The Google Case: Aiming for an Evolutionary Advantage

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede)
Google is a one of a kind, exceptional, well organized and pioneer organization, which takes place in the history of innovative management model. It is undeniable that Google succeeded due to innumerable specific reasons, one of the most crucial reasons is its strong organizational culture.
In principle, it is very important to decode the organizational culture through the artifacts, the symbols and signs which characterize the culture. More specifically, the artifacts are the company’s physical structure, the used language and the verbal symbols, the rituals and the ceremonies in which are involved employees in the organization.
Google’s cultural Artifacts are numerous and are discussed in four categories which are Language, Ceremonies and Rituals, Physical Structure and Stories and Legents.
Language, Slogans and Says
Concerning the language artifacts, Google’s employees use some characteristic phrases and words that highlight the culture.
• 70-20-10
There is “an explicit formula for ensuring that innovation didn’t get shortchanged, known internally as “70-20-10” ” is a policy that defines the percentages used in engineering resources, services and fringe ideas accordingly.
• Googlers and Googlettes
“Googlers” describe the philosophy of people that work in Google. While “Googlettes” describes the experiments of mini projects that Google’s employees make in the company.
• Bozo
Another artifact that is associated with the language is the “bozo” free zone. Usually the quality of the people that work in an organization, attract the same quality people, for example “A-level people want to work w...

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...ly. In other words, it is an ideal opportunity cost situation. An employee offers his or her idea, rewarded for that but he doesn’t own the idea afterwards.
Finally, it is advised for Google to give more support to the employees to own their ideas which in turn makes the employees self-fulfilled.

Works Cited

Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede).
Motivation refers to the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity and persistence of voluntary behavior Motivated employees are willing to exert a particular level of effort (intensity), for a certain amount of time (persistence), toward a particular goal (direction). After all, motivation is one of the four essential drivers of individual behavior and performance. (McShane L. and Von G., 2010, p.132).