterprise, according to their website is â€Å"to combine proprietary technology and world class creative talent to develop computer animated feature films with memorable characters and heartwarming stories that appeal to audiences of all ages†. In order to pursue this goal, the company has created a strategy-culture in which a strong culture has developed so that the employees are highly loyal. However, the insular corporate culture has created some issues in which communications in the organization are not up to the original standard expected by the mandates. The business is experiencing some of the effects of expansion as lower level employees are fighting to be heard. From its smaller beginnings of merely 44 employees when purchased by Steve Jobs, the company now has 850 employees with 19 executives. With a large work force all operating towards a limited number of projects, the experiences that first brought Lasseter to form his own business can eventually become seen as a threat to the company if the creativity of lower level employees is not allowed to flourish. However, according to Hoover’s, Inc. , the average amount of revenue per employee per year is at $300,000, making the business a capital-intensive industry. Investment and start-up costs make competition difficult, but also mean that competing creative types have a shot at finding financing even in the high-risk, but potentially high return nature of the business. Company History Pixar Studios did not start out on a successful tract. The company started as Pixar, Inc. in 1984, a company that sold computer hardware and turned to selling animation software as well as providing commercial animations for advertisers. John Lasseter and a handful of employees, shortly from the junior animation ranks at the Walt Disney Company, formed this company as a division of the company owned by George Lucas under the special effects branch (Pixar, 2011). The hope of the company was to create a success through animation, creating short length promotional films which were bringing in no financial return. The company ran reporting nothing but losses in the couple of years and was having trouble financing the one project they were determined to create (Price, 2009). The company was purchased by Steve Jobs in 1986 for ten million dollars when the division was formed into an independent company as Pixar, thus beginning the course towards a revolution in the animated film industry. The company was co-founded by Ed Catmull, who was also the vice-president of the special effects division at Lucas, Inc (Pixar, 2011). Through innovative techniques and building a reputation through short films, the company gained enough credibility to engage in their first efforts towards a full length, feature film project. With Lucas, Inc., Steve Jobs, and innovations that had the capacity to rock the animated film industry, the next logical step was to include the Walt Disney Company as a part of one of the most powerful innovative groupings ever developed. The project was Toy Story, a fully computer generated animation film that the Disney Studios came on board to finance in 1991. There was a murmur of disapproval in Hollywood, the belief that a fully computerized