1, About SAS

- CEO: Jim Goodnight

- Full name: Statistical Analysis System
- The worlds largest privately held Software Company.
- Founded in 1976 to help all sorts of customers
- The main headquarters (Background) is located in Cary, North
Carolina, USA.
- is the leader in business analytics software and services the largest
independent vendor in the business intelligence market.
- SAS was a system used on IBM mainframe computers.
Its a Business Intelligence tool which can give simple answers
to businesses through data mining capabilities, report generation
and automation etc..
-> Personality:
- Extroversion: a flamboyant businessman who loves work life, and his
family and friends even more ranks high.
- Conscientiousness: Highly responsible with his billion dollar brand and
was very persistent ranks high.
- Openness to experience: An explorer, whose adventure knows no
bounds. Even at work place he would encourage people to come up
with innovative ideas and translate them into reality ranks high.
-> Extroverts are motivated from "without" and their attention is
directed toward other people and the outside world. I am outgoing,
acts first and thinks later and talkative person. In addition, I am
sociable, friendly, self-confident and outgoing or energized by the
outer world. Thus SAS is extrovert.
2, How would you translate SASs art of employee management in
terms of the P-O-L-C framework?
- Planning:
+ Vision and Mission:
> the biggest software company with superior software
> To create confidence, loyalty for employee
> Improve work efficiency; build a strong and loyal
team, talent, dedication to the company
-> Job satisfaction is the key of success.
+ Strategizing:
> Create the best work environment with good welfare and
conditions for employee.
> Attention to the needs and wishes of individual
employees and our life and healthy

+ Goals and objective: the worlds largest privately held software

company as well as the best place to work.
- Organizing:
+ Organizational design and culture: workplace culture: set up
system and foster loyalty in their employees; corporate culture focuses
on the lives of employees; interested in work life balance. Such as
Deeply discounted child care is available, in addition to no-cost "work-life"
counseling which helps employees more effectively manage the stresses of
everyday life.
+ Social network
- Leading
+ Leadership:
+ Decision making: efforts in the analysis array to make the good
decisions and create value for the company, creating challenges for
staff
+ Communication: CEO talk and commit, Value People Above
All Else, exchange between employees and company, have
motivate, encourage staffs develop themself and contribute to SAS.
+ Group/Team
+ Motivation:
> Intensive: interesting, challenging project
> Extensive: job security, no lay of, work life balance,
health care (employee wellbeing), physical and psychological earn,
reduce stress, work hour limit -> decrease abserte.., decrease
turnover.
- Controlling:
+ System Process
+ Strategic Human Resources
Job Satisfaction Work Itself: - Rewards innovation - Encourages risk-taking Provides freedom - Challenging work - Ability to learn a new position

Even though job satisfaction not strongly related to job

performance, company planted to reduce and estimate all of
dissatisfaction of employee for the job -> they will have more
enthusiastion and motivation to stay in company, loyal to it and
attribute all they have for the company -> make belief, feel safety,
happy, and thought to stay at company.
2, SAS is a global company. Do you think that the benefits offered
and the strategy used to improve employee satisfaction vary from
country to country?

Yes. Because they are the common benefits for all employees in any
work/jobs. But depend on each country and job, we can add more
benefits or advantage to improve satisfaction.
3, If a company is unable to provide the benefits that SAS does, in
what other ways might a firm create positive work attitudes?
4, What risks could be associated with giving workplace surveys, as
was done at SAS?
SASInstitutereliesheavilyonemployeeinputthroughitsannualemployeesatisfactionsurvey.Mostofthe
questionsseektogaugetheoverallworkenvironmentatSASInstitute,andonlyafewareworklife
specific.Resultsofthesurveyarepostedforseveralweeksonthecompanysintranet,andeachyearkey
areasareidentifiedforimprovement.

Give too much benefit without gains productivity and profit.

The company therefore goes to great lengths to measure worker
sentiment, and engages the Great Place to Work Institute to
independently evaluate the standing of its entire leadership team
every year.
5, What are some effective strategies to create a balanced work and
home life? Is this more or less of a challenge when you are starting
a new career?
Deeply discounted child care is available, in addition to no-cost
"work-life" counseling which helps employees more effectively
manage the stresses of everyday life. And, of course, common work
areas are routinely filled with snacks and treats. Employees are
given a large extent of autonomy and developers are encouraged to
pursue experimental product ideas. create environment as
"relaxed."
Rule of 8 work hours limit, work more time with no extra, work
distribution
More challenge
1, One critic calls SAS "a big brother approach to managing people." Is
the company too paternalistic? Can a company be too paternalistic?
I do believe that SAS's approach to managing people is the result of an
accurate analysis performed by the management staff. Therefore,
when the management discusses improving employee retention rates,
the initial topic is often higher salaries and bonuses. That is partly
valid, because money is a key element; as SAS can attest, retention
efforts can be very effective if they focus on more ways to spend the
money than just increasing salary levels. With its strategy to boost
employee retention, the company has created a culture and programs
that encourage and drive employee loyalty.

I do not think that this is a "big brother approach" at all; at the end, it
is just a way to achieve a better business result. The top management
prefers to spend money on the employees rather than spending money
on recruiters to find new employees, and this is why the organization is
following this employee politics. The retention program expenses are
more than justified by the overall cost savings, and so it is not
paternalism, but smart business in place.
2. When, if ever, do family-friendly practices become too paternalistic?
Family-friendly practices are just a different approach to strengthen the
link between the employees and the company; there is not any
evidence of relationship between this kind of approach and a
paternalistic behavior. This is especially true if the big part of the
company value is the workforce's expertise. In a software developing
company like SAS Institute, intellectual capital is its number one asset
and, without it, SAS would not be enjoying its current sales; therefore,
it is understandable from the management point of view, the effort to
keep the employees as close as they can to their expectations, making
leaving the company difficult for them.
3. What negatives, if any, would you find working for SAS?
I do not see any specific negative aspect working for this organization.
I think it depends a lot on the expectation a person has about work and
lifestyle.
4. Are progressive HR practices such as those at SAS a cause or result
of
high
profits?
Discuss.
I think that focused HR practices have been the cause of high profits in
the past, but right now are the results of them. Marketing studies on
the company's organization have brought the evidence of how
important the Human Resources department in the development of a
healthy and effective company is. The results of these successful
organizations are the demonstration that, to reach high profits with a
company, the role played by the HR department is indispensable. This
has become more evident since the managers understood the
importance of the human factor in the company's performance: this is
the motivation to the organizational behavior concept.
5. Microsoft is an unbelievably successful software company. But no
one would ever call its culture relaxed. It is frantic. Employees regularly
put in 12, 14-hour days, six and seven days a week. How does
Microsoft keep people? Do you think SAS and Microsoft attract different
types of employees? Explain.
I think that not all the people are attracted by the same benefits, and
actually it depends on the employee's specific personality and work
expectations. It is like the difference between aggressive investors who

like to buy high-risk stocks or even call/put stocks, or family oriented

investors who prefer to invest their money in mutual funds or equities.
SAS is not the company where an individual can double his/her
paycheck in less than one year, but this characteristic is compensated
by different kinds of benefits, less money-related, but more socialoriented. Another important factor played by companies like Microsoft
is the worldwide popularity they reached during the years. Being a
"famous" company is an attractive psychological factor for employees.
Many people trust Microsoft because of its popularity, and prefer to
work for a well known company rather then working for a less famous
one.
This case study is the evidence of how important the management
culture is in conditioning the way the company approaches the
business and the personnel relationships. In the industrial market there
is the evidence of a new and different way to run a business, the
approach is a more people-centric attitude toward workers than
money-rewarding, but not for this reason less effective. SAS Institute is
the testimonial of a management using this type of approach attracting
people for a range of benefits, including flexible work schedules, career
growth opportunities, and fringe benefits, such as on-campus childcare
and a gym, rather than money bonus or stock options, ant it is the
demonstration that it can be successful as well.