The culture of a firm has a significant influence on its management as well as the success that result from the content or nature of such institutional culture. Ideally, institutional culture denotes a set of values, attitudes, as well as assumptions demonstrated via firm’s symbols developed by the employees and institutionally embraced via mutual understanding (Kim & Robbert, 2011). This assists the employees to make an accurate interpretation of the meaning of the business environment they operate and influence the manner they act within it. In summary, the norms, assumptions, attitudes, as well as values employees of a firm share can influence or control their schemes of interpretation (Kim & Robbert, 2011). The schemes of interpretation used by workers can make them assign or attach meanings to events in or outside the firm and gain knowledge of the reality of the business environment. The purpose of this literature is to expose the strengths and opportunities of Google's culture. Besides, explore the weaknesses and threats of Google's culture. It also offers recommendations based on the assessment of the SWOT analysis of Google's culture.
The actions, practices, interactions, as well as the behavior of Google's employees arise from the interpretation they make about the reality Google Company offers them (Joann, 2011). Ideally, Google’s culture can be described as a collective scheme of interpretation by employees, from which workers assign meanings or understanding of customers, colleagues, events, as well as occurrences of the business environment (Joann, 2011). The company has strategically used innovation and technology in building a strong institutional culture. Some of the Google’s cultures include innovative, hands-on, transparency, stress on excellence, as well as support to firm-family rapport.
Strengths of Google’s Culture
The company hires individuals considered determined as well as smart. Additionally, the firm favors people’s capability over work experience. The responsibility of workers in the company is to ensure happiness as well as productivity. The firm ensures open culture, more often than not, linked to startups where all members of the firm represent a hands-on provider or contributor; besides feels free sharing opinions. The current business environment is flooded with search engines; Google probably is the first firm, which gives users a priority. The company’s mission statement of organizing the globe’s information as well as making such information globally accessible or useful summarizes the firm’s commitment to the needs of end-users (Eric & Yvinne, 2011). The competitors of Google Company concentrated or majored in marketing firm’s sites or raising advertising charges, but Google Company deleted all the distractions in their search page and presented a blank page to users having only the logo of the firm as well as a search box. The company disabled the pop-up advertising, which it considered were annoying its customers. All the advertisements of the Google Company were presented as sponsored links. The strategy of stressing on enhancing the customer experience as well as preferring serving the end-users to making cash within the shortest time is a strength, which is significant to the success of Google Company.
Google Company values keeping or ensuring that their workers are happy. The company formed a conducive work conditions, which helps in attracting, motivating, as well as retaining the best individuals in the field. Google's workers have free access to doctors, video games, gyms, child care, as well as shower equipment. The company offers a paternal leave of four months with a 75 percent full pay as well as 500 dollars for an employee with a new baby as take-out meals. Ideally, these perks or other benefits make a conducive work environment, which makes workers feel comfortable. Additionally, they make workers have a feeling of working in a cool environment, which is distinct from everywhere previously worked. This is considered strength as it helps in attracting and retaining workers.
The company motivates workers to risk taking as well as innovation. For instance, the vice president made some advertisement errors that made the firm lose million of cash. After apologizing for the errors, she was praised and congratulated for the error by the president. The president argued the company would rather be managed in such a way they move fast and achieve too much, instead of being cautious but achieve less. The attitude of acting quick and embrace the expense of associated mistakes as a normal consequence of management on innovative ideas may justify reason the firm is succeeding on many fronts in comparison to competitors, for example, Yahoo or Microsoft.
The culture of Google Company is demonstrated in the way decisions are made. Teams make decisions within the company. The management of the firm, for example, is under the control of two persons: Page and Brin invited Eric to serve as a chief executive officer. The three manage the firm by consensus. It implies that decisions in Google Company are never made by those in the apex of management and executed top down. More often than not, small teams address every challenge and workers influence one another through rational persuasion or data (Eric & Yvinne, 2011). This is considered strength as the culture encourages participatory management, where all opinions are considered. This reduces conflicts and resistance to change among employees, something that fosters organizational growth (Eric & Yvinne, 2011).
Weaknesses of Google’s Culture
The stress on the unusual by Google Company makes it challenging to substitute some of the retiring staffs in the apex of management, for example, Reyes George. The culture of Google Company, which stress on CFO's bottom line as well as dedication to the organizational framework, is inappropriate for an institution like Google Inc. that has given little attention to succession planning (Ken, Michael, & Kylie, 2013). Even though the creativity culture at the company has led to many novel products, most of them have not generated significant revenue or money. This occurs because advertising Google Company makes on a search engine is the main revenue contribution, but such products are enjoyed by customers for free as the company employs free charges to attract more customers to use firm's search engine. The culture of innovation is faced with the problem of how to exploit or tap new ideas, which may be changed to products. Many employees have good innovative ideas, although lacks good mechanisms for capturing, expressing, or airing them. the last weakness of Google's culture is that its recruitment is narrow as it concentrates mainly on graduate ranks as well as academic records and the expense of work experience of the applicants.
Opportunities of Google’s Culture
The company through encouraging innovation has created many products, for instance, Google Maps, search engine, as well as Chrome Web browser. The organizational culture encourages workers to offer their opinions or ideas freely. The company promotes innovation among workers. Workers are conditioned to give innovative opinions or ideas. In such a culture, the institution favors smart workers who endeavor for excellence. Additionally, the firm encourages workers’ involvement or participation in experiments as well as projects. The environment at the firm’s offices can be described as warm since Google’s culture keeps a firm-family feel in which employees can freely discuss or share opinions (Ken, Michael, & Kylie, 2013). For that reason, the culture of Google Company supports excellence in creativity via sharing opinions or ability to respond quickly to address emerging issues in the market. The leadership and motivation model of the company topple the conventional leadership theory that concentrates on results rather than workers who make such results realized. Google's culture of creating the happiest as well as the most productive environment for work in the globe is the best for retaining workers.
Another opportunity offered by Google's culture is the value it gives to ideas from employees. This makes democracy to prevail as workers are offered considerable voice. Such an environment promotes positive criticism, which fosters organizational growth. Some of the opportunities for the articulation of ideas in the company include hosting workers forums in Fridays in which twenty most asked questions are examined. Other channels are Google+ conversations, direct emails to leaders, many surveys carried can offer the opportunity to articulate an idea and Fixits. Feedbacks are also sought by used of Googlegeist, which is a survey that seeks comments on issues later solved by employee volunteer team. Additionally, there is a continuous survey of managers. Feedbacks are used to acknowledge or declare the best performing managers, who are made role models in the subsequent year. Those managers who perform dismally are coached and trained. These improve the capability of workers, which is necessary for organizational growth (Eric & Yvinne, 2011).
Threats of Google’s Culture
Ideally, expanding to novel fields that are outside the company's search engine appears to be a threat. However, to address this threat the firm advice engineers to take 20 percent of working hours in coming up with new ideas. Another threat to Google's culture is stiff competition from other companies. Firms like Microsoft, Apple, as well as Yahoo, are working round the clock to outshine Google Company.
The SWOT analysis of Google’s culture demonstrates that the firm has ample strengths. Because web software experiences continuous changes, an internet firm, such as Google must operate at a different pace to outdo its competitors. The plans for growth must be flexible and evolve daily in addressing the changes in the market or customers’ needs. The faster as well as more flexibility Google Company evolves, the more successful their products or services will be in the market.
In conclusion, the company has created a conducive working environment, which can attract and retain or motivate the best minds in the market. The company promotes risk taking, innovation, as well as team decision-making. The main threat is competition from rivals. Based on the analysis, for the firm to outshine its competitors it must develop plans for growth, which are flexible and evolve daily in addressing the changes in the market or customers’ needs.
References
Eric, F., & Yvinne, R. (2011). Corporate Culture: The Ultimate Strategic Asset. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Joann, K. (2011). Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experience. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Ken, H., Michael, P., & Kylie, J. (2013). Google and the Culture of Search. London: Routledge.
Kim, S., & Robbert, Q. (2011). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
