W6 Discussion: Case Study on Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit

Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-2 Company Culture Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Kennisha Holloman ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

10-2 Company Culture

Google adopted a decentralized approach to empower its employees. Its corporate

headquarters in Mountain View, California, is known as the Googleplex and consists of a

campus containing such amenities as on-site gymnasiums and swimming pools, an outdoor

volleyball court, and even high-tech “nap pods” for optimized downtime. When Sergey Brin

and Larry Page founded the company, they recognized employees had to put in long hours

to make the company not only successful but flexible enough to adapt to the changing

environment. Thus, Google employees are provided with benefits to make the complex their

second home. The company strives to make its corporate culture fun and innovative.

At the same time, Google works to ensure it has top talent at the company. While it

reinvents the office experience, it also takes different tactics in recruiting to ensure it hires

the most creative, talented individuals. For instance, Google recruiters take a bottom-up

approach when reading résumés. Recognizing that top items such as education and work

experience do not always guarantee the applicant is innovative, some Google recruiters

start at the bottom of the résumé where applicants put more creative information. This type

of mentality—being more concerned with hiring creative people than those who excelled in

school—meshed well with Google’s famous informal policy of allowing employees to spend

up to 20 percent of the workweek pursuing their own unique projects. Not only did this policy

make employees feel empowered, it led to some of Google’s standout products including

Gmail and key improvements to AdSense. However, in 2013 this “20% time” policy was

largely discontinued after Google determined it was splitting its focus among too many

projects. It decided to commit itself to putting “more wood behind fewer arrows.”

Nevertheless, Google’s innovative company culture is one of the major reasons why it has

become successful in so many different market niches.

Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-2 Company Culture Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Kennisha Holloman ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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