Job satisfaction and employee motivation

Google Management

Job Satisfaction and Motivating Employees at Google

Many factors contribute to Google's unique corporate culture and corresponding strength at innovation, employee retention and productivity. At the center of all these efforts is their unique approach to nurturing innovation, called the "rule of 20%" which states that each employee can spend up to 20% of their time on projects of their choice (Machlis, 244, 245). As of 2009, the rule of 20% accounted for 57% of total company revenues (Taylor, 23, 24). Google Mail, Google Maps and many other innovations are based on the rule of 20%. At a fundamental level, the Google managerial culture nurtures and grows innovation by concentrating on high levels of job satisfaction through task and job ownership and the use of Hertzberg-based job enhancements so the basic needs of employees are met. The following is an analysis of the motivational factors in the Google organizational culture, including how the company continues to create catalysts for creativity in its employee base.

Analysis of Google Motivational Factors

At the center of the Google management strategies and approaches to ensuring a consistently high level of commitment is the continual focus on how to create high levels of autonomy, mastery and purpose throughout their employee base (Ramsey, et.al.). Google, like many high performance organizations, has concentrated on motivating its employees through the unique combination of autonomy, mastery and purpose designed into job roles and responsibilities within the company. With the rule of 20%, employees know they can invest themselves in major projects and trust the company to allow to see them to fruition over time (Machlis, 244, 245). The rule of 20% sets the technical professionals who work at Google free to focus on what they are most interested in and passionate about while at the same time allowing them the freedom to work on what they see as the biggest challenges in the company. There are many parallels to leadership theories to this practice yet the most important is the opportunity to create trust with employees that their efforts will be valued while at the same time building autonomy into their job roles (Ramsey, et.al.).

Factors Relating to Job Satisfaction

The many benefits and free food, exceptional levels of support from free haircuts to massages, and the children's support center all are centered on meeting the more basic needs of employees over time, in effect fulfilling the lower levels of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Rouse, 27). The company is designed to remove as many of the distractions and costly activities in terms of time away from work as possible. By getting these many lower-level needs out of the way Google can have its employees concentrate on the very complex and demanding problems the company is addressing in its product strategies today.

Alleviating the lower-level needs of the employees so they can concentrate their efforts on the more complex and time-consuming tasks of creating innovative new products is the goal of these services. They are consistent with the Maslow hierarchy of needs (Rouse, 27) and do more than just satiate the employees' need for these services; they are the catalyst of greater innovation as jobs in the company have a high degree of autonomy associated with them. For the employee who continually cultivates his new product concept through the rule of 20% process, there is the potential to gain increased status and recognition in the company, and much internal recognition as a thought leader (Taylor, 23, 24). Google has found that this peer-level respect is even more important to many of its engineers and technical professionals than cash or other forms of financial rewards. The company management teams are focused on building a culture of high performance and exceptional insight (Machlis, 244, 245). As a result, the Google reward system is more attuned to the need for achievement and recognition, less on using monetary rewards. Google management wants the employees to find the intersection of what they are passionate about and what the major product needs of the company are (Machlis, 245). Google has found that the Return on Investment (ROI) of their programs is exceptionally high when they can guide employees to this specific intersection of innate interest and passion for an area, and a company need.