Organizational Climate

“Navy retirees recruited by tech firms fit discipline, flexibility to new tasks.” This was one of the headlines in the San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, February 15, 1998. The story tells how Silicon Valley corporations have started hiring retired and former military personnel. The story focuses on the similarities and differences in working in the military with its chain-of-command hierarchy and being in a seemingly less structured environment. “Military personnel are veterans of the teamwork that is regarded as an essential part of valley life. But the military requires clarity at every level about the task at hand to be critical for effective performance. What these newcomers to high tech often see are missed opportunities for nurturing a common sense of mission.” “There’s more freedom, more latitude to make things happen in the high tech companies,” says Jack Gale a former Navy commander, but like in the Navy it is all about performance. The story not only stresses the problems and transitions the former military personnel had to go through to fit to their new positions but also what new ways of looking at things they bring in.