Chapter 6. Work Motivation
Exploring Behavior in Action: Work Motivation at W.L. Gore & Associates
On January 1, 1958, Wilbert and Genevieve Gore founded a small company to develop applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Wilbert, a chemist and research scientist, tended to the technical work while Genevieve handled accounting and other business matters.
Wilbert Gore initially focused on applications in the emerging computer industry, where PTFE's insulation characteristics were potentially useful in cables and circuit boards. After solving a number of technical issues, he and his company succeeded with cable and wire products. Some of these products eventually landed on the moon as part of the technology used in the Apollo space program. More recently, they have been incorporated into the U.S. space shuttle program. Moving beyond cables and wires, Gore has created a number of leading products for a number of industries. Best known among consumers for waterproof Gore-Tex fabrics, the company also places products in industries such as aerospace, automotive, chemical processing, computing, telecommunications, environmental protection, medical/health care, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and textiles. Gore-Tex fabrics were used in the uniforms of the 2010 U.S. Olympic snowboarding team.
Having previously experienced bureaucratic roadblocks in highly structured organizations, Wilbert Gore designed a different kind of company to support the work with PTFE. Using the term lattice structure ...
Get Organizational Behavior, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
