Mach3 Turbo, Oral-B, Venus Divine and Duracell are all products offered by Gillette, which is now owned by P&G the merger took place in 2005. Gillette specializes in personal care, grooming and batteries. William Procter and James Gamble founded Gillette in 1837 in Cincinnati. Procter was a candle maker and Gamble a soap maker that started the enterprise of Procter & Gamble. In 1859, the company reached sales of $1 million and employee 80 people. Consumer preference was started during the Civil War when contracts were awarded to the company to supply Union armies. Ivory soap was the first product of the company after their Moon and Star candles. In 1887 there was unrest at both the national and local level about labor and P&G instituted a profit-sharing program for factory workers. This program aided in helping workers realizes that their roles were vital in the success and future of the company. In 1919, William Procter created articles of incorporation, which stated, interests of the Company and its employees are inseparable. Gillette has many business practices in place to ensure that its company is running efficiently and keeping the company and employee as one entity instead of separate entities. A company must possess strong business ethics and practices to ensure that every decision from every member of the organization is solid and in the best interest of the company. P&G has built a strong structure of organizational behavior and practices to ensure its company and employees are successful in each and every day. When P&G placed its employee as its most important asset it stated that its interests were in helping and improving the company.

P&G has set values of leadership, integrity, trust, ownership, and a passion for winning. By setting values it allows each member of the company to have a standardized set of guidelines to base decision and use in other daily tasks. By giving the company a set of values, P&G is making the company its first priority instead of just making a profit. When a company puts forth values employee can be reassured that the company has interest in keeping its integrity and core values top priorities in all of their business practices. The values are placed into broad categories, listed above, and have simple statements to further clarify each value.

Leadership is the first value which is further clarified with the following statements: we are all leaders in our area of responsibility, with a deep commitment to deliver leadership results; we have a clear vision of where we are going; we focus our resources to achieve leadership objectives and strategies; we develop the capability to deliver our strategies and eliminate organizational barriers. Each statement of the value is general and easy to understand. By using a method of giving statements that can be applied to any situation where an employee is trying to decide what to do. The CEO of P&G, A.G. Lafley has created his leadership style based on the traditional methods and styles. Lafley does not impose financial targets on his managers but rather, has everyone focus on their strategy, choices, and executing tasks with consistency and excellence. He has made it is goal to have each manager have specific goals and keep working towards the goals. This allows each manager to receive the appropriate training and continuing support to effectively do their job and keep employees motivated. A.G. Lafley took the organization to new motivational levels when he moved the senior executives off of the 11th floor and to their respective division floors. He then turned the space into a leadership-training center. Lafley himself does not have a personal office; he shares an open office with the other executives of the company. Lafley has made other changes to the company to encourage motivation between employees and change the leadership style into a more open forum. He has made the conference room table round instead of the traditional rectangular style. P&G has slowly embraced this change since it is a close family environment where many of the employees live next to each other. Negotiations at P&G are held in environments, which do not place one person in a stronger position than the other, but rather on the same level. The P&G family handled the changing environment hesitantly at first and now they are starting to embrace the changes and focus on their core missions.

 A.G.Lafley become CEO in 2000 and has implemented simple back to basics policies to keep employees motivated. He traveled the first 100 days he was CEO to determine what P&G employees, customers and supplies thought and wanted from the company. Lafley took the high paced technology out of his core concepts and took a more conservative approach to the business. Lafley wanted to take the business to the basic core and keep the company focused on the products they know best to keep every focused and motivated. He wants to keep the unifying principle of improving the lives of women and their families around the world. Lafley himself is a user of the company’s products. A.G. Lafley understands that he is in charge of a large company with over 135,000 employees and still wants to keep the internal culture of the business on the most personal level possible. He believes that people learn better when you bring them together instead of sitting them down at a computer. Lafley is trying to instill the values in the company that contact without technology will bring the company back to core values and to a strong organization. The next value is integrity: we always try to do the right thing; we are honest and straightforward with each other; we operate within the letter and spirit of the law; we uphold the values and principles of P&G in every action and decision; and we are data-based and intellectually honest in advocating proposals, including recognizing risks. The integrity of the company is very influential in the decision-making processes in choosing a job, satisfaction, and success. P&G has the integrity to acknowledge that having a diverse workforce does require additional training and understand from all employees. When a company ignores diversity it often causes tension among employees from basic misunderstanding of each other. For example, European American tend to show their choice of occupation is as much as an individual right as choosing what to eat, whereas; Asian and Hispanic American base their decision are strongly based on a strong family influence. When P&G stepped forward to recognize the diversity of its organization and to ensure that its diversity was an asset instead of a liability the company ensure its growth. In 1994, The United States Department of Labor presented P&G the Opportunity 200 Aware given for its multifaceted, comprehensive affirmative action and executive development programs.

Diversity is more than employment equity it is an environment that values the differences of each employee and maximized the potential of all employee. P&G views diversity as a fundamental business strategy. A.G. Lafley, CEO, has held himself accountable for the mentoring program created to use the company’s diversity as a competitive advantage. P&G offers both education on diversity and training to employees. Educating employees allows for the beginning of awareness and a general understand of each culture that is represented in the company. When additional training is held people are given the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to effectively and sensitively deal with diversity issues without creating tension in the workplac. The training that is provided by P&G is mandatory for employees at all levels. By having all levels of the company at training is shows a commitment and understanding that allows role-modeled behavior to be viewed at all levels of the company. P&G uses a strong message of commitment to the understanding and working in a diverse culture, which places emphasis on using diversity as an asset.

Trust is a value that not many companies will write down and post. P&G wants to ensure that each person has: confidence in each other’s capabilities and intentions, each of P&G’s colleagues, customers, and consumer has respect for each other, and that people work best when there is a foundation of trust. P&G has used their value of trust as a motivation tool for its employees. Motivation is the willingness to exert a behavior with high levels of effort towards a goal or goals. P&G has allowed its employees to take part in innovate group projects to test, develop and improve its products. When a company is willing to trust a group of its employees to create a new product it is giving the employees the motivation to put their best efforts towards the task and keeps their mental and physical abilities as strong assets to the company. P&G employees are given innovative tasking which allows the group of employees to run the projects as consumers and producers of the product. When employees are motivated to go to work the company benefits because motivational levels are high which leads to higher productivity levels.        The components of team effectiveness are: context, composition, work design, and process.  Team effectiveness must have adequate resources, leadership and structure, climate of trust, performance evaluation and reward system, abilities of each member, personalities, allocating roles, diversity, small size, flexibility, preference, common purpose, team efficacy, conflict levels and understanding of social loafing. All of these components must be handled and present to create a group that is effective in using their assets and dealing with their conflicts and problems. An effective team will ensure that the following positions are creating and the required duties carried out by each member that creates a high-performance team. Reporter-advisor presents and gathers information. Creator-innovator presents ideas for various tasks and how to accomplish them. Explorer-promoter explores possibilities and opportunities. Assessor-developer analyzes alternatives and ideas to meet to needs of the organization. Thruster-organizer pushes the group forwards and gets results. Concluder-producer performs tasks in an organized systematic method. Controller-inspector works on the details and controls the aspects of work. Upholder-maintainer upholds stands and values and keeps excellence in the group. Linking coordinates and integrates the work of the team. P&G needs to ensure to keep strong standards for improving the cohesiveness of each working team to ensure they have quality time to spend with each other, keep the group small, and keep the stated goals clear and concise. Often groups are not able to work well together because they are not comfortable with each other and don’t understand each other’s thinking methods, so allow them to spend time with each other, maybe at a company picnic or bowling would increase their comfort levels. Keeping the group small would ensure that the bonds between the people would stay strong and keep the working levels high. Then by keeping the goals clear and concise everyone would know what is expected of them as a group and individually. Social loafing is where an individual decides to expend less of their effort because they are working with a group than if they would be working alone. The logical assumption would be the group productivity should be at least that of the individual productivity in a group except for the social loafing. Often this is attributed to the success being the fault of the group not an individual.

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is placed against P&G’s employee practices, it can be found that P&G understands the basic needs of people and is willing to meeting those needs. The basic needs are the deficiency needs that are needed to survive, food, shelter and water. P&G is a reputable company that ensures its employees will be paid as agreed and has not had any major labor disputes. This provides its employees with the first level of needs. The being needs are next according to Maslow, these are the needs that allow each employee to become an individual and self-actualized. The first of the being needs is to know and understand. Each person must be able to learn on their own and to able to reason thing for themselves. When P&G allows their employees to work on products for research and development it meets the being needs because the employee is able to learn how to make a product work better and able to understand how others use the product. Then self-actualization can be met. This is the need for self-fulfillment or the realization of personal potential. P&G promotes from within the company and also rewards employees for their performance. P&G has created a strong program with just its value of trust. By trusting an employee and having the employee trust them they meet all of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that makes employees satisfied at work and at home. When employees are satisfied at work and home productivity and motivation is higher which increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the company in obtaining higher output from the same amount of resources.

“That two people can disagree and both be right is not logical, it's psychological. And it's very real. We see the same thing, but interpret it differently because of our conditioning.” Covey’s Seven Habit of Highly Effective People so, people will see what they were essentially taught to see. Covey’s habits are: 1. Be Proactive, 2. Begin with the End in Mind, 3. Put First Things First, 4. Think Win/Win, 5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, ^. Synergize, 7. Sharpen the Saw. Each of the habits forces the employees of P&G to create a system to their daily activities becoming more productive and becoming more efficient people. The attribution theory is based on how people explain events. There are internal and external attributions. Internal attributions are based on explanations from within and external attribution blame outside forces. So, if a person was late for class and it was raining outside an internal attribution would be to ask to be excused for being late to class because “I” didn’t leave early enough to compensate for the weather. An external attribution for being late would be to blame the tardiness on the weather or bad drivers. Locus of control, Machiavellianism, self-esteem, self-monitoring, risk propensity and Type A personality. Locus of control is where people believe that they control their own destiny, which is an internal, and then there is external where people believe they are controlled by outside forces. So, people who are internal tend to be more satisfied with their jobs than those who are external, which goes back to the theories of production and its relations to satisfaction. Machiavellianism is the ability to gain and use power. This trait can be associated with the ethics that a person holds; a person who has questionable ethics would score high in this trait because they believe the end result is what counts (productivity). Self-esteem is related to success of an individual. People with high self-esteem are more likely to have higher success rates than those with low self-esteem. Self-monitoring is how a person reacts to environment and situational factors. People who score high in this category often are able to act to the situation and people who score low tend to have the same action towards each situation. Risk propensity is how a person is able to take chances on decision making on the evidence provided. A person who scores high can make decision on very little presented information while low scoring individuals must have more complete evidence to make a decision. Type A personalities are generally characterized by a trait of high competitiveness.

The previously mentioned values of integrity and trust aid in teamwork throughout the workplace to create a solid working environment from the lowest part of the organization to the very top. Often the hardest part of teamwork is getting started because it is difficult to find a compromise between each member in creating the basic rules of the tea. Teamwork is essential in most business practices today and especially essential with P&G since they have working groups to create and improve their products. When the basic values of integrity and trust are already in place in the working environment the team can easily use general acceptable rules to get start and quickly start on their assigned task. When members of a team can trust each other and value each other’s integrity then teamwork is almost effortless. P&G uses a hiring practice of personality screening to ensure each employee has the ability to work in an environment where teamwork is a common practice. This allows lets every employee know that they were specifically selected for their abilities that creates a basic trust of values between the employee and the company.

P&G has the value of ownership: we accept personal accountability to meet our business needs, improve our systems, and help others improve their effectiveness; and we all act like owners, treating the Company’s asserts as our own and behaving with the Company’s long-term success in mind. When each employee is given the responsibility to make their effort to the company and if they owned the company it gives the heightened awareness of every aspect of the company. Total Quality Management Human Resources play an important role in keeping the value of ownership a strong value for P&G. The Human Resource department is responsible for keeping the organization running efficiently. Total Quality Management is the process of having continuous improvement on each and every level of the organization.

Total Quality Management (TQM) has many principles to provide guidelines for P&G to base its management approaches. The principles include: management commitment, employee empowerment, fact based decision-making, continuous improvement and customer focus. Each principle creates a process to aid the company in continually improving with training, education and practice. Management commitment is well known at P&G since CEO Lafley started using his policies of keeping managers focus on their goals and keeping the company based on core values. Employee empowerment is created in P&G with an investment of $1.8 Billion for research and development. Ultra Pampers that prevents diaper rash took over eight years and 180 researchers to develop. When employees work towards goals of improving lives for their consumers from preventing diaper rash to prevent osteoporosis with toothpaste it gives goals to improve their own lives also and make a difference in society. P&G employees also know that promotions come from within the company and that working hard will be recognized. Fact based decision making was brought back into the company with CEO Lafley, he took the company and found their core brands and companies and focus on those markets only. This decision making of finding the brands that the company is associated with by using market trends has given the company consumer preference increases in the past five years which has increased company profits. Continuous improvement is a goal of every employee of P&G including the CEO. P&G was losing money and popularity in the 1990’s and since 2000 has double market share values and creating annual profits. Improvement of products for general health purposes has increased the consumer preference for P&G and also has set new standards for the personal health product market. By being the innovative leader in the market P&G is able to set standards and focus on their core products. Customer focus is a main priority for A.G. Lafley and he often tells visitors about learning to meditate to keep focused and ease the pressures of the job. The employee of P&G have a responsibility to ensure that their products can meet any possible need of the consumer by having diverse working groups in their research and development of each product.  Lafley does not negotiate with his policies and set procedures which sets a strong leading role model for the employees of P&G. TQM is a practice that is used at every level in P&G and has taken the company from being lost in the 1990s to becoming the number one company in its market. By using TQM in the workplace the “giving and receiving feedback” part of the organization is very solid and works to benefit both the company and its consumers.

The Human Resources department of P&G ensures that the company continues to run smoothly each and every day. Lafley spends his Sundays with the head of human resources reviewing the performance of the 200 most senior executives. This is Lafley’s method of ensuring that the talents of each executive are being used and that each executive is keeping on track with their goals and the goals of the company. Human Resources are given the task of keeping every person in a role that is best for the company and that employee. Lafley has been working at P&G for 25 years and knows the company and many of the employees. Lafley wants to ensure that the core values of the company, especially keeping the consumer as the priority, are kept by every member and that every member is giving the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Human Resources is responsible to Lafley to make changes to the business environment so that the core values, TQM, and consumer focus can remain the focus and that every motivational tool is being used in the right area. When Lafley started with the company in 1977 he quit twice and was talked into coming back. He introduced liquid Tide in 1984. Human resources were responsible for keeping Lafley onboard with P&G because they knew he had potential. Human Resources at P&G are responsible for more than just making sure people get paid and follow the rules. Human Resources are responsible for ensuring that every aspect of the company has the ability to work at the best of its ability and that the needed resources to complete tasks are available. Lafley has depended on P&G department of Human Resources to reduce conflict and ensure that the members of the company are given the needed resources to keep conflict at its lowest level through education, training and communication throughout the organization.

The last value of P&G is a passion for winning: we are determined to be the best at doing what matters most; we have healthy dissatisfaction with the statue quo; and, we have a compelling desire to improve and to win in the marketplace. At first this value may seem slightly unethical due to most values are focused on integrity, honor, and strong ethics, not winning. When looked into further it is noticed that the subparts of the value aim the value at keeping competitiveness to the company, which helps the consumers. When the consumers know the company keep competitive by creating new products, such as Swiffer, and keeping prices low, P&G found a new formula for Crest that costs less. By keeping competitive in the market P&G can offer employees motivation to keep new products coming into the market and keep the core products at great value prices. P&G believes that the consumer is the boss and that the vitality of the company depends on keeping the consumer happy and improving their lives. Many people may not think preventing diaper rash as a great improvement until they have a child whose bottom hurts and they refuse to wear a diaper or that liquid detergent is a great product until they have to rewash their darks because there is white streaks on their clothes. P&G and its diverse culture have created innovative products that involves years of research by many researchers to satisfy the needs of a specific groups of consumers. This gives P&G the edge on many markets that may not affect every consumer, but may help most consumers at some point in their life. P&G has created their core products starting over 150 years ago and still are producing them and by keeping focus on their core they are the best at what matters most to their company.

Summary of Findings

The importance of keeping strong organizational behavior is a vital part of any company in determining its success or failure. The core of any business is its people and P&G realizes that its people are its most valuable asset. This gives the company an advantage in the organizational behavior by defining their core. P&G has changed many of its organizational behaviors since CEO A.G. Lafley took over the position in 2000. There are changes that are still being implemented to keep the companies procedures and policies simple. Simple “we” statements that gives a feeling of unity throughout the company govern the values. Many of the high technological procedures the company was using for communication has changed to a more open style which takes the company back to its founding roots. P&G is a large company that is using traditionally small company values. This approach is conservative in nature and has proven to be profitable for the employees by making their job more defined and for the company financially. Lafley has taken many steps to get the company to run, as a family owned company does with open offices and round meeting tables. P&G has only introduced one new product, Swiffer, in the last 15 years, which is quite disappointing for the innovative section of the company. This part of the company needs to become more defined to ensure that their role and tasks can be meant and meet the demands of the consumer. The leadership of the company has taken new steps in keeping everyone focused on their tasks and given the appropriate training. Integrity of P&G was quite tarnished in the 1990s and since 2000 has been increasing each year. Since the company is working towards a common goal as a family it makes the integrity level of each person very high and improving with each new step. The trust throughout the company could be higher since many of the employees, including Lafley who was in the military prior to P&G, have never worked for any other company and the drastic changes implemented by Lafley have made some of the employee resistant to all of the changes and has lost some of the trust. Allowing open forum for changes that will occur and allowing adjustment periods for new policies and procedures could remedy this.

P&G is a strong company that started over 165 years ago and has gone through many changes. Its current CEO has only worked for P&G, other than enlisting in the Navy, and has implemented many changes to the organization of the company, which has brought the company back into the front of its market. When P&G acquired Gillette it became the largest company in its market with the biggest market share. Often when companies are merged together it is difficult to keep one culture throughout all of the various division and countries of the company. Since Gillette was only bought by P&G in 2005 there are many changes that employee of both companies are still facing. These challenges can be easily overcome if the company continues to keep its core values and practices.