MGT 2132 FOUNDATION OF BUSINESS ORGANISATION
DEEI JANUARY 2013 SHORT SEMESTER
SESSION: APRIL 2013 EXAM
Instruction: Read the article below and answer the 4 questions accordingly.
ARTICLE:
WHAT DRIVES EMPLOYEES AT MICROSOFT? The reality of software development in a huge company like Microsoft – it employs more than 48,000 people – in that a substantial portion of your work involves days of boredom punctuated by hours of tedium. You basically spend your time in an isolated office, writing code and sitting in meetings during which you participated in looking for and evaluating hundreds of bugs and potential bugs. Yet Microsoft has no problem in finding and retaining software programmers. Their programmers work horrendously long hours and obsess on the goal of shipping product. From the day new employees begin work at Microsoft; they know they’re special and that their employer is special. New hires all have one thing in common- they’re smart. The company prides itself on putting all recruits through a grueling “interview loop,” during which they confront a barrage of brain-teasers by future colleagues to see how well they think. Only the best and the brightest survive to become employees. The company does this because Microsofties truly believe that their company is special. For instance, it has a high tolerance for nonconformity. Would you believe that one software tester comes to work every day dressed in extravagant Victorian outfits? But the underlying theme that unites Microsofties is the belief that the firm has a manifest destiny to change the world. The least consequential decision by a programmer can have an outsized importance when it can affect a new release that might be used by 50 million people. Microsoft employees are famous for putting in long hours. One program manager said, “In my first five years, I was the Microsoft stereotype. I lived on caffeine and vending machine hamburger and 20