Netscape's Work Culture

Netscape's Culture Contd..

Since employees worked for long hours, Netscape gave them paid vacations. Employees were given a six week paid sabbatical¹⁵ after the completion of four years of full-time employment. Incentives were given to employees at all levels, not just senior employees. Employees earned bonuses on the basis of individual or group performance. Senior executives were entitled to bonuses in the range of 1-30% of their annual salaries.

There was also an annual company-wide bonus plan based on revenues per employee and customer satisfaction figures. Employees also qualified for bonuses based on their manager's discretion, for specific projects/assignments. Netscape developed innovative methods of reducing employee stress and preventing them from shifting to rival companies.

The company was one of the pioneers in introducing the 'canines-in-the-cubicle' policy, which allowed employees to bring their dogs to work. The company believed that this policy increased productivity by reducing stress.

The company also felt that pets were good icebreakers for shy workers, and that they forced employees to take breaks from their work. Another element of Netscape's success was its quick recruitment process.

The company's employees strength had increased from 2 to 330 in just 15 months between April 1994 and July 1995. The company attracted promising student's fresh out of college by offering them a lot of incentives including beach parties, free clothes, signing-on bonuses and free computers.

Once they joined, to keep up morale, employees were offered stock options, which translated into huge profits when the company performed well. Netscape launched an aggressive recruitment campaign: it went to some of the most popular campuses like UC Berkley, MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon in the US. Netscape's efforts to build a flexible and supportive culture seemed to have motivated employees and made them highly productive.

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15] A leave sanctioned for advanced study and research.

Case Details

Case Code : HROB013
Themes: Organizational Culture
Case Length : 13 Pages
Period : 1994-2000
Organization : Netscape
Pub Date : 2001
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : USA
Industry : Information Technology

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