Adam Lashinsky Fortune - Book Report/Review Example

Article: search and enjoy Adam Lashinsky Fortune Harinath Babu BM Academia Research The effectiveness of an organization is also influenced by the organization culture, which affects the way the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling are carried out. Given the choice, most people would probably prefer to work in an organization such as environment B, in which one can participate in the decision-making process, one is evaluated on the basis of performance criteria rather than on the basis of friendship, one has open communication channels in all directions, and one has the opportunity to exercise a great deal of self-control. In their search for excellent companies, Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, the authors of a best-selling book on management, found that the dominance of a coherent culture characterized these organizations (Peters & Waterman, 1982, p.349). But the recognition of the importance of corporate culture is not new at all (although some management gurus want you to believe it is) (Clemens, 1986, pp.161-164). Over 2000 years ago, in 431 B.C., Pericles in ancient Greece eloquently urged the Athenians, who were at war with the Spartans, to adhere to values such as those inherent in democracy: informality in communication, the importance of individual dignity, and promotion based on performance. Pericles realized that the underlying values might mean victory or defeat. These values are not so different from those espoused by many U.S. companies. In this paper, we would be discussing about the work place issues projected by Adam Lashinsky in the article, Search and Enjoy about Google. Literature Review As it relates to organizations, culture is the general pattern of behavior, share beliefs, and values that members have in common (Sathe, 1983, pp.4-23). Culture can be inferred from what people say, do, and think within an organizational setting. It involves the learning and transmitting of knowledge, beliefs, and patterns of behavior over period of time, which means that an organization culture is fairly stable and does not change fast (Littal, 1983, pp.66-72). It often sets the tone for the company and establishes implied rules for the way people should behave. Many slogans give a general idea of will a particular company stands for (Deal & Kennedy, 1982, p.22). At Google, although the employees enjoy a variety of benefits, yet there are two significant issues facing the organization. The culture of the organization is more beneficial to employees outwardly. But at the core of it, there are issues which in the long run might affect the organization. Firstly, in spite of all the comfort and leisure offered to the employees making them feel the workplace a home away from home, the organization places a huge amount of expectation on them. This expectation differs from that of other organizations because; other organizations expect only productivity from their employees. But every employee at Google is expected to be innovative. By such expectation, the organization aims at a job enrichment, thereby increasing the productivity with decreased turnover and absenteeism and improving the morale of the employees. As a typical Silicon Valley Company, Google expects engineers to work for longer hours. In addition, the engineers are expected to be giving out innovative thoughts and suggestions every time. Therefore, lack of such innovation would result in lack of job security for an employee. Most of the employees prove to be Type A personality. This is due to the organizational stress. On the surface, job enrichment as a response to motivating factors is an attractive idea, but it apparently has not worked as well as anticipated. The major difficulty of job enrichment is it is usually imposed on people. They are told about it, rather than being asked whether they would like it and how their jobs could be made more interesting. This makes the employees feel stressed out in the due course resulting in demotivation, absenteeism and turnover. This is a risk faced by Google in future. Organizational stressors affect a large number of employees. Organizational climate is a prime example. A high pressure environment that places chronic work demands on employees fuels the stress response. In contrast, participative management can reduce organizational level stressors. Behavioral scientists are of the opinion that stress has behavioral, cognitive and physiological consequences. Research has proved that stress produces harmful physiological outcomes. Research is now in progress to co-relate stress with work related behaviors and cognitive outcomes. These studies indicate that stress is negatively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and performance, and positively related to turnover (McShane & Glinow, 2000, p.140). Burnout is a troublesome outcome of stress. It is desirable to examine burnout in detail. Burnout is a state of mind resulting from prolonged exposure to intense emotional stress. It manifests through emotional exhaustion and a combination of negative attitudes. Burnout occurs due to prolonged exposure to stress and that too in phases. The three key phases of burnout are emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and feeling a lack of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion is due to a combination of personal, job and organizational stressors. People who expect a lot from themselves and the organizations in which they work tend to create more internal stress which leads to emotional exhaustion. Similarly, emotional exhaustion is fuelled by having too much work to do, by role conflict and by the type of interpersonal interactions encountered at work. Frequent, intense face-to-face interactions that are emotionally charged are associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Over time, emotional exhaustion leads to depersonalization, which is the state of psychologically withdrawing from one's job. This finally results in a feeling of being unappreciated, ineffective, or inadequate. The additive effect of these three phases is a host of negative attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. At Google too, the employees might feel a burnout in the long run, due to the overload of expectations on them. They have too much to do. The benefits offered by the organization may not be used the employees most of the times. They are tied up to their work schedules and the so-called "innovative ideas." Thus, there might be a role conflict resulting in emotional exhaustion. The second major issue facing the organization is the huge amount of benefits offered to the employees. With a plump package and stock options at the entry level, any employee would expect more to get motivated to move on to the next level. With additional responsibilities being added in their career path, it's quite natural for any employee to expect more benefits that would really motivate them. At Google, the benefits offered to the employees are so huge that they may not feel the benefits to be rewarding their performance. That way, the organization risks a future workforce that might be highly demotivated. Not only fewer benefits make the employees demotivated, but also the same outcome can be expected out of enormous benefits. When too much of benefits are offered, the employees tend to lose their importance for the benefits. The employees might develop a casual behavior towards work in the long run. As they keep getting enormous benefits along with a good pay package and stock option, they might feel there is no need for them to show productivity. The innovative ideas might also diminish in the due course. To conclude, the two major issues facing Google include the production of Type A personality employees and the lack of motivation that might be resulting due to the huge benefits for employees. To eliminate the stress caused by the organizational expectations, the management could adopt certain strategies including, job redesign to eliminate stressors, changes in workload and deadlines, structural reorganization, changes in work schedules, more flexible hours and sabbaticals, management by objectives or other goal-setting programs, greater levels of employee participation, particularly in planning changes that affect them and workshops dealing with role clarity and role analysis (Ivancevich & Matteson, 1999, p.279). In other words, job enrichment can be made effective by proper employee participation. The second issue that might face Google in the long run is the huge benefit system for employees. Benefits may become a critical link to the motivational process if the organizations tailor them to meet the specific needs of employees. For instance, if each employee is given the same benefits package, regardless of their situation or needs then, benefits may have little effects on one's motivation. But if employees have the opportunity to pick and choose the benefits most useful to them, then behavior might be influenced. The compensation package given to the employees can be made as a performance based compensation so that the employees would have proper goal setting and performance standards. This, in the long run, would help the organization to keep employees at a motivated pace. References Clemens, John K. 1986. "A Lesson from 431 B.C," Fortune, pp.161-164. Deal, Terrence E & Kennedy, Allan A. 1982. "Corporate Cultures," Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, p.22. Ivancevich & Matteson. 1999. Organizational Behavior and Management, McGraw Hill, p.279. Littal, B. 1983. "The Corporate Culture Vultures," Fortune, pp.66-72. McShane, Steven & Glinow, Mary Ann Von. 2000. Organizational Behavior, TMH, p.140. Peters Thomas J & Waterman, Robert H. 1982. In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper and Row, p.349. Sathe, Vijay. 1983. "Some Action Implications of Corporate Culture: A Manager's guide to Action," Organizational Dynamics, pp.4-23. Read More