Google human resources practices - Assignment Example

Google human resources practices by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date I. Introduction 3 II. Google Organisational Culture 3 1. Schein’s model of organisational culture overview 3 2. Artefacts 4 3. Espoused values 5 4. Underlying assumptions 5 Google Motivation Policy 5 1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs overview 5 2. Physiological needs 6 3. Safety needs 8 4. Social needs 8 5. Esteem ends 8 5. Self-actualization 9 III. Conclusion and Recommendation 9 I. Introduction Nowadays Google is one of the most well known companies of the world due to the fact that they were able to create the most effective searching engine and are constantly working developing new services and product for the people. Nevertheless, the success of this company cannot simply be explained by their original product. It is obvious that since they were able to firmly occupy a place at the top, they are likely to have structured their internal working environment correctly. This paper will focus on organisational culture of Google as well as the manner in which the company in question motivates the employees. In order to gain a proper understanding of the aspects above, the analysis will engage Schein’s model of organisational culture and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. II. Google Organisational Culture 1. Schein’s model of organisational culture overview The analysis should involve a brief overview of the model that will be used. The latter was developed by Edgar Schein and consists of three elements. The first of them focuses on artefacts of an organisation which is anything visible that has a connection towards the company (Gagliardi, 1990). Indeed, an artefact is not only the logo, it is also the colour that a company primarily uses in its products, the way employees great customers, even the design of the building. In other words, it is the physical manifestation of the company. The second level included espoused values. It must be noted that the elements of the model differ in the way they are connected to the material world; therefore, the second element which will more abstract (Magalhes, 2004). Thus, values also stand for the image of the company, but a mental one. In other words, this level includes goals, mission statement and other elements that were designed to explain the manner in which a company operates. In other words, this level of organizational culture focuses on the long term perspective of business and encourages people to do their best in order to live up to these expectations. The third element that should be analyzed carefully is underlying assumptions. Indeed, one might suggest that the highest level of manifestation of organisational culture should be extremely perfect and not embodied into anything. Thus, while artefacts are physical objects and values can be physically written on a piece of paper, the underlying assumptions are those ideas about the organisation that people take for granted (Ehlers, 2013). In other words, they are not spelled out anywhere, but everyone knows about their existence, what they are. Another point that should be mentioned is that underlying assumptions are experienced directly when a person is emerged into a particular working environment. 2. Artefacts A brief examination of Google will reveal that there is a plenty of artefacts that can be found within this organization. First of all, there is a set of colours that are associated with this company. They are red, yellow, green and blue. While if taken separately they can hardly be connected to organisation in question, it is their combination that can be found virtually in every product of service that is brought by this company. Another point that should be mentioned is that Google is firmly associated with one of its products, namely Android OS. As a result, the image of a friendly green robot can often be seen as the alternative for the major logo of the company. 3. Espoused values Moving forward, one might suggest that there are several distinct values that Google stands for. The first of them is making things are free as possible. One should include that the organisation in question is often positioned as an alternative to its major rival, Apple. The latter company claims to provide the best product on the market; that is why it often asks for one of the highest prices. As a result, Google promotes the spirit of freedom and lack of need of compensation. Another value that should be mentioned is that Google wants to have their consumers life fully integrated with their products. 4. Underlying assumptions Finally, it may be rather interesting to explore underlying values of the company. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that one of the assumptions that all employees of the company would agree on is that Google is the company created by the people and for the people. Indeed, the organisation in question does not stand for a simple exchange: money for great products; it is much more than that. For example, people are always able to write to the developers about any problems that they have with the product and the latter can fix it and take these words into account while designing the future generation. In other words, the users make their own fair contribution and the company accepts it. Google Motivation Policy 1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs overview There is a considerable number of theories that were developed that explored the phenomenon of motivation. This paper will utilize one of them which was created by Abraham Maslow. It recognizes that people have different needs, but the latter should be placed in different categories, according to their nature. The first of them are physiological needs. As one can easily guess from the very name, physiological needs are the needs that are experienced by the body such as eating, drinking or sleeping (Eysenck, 2004). The next category of needs that is located above the first level includes safety needs. This means a person has to be sure that there is certain stability in one’s life. For example, an individual does not want to experience any violence from other people (Egan, 2007). In addition to that, every person wants to feel some security in other aspects of one’s life such as work or relationships. As a result, this will all contribute to the sense of security and will greatly improve one’s life. For example, finding food might satisfy one’s physiological needs for a short period of time, but securing a stable source of food is even better. The third level that is above the first to focuses on social needs. It is generally thought that a human being as a social creature; that is why it is somewhat questionable that social needs become the third in the hierarchy. However, this can be easily explained by the fact that they form a new level of needs, a higher one (Unrau, 2007). So, it is quite logical that the first needs of a higher level are social which include belonging, love and affects. While it is note the entire spectrum of the feelings that people can feel towards each other, but these are the major social interactions that matter for happiness of a person. After physiological, safety and social needs were satisfied, a person may still need more. This higher kind of needs deals with esteem which consists of two elements: external and internal (Smoke, 2005). Speaking of the former, one should note that esteem can be generated in the form of recognition by the others. In other words, they are expected to explicitly state that a particular individual has a set of valuable skills or has achieved something important. This will in turn trigger self-esteem which is the second part of this category. It is quite understandable that, unlike John Lennon was singing, love is not all a person needs. In a much more fundamental level people need to be appreciated. The last category that should be mentioned in this list is the need for self-actualization. Prior to considering this category, one should note that according to the principle that governs the hierarchy of needs, satisfaction of the needs that belong to the higher levels is not able to contribute to happiness of a person. This means that satisfaction of the last level of needs will be valuable only if the previous four levels are satisfied as well. It is quite understandable that this is somewhat improbable. That is why self-actualization is the level that few people reach. The needs of this level primarily deal with finding the sense of life and putting one’s life for the benefit of others. 2. Physiological needs The success of motivation policy in Google can be largely attributed to the fact that the organisation in question makes sure that all the needs of its employees are satisfied. Speaking of the first level of needs, it is obvious that the company took care of that by providing above average compensation. However, in addition to that, Google also wanted to let the employees focus entire on their job, by satisfying their physiological needs at the work place. Indeed, it is equipped with cafeteria, workout area, even massage rooms. 3. Safety needs The success of motivation policy of Google can also be explained by the fact that the company satisfies the needs of the employees in terms of safety. On the one hand, it provides a completely safe working environment with the security guard making sure that nothing bad happens. Indeed, people in Google should not worry about any threat since they are well protected. In addition to that, the company also took care of job security. The employment conditions are quite transparent and a person will never be fired if one is does one’s job right and timely. 4. Social needs As it has been previously mentioned, Google is a company that is created by people and for people. That is why it is quite obvious that the organisation will pay attention towards satisfaction of social needs of its employees. Indeed, no person within the company feels lack of belonging, love or affection. While the latter two may not be directly provided by the company, the sense of belonging is definitely something that the company takes into its consideration. In spite of the fact that it is a general practice to reinforce team spirit in a company, Google is remarkable because it makes sure that connection between managers and employees is as strong as connection between employees. 5. Esteem ends The next category of needs that Google motivation policy successfully covers deals with esteem. Indeed, the employees do not only receive a good compensation for their work, but they can also enjoy different bonuses in case they exceed expectations of complete the work prior to the deadline. In other words, by doing so the company recognizes that the contribution of a particular employee was recognized. It is quite obvious that after such positive treatment a person will feel that one is a valuable employee and will be satisfied with the work even more, given all the previously mentioned needs were satisfied as well. 5. Self-actualization Finally, one should also take a look at one last aspect of Google motivation policy. Having satisfied successfully all the needs which were mentioned above, the organisation in question also pays attention to self-actualization of its employees. To be more specific, the latter is considered to be one of the major priorities in the long perspective. For example, every single person in the company knows that one’s work ultimately contributes towards making a product that moves technology forward and provides ordinary people with better solutions. In other words, every employee is acknowledges that one is a part of something bigger, namely the project that affects the entire global community through technological change. III. Conclusion and Recommendation Having examined all the points it becomes obvious that organizational culture of Google is quite developed on all three levels. In addition to that, the success of its motivation policy lies in the fact that the company systematically satisfies all the needs of its employees. However, there is one recommendation that may be given to this organisation: it should constantly find new way to improve it perfection. For example, it may apply a different system that explains motivation and check whether its performance is as good as identified by other systems. This will show that the success of the company is objective and does not depend on a point of view. References Egan, J. (2007). Marketing communications. London: Thomson. Ehlers, U. (2013). Open learning cultures: A guide to quality, evaluation, and assessment for future learning. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media. Eysenck, M. (2004). Psychology: An international perspective. Hove: Psychology Press. Gagliardi, P. (1990). Symbols and artifacts views of the corporate landscape. Berlin: W. de Gruyter. Magalhes, R. (2004). Organizational knowledge and technology an action-oriented perspective on organization and information systems. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub. Smoke, C. (2005). Company officer. Sydney: Thomson/Delmar Learning. Unrau, Y., & Gabor, P. (2007). Evaluation in social work the art and science of practice. 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