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Ask HN: Culture at various software companies
3 points by lunchbox on Oct 21, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments
I'd like to do a psychology class project on the work culture at software companies, big and small. Does anyone know where I can find research/articles/case studies on the following topics?

- The effect of incentivizing workers with things like free food, on-site pampering, and a quirky, high-tech workplace (e.g. Google)

- Relationships/tension between developers, managers, marketing, etc. (e.g. developers resenting the "pointy-haired boss")

- How culture and work/life balance differ between startups and large corporations

- How the company's mission affects the motivation of its workers (e.g. "eat our own dogfood"/"don't be evil")



At Electric Cloud and Scriptics where I worked with John Ousterhout we documented the culture we wanted. See http://home.pacbell.net/ouster/startupCulture.html


Companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle have a lot of blog posts and the like outlining the culture in the workplace. Googling that is your best bet.

Beyond that, you might have some luck emailing a company you cannot find information on.




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