Organizational culture is the essence of any company. It is the way a company separates themselves from the market and especially, from their competition. According to an article in Business Insider, “Corporate culture is the personality of a company and it can’t be faked” (Schawbel, 2013, Cultural research section, para. 1). For the purpose of this paper, I will be investigating the corporate culture of Google Incorporated. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin who met at Stanford University in 1995 (Google Company website).
What is Google’s organizational culture? Google’s organizational culture is represented in several ways which include their management structure, and their public transparency, their treatment of employees, etc. Below is an excerpt from an article in Business Insider:
Employees are offered free cafeteria food and there’s a flat management structure. They have also made their company’s core values public. The company founders still do busy work, including keeping the cereal fresh in the cafeteria. Google is constantly getting feedb...
One way to think about the culture of a company is through the Organizational Cultural
In a survey conducted by the management consulting firm Bain & Company in 2007, worldwide business leaders identified corporate culture as important as corporate strategy for business success (HR Focus, Sep, 2007). In addition, culture, or shared values within the organization, may be related to increased performance. Researchers found a relationship between organizational cultures and company performance, with respect to success indicators such as revenues, sales volume, market share, and stock prices (Kotter, 2008). At the same time, it is important to have a culture that fits with the demands of the company’s environment (Arogyaswamy & Byles, 1987). For example, if a company is in the high-tech industry, having a culture that encourages innovativeness and adaptability will support its performance. However, if a company in the same industry has a culture characterized by stability, a high respect for tradition, and a strong preference for upholding rules and procedures, the company may suffer as a result of its culture. In other words, just as having the “right” culture may be a competitive advantage for an organization, having the “wrong” culture may lead to performance difficulties, may be responsible for organizational failure, and may act as a barrier preventing the company from changing and taking risks.
What is Organization Culture? The organizational culture always provokes an extensive controversy! There are main four central formats of cultures i.e. Power, Role, Task, and Person is supportive in understanding many of the organizational structures.The culture of every organization is different from the other, even it differs if the same organization moves from one type to another. The reason is that every organization determines its ideology or personality based on many different factors that determine not only the cultures but also the organization design of the structure. In this sense, the culture affects the structure, and the structures affect the culture likewise.For instance, the Project Based Organization PBO has a different culture from the
Lastly, Google does not hold formal meetings; they hold lunchtime brainstorming conversations, which ensure individual contribution. During such meetings, everyone is treated equal, and there are no leaders (Google.com, 2010). This reduces power distances between the management and the employees. Employees have the freedom to take risks, which help to build their creativity and innovation. They utilize the Maslow’s hierarchy theory of needs. This makes sure employees feel a sense of team which reduces any form of competition.
The concept of organizational cultures was first raised in 1970s, and soon became a fashionable topic. Organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values and behaviours of the group. Theorists of organizations believe that organizational culture represents the pattern of behaviours, values, and beliefs of an organization. Hence, studies around organizational culture have been seen as great helpful and essential for understanding organizations and their behaviours. Additionally, organizational culture has been considered to be an important determinant of organizational success. Therefore, leaders and managers pay more than more attentions on this topic, focusing on constructing and managing organizational cultures.
Corporate culture is the shared values and meanings that members hold in common and that are practiced by an organization’s leaders. Corporate culture is a powerful force that affects individuals in very real ways. In this paper I will explain the concept of corporate culture, apply the concept towards my employer, and analyze the validity of this concept. Research As Sackmann's Iceberg model demonstrates, culture is a series of visible and invisible characteristics that influence the behavior of members of organizations. Organizational and corporate cultures are formal and informal. They can be studied by observation, by listening and interacting with people in the culture, by reading what the company says about its own culture, by understanding career path progressions, and by observing stories about the company. As R. Solomon stated, “Corporate culture is related to ethics through the values and leadership styles that the leaders practice; the company model, the rituals and symbols that organizations value, and the way organizational executives and members communicate among themselves and with stakeholders. As a culture, the corporation defines not only jobs and roles; it also sets goals and establishes what counts as success” (Solomon, 1997, p.138). Corporate values are used to define corporate culture and drive operations found in “strong” corporate cultures. Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, and Bonar Group, the engineering firm I work for, all exemplify “strong” cultures. They all have a shared philosophy, they value the importance of people, they all have heroes that symbolize the success of the company, and they celebrate rituals, which provide opportunities for caring and sharing, for developing a spiri...
A culture of innovation which is the underlining culture of Google is responsible for the exceptional and unique products that they offer yearly. Googles innovative work culture is one of its main competitive advantages. This is reflective in the work culture that it currently exhibits. Employees are not restricted and tied down with formal attires and behaviors. Google actually takes care of the employee’s day to day personal activities like laundry, house chores and day care so the employees can focus all their attention and brains on being
Google is a public corporation that deals with Internet searching, advertising, and Web-based computing technology. All these have developed from an initial search engine and the company continues to advance even to date with partnerships and acquisition of other companies and products. All of these are due to its formulation and maintenance of a unique corporate culture that other organizations have to follow in order to be as successful (Rachet, B. 2014). What makes up Google 's strong culture are values that are widely accepted and strongly held (Rachet b. 2014). Google has topped the list of Fortune 100’s Best Companies to Work for 4 times (Kim, J. 2013). Although Google has many perks on their work campus, the real formula behind their
The Google Culture Google's corporate culture is based on a number of principles that lay in the foundation of the company's success. First of all, members of the Google workplace are seen as equals. Of course for organizational purposes there are managers and those they manage, but this doesn't create any kind of barriers as communication flows swiftly back and forth and...
has various methods of motivation and rewarding their treasured employees. These motivational factors serve as long term strategy for the company and ensure that their staff work at an optimum level while being rewarded appropriately and maintaining high morale in the process. One of Google’s long term objective is to create challenging jobs to attract unique individuals whom have far beyond average skills for example Engineers at Google are encouraged to take up to 20% of their time for developing new products or improving of existing ones this is normally done through team work Just as Pfeffer Best practise describes “Employee involvement and information sharing” to further elaborate on this point one of the founders of Google stated “Google tends to hire problem solvers, Do it yourself spirit, they are some of the nicest and brightest people I’ve met. Thats the most pleasant part about working at google”-Ben Stoddard (Lyubomira Angova & Nevena Dragoshinova,07/02/2013) This organization also provides many incentives that make working at Google an immense experience, in order to keep their workers at the top of their game in terms of innovation, work ethic and creativity, Perks such as Employees being referred to as “Googlers” rather than workers thus eliminating or reducing status differentials as stated by Pfeiffer’s best practise. Hrm department at Google is in sy...
Are considering to be well performed factors of modern work places. Google always try to carry on their organization with rules and procedures which are fairly and equivalently applied with no one receiving preferential treatment. And also they were rewarding employees with high performance by providing financial incentives, stock option plans, dinner with CEO And other encouragements.
Effective organisational structure and organizational culture together with innovation are key factors for Google’s success. Constant change and innovation linking with many direct social contacts are instilled among stakeholders. The three main characteristics of Google’s cross-functional multi-layered organisation are function-based definition, product based-definition and flatness.Other than this, the organisational culture is open, innovative, smart, hands-on and supports small-company-family rapport (Smithson, 2012).
Employee focus (Google has a unique culture and policies to promote innovation. The company strives to employ the most qualified applicants and reward the greatest contributors, in order to promote good performance and facilitate hiring and retention)
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...
In 1995, the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford. A year later in 1996, Larry and Sergey began collaborating on a search engine called BackRub. Backrub operated on the Stanford servers for more than a year before taking up too much bandwidth. The following year, on September 15th, 1997, Google.com is registered as a domain. The founders created Google with a mission in mind, to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web. The name itself is a representation of this mission, Google is a play on the word “googol" a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral one followed by 100 zeroes (“Our history”).