How Culture Is Expressed in Google Inc - Case Study Example

Critically Discuss How Culture Is Expressed in Your Organisation and How This Expression Helps or Hinders Your Organisation’s Effectiveness Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date Critically Discuss How Culture Is Expressed in Your Organisation and How This Expression Helps or Hinders Your Organisation’s Effectiveness Introduction Culture is defined as a set of values, behaviours and practices that are upheld by a specific organisation or society. An organisational culture has a direct effect on the performance and sustainability of a business organization (Thorsten, Andreas & David, 2013). The success behind big names in the global economy such as Google, Apple and Toyota Motor Corporation is based on the effectiveness of the various organisations in developing, implementing and sustaining good organisational cultures. A company expresses its organisational culture in various approaches that are associated with its business practices. Some of the ways in which a company may express its culture is through human resource management, corporate social responsibility and incorporation of cultural diversity competencies. Google Inc has continuously been regarded as one of the ideal models on how culture can enhance an organisation’s effectiveness. The following paper assesses how culture is expressed at Google and how this expression has helped to enhance the organisation’s effectiveness. Google Inc. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergery Brin and incorporated in 1998. The company’s initial public offer in the NASDAQ was done on 19th August 2004 (Google, 2014). The initial idea by the founders was to create an online platform on which users from all over the world could upload access or download content. (Google, 2014). Since its establishment in 1998, Google has grown to serve millions of people worldwide with its wide range of products that includes Google Chrome, Gmail, Google +, Google docs, Python, Android Operating system and YouTube. The company has grown to be one of the major information technology companies in the world. As outlined in the introduction, Google is regarded to be one of the companies in the world with the best organisational culture. According to Google (2014), the company’s culture is based on people. The company acknowledges that the company is the way it is because of the people it has (Google, 2014). Google hires smart and determined people from a diverse background. The company holds a key importance on the ability of the employees over their experience. Googlers, as the Google refers to its employees give a reflection of the company’s global reach (Google, 2014). The company strives to maintain an open culture; that has the ability to integrate in various aspects from varying backgrounds. Googlers- Employment at Google Google is rated as one of the best employers in the world. The company has emerged among the top five best companies to work at in the world. In 2012 and 2013, the company took the top position in Fortune’s survey (Fortune, 2014). This illustrates that Google has the best human resource management practices in the world. As pointed out by Google, the company has a high regard for its people. This aspect of its corporate culture is expressed in various ways in its human resource management practices. Firstly, the company has a high regard for workforce’s cultural diversity. Google employs people from all over the world provided that they exhibit the ability to perform exceptionally as demanded of by the company. The company’s gender ratio is 30%:70%, women to men respectively (Google, 2014b). This is a great ratio as compared to other companies. Additionally, it has observed the minimum gender ratios standards allowable internationally. The company also has a high regard for a diverse workforce and has employed a wide range of individuals from various ethnicities in the world (Google, 2014b). The following figure illustrates the gender and ethnic demographics of Google’s workforce. Google’s Workforce Demographics (Google, 2014b) Google notes that it is not satisfied with the current demographics and is striving to ensure that it levels out its workforce’s ethnic and gender distribution (Google, 2014b). In line with this objective, Google is actively involved in workshops around the world that are aimed at making people conscious of unconscious bias, a move that is aimed at creating a more inclusive workplace. A key element in Google’s human resource management practices is the great employee benefits package (Google, 2014b). It is noted that Googlers enjoy some of the best benefits and perks in the world. According to Google, the benefits and perks are an illustration of the company’s high regard for its people. They are aimed at ensuring that Googlers remain physically, financially, socially and emotionally healthy; and in turn being able to offer their best to the company. Among the Google’s benefits and perks are provision of onsite medical services, travel and emergency insurance, provision for spaces for new parents, a continuous learning environment and provision of legal aid. These services cover Googlers and their families. Additionally, the company allows remote working to specific limits. Lastly, the company provides its employees with liberty to do what they please during the working hours. According to a 70:20:10 ratio, the employees are allowed to commit 70% of the working hours to core work, 20% on related work and 10 % on unrelated work (Morrow, 2009). From the assessment of the human resources management at Google, it can be acknowledged that a high regard for employees is a critical aspect of the company’s culture and has been expressed well in the employee management strategies. The great human resource management practices at Google have been a pillar to its success. Firstly, the company has been able to motivate its employees and by doing so been able to exploit the full potential from them. The high performance of the company is as a result of a highly motivated workforce. This explains the reason as to why the company points out that it is the way it is because of its people. Secondly, the company has been able to embrace innovation (Annika & Sverker, 2013). Allowing employees to focus of non core business has in turn put them at a better position of thinking about other unique ways of doing things. This explains the reason as to why the company is regarded to as one of the top innovative companies in the world. The company’s great products are an illustration of the effectiveness of great human resource management practices. Lastly, the company has been able to develop and sustain a good image that has been equally important in its continued success. From the above, it can be acknowledged that the high regard for people in Google’s culture have increased its effectiveness. Helping Everybody to Make Maximum Use of the Web Google has also placed a lot of importance on its clients and this is expressed clearly in its corporate culture. In line with this, the company aims at ensuring that its makes the web useful and accessible to all people around the globe (Google, 2014c). Analysing its products, it can be acknowledged that most of them are open source. This means that they can be accessed at a zero fee and distributed at the same terms. Under this objective, Google aims at supporting diverse entrepreneurs and business owners. Google appreciates the importance of technology in boosting business. The ‘Accelerate with Google Academy’ is one of the strategies that the company has developed to boost the use of internet technology in business (Google, 2014c). According to the company, more than 50% of businesses operated / owned by underrepresented communities in America have minimal online activity (Google, 2014c). The situation is worse in other countries. With the program, the Google has been able to train business men and give them tools for use in online activities. Other programs by Google that are focussed on this objective are the ‘Getting Latino Business Online’ , ‘Supporting Women Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Resources for Entrepreneurs’ programs (Google, 2014c). Under the company’s aim to make the internet more available to every person in the world, Google has also implemented strategies aimed at supporting diverse communities. One of such strategy is in the actual making of web accessible to everyone (Google, 2014c). With intense research and development, Google has been able to come with products that are more user friendly and which increase their access to the web. This includes products such as Gmail, You Tube and Google Maps. In line with this, Google has embarked on developing alternative access approaches such as the use of text-to-speech, machine translation, keyboard shortcuts, screen-to-touch and screen reader technologies (Google, 2014c). From the above, it can be acknowledged that the Google has stayed true to its objective of ensuring that its gets everyone in the world to access and make maximum use of the internet. From the assessment above, it was seen that the programs and developments at the company are geared towards bringing more people to the Google community. In return, these moves have increased the traffic to Google’s sites. This has in turn provided Google with a larger audience from which it is able to make substantial amount of income via its business processes such as data mining. From this it can be acknowledged that increasing access to the web and providing clients with user friendly products are key to Google’s corporate culture and have contributed to an increase in the company’s overall effectiveness. Investing in the Future Google understands the important of investing for the future. In line with this, sustainability is a key value in the company’s organisational culture. A sure way of doing this is by investing in its future employees. This is aligned to its high regard for its workforce. Assessing the company’s culture, this element is expressed in its program to inspire the future generation of technology developers (Google, 2014d). Under this program, Google aims are inspiring youth around the globe to create technology in addition to using it. Google is able to do this by providing students with internships. The internships are meant at giving them a feel of computer science in action. With the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), Google is able to give technical internships to students with a deep interest in technology (Google, 2014d). Other students’ programs include programs for non technical, disabled and black students. Generation Google scholarships are also part of the program and is meant at providing financial and educational aid to students with aspirations of becoming computer scientists. As part of Google’s long term strategies, the company has developed and implements several strategies. One of them is the ‘getting girls to code’ program that is aimed at encouraging more girls to become computer scientists (Google, 2014d). The ‘made to code’ initiative is one of the strategies that are focussed on getting more girls to become interested in coding. The company is also investing in corporate that are focussed on increasing access to computer science (Google, 2014d). This is normally done at the school and higher learning institutions levels. From the above, it can be acknowledged that Google’s culture upholds the importance of investing in future talent. On this point, it is worth acknowledging the point that human resources are major factors that have a substantial impact on the competitiveness of technology companies. Apple is one of the companies that has benefited from exploiting this business value. It was also noted earlier that Google attributes its current success to its human resources. For this reason, it is important that Google sustains its supply of highly competent and creative individuals via its programs as seen above. This is a key value in its corporate culture. As a result of this, the company has been able to sustain its high performance, continued development of innovative products in the market and generally efficiency (Annika & Sverker, 2013). For this reason, it can be acknowledged that this element of the company’s culture has contributed to its high performance. Leadership Leadership is also a key element in Google’s organisational culture. Assessing the company’s executive team led by its founders, it can be acknowledged that Google has been able to compile a highly competent management (Google, 2014c). The company is divided into various functions depending on its various products in the market. Each of the functional units is headed by a highly competent and professional in the computer science. In line with its diversified global operations, the company has in place a functional organisational structure. The following figure shows Google’s organisational structure. Google’s Organisational Structure (Morrow, 2009). From the organisational structure above, it is noted that the company has a high regard for a functional management approach. With this approach, the company is able to ensure that it gets the best from each functional unit in the value chain, hence contributing to the general success of Google. The high regard for great leadership at Google has contributed to the general high performance of Google. Language Language is a major barrier to global communication. It is worth noting that initially, Google was faced with the challenge of being able to access the global population using only a limited range of languages. So as to solve this problem, Google invested in a translation system that made it possible for a diverse user base to use Google’s services. Currently, the company supports 51 global languages (Google, 2014c). The company is still involved in efforts of incorporating more languages in its range. This move by Google expresses its high regard of the acknowledged of cultural diversity in the world. With the integration of language translators as part of cultural diversity management competency, Google has been able to reach out to more people in the world. As a result of this, it has increased its client base, hence being able to increase its operations globally, gaining a competitive edge over competitors like Yahoo. Various Nationalities Over time, the company has expanded from its initial hostel location to more than 40 nations all over the globe. The company’s headquarters are situated in the famous Googleplex in Mountain View, California (Google, 2014c). Assessing the various offices in the many countries in which Google has a base in, it can be acknowledged that each one of them has a customised look so as keep in touch with the cultural and situational diversity in the overseas markets (Google, 2014c). Additionally, it is important to note that Google has a customised domain name extension in relation to the specific country in which it operates in. With this customised domain, Google is able to customise its operations in a country according to the domestic situation. An example of this is wishing users happy national holidays according to their calendar. This is an expression of the company’s high regard for their clients and also a mark of the integration of cultural diversity competencies in its operations. This has in turn increased Google’s competitiveness and ultimately contributed to its success. Conclusion Concluding, it identified that organisational culture has a major influence of the performance of an organisation. A good culture translates to great organisational performance while the inverse is also true. Assessing Google’s culture, it was seen that the company is a model of how good culture can translate to success. On analysing various ways in which Google expresses it culture, it was argued that the great human resource management practices, its objective of ensuring that every user makes maximum use of the internet, its high regard for the future technology innovators, great leadership and a great multinational approach are various ways by which Google expresses its cultural values. It was seen that the great culture at Google has enabled it provide more utility to web users, increase its competitiveness and ultimately impact on its performance positively. From this assessment paper, it can be concluded that business organizations should develop and sustain good organisational cultures owing the direct relationship between culture and success. References Thorsten, B., Andreas, B., & David, B. (2013). Organizational Culture and Innovation: A Meta-Analytic Review Organizational Culture and Innovation: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(4);763-781 Annika, S., & Sverker, A., (2013). A corporate system for continuous innovation: the case of Google Inc., European Journal of Innovation Management, 16(2);243 - 264 Fortune, (2014). 100 Best Companies to Work For, Fortune 100, Retrieved on 1st August 2014 from http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/index.html Google, (2014). Company Overview, Retrieved on 1st August 2014 from https://www.google.co.ke/about/company/facts/https://www.google.co.ke/about/company/facts/ Google, (2014b). Making Google a workplace for Everyone, Google Inc. Retrieved on 1st August 2014 from http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html Google, (2014c). Helping Everyone Make The Most of the Web, Retrieved on 1st August 2014 from http://www.google.com/diversity/on-the-web.html Read More