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We offer our engineers '20-percent time' so that they're free to work on what they're really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut are among the many products of this perk" (Engineer's life, 2011, Google). Executives rub shoulders with ordinary employees at the Google cafeteria. Employees work at Google as part of non-hierarchical teams.
As an information technology company that requires its product to suit the needs of a constantly-changing market environment, Google's approach seems to make sense. Its tasks are ambiguous, yet it selects employees that are highly motivated and rewards their efforts with extensive perks and bonuses, so they perform at a high standard. Employees, because of their education and intelligence, have a need to give back to the workplace with their own input. However, Apple takes a very different approach. Despite being a company dependent upon innovation, its philosophy has been described as follows: "You work for Apple when you work at Apple. Don't try to make it about you, or spill secrets...You are part of something much bigger than you. The ideas you talk about in the hall, the neat tricks you figured out in CSS, the new unibody machining technique, that's part of your job, something you are paid to do for Apple's success" (Yarow 2010). Even independent ideas generated by workers are subsumed by the company's ethos.
Apple takes a highly directive approach, despite the fact that it has produced many creative products. This may be because it was designed...
Once the idea for the product was generated by Jobs, then it was viewed as the duty of everyone at Apple to realize that vision, not to produce their own creative product or to put their own spin on Jobs' product. The idea that employees were mere cogs in the wheel of the Apple machine was further supported by the lack of employee benefits at Apple. In contrast to Google's free food, fitness center, medical center, and dry-cleaning, even the gym cost a fee (Yarow 2010).
Both Google and Apple have emerged as highly successful companies, despite their distinct managerial philosophies. The participative approach at Google actively strives to feed off of the enthusiasm of its employees to reach corporate goal targets of profitability. It has managed to become the world's leading search engine through its innovation, driven by the efforts of Google employees. In contrast, Apple has attempted to realize a vision of a singular individual in a directive fashion. Whether this can be sustained after the death of its founder remains to be seen.
References
Engineer's life. (2011). Google. Retrieved October 17, 2011 at http://www.google.com/international/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/englife/index.html
Northouse, Peter G. (2006). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage.
Yarow, Jay. (2010). Working at Apple. Business Insider. Retrieved October 17, 2011 at http://www.businessinsider.com/working-at-apple-2010-7#ixzz1b2dy5jer
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