Business 10th Edition by Ferrell,Geoffrey Hirt,Linda Ferrell

Exercise 19

Companies Embracing Greater Employee Interaction
Getting rid of cubicles, creating inconvenient work spaces, and eliminating work-from-home programs are some of the methods being used by companies to increase collaboration, communication, and teamwork. Yahoo! and Best Buy, for example, have eliminated their work-from-home programs to increase face-to-face interaction among employees. Studies have shown that employee interaction leads to more innovative ideas.
Google and Zappos are among those companies taking the lead in using their space to encourage collaboration and innovation. Both are designing new buildings with smaller workspaces and break rooms and narrower hallways so employees will see each other more often and have more opportunity for chance discussions. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is purposefully designing inconvenience into the new Zappos headquarters so that employees will have to interact with one another. Campbell's Soup is removing cubicles and installing more common spaces to increase employee teamwork and problem-solving.
Other companies are installing interactive devices in elevators where silence is usually the norm. Salesforce.com is installing a lunch button kiosk. Employees can push a button on the kiosk, and the kiosk matches a fellow co-worker that shares a common interest with the employee. The employee can then invite that person to lunch-and a new relationship is formed. This increase in interaction is anticipated to improve communication and relationships in companies. 6
Why is it important that employees interact with one another?