Misalignment at Intel

Overall Intel is a great company and implements strategies effectively. One area of misalignment is in Structure and Shared Values. While working at the company, everyone knew the corporate values and even had them printed on the back of every employee badge. Employees also, for the most part, act in ways that align with corporate shared values. The one big misalignment is that there are organizational silos and lack of communication between divisions.

Intel prides itself on innovation as a value and sharing values between parts of the company. With strong silos it was hard to communicate "best known methods" or creative ideas. While interning, I tried to get inputs from as many different employees in a wide array of divisions. Whenever I spoke with people they were always put off by what people in other divisions said and wanted to prove that their division was the most creative.

While every employee was aware of Intel's Shared Values, they did not always live by them. The organizational structure conflicted with Intel's value of sharing ideas and free thought flow. This created tensions between people in different divisions and unnecessary competition. Everyone was kind to me and other new employees, but once roles were set, people were mostly friendly to members of their same group. Perhaps by limiting the hierarchical structure at Intel, the shared values will not misalign as much.