Quirky Google Culture Endangered?
This article from Wired talks about some of the cultural changes Google may go through after its IPO. Things that may go out: “array of colorful office toys, roller-hockey games, free meals prepared by the Grateful Dead's former chef and a business mandate requiring workers to devote one day per week to their own pet projects.” It’s interesting to analyze this cultural change with Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones’s organisational culture model. They identify two dimensions of culture: sociability and solidarity. This gives rise to 4 different cultural types: Networked, Communal, Mercenary and Fragmented.
Sociability is the friendship, the camaraderie, the esprit de corps that exists between colleagues. Everyone seems to be friends. Everyone seems to know everyone, personally. Knowledge and information seem to flow easily and creativity and innovation is in the air. Flat organization structures and open offices are the norm.
Solidarity is all about working together in unison towards a shared goal, even if personal connections do not exist. Here focus is the key. Business results and bottom line matter most. Hierarchies and closed office doors are the norm.
Networked organizations are high on sociability but low in solidarity so here personal connections become political and shared focus becomes difficult. This is ideal for distributed companies having independent business units.
Mercenary organizations are low on high on solidarity but low on sociability. Here focus, competence and processes rule. Everyone is after targets and socialize only during promotions or winning deals.
Communal organizations seem to be ideal. They are high on both sociability and solidarity. This is the realm of startups. This does not seem to last too long simply because it is too exhausting. Keeping up focus and creativity is hard to do.
You can guess the Fragmented organizations. Universities are in this category.
The point Goffee and Jones try to get across is that one type is not better than the rest; each just reflects the conditions under which you compete. This is useful in explaining Google’s cultural change.
Today Google is in the Communal category – it is innovative and has focus, which is typical of startups of its kind. But after IPO it will have to move into the Mercenary category, simply because it needs those characteristics to compete in the market. Now, the challenge is to bring it back into the Communal type after a few years of focus. This is where Google’s leadership will be tested.
We’ve seen this happen before. Take a look at the Apple story for instance. It’s transition is still in progress.
Permalink | Thursday, April 29, 2004
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