Analysis of group cohesion and employee motivation at Google, Acuity and BCG
Introduction
Every year Fortune Magazine Conducts surveys in partnership with Great Place to Work to identify the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.
In the Fortune’s annual list for 2016 of the 100 Best Companies to Work for Google was ranked one, Acuity held second place and the Boston Consulting Group held the third place (Fortune, 2016).
Employee motivation and group cohesion among employees in Google
Google is a famous company to foster employee motivation and group cohesion by implementing any strategies. The employees of Google are given free massages, food and many other perks. The company believes that is more important to determine that how the team works together than who the team member is. Google gives their team members the opportunity to take risks and have clear set goals and the wok in team cohesion (Mendoza & Liedtke, 2016). Google has policies such as wellness and healthcare services, chiropractic services and fitness centre, the employees get nutritious meals and snack so that they stay energetic and positive and feel cared for and motivated. They provide financial advices and retirement savings plan for their employees to help them manage their finances. Google invest in their employees and help them take up vocational trainings and skills.
Employee motivation and group cohesion among employees in Acuity
Acuity Insurance ranked the second great place to work according to the polls from 96% of employees. The perks and benefit that the employees receive here is that every month the company rewards around 20-30 employees that receive positive feedback either from the customer or colleague. The recognised employee receives $100 cash prize and the feedback is circulated all over the company. This keeps the employee motivated and they feel their good work is appreciated and recognised.
In order to have an open environment and a flat organisation culture every few months an employee is invited for a lunch with the officer. In the lunch the employees can also give their feedback and suggestion which encourages building of a participative team environment.
In order to ensure employee wellness, the firm has a 9,800 square-foot fitness facility offering fitness training to the employees. There is massage facility and A- Team Club that gives the employees an opportunity to participate in the local athletic events. The firm has a flexible work atmosphere to ensure work work-life balance (Great Place To Worrk, 2016).
Employee motivation and group cohesion among employees in Boston Consulting Group
In order to ensure employee motivation and group motivation at BCG the employees get individualized path of career and professional development. It has the Ambassador program which enables the employees to live abroad and work in another global branch of the company. Trained and well informed employees are motivated; recognizing this firm has an on-Demand Virtual learning system in which the staff of the organisation can access 1400 self-directed learning resources from many practice areas. The employee benefits package of the firm is very generous and the employees receive health care coverage. They can visit the certified doctors from the U.S board. In order to have a well-equipped and multi-talented team the organisation encourages the requirement of diverse workforce. They have much work -life balance programs as well (Great Place to Work, 2016).
We can clearly interpret that these top three ‘Best Place to Work For Companies’ ensures employee motivation and group cohesion via various employee engagement policies and perks and benefits. This industrial policy can be clearly explained by the Social Exchange Theory of George Homas.
Social exchange can be defined as the exchange of tangible as well as intangible activities resulting into costs and rewards between two parties involved (Homas, 2013). In the case of the three companies the exchange of tangible as well as intangible activities takes place between the employer and the employees. The employer rewards the employees financially and in the form of perks and benefits in return of which they get services from the employees.
The system according to Homan’s theory can be defined inbto three propositions;
Success - When the employees at their workplace feel rewarded for a job well done or quality services rendered, they repeat their actions and continue giving best output.
Stimulus - If a certain stimulus results in reward in the past it is high probability of the person to respond to that stimulus. The Acuity Insurance Company’s scheme of rewarding the employees receiving positive feedback is based on that. The cash prize as well as public recognition act as a stimulus to the employees and makes them strive to deliver better performances.
Deprivation-satiation - If the person receives a particular reward very often in the past, it becomes less valuable to him. This is the reason why these companies keep launching new reward schemes to keep the employees focused and motivated (Losh, 2011).
Another theory that explains the reason for these three organisations to be top ranked in Forbes list of Great Place to Work is Kelly and Thibaut’s theory that states people engaged in in a series of actions in order to achieve what they desire. Also the comparison level and the Comparison level of alternative is determinate which states what people feel they deserve in the form of reward and benefits and the lowest level of relational rewards a person can accept willingly. So this means these companies also assess what their employees seek in the form of rewards and benefits to remain motivated and satisfied and work well in teams.
References
Fortune. (2016). 100 Best Companies to Work For. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from http://fortune.com/best-companies/
Google. (2016). Google Careers. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from https://www.google.com/about/careers/how-we-care-for-googlers/
Great Place to Work. (2016). The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/the-boston-consulting-group
Great Place To Worrk. (2016). Acuity Insurance. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/acuity
Homas, G. C. (2013). The human group. Vol. 7. Routledge.
Losh, S. (2011). Group behavior in organization. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Mendoza, M., & Liedtke, M. (2016). How Google Is Embracing Team Work And Workplace Wellness. Retrieved June 18, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-google-is-embracing-team-work-and-workplace-wellness_us_564c925ae4b045bf3df1d032?section=india
