Organizations Effectiveness at Managing Diversity - Google - Case Study Example

ASSESSING AN ORGANIZATION’S EFFECTIVENESS AT MANAGING DIVERSITY Assessing an Organization’s Effectiveness at Managing Diversity The organization that has been selected for this study is ‘Google’. This selection was inspired by my curiosity to know more about the organization and my desire to work for the company in future. As a multinational organization, Google specializes in online products and services such as advertising, software development, web applications, and cloud computing among others. The organization is popular because of its search engine internet service (Google, 2015). As at 2014, Google had more than 45,000 employees. Google was formally incorporated in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page as the founders (Submit Today LLC, 2005). It is a publicly traded company with its headquarters in California. During its initial years, the organization faced competition from other players such as Yahoo, Lycos, and AltaVista. All the same, Google has become dominant over the years. In 2013, the organization’s website was listed by Alexa as the most searched site globally (Google, 2015). As at January 2015, the market capitalization of Google had grown to over $390 billion. In 2012, Google was listed by Fortune magazine as the best employer. Taking a look at the organization’s website, my initial impression of the site is that Google is a highly organized company that cares about its customers. This is because various aspects are systematically arranged in a manner that gives viewers an easy time to find any information they are looking for. The website also gives an initial impression of reliability. This is based on the fact that information is up to date. The homepage offers a good fishbowl in the sense that it provides an avenue through which the organization’s culture and management systems can be discussed. The homepage design communicates a message of professionalism, quality, and efficiency. The layout, for instance, gives a visitor to the site the ability to maneuver without difficulty. Based on style, the simplicity of the language used enhances understanding and internalizing of information. Colors that have been used provide a positive visual impression that encourages the viewer to search further for the site due to their attractiveness. Regarding placement, important features have been strategically placed to make it easier for visitors to find information. As I navigate through the site, the image is consistent from one page to the other. The same impression is maintained, and the same message is communicated. Through the website, the company portrays a good visual tone. Apart from high-quality images, the people who have been used to represent the organization give a good visual impression: diversity and inclusiveness. These groups of people include people from various age brackets and races. The people are decently dressed to imply that the company highly regards professionalism and self-discipline. There are videos on the site with various subgroups represented. The subgroups include people from different religions and states. The ratio of men to women is almost the same. This is an indication that the organization is keen on gender balance. The company’s mission is ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ (Google, 2015). The organization also operates under ten value statements. They include: Focus on the user and everything else will follow, its best to do one thing really well, fast is better than slow, democracy on the web works, you don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer, you can make money without doing evil, there’s always more information out there, the need for information crosses all borders, you can be serious without a suit and finally great just isn’t good enough (Jurevicius, 2013). Google ensures that all employees abide by these statements so as to positively contribute to the organization’s mission. Regarding news releases, the company announces news regarding its ongoing and upcoming activities on the website. Every month the company makes various announcements concerning financial issues, corporate governance, and annual meetings. The past news is stored on the site for future reference. The company also stores manuals on the site. These manuals provide detailed information on various products and services provided by the company. Annual reports can be downloaded from the site. They provide insight into what the company has been doing and what it has achieved. Annual financial records and managerial activities are also outlined. This information promotes transparency and accountability in the company. What the company says about itself is that it is an organization that highly focuses on providing the best for their customers. Employees are dedicated to continuously improving the provision of products and services. The company also encourage innovation and offers great opportunities for both customers and employees in terms of welcoming new ideas. Based on the organization’s policies, Google explains that it is strongly founded on good leadership and governance. Moreover, it is an organization that promotes lawful activities that contribute to sustainable development. The written information reveals a culture of democracy and flexibility as portrayed in bylaws and messages from the board of directors. A culture of transparency and accountability is also revealed. Based on the financial reports and vast information about the organization, it is clear that Google has adopted this culture. The mission and value statements further reveal the organization’s constructive culture that is focused on achievement. At all levels in the materials, signs of diversity can be observed, for example, financial diversity, products and service diversity, policy diversity, technological diversity and cultural diversity. The company is forced to diversify due to the complex nature of its operations. Google deals with different kinds of customers including software developers, bloggers, marketers, and researchers. However, the main customers are advertisers. The customers are from diverse industries because the organization deals with diverse products and services. Examples of these industries include the software industry, information and technology industry, and communications industry. The management team is also diversified. It comprises of people from different areas of expertise such as accounting, finance, administration, operations, sales, marketing, communication and engineering. Before joining this team, the management came from different organizations. For example, Dr. Eric Schmidt Google’s executive chairman was a chief executive officer at Novell. Patrick Pichette, the senior vice president, was initially an employee of McKinsey & Company. Different management team members have been with the company for different durations. For example, Patrick has worked for the organization for seven years. Some members have worked with Google for more than fifteen years. Members of the board of directors have different professional, academic and personal backgrounds. In terms of academic background, the team comprises of an engineer, lawyers, and a financial analyst among others (Google, 2015). There are various employee statements on the site specifically from the board of directors and videos of talks from employees. My knowledge of someone who works for this company enabled me to interview four employees of the company. When asked what kind of people work for Google, the employees stated that diverse groups of people work for the company. These people are from different cultural backgrounds, academic fields, religions, and races. However, what is common among all of them is that they are all professionals with a high level of expertise and integrity. The kind of customers they deal with depends on the area of operation as stated earlier. These employees usually get work done through receiving orders and direction from the board of directors. Moreover, other tasks are accomplished through delegation. Teams in the company are very diverse. The company emphasizes on teamwork as a way of enhancing productivity. These teams are diverse in terms of areas of specialization. Taking a look at the career page, the initial impression is that Google has many career opportunities in many different fields of expertise. Some of the jobs that have been advertised on the site are listed on LinkedIn. The company promotes a diverse work environment. This is based on the diversity statement that states that the company has always wanted to work with talented people from diverse backgrounds. The hiring statement further states that the company looks for different qualities in potential employees for example leadership skills, a vast knowledge of things and good decision-making abilities. The benefits offered include retirement benefits and health insurance among many other benefits. The company’s description on job listings such as LinkedIn provides an overview of what the company does, what is provided and what is expects from potential employees. A general assessment of various internet sites portrays the company as one which has a good public image. Many sites, for instance, acknowledge the company as being the best employer that offers great products and services to their highly motivated employees. Although most remarks are positive, there are a few negative reviews. One article, for instance, explains that the company’s engineers are arrogant (Edwards, 2013). Based on the findings from the seven research areas, it is noticeable how Google effectively raises awareness regarding stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. On stereotypes and prejudice, the company confirms that certain organizational assumptions are just but stereotypes. For example the stereotype that women cannot hold managerial positions and that they are underrepresented in terms of decision-making. Google has overcome such by having women as part of the board of directors and managers. The stereotype that large companies are inefficient when it comes to managing employees has also been confirmed as being untrue. Google is a big company, and it has successfully been able to manage the high number of employees and also gone as far as giving them opportunities for growth. Concerning discrimination, the company’s emphasis on diversity and assimilation of different cultures raises awareness on the importance of inclusion in an organization. As portrayed in the website, the company offers equal opportunities for both customers and employees regardless of social, economical and geographical differences. These strategies align with the recommendations in the content material based on their similarity. Recommendations on the content materials emphasize on inclusiveness in terms of representation and decision-making. Similarly, the strategies employed by Google emphasize on the same. Information obtained from the organization leads to the development of a number of recommendations. Regarding helping the company to work more effectively with a diverse customer base, I would recommend that the company seeks an opinion from members of the public on the improvements they expect from the company. I also recommend that the company improves on its customer support system so as to make the process of problem-solving for diverse groups more effective. For diverse employee work styles, I would recommend that the company adopts a field based working style to reduce the monotony of working in the office; such a move will diversify on work styles. On dealing with individual differences and religious and gender differences, the company should increase the number of employees from these diverse backgrounds. Having become more CQ astute I feel the company’s mission, and values align with my own because my values are also based on bringing change. References Edwards, J. (2013). Google Employees Confess The Worst Things About Working At Google. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-confess-the-worst-things-about-working-at-google-2013-11. Google. (2015). Company. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/about/company/. Jurevicius, O. (2013). Mission statement of Google. Retrieved from http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/mission-statements/google-mission-statement.html Submit Today LLC. (2005). The History of Google: From Garage-based Business to #1 Search Engine. Retrieved from http://www.submittoday.com/history_of_google.htm. Read More