Job Saisfaction and empoyee motivation - Essay Example

Google Inc is a multinational public computing and internet search corporation based in California. According to its official website, Google operates one of the biggest internet search engines in the world and it develops a number of internet based services and products. The organisation operates more than one million severs in data centers around the world and it has more than 200 000 employees worldwide. In my own opinion, I think a close analysis of the article entitled, “Google, best place to work” shows that the organisation has best practices in place to ensure that the employees are satisfied as well as motivated to do their work.

I strongly believe that the culture of the organisation plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the employees are satisfied with their job. Corporate culture is the pattern of shared beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and values in an organisation which shape the way people act and interact and strongly influence the ways in which things get done (Armstrong 1994). Thus, according to information obtained from the official website of Google, it can be seen that under the leadership of Schmidt, the organisation has managed to inculcate a culture of strong innovation among its employees.

At Google, the culture is that every employee has something important to say and what they say is an integral part of the success of the company (www.google.com/corporate). Accommodative culture is very effective as far as job satisfaction is concerned because it creates a sense of belongingness to the organisation among the members. Through the supporting style of leadership, the employees are motivated by various factors. They are given the opportunity to be part of the decision making process whereby a leader will mainly be concerned with maintaining effective relationships among the members of the group.

Achieving the organisational task requires concerted efforts of all the members in the organisation so that the chances of having conflicts will be minimal. If they have the autonomy to contribute to the decisions that affect their daily operations, then they will be in a position to identify with the organisation since they will be part of it which is one great motivating factor. At Google Inc, it can be noted that the organisation has offices around the globe but regardless of the area, the company strives to nurture an invigorating, positive environment by hiring talented, local people who share the organisation’s commitment to creating as well as perfecting the popular search engine (www.google.com/corporate).

Motivation is concerned with goal-directed behaviour (Armstrong 1994). People are motivated to do something if they think it is worth their while to do it and in this case of Google, people can motivate themselves by seeking, finding and carrying out work which satisfies their needs or at least leads them to expect their goals to be achieved. Whilst there are various motivation theories attributed to different levels of motivation of the employees, it can be noted that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, goal setting and Herzberg’s two factor theories of motivation are more suitable in analysing motivation of the employees at Google.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is perhaps the most appealing theory for HR professionals. Thus, according to Maslow, when a need occurs, motivational tension develops and is directed towards satisfaction of that need, (cited in Carrell 1995). The hierarchy comprises of five levels of needs namely physiological, security, social, self esteem and self actualisation needs. These needs build from grassroots levels up to the point where some skilled workers feel that they should be rewarded on the basis of their importance, coupled with their performance to the company.

These factors include responsibility (feeling that the work is important), freedom to act as well as autonomy to be innovative while at the same time seeking opportunities for advancement. We see all these factors implemented at Google the reason why the organisation has managed to operate effectively regardless of the fact that it has employees scattered across the globe. Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory of motivation identifies factors which cause dissatisfaction as hygiene and those which cause satisfaction as motivators (Carrell et al 1995).

Pay increases alone may not be adequate to motivate the employees hence the motivators in this case need to reflect the content of the job. They are concerned with a sense of responsibility, achievement and recognition among others. On the other hand, the goal setting theory posits to the effect that people get a feeling of pride and satisfaction from the experience of achieving a challenging but fair goal. These three theories can be attributed to the case of Google given above. Indeed, Google is justified in all what it does in terms of cost with regards to organisational commitment and productivity.

This emanates from the widely held belief that motivated employees are more productive compared to demoralised employees. In this case, it can be noted that Google is able to motivate its employees regardless of the fact that they are scattered all over the world. ReferencesArmstrong M. (1994). Improving organisational effectiveness. London. Kogan Page.Carrell, R. et al (1995), Human Resources Management: Global Strategies for managing a diverse workforce, 5th Edition, USA. Prentice Hall.Google official website (ND).

Available at: http://www.google.com/corporate [Accessed 14 December 2010].