Corporate Culture

Corporate culture shows how the company's owners and employees think, feel and act. It can also be what they believe in. It represents the company, like a symbol, determining how well you business will do.

Google's Corporate Culture 
Google is still ruled by its founders, which are Larry Page and Sergy Brin. What is the simple corporate culture they hold that place them at the top of the corporate culture food chain?

The answer is very simple, trust.

Larry Page, on of the founder of Google believes that trust is the most important principle in his business. "When you are willing to reveal yourself and listen to others, you will soon find yourself building trust." In the book of "What Would Google Do?", "give people control and we will use it. Don't and you will lose us." is stated, which leads to the fact that Google applies laissez-fair into work by letting the workers decide their work because Larry trusts them. He also believes that "if we trust the people, they will lead us to the relevant stuff", which leads him to his successful business. Only trust, can make everyone working in his company gather around and work together, as a family.

Of course, apart from trust, some other corporate culture that Larry Page holds are such as innovate for big impact. Think big and try to solve the problems, rather than running from them. He wants his workers to believe that their innovation are changing the work, indeed that are. Spirited Teamwork, a culture of learning, work as a family and agile thinking are also part of the corporate culture in Google. And these corporate culture have shaped Google.

My opinion:
I think that the corporate cultures of Google work perfectly well in it. I do as well believe that trust is indeed very important. Without trust, the workers can no longer work together as a team, as a family. They are also trusted as Page lets them to decide their own works. The employees have faith in him and he trusts them. That is how a company runs fine in harmony. Besides, the workers are encouraged to think and do big as they are working in Google. By doing these, Google can only step out in the world of technology. Taking good care of the employees and their families, and they will too take even better care of you customers as Larry Page takes care of them well. It's as simple as that in the field of business.

Citation:

• "The Real Secret of Google's Corporate Culture." Corporate Culture Pros. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.corporateculturepros.com/2013/07/the-real-secret-of-googles-corporate-culture/>.
• "Corporate Culture." Entrepreneur. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/corporate-culture>.

Motivation

Motivation is very important in a business. The employees must be motivated only can result a better work quality.

Financial Rewards
The simplest reason that why people work, it is because money, they want to earn money thus they work, the more they are paid, the more they are motivated. Payment systems are the way a business use as a motivation for their workers.

• Wages and Salaries - it is given to the employees end of the month according to the pay of per hour worked. 
• Piece-rate - pay by the piece of items the workers produce 
• Fringe Benefits - addition benefits that is not money such as company cars or phones, insurance, free meals. 
• Performance-related pay - pay based on performance, there are usually targets for workers to reach 
• Profit-sharing - workers receive company's profits  
• Share ownership - shareholders receive bonus

Non-Financial Rewards
Provide with non-financial reward just to satisfy the workers.

• Job enlargement - involve the addition of extra, similar, tasks to a job 
• Job enrichment - new sources of job satisfaction by increasing the level of responsibility of the employee are added 
• Job rotation - changing jobs of the workers to let them gain experiences and learn variety of skills 
• Empowerment - power and authority is given to the workers to perform designated tasks 
• Teamwork - working with a group of people to achieve the goal required 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

Basic needs and growth needs are divided five stage model. The lower basic needs need to be satisfied first before meeting the higher level. 

1.  Physiological needs 
2. Safety needs 
3. Social belong needs 
4. Esteem needs 
5. Self-Actualization needs 

How does Google motivate their employees? 

Ever wonder why Google has been ranked number 1 in fortune's latest annual list of "100 Best Companies to Work For"? 

People want to work in Google is also led to the fact that they are too motivated. Medical and dental facilities, valet parking, oil change and bike repair, free washers and dryers, and free breakfast, lunch and dinner on the Mountain View campus, these facilities are sounded so far apart from work. However, you can get all these unique facilities in Google company as fringe benefits. Hearing such things has already made you dying to work at there. 

Google believes that many people are not motivated by pay incentives alone, thus they provide such amazing benefits. More than the extrinsic reward, people who choose to come to Google, come for other reasons besides just the outward perks and rewards. They come for freedom. 

When you feel like working there which means you are motivated. This is what Google wanted their employees to be. Google motivates them by providing them such awesome facilities, "to create the happiest, most productive workplace in the world", said Jordan Newman, a Google spokesman. 

"Google wants people to be comfortable when they work, and wants people to be able to work the way they want to. As long as they are happy and they are making other people happy." 

Google has also motivated their employees started from the lowest level needs of Maslow's hierarchy of needs which is psychological needs. Some practical examples that Google provides to motivate their employees are to allow them to take off time to spend with their family. 

My opinion: 

I think Google has used the best ways to motivate their employees because of the benefits it can provide. It is true that people come to work for freedom and Google knows what we want. Google provides what other companies can hardly provide. It makes us want to work, feel motivated, never get bored and give out best while working. It does not focus on giving benefits such as money because that is what other companies do. Mostly other companies only provide money to the workers and it causes that employees only work for money, they do not feel happy, the quality of work that do may not be good because they are not motivated. Where Google is different, the things that they provide make them happy, they feel like continue working in Google and provide their best in work because they like what they are doing. And this is what motivation really are. 

Citation: 

• BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/people/motivationrev1.shtml>.
• "Motivation - Job Enlargement." Motivation - Job Enlargement. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.tutor2u.net/business/people/motivation_financial_jobenlargement.asp>.
• "Job Rotation." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-rotation.html>.
• "Teamwork." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/teamwork.html>.
• "Site Navigation." Greatist. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://greatist.com/happiness/healthy-companies-google>.

Training 
Job Training provides workers knowledge and skills and more information about their tasks to perform better on their jobs. Many businesses provide job training as the effective job training contribute success to the company.

On job training
Opportunity of workers getting to learn the theory and hands on skills required on the same places where they work regularly. In this way they do not lose time while they are training or learning. The employees are guided by a supervisor or colleague through tasks and processes.

Off job training
It is a form of training that can help increasing their productivity which takes place away from the workplace. General skills and knowledge that is useful for work will be taught during the training. It is particularly effective for non-technical skills as employees can use these across different areas of the company.

Job training in Google
Same as any other company, Google provides job training. The employees undergo the google training session as on job training. More and more training classes, about a third of its 33,100 strong global workforce join through the in house program, were provided by Google. The companies have been seeking better training to boost their employees' performance. The specific classes that Google provides are based on their working area and career stage. Management experts say that the employees have to apply the job training to their daily work lives on can do well in it. New managers are receiving the training just before performance reviews begin rather than as soon as they are hired. The on the job training in Google are lecture and a lot others as there are tons of facilities in the company, where off the job are activities outside the company.


My opinion:
I think Google manage their job training pretty great because they are willing to spend the money for the employees to do training. The workers will learn a lot of new knowledge while training and will face lesser problems when working. I think the action of Google making the job training part of the work is very efficient because workers thus will not think that job training is only wasting time.

Citation 

• "Job Training." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-training.html>.
• "Developing Skills in a Large Organisation through Training and DevelopmentA National Grid Case Study." Off-the-job Training. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/national-grid/developing-skills-in-a-large-organisation-through-training-and-development/off-the-job-training.html>.

Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of hiring employees that are qualified to the company's specifications for a job opening. It is usually resided by Human Resources department. There are a few steps in the recruitment process in order to efficiently hire the right people.

Recruitment Process

1. Identify vacancy and evaluate need 
2. Develop position description 
3. Develop recruitment plan 
4. Select search committee 
5. Post position and implement recruitment plan 
6. Review applicants and develop short list 
7. Conduct interviews 
8. Select hire 
9. Finalise recruitment 

Job Description
A job description is designed before recruiting for employees by the human recourses department. It includes the duty, responsibilities, required qualifications, contributions, outcomes needed from a position, of the job. Information about the working conditions, told, equipment, knowledge and skills needed are also included in it. It is more efficient to have a job description before a job opening. A job description is written in job advertisement.

Job specification
Another thing that will include in a job advertisement is job specification. Job specification is a list that describes education, experience, skills, knowledge required in the job. People who want to apply that job have to see whether he or she fits the requirement or not. Job specification helps to save time and works during job opening because those who come to the interview are those who fit the requirement, hence, the employers just have to select the people they want.

Google's job specification

1. BA/BS degree preferred with a strong academic record . Master's degree a plus. 
2. Experience with Microsoft Excel preferred 
3. Capabilities of excellent problem-solving and superior analytical skills 
4. Deep interest and aptitude in data, metrics, analysis and trends 
5. Ability of doing multi-task and managing multiple projects 
6. Excellent communication skills 

Google's recruitment and hiring process 

1. The process - submit your resume online after browsing for a job that fits you 
2. Recruiter Screen - the recruiter will view the resume to check for the technical requirements, education and experience, if the requirements are fitted, the recruiter will inform you to set up a phone screen interview 
3. Phone Screen - A recruiter will explain the process when he or she contacts you. It normally takes about 30 minutes. There will be question asking during the phone screen. 
4. On site interview - The manager and other employees will interview you for 45 minutes each. They will go deep and ask you more detail. Real life problems of the job you apply will be tested to you. You will be also questioned with some weird questions such as: "how many golf balls can fit in a school bus?", "how much should you charge to wash all the windows in Sealtle?", "how many piano tuners are there in the entire world?", "why are manhole overs round?" or "design an evacuation plan for San Francisco". It is to test your quick thinking ability and the thoughts and ideas of yours. 
5. Interview feedback - Feedback of the interviewers will be submitted to the recruiter and he will compare with others. If the consensus is that there is a good fit, and they want to make an offer, it goes to the hiring committee.  
6. Hiring committee - The committee will see all the potential candidates. They too review every piece of feedback and the resume. 
7. Executive review - senior level management reviews every offer. 
8. Compensation committee - The compensation committee determines the appropriate total compensation for the offer. 
9. Final executive review - One of the top execs will look at all employment offers before extending to the candidate. 
10. The offer - An offer will be notified to you and the recruiter will explain the details of the offer. 

From the hiring process, it shows that google is taking the recruitment very seriously. They want to hire the most talented, creative and aritculate people because it impacts on the future of the company. The moment you walk on the campus, you will notice that the google culture is different, yet it works pretty well for google. It is why cultural fit is so important. 

My opinion: 

I think the google's recruitment is pretty good but difficult. From the job description, it clearly says that they want a high degree workers. However, I think that they should not only recruit genius, sometimes, they have to give a chance to other people, those who are talented but weak in studying. Therefor, google should give some exception too. I would definitely want to work in google because the facilities in the campus are amazing. There are workout rooms, cafes, well stocked snack rooms and a lot other surprisingly facilities. 

Citation

• "What Is a Recruitment Process?" - Kelly OCG. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.kellyocg.com/Solutions/Recruitment_Process_Outsourcing/What_is_a_Recruitment_Process_/>.
• "Job Description." About.com Human Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://humanresources.about.com/od/jobdescriptions/g/job_description.htm>.
• "Main Menu." Today Cut. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://todaycut.com/job-specification/>.
• "The HR Intelligence Blog." The HR Intelligence Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.hrintelligenceblog.com/?p=169>.
• "Hundreds of Skill Assessments. Hiring Clarity, Achieved." Google's Recruitment and Hiring Process [Infographic]. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://blog.smarterer.com/googles-recruitment-and-hiring-process-infographic>.
• "Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing." 'Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing' N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2010/09/how-to-get-a-job-at-google-interview-questions-hiring-process.html>.

Organisational Structure 
It is a structure that depends on the organisation's objectives and strategy. The arrangement or pattern of jobs within an organisation is shown in the organisational chart. It also shows a hierarchy of people who have different level of responsibility and tells you the character of an organisation and the values. Hence, people who are getting into a new job in a organisation are encouraged to know and understand their organisational structure. Any operating organisation has its organizational structure in order to operate efficiently.

Types of Organisational Structure 

Bureaucratic Structures

• Pre-bureaucratic Structure - The structure is centralised and appears like hierarchy. There is only one key decision maker and most communication is done by one-on-one conversations. It is usually used by small organisations. 
• Bureaucratic Structure - This structure has a certain degree of standardisation. They are better suited for more complex or lager scale organisations, usually adopting a tall structure. 
• Post-bureaucratic Structure - Post-bureaucratic structure inherits the strict hierarchies. 

Functional Structure

This structure is grouped based on functional areas as marketing, research and development and finance. Employees with same skills and knowledge are grouped together by functions  performed. However, different functional groups have no chance to communicate and caused decreasing flexibility and innovation. 

Line Structure 

It is perhaps the simplest organisational structure. Line organisational chart shows the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions or jobs. It can be split into smaller charts for separate departments when an organisational chart grows too large. 

Matrix Structure 

Matrix Structure is the combination of functional and divisional structure. It provides flexibility to respond quickly to a customer needs by allowing employees from different departments to come together temporarily to work on special project teams.

Organisational Chart in Google Company 

The organisational chart used in google is a regular functional structure and a little combine with multidivisional structure, with management positions specialised by value chain activity. All employees are divided into groups according to what they can do that helps the company operating well. The structure above clearly shows within each top-level activity, there is a multidivisional structure where the small business unit is are divided. This form of structure is applied well in google because it gives the small business units the flexibility to innovate at the same time it is centralized. Google has grouped the workers as though into many small start-up companies within the division to match with its own management style, laissez-faire. 

My opinion: 

I think Google functions well using functional structure as they are applying laissez-faire style. Thus, every worker does their own jobs and later combine with others' and then inform the headquarter. I would not change anything if i were in charge because I think it works good in its own ways. 

Citation: 

• "Functional Structure." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <https://www.boundless.com/management/organizational-structure--2/common-structures/functional-structure/>.
• "Line Structure." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <https://www.boundless.com/business/organizational-structure/models-of-organization-structure/line-structure/>.
• "Tutorials Point Simply Easy Learning." Organizational Structures. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/organizational_structures.htm>.
• "Organizational Structure." Organizational Structure. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.slideshare.net/ahmad1957/organizational-structure-1340467>.
• "Ben Morrow." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://benmorrow.info/blog/leadership-culture-at-google-inc>.

Google

Currently, over 2 million companies and 20 million users have gone Google. However, how many of them actually know who created Google? 

Leadership

Leader born or made? 

There is never an exact answer for this question. Many people say leader is born but many of others say leader are made. I personally think that everyone is born a leader, then is made. In the other point of view, it means that leader is made, because everyone is born the same and it just whether you want to be made or not. Leaders are made by hard work, which is the price that people have to pay to achieve their goals. 

Larry Page - Google founder

It was never a surprise that Larry Page took the study course of computer engineering at Stanford University as his parents were both computer experts. While in his Ph.D. program, he met Sergey Brin, and together they created Google. Larry Page came out with the idea of a search engine by linking web pages together while doing on his research project. This search engine was named after the mathematical term "Googol, which is one followed by hundred zeros, represented the immense amount of data Google was intended to explode. The very first version of Google was published in 1996 and the company was launched in 1998.

                                                                                                                                  Google's original homepage

Today, Google has become the world's most popular search engine. It has more than 10,000 employees with annual incomes of more than ten billion dollars by 2006. In the same year, Google purchased Youtube for 1.65 billion dollars. Page continues to share responsibility for Google's day-to-day operations with Sergey even they are already billionaires. 

Larry Page has spent almost his entire life at Google, he created it and introduced it to the world. His successfulness brings him wealth, but what brings his successfulness? 

Larry Page's leadership style

The outstanding growth of Google could not have turned out if it hadn't been for Page. He had displayed his excellent leadership style more than just intelligence. Page insists that bureaucracy can never work in his company. It applies a laissez-faire policy toward leadership. This company is packed of smart engineers, thus Page believes his employees are smart enough to figure out their own staff or question others if they needed help. 

My opinion: 

As you know, laissez-faire, which means "leave it be", describes leaders who allow their employees to work on their own. In my opinion, I think this style of leadership works pretty well in Google company. It is because those employees are graduated from prestigious university, they definitely know what they are doing, as a result, they perform better under laissez-faire leadership style. With advantages come disadvantages, the main problem of laissez-faire leadership style is that it might be less productive because the workers held an " as long as the work gets done" attitude. However, employees that are led under Larry Page do not equip this attitude, Page has his ways to handle his people, this makes me admire him so much. 

"A great leader who uses laissez faire leadership reds to assemble a great team of high achievers and performers who do not need hands on supervision" 

Citations:

• "Official Enterprise Blog: Over 2 Million Companies Have #goneGoogle around the World." Official Enterprise Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013. <http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/10/over-2-million-companies-have.html>.
• "Larry Page Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/larry-page-12103347>.
• "Larry Page." Famous Entrepreneurs. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013. <http://www.famous-entrepreneurs.com/larry-page>.
• "The 8 Most Important Qualities of Leadership at Google." RealTime Leadership. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013. <http://www.realtimeperformance.com/RealTimeLeadership/2011/the-8-most-important-qualities-of-leadership-at-google/>.
• "Leadership Styles." - Leadership Skills from MindTools.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.<http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm>.