Today, the development of human resource management is one of the essential conditions of the marketing success of any company. In this regard, Google, being traditionally oriented on the introduction of advanced technologies and approaches not only to business but also to management, is particularly concerned with the development of new, effective human resource management strategies. Google is interested strategically in the maintenance of its human resources and employment of well-qualified professionals because human resources constitute an important marketing asset of the company. The intellectual potential of Google?s employees can contribute to the ongoing progress of the company in the market but, to keep professionals employed at Google, the company needs to develop effective human resource management strategies. Today, Google is one of the most advanced companies in terms of human resource management. Google is employee-oriented and the company attempts to develop a positive organizational environment in which employees can feel at ease and, what is more important, which increases the effectiveness and productivity of their work and improves their emotional and physical state. In such a way, the company develops its human resource management strategies which aim at the formation of a specific, positive organizational culture, where employees feel being members of a kind of family, where the company takes care of its employees, creating favorable conditions of work and such strategy is beneficial for both employees and the company.
Google is one of the most successful companies, which has achieved a tremendous success within a short period of time. In fact, the company had benefited from the dot boom which was the characteristic of the late 1990s and in a short period of time the market value of the company had multiplied consistently. Today, the market value of Google exceeds the market of value of such leading American companies as General Motors, for instance. In such a way, Google was oriented on the market of IT and innovations. As a result, the company has reached unparalleled market results overtaking large multinational corporations. However, the innovative nature of the business of Google was not the only factor that determined a commercial success of the company. In this respect, the management system of the company plays a very important role and, to a significant extent, defines the development of the company. Moreover, the effective human resource management is the basis of the effective market performance of Google since in the knowledge-based industry human resources are crucial for the commercial success of any company.
In actuality, Google faces a problem concerning the ongoing development of its human resource management because the company grows rapidly and its human resource strategy has to change or adapt to the new business and organizational environment in which employees of Google have to work. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that, in recent years, Google has grown in one of the largest companies of the world, operating worldwide and employing professionals from all over the world. At the same time, the company attempts to preserve its traditional organizational culture, where the atmosphere of a small company is preserved. The specific organizational atmosphere implies that employees are working together and, in spite of the different status in the organizational hierarchy, they should remain close to each other and develop positive interpersonal relationships as professionals working in small companies do. However, this goal becomes unattainable as the company grows, extends its business internationally and employs more and more employees, while its organizational hierarchy grows more and more complicated. As a result, the company cannot maintain its traditional human resource management strategy. Instead, the gap between top executives and ordinary employees tends to grow wider, even if the stakeholders are not willing to widen the gap. Obviously, the efforts of human resource managers and top executives of the company are insufficient to stop this process. In such a context, the threat of the transformation of Google in a conventional corporation instead of a small-company feel corporation increases. This threat, in its turn, can ruin the traditional human resource management style because conventional corporations have a different human resource management style and different management strategies are needed, along with different motivators and interpersonal relationships.
In such a situation, Google should do definitely its best to maintain its unique human resource management strategy and policy because employees working at Google are creative people, who need to feel belongingness to the organization. Therefore, the widening gap between managers and employees, top executives and their subordinates may lead to the deterioration of the organizational environment and organizational culture. As a result, the risk of conflicts within the company arises and Google can deteriorate its organizational performance not only because of the negative marketing situation but because of organizational problems caused by poor human resource management. The solution of the problem is not easy because, on the one hand, it is necessary to manage a huge corporation, whereas, on the other hand, it is necessary to preserve the small-company feel.
In this respect, it is possible to recommend on the development of team work within Google. In fact, each team working within the company should be granted with certain autonomy to the extent that it can develop its own strategies and policies, develop and introduce innovations. In other words, teams should get as much autonomy as possible but the autonomy should not be boundless. Instead, the strategic goals set by the board of the company should be conveyed to all teams working within Google and they should understand the importance of reaching strategic goals of the company. On the other hand, teams should develop their own strategies and use their own means to reach the ends of the company but their strategies and efforts should focus on the strategic goals of the company and they cannot oppose them.
Naturally, the team work will vary consistently, especially in terms of effectiveness and productivity because some teams will use more effective strategies than others or employ more creative team members than others. In this respect, Google should develop sharing knowledge management as an integral element of its human resource management. As the matter of fact through sharing knowledge within the company, teams can share their positive experience and advancements not only in the field of human resource management and effective organization of workplace environment but also in the field of technologies. As a result, sharing knowledge management can complement team work management and increase the overall effectiveness of the company?s performance through the effective human resource management.
In the contemporary business environment, human capital is considered to be an important asset and many specialists (Clarke, 2000) argue that the role of human resources will grow even stronger and more significant in the future increased the added value and strengthening the marketing position of companies, which manage human resources successfully. Traditionally, Human resource management (Hart, 2004) played a very important role in the functioning of any organization and it should be pointed out that at the present moment the role of human resource management increases even more significantly. Basically, human resource management may be viewed as the strategic approach to the management of organization?s most valued assets, people who are working in the organization. Nowadays, human resources are apparently one of the major valued assets of the company because the potential development of the company and the effectiveness of the implementation of its business strategy heavily relies on its personnel without which an organization cannot meet its strategic goals. In addition, it is necessary to underline that human resources can produce added value only on the condition of an effective management. Otherwise, the ineffective human resources management can lead to the high personnel turnover that can undermine the organizational culture and positive organizational performance, while the human capital of the organization will hardly be able to produce added value at all (Battelle, 2005).
At the same time, the development of an organization in the modern world poses certain threats and challenges to human resource management which should be solved in order to maintain the positive performance of an organization. On the other hand, it is necessary to remember about the close link between human resource management and the business strategy which may be very helpful in overcoming existing difficulties of an organization. In this respect, it should be pointed out that the closer the link between human resource management and the business strategy the more effective is the functioning and performance of a company.
In order to better understand the current situation and the role of? human resource management in the functioning of an organization, it is necessary to briefly dwell upon the major challenges human resource management can face in the present epoch. First of all, it should be pointed out that the modern epoch is characterized by the rapid changes on all levels of human life which inevitably affect human resource management (Notorantonio, 2006). One of the major trends in the modern human resource management is the development of international cooperation between organizations and growing market expansion that leads to the entering of new markets and development of business in new countries. In such a situation, one of the major challenges human resource management faces at the moment is its ability to adapt to the current situation in the market and to the local specific conditions. In this respect, it should be said that the process of international market expansion naturally implies the employment of personnel that has different socio-cultural background, traditions, norms, lifestyle, etc. Consequently, one of the main tasks of a human resource manager is to unite people working in the company and, what is more, make them work effectively (Kotter, 2001). As a rule, this implies the necessity of the development of some common standards that could be acceptable for all employees working in the organization. In other words, it is necessary to develop universal standards meeting the needs of culturally diverse personnel.
Furthermore, another serious problem many organization face in the present epoch is the problem of high level of personnel turnover. Basically, for many companies it is a serious problem to prevent the personnel of the company from leaving their job. In fact, such a situation is basically provoked by the growing competition between companies that is accompanied by the growing struggle of companies for the well-qualified personnel. As a result, they attempt to attract highly professional employees from other companies in order to improve their own performance (Clarke, 2000). On the other hand, the reason for high level of the personnel turnover is poor conditions of work. In fact, in the situation when employees are dissatisfied with their work, the level of wages, or environment, they naturally chose to change the job and get employed in a new company where they could have better perspectives or where they could work in a more friendly environment.
Also, it should be said that the technological progress may impose another serious problem on human resource management (Battelle, 2005). It is not a secret that the technological progress in recent years has been very rapid and the development of technologies that could be applied in an organization at large and in human resource management in particular has been unparalleled. The development of technologies has a dubious effect on an organization and human resource management. On the one hand, the development and implementation of new technologies evokes the problem of the training of the personnel because it is quite natural that people cannot catch up the technological progress without the assistance of the administration, management of the organization. In such a situation, people need to have a chance to get special training courses and get prepared to the use of new technologies and, what is even more important, it is necessary to prepare employees to the permanent changes which inevitably accompany the implementation of new technologies. On the other hand, the development of IT opened new opportunities to the development of human resource management because new software and IS can provide an organization with larger opportunities to assess the potential of employees more effectively (Smith, 2006). In fact, nowadays a company can use new IS to collect data concerning its employees and assess their progress and potential. In such a way, it is possible to use the existing personnel more effectively, but the problem is that many organizations do not fully use the potential of new technologies in human resource management.
In spite of all possible challenges and problems human resource management can encounter at the present days, it is necessary to underline that the effectiveness of the functioning of an organization is highly dependent on the linkage between human resource management and the business strategy and development of an organization. In this respect, it is possible to speak about several types of linkage between human resource management and business strategy which actually define the effectiveness of the functioning and performance of an organization. As the matter of fact, there may be four types of linkage: no linkage, one-way linkage, and two-way linkage, and integrative linkage (Minehan, 1997, p.168).
First of all, it should be said that probably the most undesirable development of the linkage between human resource management and business strategy of the company is the lack of linkage. In fact, this means that the company realizes its business strategy without taking into consideration problems and needs of human resource management or, to put it more precisely, the business strategy of the company is implemented by means of a strict administrative regulation and pressure on employees. What is meant here is the fact that the business strategy is developed by the administration of the company and its implementation occurs under the strict administrative control that leads to the situation when human resource management and organizational people management function are not linked between each other. As a result, the business strategy may imply the implementation of changes in the functioning of the company and work of employees but, at the same time, there may be no changes introduced in human resource management of the company. Consequently, the administration imposes new demands to employees without changing its attitude to employees and actually using them as tools to meet the business goals of the company. Naturally, this contributes to the alienation of the personnel and the growing gap between business objectives of the company and effectiveness of the functioning of human resource management (Stort and Helft, 2007). Obviously, if there is no linkage between human resource management and the business strategy this eventually leads to the miscomprehension and the growing gap between employees? interests and needs and the business strategy because it is not related to the human resource management and people cannot understand the significance of their work and their contribution in the functioning of the company (Notorantonio, 2006).
As for one-way linkage it seems to be more effective because it implies the link between human resource management and strategic planning. However, it is worthy of mention that it does not necessarily mean that people management and strategic planning are really closely interlinked. As the matter of fact, the one-way linkage implies that either human resource management contributes to the more active participation of people into the development and realization of the business strategy, or the strategic planning process is more focused on the needs and interests of personnel. The latter means that the business strategy is focused on the development of human resource management in order to use it more effectively in terms of the developed business plan to achieve the strategic goals of the company.
However, the two-way linkage is even more effective because it provides the link and cooperation between employees and the administration, between human resource management and the business strategy. What is meant here is the fact that in the case of the two-way linkage of human resource management and the business strategy, there is a reciprocal and interdependent relationship between the strategic planning process and human resource management (Bovee and Thill, 2005). In such a way, this linkage implies that people working in the organization cannot only realize the strategic business plan but they can also influence its development and the administration of the company actively involves employees in the development of the business strategy. In such a way, through the interaction and mutual impact of employees and administration the business strategy may be realized more effectively.
In addition, the most advanced is the integrative linkage which actually represents the dynamic and multifaceted linkage between human resource management and the development of the business strategy. This linkage is based on an integrative relationship and the strategic management process. In practice this means that human resource management and the business strategy are closely interlinked and are interdependent, can influence each other, and interact with each other leading to the improvement of human resource management or the business strategy or even both (Smith, 2006).
Furthermore, the role of human resources increases dramatically due to the growing importance of creativity of employees. To put it more precisely, many organizations operating in different field need employees who are able to generate ideas. In fact, these employees constitute the basis of many contemporary organizations which have already achieved a considerable progress and success. Creative people are particularly inclined to the introduction of innovations which can change the performance of the organization consistently. At the same time, it is creative people who create the large share of added value produced by human resources of any organization (Smith, 2006). In actuality, the introduction of innovations allows organization to progress rapidly and, what is more important innovations allow companies to outpace their competitors and take the leading position in their industry and markets. In fact, the introduction of a new product or service means that the company is the only one in the industry which is offering this product or service to customers. Hence, customers, being attracted by the new product or service, naturally buy this product or service at this company, while its competitors are just starting to develop a similar product or service or its alternative. As a result, a company can take a larger of the market with the new product or service due innovative activities of creative people, while its competitors are likely to lose their share of the market. Consequently, creative employees are able to produce added value and contribute to the growth of the market share of organizations (Clarke, 2000).
At the same time, on analyzing long lasting effects of such creative of human resources, it is necessary to underline the fact that organizations that introduce innovations are more likely to obtain the leading position in the industry and market than companies that follow their example or use existing technologies. It is obvious that companies oriented on innovations produced by their creative employees can shape a positive customer experience since customer will get used to buy new, unique and original products or services at these particular companies (Smith, 2006). Therefore, the level of the customer satisfaction will grow consistently as well as the level of customer loyalty. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the customer loyalty is an important factor that influences the position of the company in the market.
In such a context, it is obvious that creative people can increase customers? loyalty and, thus, these employees contribute to the added value of the company. Moreover, it is necessary to remember about the fact that employees often work directly with customers and it is their work and its efficiency that define whether customers will buy products or services of the company or not. In such a way, employees contribute to the formation of the added value through the interaction with customers and influencing their behavior and interests (Smith, 2006). For instance, employees can stimulate the interest of customers to a specific product or service. In such a way, they can increase the demand on the product or service, while the growing demand will naturally increase production and supply of this product or service as well as it allows the company to increase the price the customers will pay for the product or service.
Also, it is necessary to lay emphasis on the fact that without human resources and human capital, organizations cannot have added value at all. In this respect, it should be said that it is human capital that actually created the added value (Vise and Malseed, 2005).
On analyzing the current position of Google in the market, it is necessary to underline the fact that the company is worth $23 billion (Stort and Helft, 43) and is one of the largest companies of the US. Today, the company employs over 19 thousand employees and, according to the Fortune Magazine, the company is one of the best places to work. In fact, such a progress is really impressing, taking into consideration the fact that the company was founded in 1998 and within less than a decade became one of the leading companies of the US. Google takes in active part in various projects and closely cooperates with the government, while its brand is recognizable worldwide. Such a popularity of the company makes Google one of the most desirable places to work.
However, it is worth mentioning the fact that from the financial point of view the work in Google may be not as attractive as the work in competitive companies. For instance, a system administrator working in Google can earn no more than $35,000 that is apparently lower compared to the average level of earning of system administrators in the industry. Nevertheless, the relatively low salary does not prevent system administrators as well as other specialists get employed in the company. In stark contrast, they are willing to work within the company. In this respect, it should be said that the financial position of Google?s employee is not as bad as one may think on analyzing the level of earnings in the company. Along with the salary, it is necessary to take into consideration the possibility for many early employees of the company to be competitively compensated by participation in the company?s remarkable equity growth (Carr, 123). In such a way, the general revenue of employees of Google is comparable to that of the major competitors of the company and is close to the average in the industry.
At the same time, one of the major factors, which stimulate and motivate employees to work in Google, is the unique organizational culture and atmosphere which dominates within the organization. In general, the human resource management of the company is mainly oriented on the implementation of democratic principles and it is possible to define the management style of the company as liberal since Google is not focused on some strict rules and regulations and its organizational structure is not rigid as the structure of many other companies, especially large one, operating in the US. To put it more precisely, since the foundation of the company, Google was interested in the employment of well-qualified and very prospective employees. What is meant here is the fact that the company, which had started to operate in the knowledge-based, high tech industry, needed employees which could introduce and develop some innovative ideas and effectively within the company.
To increase the effectiveness of work of employees and improve the performance of the entire organization, Google attempted to create the most comfortable conditions for its employees in order to stimulate employees? creativity and productive work. As a result, the company introduced some principles which became fundamental for its management style. For instance, one of the major principles of the company in relation to employees is the idea that ?you can be serious without a suit? (Vise and Malseed, 112). In fact, this slogan perfectly illustrates the democratic nature of the company?s management style and its attitude to employees. Google does not actually impose strict demands concerning employees? appearance or model of behavior.
What is really important for the company is the work itself. Employees working within Google should feel free to express their ideas and implement them in practice as long as they can be effectively implemented and bring considerable profits to the company and its employees. To achieve good results, employees do not need to follow a strict dress code or some rigid rules which regulated their behavior. The company stands on the ground that such restrictions are artificial and, what is more important, they create unnecessary barriers employees are often forced to overcome or accept in other organizations. Naturally, such restrictions and regulations deteriorate the performance of employees because they feel bound while working in such organizations. In contrast, Google stimulates the creative work of its employees and allow any style of work which is convenient for employees and which can bring positive results for the entire company.
However, this management style does not mean that Google does not care about the effectiveness of work of its employees or about results of the work. Obviously, employees can work as they like but they should provide the company with positive results of their work. The positive result of the work is impossible if employees do not progress. This means that the company is interested in the permanent improvement of professional skills and abilities of its employees. No wonder, one of its major slogans is ?work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun? (Vise and Malseed, 134). This principle is also very important because, on the one hand, it does stimulate the professional growth of employees, while, on the other hand, it encourages them to enjoy their work. The latter is particularly important because the effectiveness and productivity of work increase substantially when employees are satisfied with their performance. This satisfaction can be achieved when employees accomplish some challengeable task, which they probably have never thought to accomplish. In such a way, employees are not only satisfied with their work but they are also encouraged and motivated to work on and cope with new challenges. Moreover, they can feel their professional growth and progress as they cope with new challenges in their work. At this point, it is important that employees could have an opportunity, as they do in Google, to define their own challenges and objectives. As a result, their work becomes more personal since they work on a project which is important not only for the company, but it is also important for employees themselves because it is their personal challenge they need to cope with.
Finally, it should be said that Google attempts to create a positive image of the company. In this respect, it is important to underline the fact that the formation of the positive image is oriented not only on customers but also on employees. For instance, another milestone slogan of the company is ?you can make money without doing evil? (Smith, 91). In practice, this means that Google lays emphasis on the fact that the work employees do is useful and even necessary not only for them, in person, or the company, but for other people as well. Employees of Google are conscious of the fact that they work in the high tech industry and their inventions and their regular work contribute to the progress of the entire mankind.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that the current leadership of Google in its industry and its tremendous success are, to a significant extent, determined by the effective management style of the company, which is oriented on the formation of a positive organizational culture, democratic, liberal and positive interpersonal relations and the formation of a positive image of the company among employees of Google. In the present days human resource management is really of a paramount importance for the successful functioning of a company. At the same time, nowadays human resource management faces serious challenges such as the necessity to cope with such problems as high personnel turnover, implementation of new technologies, adaptation to the work of the company in a multi-cultural environment. In such a situation, it is extremely important that human resource management and the business strategy were closely interlinked and integrated because it is only through the permanent interaction of human resource management and the business strategic planning and development it is possible to achieve the best results. Today, Google should develop team work and sharing knowledge management to preserve its small-company feel and maintain the effective human resource management in terms of the corporation operating internationally. Google should maintain its unique strategy and help its employees to realize their full potential that will be beneficial for both employees and the company itself.
Source: http://bestwriting.org/human-resource-management-essay/
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