1. What are the main factors/HRM procedures that have contributed to the success of Google?2. Describe some of the negative aspects of Google’s culture. Do you think Google need to change its culture-and, if so, in what ways?IntroductionIn 1998, Google.com establish by two Stanford students abolished their postgraduate study. Now become worldwide biggest search engine on the internet with 82 million users per month have access to more than 8 billion web pages. Larry Page and Sergey Brin opened their first office in a friend’s garage together with three employees and until today’s success. Google Inc has been hailed as one of most successful internet star-up Company. Now Google is from star-up to growth position. The most debated about Google is that is the king ready to go public?
Does the organization culture would lead Google further success?The purpose of this case study is aim to evaluate how Google success and critical analysis the negative aspect of Google’s culture which might be one of the liability for it growth. In this article, it will separate into three parts, the first part will discuss the main factors contributed the success of Google. The second part will analysis the negative of Google’s culture, and gives the recommendation how Google need to change its culture. The final part will give future perspectives and academic summary of whole article.
The Essay on Marketing Across Culture Success or Dilemma
Marketing across culture is one of the biggest issues which multinational companies have been confronting nowadays. Since marketing is an important factor for the propagation of a particular product or company, marketing plan should also be effective simultaneously. Every organization has to pay attention towards all the aspects which can make a marketing plan successful and ethical aspect is one ...
1.Organizational Cultureorganizational culture is the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization. (George & Jones, 2007 p567) “It determines the way in which employees think, act and feel. Corporate culture is a broad term used to define the unique personality or character of a particular company or organization, and includes such elements like general practices, such as symbols, stories, rituals and language; HRM practices like recruitment, reward, and appraisal systems; the structure of a firm, that is rules and procedures, job descriptions, technology and strategy.”(http://cherieshez.blogspot.com/2007/10/strong-corporate-culture-vital-for.html)General PracticesLooking at the culture of Google, it can be said that even though the company has been growing rapidly over the last couple of years to become the biggest search engine in the world, Google still maintain a small company feel, its culture has remained very informal and, in a way, innovated and creative.
According to Robbins & Judge, “The founders of an organization traditionally have a major impact on that organization’s early culture. They have a vision of what the organization should be” The founders of Google, Larry and Sergey influence Google’s culture very far. Both of them believed that having a good work environment can help Google recruit and retain good employees. Therefore, in order to make Google as a fun place to work, Google were allowed their employees to bring their pets in to the workplace, and were provided free snacks, lunch, dinner and also recreational facilities such as workout gyms, pool table and ping-pong to their employees. Google also encouraged its engineers to devote 20% of their time to work on independent projects and provided them flexible work hours. Moreover, Google’s logo also reflect the firm’s culture, its colors and playful characters mirror creativity, open-mindedness and the playful attitude that can be found all through the organization.
The Essay on What Affect On "Organization Culture"?
Metaphor is a fundamental force through which humans create meaning by using one element of experience to understand another. Metaphor becomes a tool for creating an understanding about what we now recognize as organization and management. Gareth Morgan suggests a way of thinking and a way of seeing organizations as multiple of metaphors e.g. organizations as a machine (mechanistic approach), ...
HRM PracticesCommunicationCommunication is a very important aspect within an organization. Open communication is also one of the factors that have contributed to the success of Google. Googlers were encouraged to communicate across all the departments and free to approach the top management without any restrictions. Moreover, its ‘lunch hour discussion’ and ‘every Friday afternoon meeting time’ also bring the googlers great chance to meet each other from various departments. Thus, every googlers is at any time informed about everything concerning the company and can therefore more easily react to changes and contribute his or her ideas. This all-channel network helps all googlers to actively communicate with each other. Communication is the act of transmitting information between individuals. Effective communication is critical to the success of the organization. Communication is most effective when people are willing to work together and do what it takes to get the job done.
RecruitmentThe aim of Recruitment is finding a pool of applicant with the abilities desired by the organization. The right initial choice will save money by reducing turnover and creating a lot of benefits for the organization. Google is one of the companies who focused on recruiting people with the right frame of mind. Google seeks to appoint creative individuals with good capacities rather than conventional, experienced persons. To make sure the right people are appointed, Larry and Sergey, the two founders engage in human resource issues themselves, interviewing potential employees, reading CV’s etc. In the opinion of Larry and Sergey, “they not only focused on recruiting academic excellence people but also the people who gave preference to team goals rather than to their personal goals.” Therefore, in order to employ the ‘right’ person in the ‘right’ place, Google spent a lot of time and money on recruitment such as placed its recruitment ads in movie theatres, encouraged its employees to refer their talented friends and relatives to work at Google, and also got in to tough with university professors to tap the best talent on the campuses.
InnovationInnovation is a very important factor of Google’s success. Google management focused on encouraging innovation and creativity at the workplace. Using the innovation strategy helps Google maintaining its growth and creating the completive advantages. However, “An innovation strategy does not mean a strategy merely for simple or cosmetic changes from previous offerings but rather one for meaningful and unique innovations”. (George & Jones, 2007 p555) In order to come out with new products/features, Google set up an internal web page for tracking new ideas. And also if the new idea was successful be defended, then it would be turned in to a product/features.
The Essay on Work Team Conflict Teams Employees
Work Teams: Dispute Resolution Dianna O'GarroHuman Relations and Organizational Behavior 502 Dr. Michael Lindsey August 10, 2005 Abstract Can conflict among work teams or individual employees be avoided? This and other conflict resolution issues will be addressed in this paper along with a couple of hypothetical workplace disputes and the viable solutions that can be applied to resolve the ...
Organization structureDecentralizationEmpowered employees have the decision discretion to do what’s necessary to please the customer. (George & Jones, 2007 p590) Google gave its engineering teams enough freedom and decision power on their work. The teams can fix the problems without asking anyone. Google created its teams more effective by empowered employees.
Low formalizationWhat’s more, Google’s informal culture can be seen in the company’s structure. Google did not have any management structure because it has a very strong organizational culture across the organization. It can be explained by George & Jones (2007): “The stronger an organization’s culture, the less management needs be concerned with developing formal rules and regulations to guide employee behavior. Those guides will be internalized in employees when they accept the organization’s culture”. Each employee working for Google is a proactive contributor, meaning that there are no set job descriptions but that individuals will work on different projects, executing different tasks depending on current needs. Although there is no manager in the engineering department, its jobs also get done effectively and efficiently. Wayne Rosing, vice president-engineering, said: “he had 160 direct reports. No managers. It worked because the teams knew what they had to do. That set a cultural bit in people’s heads: You are the boss.
Don’t wait to be managed.” The reason behind the low formalization of Google therefore, can be explained by George & Jones (2007): “Service employees need to have the freedom to meet changing customer-service requirements. Rigid rules, procedures, and regulations make this difficult.”Team based organizationGoogle is using a Self-managed team based structure. “Self-managed work teams are a formal group of employees who operates without a manager and are responsible for a complete work process or segment. The team is responsible to get the job done and manage themselves”. (Robbins and Coulter, 2005, P 384) In this case of Google, most its engineers work in teams of three with leadership rotating among team members. The teams had complete freedom regarding their project, reporting directly to the vice-president. As a result, Google saved a large of money on managing people and improved the efficiency of the organization. As George & Jones (2007) stated “…the wider or larger the span, the more efficient the organization”.
The Essay on Analysis of the Effect of Culture Within an Organization
One of the primary responsibilities of strategic leaders is to create and maintain the organizational characteristics that reward and encourage collective effort.. The most fundamental of this is organizational culture. Organization culture is defined as a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguish the organization from other organizations. It develops to help organizations cope ...
Summed up, it can be said thus, that by creating an open, friendly, relaxed and supporting working climate, that is also highly effective and dedicated to succeed, Google has adapted the ultimate informal organizational culture. A large portion of Google’s success has been achieved thanks to this culture and the attitudes, ideas and believes that are shared by all the employees. That is mainly because, through its culture, Google has achieved exactly what a company needs, to be a world leader in its industry. It has attracted exceptionally skilled employees that complement each other and that are utterly committed to the company. Plus, the open, supportive environment generates greater flow of information between the employees and thus helps innovation.
Negative aspect of Google cultureMany analysts point out that “Google has got it right in term of its work culture, but company’s culture was not set for manage it growth” the following article will point few negative aspect of Google’s culture and will give a critical evaluation of Google need to change it culture or not?The negative aspect of Google’s cultureBarriers to changeCulture is a liability when the share values are not in agreement with those that will further the organization’s effectiveness. Its always occur when an organization’s environment is dynamic. If the environment is rapid change, the old culture might not longer suitable. (Robbins & Judge, organizational behavior: 579) In another ways is that culture might become a big barrier for the organization innovative into the new business environment.
The Term Paper on Organizational Behavior 6
Organizational Behavior Instructor: Rachana Misraraj December 10, 2012 Organizational Behavior Analysis Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. “Organizational behavior is a misnomer. It is not the study of how organizations behave, but rather the study of individual behavior in an organizational setting. ...
For example, Mitsubishi, Eastman, Federal Bureau of investigation have had in recent years in adapting to upheavals in their environment .These organizations have strong cultures that worked well for them in the past, But these strong cultures become barriers to change when “business as usual” is no longer effective. (Robbins & Judge, organizational behavior: 580)The present culture might not able to withstand the competition once Microsoft and Yahoo. As Google becomes a public company after its planned IPO in 2004, it would be more pressure from investors to increase its profitability and revenues which might force Google to change its organizational culture.
Such as cont is the same job title. Lack of hierarchy resulted in confusion about control and decision making power. When the company have more employees, it will become more difficult to manage.
1 self manage team might not fit for growth of the employees.
Barriers to diversityRobbins & Judge state that “hiring new employees who, because of race, age, gener, disability, or other differences, are not like the majority of the organization’s members creates a paradox. In one side, management wanted new employees to accept the organization’s culture values, otherwise these employees are unlikely to fit in or be accepted. In another hand, management wants to openly acknowledge and demonstrate support for the differences that these employees bring to the workplace” (Robbins & Judge, organizational behavior: 580)Strong cultures put considerable pressure on employees to confirm, they limit the range of values and styles that are acceptable.
Organizations seek out and hire diverse individuals because of yet alternative strengths these people bring to the workplace. Yet these diverse behaviors and strength are likely to diminish in strong cultures as people attempt to fit in. Strong cultures can also be liabilities when they effectively eliminate the unique strengths that people of different backgrounds bring to the organization. Moreover, strong cultures can also be liabilities when they support institutional bias or become insensitive to people who are different. (Robbins & Judge, organizational behavior: 580)In the case study said that: “if you have been at Cisco for 20 years, they don’t want you” the management defended the recruitment process saying that they valued intelligence and brainpower more than experience.
The Essay on Organizational Behavior Terminology And Concepts
"An organization is, simply, a body of people organized for some specific purpose" (communication, 2005). Organizational behavior is taking a look at the way humans behave within a company (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005, p. 17). The United States Navy, and perhaps all military branches, has, in some respects, a unique organizational behavior. The behavior of its employees is governed by a ...
Barriers to acquisitions and mergersHistorically, the key factors that management looked at in making acquisition or merger decisions were related to financial advantage or product synergy. In recent years, cultural compatibility has become the primary concern. Many acquisition fail shortly after their consummation. A survey by consultants A.T Kearney revealed that 58 percent of mergers fail to reach the value goals set by top manager. The primary cause of failure is conflicting organization cultures. (Robbins & Judge, organizational behavior: 580)
