Motivating Employees at Google Discussion Questions After reading the case, respond to the questions at the end of the case. Your response should be at lea

Motivating Employees at Google Discussion Questions After reading the case, respond to the questions at the end of the case. Your response should be at least 1.5 complete pages, typewritten, 12pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins. Please number each response. MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES AT GOOGLE
Google is the most popular search engine on the Internet today and While Google has grown exponentially since its founding, it still
earns revenues for one-third of all online advertising in the United has an aura of an informal, small company where highly motivated
States.83 Its popularity is due, in no small part, to Google, Inc.’s Googlers work on projects to achieve organizational objectives of
steadfast objective to provide the best search results possible to its speed and cost-containment, projects that they have the autonomy to
users and organize the world’s information 84 Google’s organi- pursue and a sense of ownership to have succeed.” Marissa Mayer,
zational objective dictates that users’ experiences are paramount. Vice President of Search Projects & User Experience, is involved in
Consequently, employees are continually collecting data on what many of these projects and interfaces between engineers with PhDs
users like and don’t like and what will improve that experience. 86 and managers with MBAs to ensure that the best projects see the
About 20,000 people work at Google, many of them top-notch en- light of day. Mayer, whose office with glass walls is purposely lo-
gineers.87 Creating algorithms that make searches on Goggle the cated next to the snack area frequented by engineers and program-
most efficient in the industry while keeping costs low is a consum- mers, not only holds office hours for Googlers but also is typically at
ing passion for Google’s employees (known as Googlers).88 work from 9 A.M. to midnight and available for engineers to stop by
Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who met as and discuss their ideas. Just as speed is essential to Internet searches,
graduate students in computer science at Stanford University in so too is it to new product development, according to Mayer. As she
1995, collaborated on a search engine called Back Rub back in puts it, “I like to launch (products] early and often. That has become
1996.89 They continued to work on the search engine from Larry’s my mantra.”99 And having such a mantra is motivational for
dorm room, and in 1998, sought funding to found their own com- Googlers as they know their ideas will be listened to and heard and
pany, Google, Inc. in Menlo Park, California. The rest has been lit- what they are doing is important not only for the company but also
eral history as Google, now located in the Googleplex in Mountain for users around the globe.
View, California, has grown at a phenomenal rate.90 And Google Recently, some engineers at Google have been given even
continues to grow. For example, in the first quarter of 2010, higher levels of autonomy and resources to pursue projects on
Google’s revenues were $6.78 billion (a 23 percent increase over their own that managers hope will be highly innovative. 100 For ex-
the first quarter of 2009) and net income for the quarter increased ample, Lars and Jens Rasmussen are Google employees in
more than 37 percent over the prior year’s quarter to 1.96 billion.91 Australia who work on Google Maps and also happen to be broth-
Google is a truly global corporation with offices in Europe, ers. 101 A project they were pursing on the side focused on a new
Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Latin America, kind of communication system that might even be thought of as a
Canada, India, Korea, and the Middle East.92
replacement or substitute for email and allows for collaboration
A key ingredient for Google’s ongoing success story is the and communication in real time. Founders Page and Brin and Eric
way in which Google creates a motivating work setting for its em- Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
ployees. Fueled by the overarching objective of providing users Google, thought the idea sounded interesting, told the brothers to
with the ultimate search, Googlers concentrate on giving users ex- pursue it, and gave them all the resources they needed, including
actly what they want at breakneck speed. To achieve results like dozens of employees.102 The Rasmussen’s project, Google Wave,
these, employees at Google are given the flexibility and autonomy was in a limited preview in May 2010.103
to experiment, take risks, and sometimes fail. They are encouraged For this and the many other projects ongoing at Google, engi-
to learn from their failures, however, and apply what they’ve neers, managers, and all employees have the overall objective of
learned to subsequent projects.94
“providing the best user experience possible. 104 Given the popu-
Google’s engineers are provided with 1 day a week to work on larity of Google, this objective is serving Google, its managers and
their own projects that they are highly involved with, and new employees, and its users very well.
products such as Google News often emerge from these projects.
Managers, including founders Page and Brin, believe that good Questions for Discussion
ideas can be found from anyone anywhere in the company and all
1. How would you characterize engineers’ jobs at Google in
Googlers are encouraged to come up with the next big idea.
terms of the job characteristics model?
Googlers can post proposals for new projects on a mailing list that
circulates throughout the company. Top managers have office
2. Why are engineers at Google given one day a week to
hours during which employees can drop in, discuss new ideas and
work on their own projects?
projects, and receive feedback. These projects often call on a vari-
3. Why do you think Page, Brin, and Schmidt gave the
ety of employee skills. For example, Google’s international web-
Rasmussen brothers high levels of autonomy to develop
master in the mid 2000’s who came up with the site’s holiday logo Google Wave?
translated the whole site into Korean and the chief operations en- 4. How might Google’s overarching objective of providing
gineer at this time was also a neurosurgeon. Engineers collabo- the best user experience influence the goals engineers set
rate with each other on their projects and with managers.
for themselves as they pursue new projects?

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