Google Case Study

Google Case Study 1. Culture is an essential element of organizing in the P-O-L-C framework. Do you think Google has a strong culture? What would it take to make changes in that culture for better or for worse? Google has an aberrant culture which has served to create a great and illustrious company essentially to become this pure conglomerate of information. It’s a strong culture that’s obstinate and unmoving because they aim to have a company where all employees can contribute their ideas and play huger roles than most other companies in an effort to continue their innovative approach to business. Change in this culture would be conducive only if there was a drastic drop in profits, if employees or consumers begin to detest the culture, or if they find a more favorable culture to use later down the line. The main reasons companies in general change are to compete more effectively, to improve performance, and to survive as a competitor. In the end google emphasizes improving user experience, and put that above any short term profit in order to build a larger long term profit, and remain popular among the public. This method of organizing their company has proved to be beneficial and there’d be no logical reason, right now, for the culture to change considering the scale of company they’ve become with this system. 2. Do you think Google’s unique culture will help or hurt Google in the long run? In the long run, it’s hard to predict how the culture will affect google considering the company was only founded in 1998, but since they’ve become this behemoth in the search engine industry, and they’re slowly broadening their applications, it’s more likely that their culture will continue to benefit them in the long run. The reason this is ultimately true is because it’s clear that Google has jobs that are the most desirable according to Fortune magazine’s “Best Place to Work For” catalog. They have this culture that compels people to work harder because they value their employee’s happiness. The idea that everyone contributes a great deal to the company makes it a company that’s always moving fast, but it also means that they’re a company that will make a lot of mistakes. However, Larry Page, one of the co-founders of the company, notes that he’d rather be running a company that moves quickly and does too much, as opposed to one being too cautious and doing too little. 3. What factors are responsible for the specific culture that exists at Google? There are several factors that contributed to this specific culture in google. One of them being that it was originally founded by two college graduate students who had 10 employees and they’ve had these set of values that have spawned from a ‘small company’ mentality, which they continue using today. It does start to seem like too much though, when the employees actually humorously complain about gaining weight due to the abundant supply of gourmet food they get offered. Another contributing factor to the company’s specific culture is the fact that the company’s goal is essentially to satisfy the user’s needs and bring the best experience possible to them. Their mission statement consists of the very clear idea that all information should be easily accessible and uninhibited by pop ups and misleading nonsense. That same ideal that they’ve sprung their company from is what helped to establish google as a giant entity. Their unwillingness to succumb to the wall street scrutiny of their culture and essentially their way of doing things, means that it won’t change in the near future. 4. What type of decision-making approach has Google taken? Do you think this will remain the same over time? Why or why not? Google has taken a participative decision making approach where subordinates are involved in many important decisions. Although it may not necessarily be the best considering the number of mistakes they’ve made, there is this mentality in google that they’d have it no other way; In other words, they’d rather be constantly moving and unafraid of decision making and risk taking, much like a small company. Considering the companies is young and has this explorative attitude, they most likely won’t change. Even when put under critical analysis, their model of decision making essentially serves to please the consumer and they’re always trying to innovate in order to be the best at what they do. For that to be the case, it takes the collective efforts of the employees to provide a means by which they can reach this goal and this will in turn expand their horizons as a company to further increase more profits. 5. Do you see any challenges Google may face in the future because of its emphasis on having a risk-taking culture? Perhaps they might get carried away with this risk-taking mentality. When a company becomes as large as Google in such a short amount of time, it’s hard to tell what their future will hold, but right now they are in a position where they can take a lot of risks and it won’t have consequences on the company’s continuity. The thing that this risk-taking attitude can do is build confidence in the company and help them build proper business minded people. Google knows what they’re doing when they hire people, and this employee roster they’ve accumulated has helped them to achieve great things. They’re doing things right and the only challenges they’d ultimately face is that of innovation and proper risk taking. The fact that they take a lot of risks also puts a lot of people’s jobs on the line every time they’re thinking of a new idea so if there’s a challenge it’s mostly that of having to take that risk every time there’s a new idea.