This case focuses on Genentech, a company  engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of biotherapeutic products in the areas of oncology, immunology, and disorders of tissue growth and repair. Given the nature of the company’s business, Genentech employees spend every day working on medical solutions for serious or life-threatening illnesses. Thus, Genentech has the potential for being a high-stress environment for its employees. Genentech effectively counters the potential for high stress by providing a wide range of programs that create a unique workplace for employees. Genentech also provides employees with diverse opportunities to enhance their personal learning, achieve personal and professional goals, and enable them to manage the sometimes difficult task of juggling their work lives and their personal lives.

Chapter 7 explores the causes and consequences of stress in the workplace as well as techniques and approaches for coping with stress. Stress is present in every workplace; the key to managing workplace stress is to have it be manifested as eustress rather than distress. The case provides a powerful example of how stress can be managed effectively and how eustress can be promoted. The Yerkes-Dodson law can also be invoked to aid in understanding of the impact of Genentech’s various programs on its employees.

Questions

1. 1. Would you characterize Genentech’s employees as experiencing distress or eustress?
   2. How can the Yerkes-Dodson law be related to the impact of Genentech’s programs that are aimed at enhancing employee well-being?  
   3. How do Genentech’s basic management philosophy and the key features of its culture set the stage for the company’s concern about its employees’ well-being?
   4. What might be accomplished by Genentech’s programs with respect to enabling employees to better deal with workplace stress or its consequences?
   5. Four specific programs that target employee well-being in one way or another are mentioned: a culture fostering creativity and innovation, a connection culture, tuition assistance, and emphasis on work/life balance. Which of these four programs do you think holds the most promise for being effectively emulated by other companies? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.
   6. What are the individual and organizational consequences that likely can be attributed to Genentech’s various programs?