Contemporary firms, particularly, those that work in competitive environments leverage fundamental driving forces to shape their organizational environment. Emphasis on these factors is critical because it determines the productivity, performance and success of companies. To illustrate, Google, an American technology company, boasts key driving forces that enable it to establish and maintain a leading position in offering products that provide value to users, for instance, search engines and advertizing platforms. To develop a keen understanding of fundamental driving forces and how they determine organizational environment, this paper delves into Google and investigates how these factors shape its internal and external environment. The paper argues that the company capitalizes on competing in an international marketplace, technological innovation, ethics and morality and workforce diversity not only to improve corporate culture but also to inform the technology world. What is more, the paper puts forward the argument that Google accentuates practices such as advertizing, which result in desirable organizational outcomes in the form of revenues and customer trust.
Key words: Google, organizational environment, ethics, technological innovation.
The Organizational Environment of Google
In the modern business world, each company has key driving forces that determine its organizational environment. At the core of each corporate environment are critical conditions and entities that have a significant impact on a corporation’s operations and performance. Case in point, Google, one of the best employers and most valuable companies across the globe, boasts a set of forces that shape its environment in the market and industry. Noteworthy factors include competing in an international marketplace, technological innovation, ethics and morality and workforce diversity. Moreover, the multinational technology company implements specific practices that play a pivotal role in enabling it to achieve desirable organizational outcomes since its foundation in 1998.
Google’s Fundamental Driving Forces
Competing in an International Marketplace
Nearly two decades since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, the company has established itself as a global competitor and has significantly shaped its organizational environment, which comprises customers, competitors and suppliers. In particular, the efforts of the California-based firm to cover the global market by providing products that solve people’s problems and that offer value to customers has revolutionized users’ experience. As an illustration, global customers can rely on the company’s website services to search the internet for information in different areas such as education, health and social life. What is more, the firm’s move to serve global consumers has attracted others firms, for instance, IBM and Yahoo, which have discovered new market opportunities to operate and offer substitute products, for instance, email services and advertizing. For these reasons, Google’s efforts to compete in the international marketplace has shaped its organizational environment considerably to benefit consumers and at the same time challenge business rivals.
Workforce Diversity
The technology giant emphasizes workforce diversity which entails employing a heterogeneous group of people from different backgrounds and gender. Consequently, this driving force improves the company’s internal environment, in particular, corporate culture, because workers gain an in-depth understanding of the importance of working collaboratively to attain certain goals and objectives. According to the company’s latest diversity statistics released in 2016, 31% of its total employees are women, up from 30% in the previous year (Lee, 2016). Furthermore, the author, who is Google’s former head of diversity, notes that the number of Blacks and Hispanics workers has increased significantly in the recent years; hence, confirming the firm’s commitment towards creating an inclusion culture. As Saxena (2014) asserts, a corporate culture that accentuates diversity leads to increased productivity and creativity. Indeed, Google’s workforce diversity corroborates arguments by Saxena (2014) since besides promoting an effective and strong organizational environment, it fosters innovation and creativity that enables it to gain a competitive edge globally.
Ethics and Morality
Google’s emphasis on ethics and morality greatly improves its internal organization environment by engendering an ethical corporate culture. According to Chouaib " Zaddem (2013), employees who observe ethics and morality in the workplace are more likely to complete their duties with integrity and honesty than those who act unethically. In the same vein, the authors point out that workers who apply ethics and morals to guide their workplace behavior abide by rules and employee policies while endeavoring to achieve individual and collective goals. To demonstrate, Google encourages workers and leaders to act ethically by providing all users impartial access to information, offering high-quality services and focusing on meeting the needs of customers without discrimination. As a result, the element of ethics and morality serves as a driving force that shapes an internal organizational environment by guiding workers, directors and managers on ways to use ethics to govern their decisions and activities.
Technological Innovation
Correspondingly, Google’s focus on technological innovation has played an instrumental role in shaping its external and internal environment. Since its foundation, the corporation has developed key products with the aim of meeting global customers’ needs, especially with the advancement in technology in different fields. As an illustration, among myriad products, the firm has developed Google Chrome, a freeware web browser, and Android, a mobile operating system, that offer browsing services and supports smartphones respectively. These critical innovations not only improve customers’ experience but also build an innovation culture within the organization, particularly, with the increase in the number of business rivals, such as Mozilla Firefox. Indeed, the focus on technology within the company influences managers’ and employees’ decisions because they acknowledge that they compete for the same market opportunities with other global companies. Therefore, this discussion amply confirms that, as a driving factor, technological innovation affects Google's internal and external environment significantly.
Effects of Google’s Practices and Policies on the Organizational Outcomes
One of the most critical practices that result in the desired outcome is advertizing. As a company, Google generates its revenues from advertizing through a service known as Google Adwords. When a user logs in to Gmail, Google Maps or YouTube, Google recommends particular websites and advertizers pay the firm every time a user clicks on an ad. However, the organization has formulated a policy that prohibits advertizers from making misleading or false claims through the platform. As a consequence, many users trust Google Adwords, and some of them click on the advertisements and proceed to purchase certain goods and services from advertizers. Therefore, the combination of Google’s practices (advertizing) and policy (on making true claims) contributes to desirable organizational outcomes in the form of revenues and user trust.
Practices Associated With Work Attitudes in U.S. Organizations
Building a culture of inclusivity serves as one of the most critical practices associated with work attitudes in American organizations. As the world labor market continues to widen due to factors such as globalization and effective communication and transportation infrastructures, companies emphasize employing people from various backgrounds to enhance diversity. Unlike in past centuries, people today can search the internet and apply and secure jobs abroad. Undoubtedly, this trend promotes diversity within companies, in particular, global organizations. According to Sharma (2016), corporations can address the effects of inclusion by fostering diversity not only to build a firm’s reputation but also to allow a corporation to have different points of views to various situations and problems. For that reason, promoting inclusion is an essential practice that is affected by diversity within U.S organizations.
To sum up, competing in an international marketplace, technological innovation, ethics and morality and workforce diversity are fundamental driving factors that have a significant effect on Google’s environment. The forces influence customers’ decisions by improving their user experience and providing business rivalry that challenges competitors. In the same way, the factors shape the organizational culture of the company by influencing employees’ and managers’ decisions concerning commercial and routine operations of the firm. Moreover, Google’s emphasis on advertisement practices and policies that govern advertisers’ activities enable the firm to attain desirable outcomes, especially revenues and trust, which contribute to its long-term success and sustainability. As the paper shows, Google utilizes its driving forces effectively to shape its environment. For this reason, companies that desire to be successful like the technology firm ought to implement similar strategies.
References
Chouaib, A., " Zaddem, F. (2013). The Ethical Climate at Work. Journal of Revue Interdisciplinaire Management, Homme " Entreprise, Entreprise, 9, 15-30. DOI:10.3917/rimhe.009.0015
Lee, N. (2016). Focusing on Diversity. Retrieved on January 20, 2018 from https://blog.google/topics/diversity/focusing-on-diversity30/
Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity. Journal of Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, 76-85. Doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00178-6
Sharma, A. (2016). Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Journal of Cogent Business " Management, 3, 1-14. Doi: 10.1080/23311975.2016.1212682
