This focuses on Google's Culture.

1. GOOGLE AND CULTURE
By Amtheyst Floyd

2. Article Review
 Google believes in “internal transparency”
 Engineers are allowed access to all codes on the
first day.
 Goals are clearly stated to all employees
 Transparency Repots are data request from the
government, also accessible to employees.
 Creates an environment of psychological safety.

3. Article Review
 Google believes in very open communication
 Google uses the “Transparency Rule.”
 They believe that if you have a problem with another
employee, instead of bad mouthing them via email,
you should bring the problem to them directly.
 They do this by adding the victim of the bad mouther
to the email, allowing them to see exactly what is said.

4. Strong Culture: Values
 People should feel like they are in a ‘psychological
safe space.’
 They believe everyone who is contributing to a
topic should speak an equal amount.
 It is important to hire people from many different
places with different outlooks on life because it
strengthens their ability to have growing diversity.

5. Strong Culture: Heroes
 One hero of Google is Laszlo Bock. He is the head
of Google’s Human Resources department, and he
is the reason Google’s Headquarters looks the way
it does. He did a large amount of research on what
makes people happy workers and his results have
proven to work. The Google Headquarters is
known for looking more like an adult park, but
many of the workers have agreed that it has helped
with stimulation and creativity.

6. Strong Culture: Rites and Rituals
Examples are
Having a small get together with your boss on
the first day to better create a relationship
Eating together at lunch tables
Having meetings in dinner booths instead of a
conference room
Inviting other members to join in on video games
and ping pong games.

7. Strong Culture: Network
Networking is done with through face to
face interaction, emails, and newsletters.
From earlier mentioning the transparency rule, it
is easy to see that they value open and honest
communication however it may come about.
Google believes this to be a good way to leave
negative energy outside of the work place.

8. Excellent Organizations: A Bias For
Action
 Google is not very known for this. They believe to
think out their actions and consult their employees
to gather a better understanding. They will go into
deep discussion and gather the opinion of everyone
involved as to see if there is a better option or way
of doing things.

9. Excellent Organizations: Close
Relations
 Google has proven to do this with it’s continuously
growing number of options. Such as Google Docs,
Slides, and Books. A customer is able to reach
these things on any device that receives internet
and has a Google account. This allows for
resources to easily accessible.

10. Excellent Organizations: Autonomy
 When talking about the innovations of Google, it is
hard to not repeat oneself. Google believes in
innovation, creation, and adaptation. They believe
in pushing their employees to think out of the box
from the beginning. One example is an interview
question.
 “You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your
mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your
original density. You are then thrown into an empty
glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60
seconds. What do you do?”

11. Excellent Organizations: Productivity
 I believe that this falls under the ‘transparency
rule.’ They believe in having an open, healthy
environment for their employees. If you are to
have a problem with a person, you are to talk to
them directly, regardless if they are a lower or
higher level employee.

12. Excellent Organizations: Value Driven
 The current CEO, Larry Page, said the large
companies tend to make many projects, but finish
few. This is a very fair statement, but it does says
something about Google. They are constantly
pushing for innovation. They invite members with
the same values and try to succeed together.

13. Excellent Organizations: Stick To The
Knitting
 I do not believe that this theme belongs in
companies anymore. I say this because companies
will die out if they do not learn to adapt. Earlier
examples of Google not sticking to knitting are
Docs and Slides. Google is adapting to a growing
and constantly changing consumer base. This
appears to be the better idea.

14. Excellent Organizations: Lean Staff
 Google has shown over and over again that they
believe in this ideal. They do have a hierarchy,
which is necessary to help with decision making
and guidance of newer employees, except that they
do not allow this kind of power to destroy the
balance of contribution to the culture. This follows
along with their ‘psychological safe space’ belief.
People are expected to not be demeaned for their
ideas and to contribute equally without fear.

15. Excellent Organizations: Loose-Tight
Properties
 Google’s idea on culture says they believe that they
want and will keep hiring people of diverse
backgrounds. Ideally, they want everyone to have
hands on contribution to their empire. This allows
for the smaller voices within the company to speak
their opinions without having to fall into
groupthink to avoid causing disruption.

16. Strong Culture vs. Excellent
Organizations
 Google has shown to have characteristics from both
sections, but it appears that Google leans towards
Strong Cultures. After comparing the two, and
understanding that these a not two separate groups
but two systems that can work simultaneously, I
think the creators leaned more toward Deal and
Kennedy. I say this because they culture is not
necessarily to better the business, but to better the
members of the business.

17. Questions
 Do they have a problem of employees not
expressing frustrations with higher level employees
because of society’s views on not allowing a person
to express emotions without making it extreme to
emphasize the point?
 How do they deal with employees who are not
willing to express their emotions but instead create
a negative environment with their attitude?

18. Questions
 How has the overly open environment evolved over
the course of Google’s existence?
 How often do they take the time to update it?
 What actions in the past have they have problems

19. Questions
 Do they have a plan to the next time they are going
to update their idea of an open environment?
 How does Google’s culture deal with firing
employees and how far does their compassion to a
“safe psychological” space go?

20. Citations
 Johnson, Timothy. "What Does It Take To Excel In
Google's Culture?" N.p., 7 Sept. 2016. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.
 D'Onfro, Jillian. "How Google's Culture of Transparency
Helps It Prevent 'backstabbing'" Business Insider. Business
Insider, Inc, 18 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.
 Bulygo, Zach. "Inside Google's Culture of Success and
Employee Happiness." Inside Google's Culture of Success
and Employee Happiness. N.p., 15 Aug. 2015. Web. 22 Oct.
2016.
 "Our Culture – Company – Google." Our Culture –
Company – Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016.