CASE STUDY : W. L. Gore and Associates

He was ready for anything—or so he thought. Dressed in his finest and armed with an MBA degree fresh off the press, Jack Dougherty walked in for his first day of work at Newark, Delaware–based W. L. Gore and Associates, the global fluoropolymer technology and manufacturing giant that is best known as the maker of Gore-Tex. But it turned out he wasn’t ready for this: “Why don’t you look around and find something you’d like to do,” founder and CEO Bill Gore said to him after a quick introduction. Although many things have changed over the course of W. L. Gore and Associates’ 50+ years in business, the late Gore stuck to his principles regarding organizational structure (or lack thereof), a legacy he passed down to subsequent generations of management. Gore wasn’t fond of thick layers of formal management, which he believed smothered individual creativity. According to Gore, “A lattice (flat) organization is one that involves direct transactions, self-commitment, natural leadership, and lacks assigned or assumed authority.” In the 1930s, Gore received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in physical chemistry. During his career, he worked on a team to develop applications for polytetraflurothylene (PTFE), commonly known as Teflon. Through this experience, Gore discovered a sense of excited commitment, personal fulfillment, and self-direction, which he yearned to share with others. Spending nights tinkering in his own workshop, he did what he had previously thought to be impossible: he created a PTFE-coated ribbon cable. It occurred to Gore that he might be able to start his own business producing his invention, so he left his stable career of 17 years, borrowed money, and drained his savings. Though his friends advised him against taking such a risk, W. L. Gore and Associates was born in January 1958. The basement of the Gore home was the company’s first facility. Although no longer operating from a family basement (Gore boasts more than $3 billion in annual sales and 9,000 employees in more than 45 facilities worldwide), the sense of informality has stuck. “It absolutely is less efficient upfront,” said Terri Kelly, chief executive of W. L. Gore. (Her title is one of the few at the company.) “[But] once you have the organization behind it . . . the buy-in and the execution happens quickly,” she added.

Structure and Management of Unstructure and Unmanagement

Even as Gore started to grow, the company continued to resist titles and hierarchy. It had no mission statement, no ethics statement, and no conventional structures typical of companies of the same size. The only formal titles were “chief executive” and “secretary-treasurer”—those required by law for corporations. There were also no rules that business units within the company couldn’t create such structures, and so some of them did create their own mission statements and such. Many called Gore’s management style “unmanagement.” What had started as 12 employees working in the Gore basement eventually evolved into a thriving company by the 1960s, with multiple plants. There were 200 employees working at a plant in Newark, Delaware. One day, Gore was walking around the plant, and it occurred to him that he didn’t know all the employees there. Based on this realization, Gore established a policy that said no plant was to be larger than 150 to 200 workers per plant, to keep things more intimate and interpersonal. He wanted to “get big while staying small.”

Understanding and Leveraging Differences

With a global recession on the horizon in 2007, the company prepared for tough times by hunkering down, self-assessing, and embarking on a journey of self-improvement. A diversity leadership program was developed that focused on Gore’s most important asset: people. The Gore team sought to understand “when, why, if, and how differences affect relationships, because the quality of relationships [among employees] has a lot to do with how well our business performs,” adding that improving relationships [could] “decrease reactivity; increase professional capacity; and [help associates] learn about self while helping to make a more cohesive, diverse, and cross-discipline system.” Intense analysis and discussion led to bold change: Workshops, lunch and learn sessions and other programs help promote a more inclusive environment and encourage associates to listen to and learn from each other on a regular basis.… [We created] space for self-exploration, learning from differences dialogues; meeting with enterprise diversity affinity groups; monthly 15 engagement survey; building space in global business meetings to talk about individual belief systems and the connection to enterprise belief systems; proactively ensuring that learning from difference dialogues are built into global and local business meetings; and once a year, teams form to create and raffle off diversity baskets, filled with items that celebrate their culture, ethnicity, religion, etc. In addition, these teams speak at plant meetings about the items and traditions represented in their baskets. As the objectives were set into motion, monthly and annual employee survey results began to reflect increased satisfaction.

People Helping People

As the company grew, Gore also realized that there had to be some kind of system in place to assist new people on the job and to track progress. Instead of a formal management program, Gore implemented a “sponsor” program. When people applied for jobs with the company, they were screened and then interviewed by associates. An associate who took a personal interest in the new associate’s contributions, problems, and goals would agree to act as a mentor, or sponsor. The new hire’s sponsor would coach and advocate for him, tracking progress, encouraging the person, and dealing with weaknesses while focusing on strengths. Sponsors were also responsible for ensuring that their associates were fairly paid. The result of all this focus on mentoring and the right-sized teams has cultivated a feeling of intimacy and appreciation that attracts and retains a strong workforce. “You feel like you’re part of a family,” said Steve Shuster, part of Gore’s enterprise communication team. “I have been working at Gore for 27 years, and I still get excited coming to work each day.”

Case Questions

1. How did Bill Gore structure management within his company and why is this relevant to personality and individual differences?

2. Explain why the diversity leadership program developed by W. L. Gore and Associates is a positive way to better understand and foster individual differences.

3. Describe how the sponsor program developed higher levels of employee satisfaction as well as maintained the “unmanagement” culture.