Organizational Theory – Google
Achieving sustainable competitive advantage is central to the strategies of virtually all organizations hence the necessity to maximize performance of such as a whole. Therefore, a requirement is to apply business psychology and educational disciplines inside the organization to inform the perspectives and orientation that that organization will pursue. This endeavor is also critical in human capital management within the organization. Organizational perspective highlights the role of key decision makers’ organizational context in this respect by paying attention to the organization’s structure, demography, locus and degree of institutionalization. To wit, organizations affect employees’ strategies and how they want to achieve their goal. How interests and goals themselves of both the organization and the individuals are shaped by organization’s perceptions.
In this paper, three dominant perspectives – modernist, symbolic interpretative and post-modern – will be discussed, drawing the case organization Google. There are two levels wherein these perspectives could be explored from ontological (theory of existence) and epistemological (theory of knowledge) approach.
Modernist perspective
Modernist perspective views the organization as a system which can be divided into different subsystems. Nevertheless, these systems and subsystems are either integrated or complementing each other or connected by linking mechanisms. Hatch (1997) noted that the organizational systems is situated within the supersystem of the environment that it relates and belongs. A hierarchical scheme, the systems generate ‘levels’ of work that operate differently. An outgrowth of this is that differences in roles played within the organization, depending on their level on the hierarchy. As such, the modernist perspective assesses organizations in formal and structural terms compared to post-modern perspective that evaluates organizations in proactiveness, aligning structuralism and other positivistic methods. This is the direct opposite of symbolic interpretative perspective which claims that subjective factors such as values, beliefs, culture and language should be well-understood and held together by all.
Rayward (2008, p. 234) underscores that the idea of a World Brain has been taken to an emblematic of the modern information society as represented by the Internet and the World Wide Web. The ever-multiplying and increasingly complex interconnections that occur in the digital world gave birth to a new kind of intelligence. Google is one among the emergent intelligence that embraces a take-it-as-it-comes corporate philosophy. Such a tool accommodate the intransigent reality that the ever-expanding store of human knowledge is almost incalculably massive in scale and is largely viewpoint-dependent, fragmented, complex, ceaselessly in dispute and always under revision. Google as a search engine giant had changed the landscape of new encyclopedism, driven by the increasing mobilization of man’s knowledge and which is involved in the management of information.
Today, Google is universally recognized as the global titan of Internet search engines and one of the most influential forces in the fast evolving world of global telecommunications (Hillstrom, 2007, p. 267). Google, on the other hand, sees itself as a search company and not an engine that enable users to connect to the right information when they want it. Bryan and Joyce (2007, p. 218) describe Google as external market, that acts as both knowledge creator and knowledge trader, for public knowledge. The maximization of knowledge sharing fully materialized because of the existence of Google. Google views knowledge as an intangible wherein the value of such can be strengthened by means of providing the public an incentive to view knowledge in the same manner. Codifying tacit knowledge, an evidence is the high response rate for Adsense (inserted adverts into web owners) and Adwords (key words search) and page view report for the fragmented market.
Symbolic interpretative perspective
Symbolic interpretative perspective, on the other hand, perceives informal organization as more important. Real organization life resides in particular work settings where employees learn to work with each other through repeated personal interface around goals to achieve. Symbolic interpretative perspective also views the organization that is enacted by people whom are developing work practices (Hatch, 1997). Organizational reality is apparently socially constructed, a central idea that enables organizations to situate themselves in the broader understanding of organizational life compared to a modernist perspective that believes authentic knowledge is produced on the basis of actual experience of the organization itself.
Potts (2007, p. 289) states that Google basically reinvented the way search engines work especially that the other providers had modeled their techniques after the giant. This could be the reason behind why an effort of optimizing a site for Google often cascades to competing search engines. Google’s innovative approach boils down to ranking results by link popularity. Because Google continuously adjusts its algorithms to produce better results, people keep coming back to find reliable answers. Google, further, had created a new culture on the Internet for its users through the utilization of immense information (Chadwick and Howard, 2008, p. 382). Google responded to the threat of large-scale excluded content by treating it as a broader concern without website management including the promotion of own page rank search engine ranking algorithm.
Symbiotic functions for users to command inputs while also editing and reviewing contents are provided. Google had created the Google Co-op as well which is an experiment in user participation (Miller, 2006, p. 706). Such experiment is a way for Google users to improve Google search by letting users label web pages and create specialized links related to their own unique expertise. Filtering results based on user-created labels was made possible by Google Co-op as well. Another aspect of Google Co-op is the subscribed link which is essentially a hardwired sponsored link for related services that will appear at the top of relevant search results.
For its staff, Google cultivates culture values of ‘coolness, playful and self-starter.’ Henry (2006, p. 174) states that the organizational culture can have a big impact on whether people can pursue areas of intrinsic interest to them that are also potentially creative for their organization. Such a process allows staff freedom as to how they will organize their work and achieve their goals. Google adheres to the trend of pushing decisions down and empowering staff helps in this respect whereas scrutiny of all aspects of work can inhibit creativity at work. Google also allows some staff a proportion of their time to work on projects of their own choosing. The company requires staff to attract colleagues to devote some of their free work-time to that project to demonstrate support for its viability.
Further, Schnell (2007) relate that within Google “20 percent project” is an ongoing norm wherein engineers are asked to allocate 20 percent of their time working on a project of their own choice. The idea behind this is further promote an innovative culture, evolving an iterative process. Aside from innovation, the Google management also encourages creativity of its employees, known internally as Googlers. Googlers, alongside Google’s founders, embrace a very informal work culture hence recruitment, for instance, is a function that is closely scrutinized by founders Larry and Sergey. The right frame of mind is what the two are looking for with only the diverse skills and qualities are the core requirements. Nevertheless, Google also requires that applicants must be a graduate of a top-ranking university, oppositely putting importance on experience (Case Report, 2004).
Post-modern perspective
Basically, the post-modern perspective appears to be highly critical of the modernist perspective. Post-modern perspective, nonetheless, explains the necessity of a considerable degree of self-reflexivity or the willingness to engage in self-exploratory endeavors (Hatch, 1997). Nonetheless, it was Bell (1973) who made first use of the phrase post-industrial society to connote post-modernist perceptions. The changing landscape of industrialization during these times gave birth to global diffusion and imbalance of capital and international trade, respectively. The dominant thinking is that values and norms are changing along with industrial changes and these values are fundamentally disconnected from and between social structures and cultures (Boje, 2001). Rationality and efficiency are the central values and with individuals with no defined roles as free market dominates.
Google provides power from free information and strong user database. Today, it is possible for every business or individual to have Google-powered search capability on your own site (Sherman, 2005, p. 390). Google Free lets its user install a Google-powered search engine on personal sites at no charge. Google Free is also available for Google Free web search, Google Free SafeSearch and Google Free wed search with site search. There is also no need to register to install Google Free on own sites but just have to visit the Google Free page then cut and paste the code from that page on to own web site pages.
Lessig (2005, p. 48) maintains that search engines are a measure of a network’s intimacy wherein Google brought the Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of search on the network. Google even provides intranet search engines or search engines that search within the network of a particular institution. As such, contents or information and even activities could be shared with others (Conner, 2008, p. 570). Users can also set sharing options in the domain either inside or outside. Outside the domain, Google assumes that users does not want to share details but it could be set as only free/busy information, share all information but outsiders cannot change details and share all information but outside can change details. Within the domain, options are: no sharing, only free/busy information and share all information.
Moreover, Google had developed a rich user experience web service based around a collation of many technologies that are collectively known as Ajax. Ajax refers to the potential of the web to deliver full scale applications which hit the headlines when Google introduced Gmail, Google Maps and other services (Davis, 2005, pp. 59-60). Dubbed as the mega database, Google claims that the privacy of the information is secure. Specifically, the index to your information is stored on own computer and would not be shared with Google or anyone else without the permission of the one researching. Google Desktop Search offers a way to be used if there is the necessity to go through own data repositories. Keywords, nonetheless, are critical in crafting better searches.
Aside from treating information as power, Google also lives by the motto: “Don’t be evil.” Googlers apply such ideal on the way they serve users. To say, users receive an unbiased access to information to cater to their needs and requirements but doing what is right has much importance specifically via obeying the law, acting honorably and respecting others. Google’s Code of Conduct is one practice of “Don’t be evil” that is built around the perception that everything that is happening is the Googleplex will be, and should be measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct (Google online). However, there are times that the motto could be changed to reflect an image that is true to what Google is. A recent image strengthening effort revealed the intentions of Google to penetrate censor-restricted countries like China.
References
Bell, D. (1973). Postmodern perspective. In The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books.
Boje, D. M. (2001). Toward a Narrative Ethics for Modern and Postmodern Organization
Science. Paper rejected by Organization Science.
Bryan, L. L. & Joyce, C. I. (2007). Mobilizing minds: creating wealth from talent in the 21st century organization. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
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Google Code of Conduct. Retrieved on 26 June 2009, from http://investor.google.com/conduct.html.
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Hillstrom, L. C. (2007). The industrial revolution in America. ABC-CLIO.
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Miller, M. (2006). Googlepedia: the ultimate Google resource. Pearson Technology Group.
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Rayward, W. B. (2008). European modernism and the information society: informing the present, understanding the past. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
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Sherman, C. (2005). Google power: unleash the full potential of Google. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
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