INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATION AND BEHAVIOUR
The study of organizational behaviour providesa set of tools through which we can understand the behaviour of people in organizations. It also helps the managers in improving, enhancing and changing the work behaviour so that the company can attain organizational goals. Google is a US based multinational company which deals in Internet-related services and products. The company was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.The report explains the structure and culture present in Google and the different advantages and disadvantages of its organizational structure and culture. Various theories of organizational culturehave also been explained in the following report. The management styles of Google are evaluated in the way to find out its implication in the success of company. The motivational theories that can be used by the company in order to motivate its employees have also been explained. The importance of effective team management and the practices followed by Google for efficient team building has been explained.
Google Inc is a leading search engine company. The corporate mission of Google is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.It reflects the philosophy of the company. Organization wants to earn profits by using only ethical means.It operates in a challenging environment but the culture and structure helps it to deal with challenges in a better manner.Google is working in a high-energy and fast paced environment.Organizational structure refers to formalized patterns of interactions that link a firm’s activities, technologies, and people. As Google is a multinational company and operates in different countries, it needs to divide the tasks into effective groups and integrate the groupings for organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The company has functional structure in which it has various management positions divided into a number of value chain activities. This hybrid shape of well-designed and multidivisional structure is the major element of its success. All management positions are further divided into small groups. The top-level activities are divided on the basis of geography or product market. The structure held by the company helps it to divide its activities in smaller units so that corporate planning can be centralized. A small business unit provides the company a flexible working environment in which business canimproveitsservices. Through functional structure, company can enhance coordination and control over activities. The decision making activity of managers becomes centralized which enhances the company’s organizational-level perspective. Google’s open communication style is a contribution of its organizational structure through which the ideas and policies can be effectively communicated in all departments. While having functional structure, Google can use its managerial and technical talent in a more efficient way. Organizational structure encourages employees and managers of Google to work together directly, instead of having more formal channels. The structure also facilitates career paths and development in specialized areas. On the other hand, staff members cannot coordinatedue to differences in values and orientations. The major disadvantage of Google’s organizational structure is that manager’s feel difficulty in establishing uniform performance standards.
Corporate Structure (Morrow, 2008)
Organizational culture is apowerful force in Google. Company’s organizational culture involves the values and norms shared by managers and associates that influence behavior. Google’s corporate slogan is, “Don’t be evil”, which reflects its cultural norms. Origin of the company name is based on a numerical term, “Googol” in which 1is followed by 100 zeros. It represents the company’s unique vision to earn profits as much as possible. The strength of an organization’s culture is based on the degree of homogeneity of employees & managers and the intensity of shared experiences in the organization (Schneider,2014). The employees are allowed to wear formal clothes and there is no specific dressfor them. It gives freedom to the employees to wear clothes as per their culture.In this way the company shows that it respects the values of all cultures. The nature of culture is informal in the company which allows all the employees to make valuable contribution to Google’ssuccess(Frenz, 2014). The office of the company is decorated with balls and bicycles. The office premises are very attractive. The employees work together in small groups. So, they can share their ideas among the groups and can learn more new things. Pets like dogs are allowed in the company premises. The company canteen provides healthy snacks and hot and cold drinks always available so the people can eat and talk freely while break hours. For that purpose, company has Google cafe in each office all around the world. Google employees follow 70/20/10 rule of management in which the company allows the employees to spend 70 percent of their time on core business, 20 percent on related projects, and 10 percent on unrelated new businesses. The overall culture of Google allows the employees to make decisions effectively, who are expert in IT matters. It helps the employees to satisfy their personal as well as professional needs (Bauer, 2014).
Google’s culture and structure helps the company in attracting top talent because the management focuses on controlling activities through shared vision. Having the functional structure,company also follows leadership and innovative management techniques. Google allows its employees to set their own standards. The company does not have bureaucratic and linear controlling systems in its organizational structure. The leaders of the company want their employees to think and act in an innovative way. The managers discuss openly about organizational goals and plans for achievement. The manager of company follows the leadership theories in order to get productive performance from employees. The company’s leadership allows employees to change the parameters of their jobs when needed. Google also gives them the opportunity to develop their skills, as managers evaluate their jobs and then propose them better ways to do their jobs. The company rewards its employees on the basis of their performance. The purposes of supervisors ensure that the employees meet their own goals.It helps the employees to set their own working benchmarks.Workforce of the company is satisfied in working with Google, because of perks such as flexible work time and bonuses. The cross-functional leadership structure also attracts the employees in the company and motivates them for working efficiently (Gilbert, 2013).
In the above task, the Organizational culture and structure of Google has explained. Google is following the functional level structure in which various management positions have divided into individual activities. The innovative leadership and management skills help the company to attract skilled employees. Performance appraisals given by the company are in the way to retain talented labour.
Management involves the utilization of human and other resources in order to achieve firm’s plans and objectives.Google Inc. is a multinational company. It is a top company in search engine marketing and pay per click campaigns. The company has a hierarchy of managers. There are three levels of management such as top level management, middle level management and supervisory management. The supervisory managers are highly involved with the employee’s performance andengage in day-to-day production process. In the company, supervisory managers provide job assignments and set time schedules for new employees who are hired (Petri, 2000). The functions of managers in the organization are to prepare a firm for future business conditions and to organize human and other resources in order to attain organizational goal. Leading is the main task of managers as it involves the process of providing the employees with instructions on how they should complete their tasks. Managers have to perform many roles in the company. It is up to them that how they handle various situations, for that purpose they use their own styles of management. Google’s management development and compensation committee keep rewards of managers. These committees also evaluate the performance of employees in a way to retain good employees at workplace. Company also uses the term “Googley’’ which explains the way of working as to make the sustainability of business in the long term. Google uses chaos management system in the modern working environment, in which information overload can be maintained in different forms (Adeniyi, 2010).
A management style is the method of leadership used by managers in order to attain the organizational objectives. The success of company is related to its employees and the way its managers treat the employees. The company chooses a unique style to manage its organization and keeps it well ahead in competition. Google uses the traditional management style to handle the internal business activities. Managers are successful in motivating employees and pushing their potentials. They also give opportunities to the employees to grow on a more personal level. The engineers in the company are allowed to work from outside the office for their personal researches.The company uses two sharply contrasting styles such as Autocratic and permissive management styles (Curtis,2006). In Autocratic management style, top level manager makes all decisions unilaterally. On the other hand, in permissive management style,manager permits the subordinates to take part in decision making. It also gives them a considerable degree of independence in completing routine work activities. The manager of company always tries to adjust themselves according to the situation. They treat each and every employee as per their understanding and personal traits. Some employees need high level of guidance whereas some of them need low support. The employees in the office get easy access to top-notch facilities and resources in order to come up with new and exciting innovations. Google is an organization where tasks are divided into different departments (Ferrate,2009).
The managers in all departments use the Laissez-faire management style which is usually called as free-rein style (Strategic Direction, 2011). In this management style,managerstransfer their responsibilitytoemployees, so they can act as leaders and can manage their own areas of business.With the help of this style, manager brings out the best in highly professional and creative groups of employees. But this management style also leads to a lack of staff focus towards work, which can turn into poor company image.Now, it has been seen that company has implemented a different style of management in which they respect all the employees and allow them to make decisions. It helps the company in making the employees loyal and improves the workplace effectively. It is argued that a chaos management system is necessary to handle the system of Google organization (Lashinsky,2006). These all were the management styles that makeGoogle management different form its competitors.
The management style of Google managers is very different from other MNCs. They adopt the Laissez-faire management style and give the opportunity to the employees a chance to take decision. If employees take wrong decision they try to correct them. The management style helps the company in making the workforce loyal and improves the workplace effectively.
Motivation refers to give motive to an individual, for action. The employees of the organisation can be motivated by understanding the values of individuals and through implementing them in company’s culture. Many talented people work for Google because of their unique culture, rewards, opportunity of growth and perks.Motivation is an important tool to get standard performance from individuals. Google uses different motivational theories to motivate its employees. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is used in Google. According to this theory, individual has different types of needs which are divided into five levels such as physiological, safety, self belongingness, esteem and self actualization. The theory says when lower need is satisfied, next higher need comes in existence. The managers try to satisfy all the needs of employees. On the other hand, Google also uses Herzberg’s Theory of motivation which is based on two factors which are hygiene factors and motivators. These two factors cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The motivators are work, recognition, personal growth and achievement whereas hygiene factors are job security, salary and fringe benefits (Weber, 2008).
In the company, employees are motivated by learning how to behave in an organization and how to handle the situation. For that, the company provides different training sessions to the employees.The staff in the company can also be motivated through providing them performance appraisal. The management tries to give rewards according to individual performance.The company also focuses on perceptions of fairness in the workplace. In any company, inequality can occur due to underpayment or overpayment between employees. The management of Google always tries to maintain good relationships between employees (Hardy,2006). The company also uses the goal setting theory at workplace in which it sets SMART goals. The goals given to the company’s employees are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and time bound. These types of goals motivate the employees to work efficiently.Google provides a mix of both, direct financial motivators as well as non financial motivators to its workers (Milstein, Biersdorfer and MacDonald, 2006). In the firm, employees are usually found self motivated. The company offers various perks to the workers such as such as free food and gym membership. The employees are also allowed to play video games at work. All these things help to givea break to employees so that they can comeout from stress during work hours.Googlewas ranked by& Fortune magazine as the best place in the U.S. to work in 2009; it shows the effectiveness of organizational culture. The key of its success are the perks and compensation.The workers of the organization are allowed to work anytime they want.This allows the individuals to balance their personal and professional life (Hardy, 2006).
Most of the employees are working on work-at-home arrangements. The employees are allowed to bring their dogs, wear cultural clothes, eat food for free, enjoy a free fitness centre and trainer; all this helps the company to retain its employees. Various mutual insurance and health insurance policies are also provided to workers. They can have appointment with doctors if they are sick. This relaxed and fun environment has worked well for Google. It provides a psychological benefit to encourage employees to be more committed, creative, and productive. The company is facing a huge problem with its objectives, as its major business is of search engine optimization but itsrevenues depend on advertising business. Google has not managed its business in order to create another idea as big as the internet (Frynas and Mellahi, 2011).
Motivation plays an important role in Google. The company uses various motivational theories such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and Herzberg’s theory. In order to motivate their employees company reward them on the basis of their performance. Google has provided a relaxed and fun environment to its employees. In this way google has provides psychological as well as financial benefits to encourage employees to be more committed, creative, and productive.
A team is a small group of people in which skilful persons work together to achieve a common purpose. Team plays a major role in the organizational environment and it helps them to achieve their goals in a significant manner. Individual person is selected in a team based on the knowledge, skills and leadership qualities. Google employees work in tiny teams.There is an advantage of working in small groups. The members can easily adopt new changes related to leadership and technology. In a team, a specialist is hiredwhois perfect in his work. For example, Quality assurance role is assigned to employees who have knowledge regarding this area. In a small group, team implements several business strategies in a simultaneous way (Landyand Conte, 2010).
Team building is the process of forming, growing and improving the knowledge of individuals into high performance team. All the members of the team contribute towards enhancing the productivity and quality of products. The organization effectively follows the leadership theories to lead the firm in a specific area. Leaders of the company work as trailblazers, motivators and supporters within the organization. Through team building activities, a firm can maintain trust among employees. Thus, the company takes benefits in the form of tangible as well as intangible form. The firm is establishing a strong relationship between co-workers through assigning responsibilities to each employee. If they work in the team, a lot of ideas and innovation from individuals comes out. Beldin's team role theory explored individual behaviour and its impact on team success. It categorized the nine roles of team in action, people and thought oriented approach. Google follows people oriented approach in which more priority is given to team workers (Hamel,2007).
By working in a team, employees can motivate themselves by sharing new innovative ideas. All the members of the firm have an opportunity to work with thinkers and top quality leaders and give their best in the success of the organization. Goals of the Google team are to increase the flexibility, improve products and enhance collaboration, communication and increased creative andflexible thinking at work place (Girard, 2009).
They are motivated through introducing team building and team development activities at work place. Google provides free working environment to its staff members so as to increase the efficiency of the employees so that they will contribute in the success of the organization. It gives freedom to workforce for making groups according to their choice and provides the facility that they can change their team and join any team without taking any permission. The company has boost up its employees by storming process in which training sessions are conducted for training them. Based on their skills, performance and knowledge level, they are appointed. In the norming process, members of the firm frame groups according to their own desires. Further, groups are moved in the form of system. After the norming process is complete, individual talented persons work in a team structure (Hamen, 2011).
From the task it is concluded that team plays a major role in organization environment and it helps company in achieving goals in a significant manner. Google is motivating business teams by providing them freedom and flexibility in working. In Google, Employees and staff members are motivated through introducing team building and team development activities at work place.
The report explains the structure and culture present in GoogleInc and the various advantages and disadvantages of current structure and culture.The above report describes various effective approaches of Google Management styles and relevant theories relating the organization structure and culture.Various theories of organizational culture have also been explained in the following report.Google has been changing the management structure, working environment, and the way of treating employees in order to attract and retain talented workforce.The company has been providing a safe and learning work environment to their employees. It hasalsomadegenuine efforts to promote improved personal life.Google uses the chaos management system in theitsworking environment. The leaders of Goggle Inc. use the best methods of rewarding and motivating employees. The team building theories are also explained in the context of Google. The report also concludes that while working in a team, employees can motivate themselves by sharing new innovative ideas.
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