Google Culture and Success Essay Example
1. Analyze the organizational culture at Google and how it contributed to its success
In his book Organizational Culture and Leadership, Schein defines the culture as: “The climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people, or to the espoused values and credo of an organization”.
We can analyze Google’s organizational culture thought Ouchi’s framework. Ouchi studied three different company’s culture and saw that the differences between those explained a part of the company’s success. Depending on his theory it seems that Google Inc. is the type Z US firms.
Cultural characteristics Type J (Japonese model) Type A (typical American model Type Z (credited American model)
Commitment to employees Life contract Short term contract Long term contract
Evaluation Slow and qualitative Fast and quantitative Slow and qualitative
Careers Large and not based on specialty Very narrowed and specialty based Moderately based on specialty
Control Implicit and informal Explicit and formal Implicit and informal
Decision making Grouped and consensual Individual Grouped and consensual
Responsibility Collective Individual Individual
Concern for people Holistic (firm and family) Narrowed (individual tasks) Global (individual at work)
Google tries to retain its employees and evaluate them in a quantitative but also qualitative manner. In fact, the company made its work environment colorful and vehicles the image of a fun place to work through what it proposes. For example, employees can have free snacks or bring their pet at the office or go to the gym etc... Employees can benefit from flexible working hours and have some time for their self-directed projects which shows the importance of the creativity and innovation from each and in every department. Moreover control is done through informal and implicit mechanism. We saw in the case study that the communication is open across the organization. There aren’t any managerial hierarchies or
In his book Organizational Culture and Leadership, Schein defines the culture as: “The climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people, or to the espoused values and credo of an organization”.
We can analyze Google’s organizational culture thought Ouchi’s framework. Ouchi studied three different company’s culture and saw that the differences between those explained a part of the company’s success. Depending on his theory it seems that Google Inc. is the type Z US firms.
Cultural characteristics Type J (Japonese model) Type A (typical American model Type Z (credited American model)
Commitment to employees Life contract Short term contract Long term contract
Evaluation Slow and qualitative Fast and quantitative Slow and qualitative
Careers Large and not based on specialty Very narrowed and specialty based Moderately based on specialty
Control Implicit and informal Explicit and formal Implicit and informal
Decision making Grouped and consensual Individual Grouped and consensual
Responsibility Collective Individual Individual
Concern for people Holistic (firm and family) Narrowed (individual tasks) Global (individual at work)
Google tries to retain its employees and evaluate them in a quantitative but also qualitative manner. In fact, the company made its work environment colorful and vehicles the image of a fun place to work through what it proposes. For example, employees can have free snacks or bring their pet at the office or go to the gym etc... Employees can benefit from flexible working hours and have some time for their self-directed projects which shows the importance of the creativity and innovation from each and in every department. Moreover control is done through informal and implicit mechanism. We saw in the case study that the communication is open across the organization. There aren’t any managerial hierarchies or