Background

Let My People Go Surfing is the story about the education and success of a reluctant businessman, Yvon Chouinard. Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia grew up in Lisbon, Maine where he first discovered his interest in climbing. After moving to California with his family, he spent the majority of his young adult years learning to climb.

In 1957 his interest in climbing broadened and Chouinard decided to teach himself blacksmithing in an effort to make climbing hardware. He eventually designed strong pitons that unlike the ones he was currently using could be taken out and used repeatedly. After being honorably discharged from the army in 1964 Chouinard continued to make more climbing gear. It was then that he published his first one page catalog. As the demand for his gear increased, so did his vision. He decided to expand his team and hire his first employees, a few climbing friends.

Although the volume of sales increased Chouinard Equipment did not produce much revenue. In 1972 he had the idea to make clothing. Like any other business man he experienced difficulties. There were moments when quality and style did not meet Chouinard’s expectations. He focused on applying the same skills to clothing that he learned as a blacksmith. His goal was to make clothing functional, tough, and simple. Chouinard and his team soon decided on the name “Patagonia.”

Chouinard was recognized for having superior climbing equipment. He wanted Patagonia clothing to do the same, his vision was to have a product driven company.

Friends of friends were hired. Instead of hiring business people and instilling a passion for the outdoors, he hired people with a passion for the outdoors and taught them the philosophies of business. Management didn’t have special parking places, his office space was equal to other employees, and the owners paid for their own lunches in the cafeteria.

Chouinards’ human resource philosophy is exceptional in a business world of scientific management and staid corporate culture. He believed in allowing his employees flex-time so they would be able to take off a month or two and go on an expedition. It was company policy that if they were indeed true surfers, everyone was to drop their work and go surfing. His philosophy was to “hire responsible people and let them get their work done when they felt like it, as long as it didn’t impact other people.” There wasn’t a distinction between work and fun, for the employees at Patagonia work was fun. Instead of waiting for the weekends to spend time with family, their family was allowed to come to work.

His early interests in simplicity, quality, and affordable products lead to a rewarding business. Patagonia’s success has earned annual revenue of $260 million. With a headquarters in Ventura, CA and a distribution center in Reno, NV they currently have around 1300 employees.

Yvon Chouinard’s philosophies regarding production, image, distribution, finances, human resources, and environmental philosophies represent an innovative direction in business.

See Yvon Chouinard discuss his business in a Q&A session at Santa Barbara City College: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Organizational Communication in Patagonia

Patagonia prides itself on being unconventional in the way that it conducts business-- from their environmental views to its business model, ideas on production, to employee relations. Though we don’t have an ethnography of working conditions in Patagonia or even unfiltered testimony from other members of the company, Chouinard’s views and Patagonia’s company policies are instructive in how they view organizational communication and organization as a whole.

Critical Perspective/ Lens

The primary lens in this course, the critical perspective takes on a “social justice” lens in analyzing society and organization. It looks particularly at power dynamics and how they play out in organizations.

Marx, one of the most philosophers in the evolution of the critical perspective, is famed for his criticism of modern industrialism as “alienating”-- people from themselves, people from each other, and people from nature. Chouinard quotes the aviator Antoine St. Exupery early on in his book as an inspiration of business practices and technological innovation. His philosophy is reminiscent of another quote from the aviator, that states "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea".

Chouinard states that he knew that if he were to work as a businessman, he could not separate his work from his play-- i.e., he could not alienate himself at the workplace to begin his “real life” only when he came home from work. In order to achieve the “longing” of the quote, Chouinard seems to place less of an importance on “toeing the line”, on employee instruction and more on cultivating passion and play in their employees and workplace. While it started off as a business of friends, Patagonia’s policy of diversity has both a practical and idealistic lens, that seeks to fill the company’s needs with people from different backgrounds who can contribute to the richness of product design and problem-solving in the workplace as well as bring a diversity of influences with them.

Patagonia seeks to “un-alienate” its labor from each other as well as the environment. For the first, it takes an alternate stance by integrating the roles of work, play, and family. Almost 80% of his staff consists of women in high level positions. As a result, of their employees being working-mothers Chouinard wife helped create an on-site daycare that was one of the first ever in America. They felt that parents shouldn’t have to leave their families for eight hours each day. Plus, this gave the kids the opportunity to visit their parents throughout the work day. Chouinard comments that it normal to see families eating lunch together during the workday. In blending the different aspects of their employees lives it allows them to find happiness/fulfillment in the workplace.

Ideological control is implemented even before hiring is completed at Patagonia. The organization is very careful to hire those that best match the overall beliefs, perspective and values that the company holds. However, the company is careful to recognize the pressing need for change when necessary. Chouinard wanted to uphold his same level of expectations with his clothing that he had with the climbing gear. Since he was recognized for making the best and constantly perfecting climbing equipment.

Patagonia as an organization certainly relies upon the charismatic leadership of Yvon Chouinard, and as much as he attempts to stray away from unnecessary hierarchy it still exist within company. Chouinard is viewed in the media, his organization, and even his own book as someone that is the top of the hierarchy of this company. The specific written company policies, both in regards to product and human resources, follow a pattern more akin to bureaucratic structures and rational-legal modes of authority. The company is flexible enough and follows a doctrine of smaller workplaces for increased democracy that would seem to exemplify the ways in which Weber might hope bureaucracies could avoid becoming "iron cages".

Human Relations/ Follett

Follett, like other industrial democrats, believed in a prescriptive theory of human resources that called for greater democracy in the workplace, reduced hierarchy, and a circular communication style that sought win-win situations that integrated conflict rather than win-lose situations.

One important aspect of Patagonia is that the employees take the role of customers. A majority of Patagonia’s employees were customers. They hired people who, like the company’s founder, were interested in climbing, fishing, and other active sports. This ensured that the employees not only understand what the customers feel if a product is not as it should be, but have a vested interest in the products and the stance of the company as a whole.

Patagonia’s stated human resources style seeks to reduce unnecessary hierarchy, according to Chouinard. Each person is hired very slowly and very deliberately. There is no special treatment for employees who are more “highly ranked” within the company-- for example, instead of giving priority parking spaces to upper-level management, they reward owners of fuel-efficient car. Even as the owner, Chouinard commented that he still pays for his lunch in the cafeteria.

Patagonia’s “let my people go surfing” philosophy permits his employees to leave the workplace to “catch a wave” -- blending work time with play time in a policy that allowed flexible working hours as long as the work was completed. In permitting employees to have the freedom to surf, go camping, hiking, etc. they stress the importance of the play culture they hold so dear, while keeping their employees close to, rather than “alienated” from nature (a marker of most industrialized companies). Their organizational culture seems somewhat unusual when compared to mainstream scientific management/ Fordist/ uptight corporate culture. It follows a more Follett/ industrial democrat line that allows employee experiences to directly impact the company, and visa-versa.

There are no offices in Patagonia, but simply open working space, to give a more informal vibe to the environment. By not giving the employees private offices it enables everyone to work in an open environment, which promotes communication and allows for them to work in as a group. This allows them work independently to complete takes without having a “manager” constantly instruct them, again reducing unnecessary hierarchy. The cafeteria is always open as an informal meeting place for employees. There are not a lot of people in typical “office work clothes” - tie, suspenders, slacks, etc. Due to the fact that Patagonia is an outdoor company, they encourage employees to wear what is comfortable to them, even if that means wearing outdoor clothing to work in an office.

Along these same Dewey/Follett lines, Patagonia takes pride in employing “leaders,” rather than “managers.” Leaders, who take risks, are constantly looking to see how things can be better, and take risks are why Patagonia is such a successful company. There is an emphasis on the attitudes and feelings of the employees that is not merely a Mayo-style productivity emphasis, but rather on a practical desire to seek better integrated decisions through democracy and circular communication. Chouinard, rather than following a hyper rational management style or a Human Resources policy that seeks only to have employees toe the line, seems to ascribe to a more pragmatist, industrial democrat, and Follett line in hiring employees who are fiercely "independent" to the point that they "would be considered unemployable in a typical company" (Chouinard 177). He ascribes to a management style that involves decision making and investment on the part of the employees not just so that he can achieve greater buy-in from employees (in a kind of Mayo/ fake human resource style of management), but also because he believes that "in a company as complex as ours no one person has the answer to our problems, but each has a part of the solution. The best democracy exists when decisions are made through consensus, when everyone comes to an agreement that the decision made is the correct one" (177-178).

Systems Theory

Systems theory “focuses on relationships inside organizations and among organizations” and defines systems as “complex sets of interdependent parts that interact to adapt to a constantly changing environment in order to achieve goals. While Chouinard does not specifically reference systems theory, he seems incredibly aware at each step that external and internal factors affect the functioning of his organization, down to his management policy of going out to get new ideas and get a feel for the environment. That policy also led to socially conscious policies that grew into donating 1% of the revenue to the environment.

Chouinard was a long-time environmentalist. He went through great lengths to minimize Patagonia’s “impact on the environment” by making fleeces out of recycled soda bottles, donating 1 percent revenue environmental cause, and implementing a virtual environmental link on Patagonia’s site. As Chouinard states “everything we personally own that’s made, sold, shipped, stored, cleaned, and throw away does some environmental hard. Reflect for a moment…In what ways are you responsible for directly harming the environment or what methods do you take to help the environment?

Systems theory discusses the ways in which organizations are structured and they way in which each division of an organization works together. Chouinard originally structured company to be divided into divisions, which separated different aspects of the company. Lost Arrow Corporation was the parent company of both Patagonia and Chouinard Equipment, and then each company was divided in divisions of marketing, production, and finance. Chouinard found that the divisions cause more problems than helped the company and attempted to find ways in which to unify the company. One way that he achieved this was through ideology.

The Systems theory is apparent in the management style implemented in Patagonia’s organization, particularly through the emphasis on ideological control. Patagonia adopts systems theory in that, they seek to empower the individual, and in turn, the individual is more willing to adapt/comply with the overall view, opinions and values of the organization. In creating shared ideals it furthers the passion of the employees for the company. Similarly, Patagonia seems to be very aware of their stance as a small organization in a collective bunch of influential organizations. Patagonia is easily influenced by the ever-changing opinions, ideas and values of the organizations around it. Therefore, Patagonia has to implement ideological control unto the company as a whole, as it pertains to adapting views and values based on the organizations it is surrounded by.

Optional Supplemental Real-World Application, "Making Work Fun":

Short Clip from an Episode of "The Office"

Full Episode Summary

In this episode of “The Office,” Jim, a salesman at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, “dies” of boredom. Jim goes to a fellow employee’s desk to ask about a work-related matter. When Jim notices a full scoreboard on this employees desk, he question him. The employee explains that it is a game that he and other employees play when they are bored. Jim is inspired by this invention, and goes around the office to ask and learn about games that others have invented in their boredom. Have you ever invented a game at work to pass the time more quickly?

Take notice that when the boss leaves, most of the employees are seen participating in the “Office Olympics.” Once he walks back in, the fun stops and they return to the workday with downcast faces, barely a word or smile is exchanged. Have you ever felt like your boss wants you to have no fun at work?

In this episode we see how the employees at Dunder Mifflin were prompted to invent all of these games in an effort to enjoy their workday. Unfortunately, this episode is not completely derived from a writer’s brain, the reason this episode is so funny, is because many employees across the world can relate to these “bored games.” Can you?

Discussion Question

Please answer the following in two well-developed paragraphs:

In the first paragraph, discuss:

What is your impression of Chouinard’s philosophy of how to make work fun? Compare this to your impression of "how to make work fun" in the example from The Office and/or the earlier reading we had on "Banana Time." What do you think is the best way to make work fun?

In second paragraph, please discuss:

What is your impression of Chouinard as an authority figure? What kinds of power/control do you think were most prominent in Patagonia? How do you think the ways that power/control played out in Patagonia contributed to its success (or not)?