OB assignment on: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE & VALUES – Google
Organisational culture of Google
Table of Contents
Introduction. 3
Organizational culture of Google. 5
Limitations of informal organizational culture at Google. 7
Findings and Discussions. 8
Recommendations. 9
Avoid the Maturity Stage. 9
Steps to overcome barriers of informal work culture. 9
Conclusion. 10
Introduction
A number of researchers have argued that there is a direct relationship between the culture of an organisation and its level of competency in marketplace. It has been observed thorough their investigation and empirical evidences that some organisations are capable of creating more motivation and commitment among their employees than others and its causes are beyond the notion of environmental, strategic, and structural issues of the organisation. In this regard, the most important factor which affects the level of motivation and commitment among the employees of an organisation has been identified as organisational culture and values.
When the factors of organisational culture and its relationships with commitment and level of motivation are investigated in the specific context of ‘Google Inc’, it is evident that there are only a few companies which are as innovative as Google (The Economist, 2009). The company is known for its innovative practices across the globe and it is suggested that the organisational culture of this company has played the most vital role in its success at workplace and in marketplace. The purpose of this report is it to make a critical analysis regarding organisational culture and values of Google Inc and their impact upon success of the firm.
This report aims at identifying and analysing the significance of organisational culture and its impact upon the competitive position of Google Inc. It is focused towards highlighting the effectiveness and limitations of an informal product development and innovation system, which has been acquired by Google Inc. since long. In addition to this, the report also investigates the common practices of Google Inc at workplace, and how they affect the performance and motivation of employees. Further, the report is focused towards identification of new alternatives which can help the company in consolidating its competitive position in marketplace.
This report has taken two assumptions into account for determining the relationship between organisational culture and Google’s performance:
- Organisation culture and values have a direct impact upon the commitment of employees either in positive way or negative way.
- Adoption of a formal and structured innovation system can help Google in maintaining its competitive position in long runs.
This report has been prepared on the basis of secondary data, which have been collected through academic sources including books, journals, online articles, and statistics of authentic and reliable organisations.
This report investigates the factors of organisational culture and determines the extent to which Google’s organizational culture is effective in current business environment. The discussion and findings of this report are quite helpful in highlighting the key issues of organisational culture along with their impact upon motivation and performance of employees at workplace.
Google is an American multinational company, which is known for its internet-related product and services including internet, advertising technology, cloud computing and software. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. At present the company employs more than 20,000 employs and has revenue of more than US$ 37.905 billion. The company has been a great success story since its foundation and the success of this company is attributed to its corporate culture. The company does not only accept diversity at workplace but also thrives upon it. Google has evolved a culture in which the employees feel open to share and exchange their ideas and reinforce the belief that ‘We hail from all walks of life’ (Our Culture, 2012).
While investing the above mentioned issues, the report has taken only secondary sources into consideration and this could be seen as a limitation of this paper. The use of primary data would have been quite helpful in validating the outcome of this report against the firsthand experience of Google’s employees.
Organizational culture of Google
he term ‘organisation culture’ has got ample of attention during last few decades due to its direct relationship with performance of employees and organisational competiveness. The term refers to a shared value among members of an organisation, which integrates the members of an organisation and differentiates the organisation from other companies within and outside of an industry. The term shared values consists of beliefs, assumptions, openness to ideas, system, symbol, communication practices, etc. In recent years, the discussion upon the elements of organisation culture have intensified manifold due to their significance at workplace. In this regard two terms have got a lot of attention and are known as ‘espoused and enacted’ (Keyton, 2011).
The element of organisational culture values, assumptions, and beliefs work under the beneath of organisational behaviour. These elements are not tangible but can be observed in every organisation. Assumption is the deepest element of organisational culture as it is unconscious and has been taken for granted. In case of Google employees expect a high degree of freedom and decision making authority. An individual’s perception regarding reality is referred as ‘beliefs’; whereas values are long standing beliefs and are focused towards preserving what is important (Alvesson, 2002).
It is not an easy task to decode and determine organisational culture of an organisation due to the differences of ‘espoused and enacted’. In an organisation what an employee says that s/he values may differ for what an employee actually values at workplace. In this regard, the statement an employee can be termed as ‘espoused’, where as the what an employee actually value is refereed as enacted.
Google is known for its strong culture that inspires its employees for innovation and where people are encouraged to take initiatives. The organizational culture of Google has been informal since its inception in the year 1998 and that can be termed as a major factor behind its success. Google is considered as one of the most successful companies in today’s world in terms of creativity, innovation, employee’s satisfaction, investor’s trust etc. and the most important factor behind these things is its cultural informality. Employees at workplace are free to take their own steps rather than following orders that keeps them motivated and energetic (Gitman & McDaniel, 2007).
Major portion of employees at Google is young and the reason behind this is that they are directly hired after their graduation or post graduation. The workplace is designed in such a way that gives its newly hired employees, a sense of college campus so that they easily adapt in new environment. . Apart from fixed salary, company has various flexible compensation plans to reward the talent and promote innovation at workplace. Free snacks, various game options, gym, massage rooms, rewards, flexible working hours are some of the key attributes at Google that keeps its employees loyal and delighted. Recruitment procedure at Google is very sound and only few people get selected out of large number of candidates (Kuntze & Matulich, 2008).
The work culture at Google is highly flexible with firm commitment to goal. Employees at Google are very passionate and value driven rather than money focused. Company allows its employees to take risks and open discussions. Individuals are not restricted to follow organizational hierarchy and they are respected and rewarded according to their talent and creativity. Google has a strong belief in diverse workforce and it promotes diversity because it leads to more creative talent and innovation that ultimately helps in attaining organizational goals.
Limitations of informal organizational culture at Google
Informal work culture can be understood as one of the most significant factors of innovation and creativity. However, there are also some other aspects of informal work culture that need to be taken into consideration by Google. As it is known fact that, informal culture at work place is very effective in creativity and innovation but organization like Google which is growing at fast pace, it becomes very difficult to manage such a large workforce without a formal culture. One major challenge before Google is how to balance the innovation and culture formality together because with the continuous growth in number of employees at workplace, it is not possible for company to keep the same level of flexibility (Keyton, 2011).
With the continuous growth in number of employees every day, many people at workplace find that there is a lack of proper management. Hiring process is considered as very frustrating as candidates have to face a dozen of interviews and apart from this it takes time of around nine months which is painful. The reason behind this long frustrating hiring process is that there is no formal structured designed for hiring procedure (Kuntze & Matulich, 2008).
There are many people at workplace who are unhappy with current situation of workplace. Most people like workplace because of flexibility, fun and sporty culture but on the same time there are some people who find workplace overload with fun and want a culture that is well structured and professional. As there are more than twenty thousand employees are working in Google, some people find that their ideas are not considered important and this leads to dissatisfaction among employees (Keyton, 2011).
Another disadvantage of informal organization culture at Google is its reward system that is considered as inequitable. Many people at workplace are not happy with current reward system where few are rewarded by founders Larry page and Sergy Brin through “Founders Awards” while others feel ignored. Apart from reward system, there are many people at workplace who are unhappy with long working hours. Many people have criticized culture of Google for over working hours. Employees at workplace give more than 60 hours a week which is considered as frustrating by many.
Findings and Discussions
Above discussed points, clearly states that there is a very close relation between Organizational culture and innovation. Google has been providing a great culture to its employees since its foundation in the year 1998 that inspires its employees for creativity and innovation. In this competitive world, innovation and creativity is a key to success and when it comes to companies like Google it becomes prerequisite. However, sustaining this creativity and innovation among continuously growing workforce is not an easy task without a formal structure.
In order to manage a large workforce and to keep innovation alive in long run, Google have to come up with some stringent steps that will help in managing large workforce along with continuous focus on innovation and creativity. At last, it can be stated that informal structure helped Google to make its presence among the list of top companies of the world in terms of innovation, creativity, employee’s satisfaction, investor’s trust and so on. However, in order to sustain this in rapidly growing workforce, it is required that Google should also focus on culture formality.
Recommendations
On the basis of above discussion and analysis the following recommendations have been given to the company
Avoid the Maturity Stage
The company should foster the new ways of product-development and should keep innovating new technology on regular intervals. This can be done through introduction of formal-innovation management practices at workplace. It is worth emphasising here that the company has promoted creativity and innovation through an informal system and has given adequate freedom to its employees. This strategy has been quite successful for the firm over the years and especially when Google was in its infancy, but now it has more than 20,000 employees and it is very difficult for the company to bring out the best from each of them (The Economist 2009). In order to exploit the potential of each employee, Google can make some changes in its informal- product development system, as there are some employees who perform better, when they are given instruction and are supervised.
Steps to overcome barriers of informal work culture
Google has to maintain its innovative and creative work culture for which informal organizational culture is required and at the same time it has to manage a huge workforce for which formal structure is necessary. In order to sustain this innovative and creative culture and to manage rapidly growing numbers of workforce, two levels of management has been structured by Google. The new structured is designed to make a difference to those employees who were dissatisfied with existing level of organizational structure (Gitman & McDaniel, 2007).
There is a direct link between organizational culture and innovation and no organization can sustain its innovation at workplace without a proper culture that inspires its employees for creativeness and innovation. Google needs to pay more attention on its organizational culture to maintain its innovative culture and to manage a large workforce.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that there is a high amount of relationship in between the organizational culture and the level of the organization competency. It can also be concluded that Google has a strong and inspiring culture that promotes its employees for innovation and are also encouraged to take initiatives. It can also be concluded that for managing the large workforce within the organization Google kept innovation activities alive in long run, and Google also has to come up with some specific steps that will help the organization in managing its large workforce.
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