Introduction
Google is one of the most famous international corporations in the world. Effective human resource management (HRM) strategies and practices have significantly helped the organization achieve this successful result. Today, multiple people dream of being Google employees because this fact will provide them with many advantages. It is also reasonable to get a more in-depth insight into how HRM works within the given corporation and what specific benefits it can bring. Thus, this paper’s principal aim is to explain how the HR function influences the company’s balanced scorecard, how management and HRM function complement each other, and how HRM supports Google’s strategy formulation.
Influencing Google’s Balanced Scorecard
To begin with, one should explain what a balanced scorecard means. According to Ulrich (1997), the balanced scorecard stands for a stakeholder model that is used to determine how successful a business is. This tool draws attention to the fact that every organization has three groups of stakeholders, including investors, customers, and employees. Thus, a company will succeed if it manages to satisfy the needs of the three. For example, investors rely on stable financial performance, customers look for high-quality products and services, while employees want their organization to be a healthy and productive working place.
Many scientific studies try to find out how to improve the balanced scorecard regarding employees’ measures because investors’ and customers’ expectations are clear. Ulrich (1997) stipulates that three areas are typically used to assess employee satisfaction, and they are Productivity, People, and Process. These domains analyze whether employees get attractive remuneration, how well they perform their functions, what they feel and know, as well as what kind of environment surrounds them. Thus, it is rational to identify how the HR function can influence employee satisfaction and lead to Google’s better balanced scorecard.
According to the information above, there is a correlation between the HR function and employee satisfaction. Thus, it is necessary to start by defining this function. Obedgiu (2017) explains that it is challenging to overestimate the significance of HRM for every organization. It is so because this department deals with many essential issues. For example, some of them are “aligning human resource and business strategy, re-engineering organization processes, listening and responding to employees, and managing transformation and change” (Obedgiu, 2017, p. 987). Furthermore, it is impossible to ignore the fact that HRM is responsible for employee hiring and training to provide a business with continuously improving resources.
At this point, it is reasonable to identify how the HR function is represented in Google. A study by Bansal et al. (2017) addresses this issue and explains how Google employees can feel satisfaction. Firstly, the given organization provides its staff members with suitable opportunities for personal and professional growth. Bansal et al. (2017) mention that a holistic career development policy contributes to this fact. Secondly, Bansal et al. (2017) admit that Google provides its employees with competitive compensation compared to the market. Thirdly, it is a useful option for the organization to contribute to its employees’ “on the job and off the job training” (Bansal et al., 2017, p. 24). This strategy results in the fact that these individuals accumulate their skills and knowledge. Finally, a significant HR function is to create a productive working environment that welcomes such common phenomena as leadership, innovations, equity, and others.
The information above reveals that effective HRM performance leads to the company’s improved balanced scorecard because the three areas that have been mentioned above are impacted. It relates to the fact that competitive compensation and appropriate development programs enhance the employee Productivity dimension. The People sphere witnesses some improvement because HR managers cooperate with employees to measure their knowledge and feelings. Furthermore, the Process area becomes better because HRM works to establish a productive environment within the organization.
Relation Between Management and Human Resource Management Function
Since it is evident that HRM is of importance for every business, it is possible to generate an assumption that the HRM and management functions support each other. The idea behind this claim is that the two areas deal with significant issues for a single company. It means that they are forced to cooperate to achieve the best corporate outcomes. That is why the given section will identify the basics of the HRM and management functions and explain how they work together.
On the one hand, there are four fundamental management functions. According to Fridayani and Pranatasari (2020), they are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Each of these spheres is responsible for achieving specific outcomes. Firstly, Fridayani and Pranatasari (2020) explain that planning refers to setting organizational goals, developing strategies, and allocating resources. This function is significant for every business because it determines how it will operate in the future. Secondly, organizing denotes that management should create an organizational structure that allows all employees to cooperate and share their knowledge (Fridayani & Pranatasari, 2020).
Thirdly, the leading function stipulates that the company’s managers should draw attention to whether they are decent leaders and motivators. Fridayani and Pranatasari (2020) emphasize that this function helps an organization achieve its business objectives. Finally, controlling refers to the necessity to evaluate how successfully an organization performs and whether it reaches its goals. Thus, the combination of the four functions results in the fact that a company understands its course of action, has sufficient resources to act, and knows how to assess its own performance.
On the other hand, this section focuses on the HRM function. Since this phenomenon has already been described above, the present paragraph will comment on established HRM principles that define its function. For example, the individual development principle denotes that HR managers should do their best to provide employees with sufficient opportunities for personal and professional growth. The principle of team spirit means that the HRM department works to establish a productive and friendly environment within an organization. Simultaneously, the principle of the free flow of communication implies that HR managers represent a platform for employees to express their thoughts and feelings regarding some work issues. Thus, this information demonstrates that the management and HRM functions overlap in some areas.
It is also necessary to comment on how the functions above support each other in Google to achieve organizational goals. Google’s official website demonstrates what goals the corporation has set. It refers to improving people’s lives, advancing sustainability, expanding opportunity, ensuring diversity, and others (Google, n.d.). These goals show that the organization works to achieve complex but fundamental objectives, meaning that all its divisions should join their efforts. As for the HRM department, it can significantly influence how Google achieves its organizational goals. Since HR managers deal with selection and recruitment, these individuals have a direct bearing on ensuring diversity and equity within the organization. Furthermore, the objective of expanding opportunity means that Google contributes to improving people’s skills and abilities. It means that appropriate HRM-run training courses make it possible to cope with this task.
Human Resource Management Function and Strategy Formulation
This section will demonstrate that the HRM function can influence Google’s strategy formulation. To begin with, one should explain what this term means. Strategy formulation is the process that helps a business define what actions are necessary to achieve the stipulated targets. This process consists of many steps, including analyzing the business environment, defining mission, setting the objectives, and many others. The strategy formulation process also focuses on getting a competitive advantage in the market. In turn, this phenomenon stands for the fact that potential customers consider a particular business more attractive than its direct customers.
Kazlauskaite and Bučiūnie (2008) explain that competitive advantage relies on multiple factors, including financial resources, technology, access to natural resources, and others, but recent studies demonstrate that living force also plays a crucial role. According to Kazlauskaite and Bučiūnie (2008), human resources and intellectual capital are primary sources of competitive advantage in the modern world. That is why it is reasonable to analyze how HRM can impact a competitive advantage.
There is no doubt that overcoming competitors is one of the leading elements in Google’s strategy formulation. This fact explains that the corporation should rely on many HRM capabilities to cope with this task. Firstly, Kazlauskaite and Bučiūnie (2008) argue that HRM contributes to the creation of competitive advantage by valuing optimization. It has already been mentioned that Google draws specific attention to innovation, which supports the idea above. Secondly, HRM is responsible for competency development and deployment, which is necessary to create skillful and experienced teams (Kazlauskaite & Bučiūnie, 2008).
This claim refers to the fact that Google HR managers organize specific courses for employee professional improvement, which allows the company to overcome its rivals. Finally, HRM uses tangible and intangible resources to motivate employees (Kazlauskaite & Bučiūnie, 2008). This fact denotes that team members are willing to make a valuable contribution to the organization. Thus, Google HRM has multiple means to support the organization’s strategy formulation by affecting its competitive advantage.
Conclusion
Human resource management is an irreplaceable phenomenon for every organization, while international corporations should draw specific attention to implement more effective policy. Google is among such corporations, and one can say that its human resource management department performs its functions successfully. Firstly, it has been demonstrated that the human resource function can improve the organizations’ balanced scorecard. It refers to the fact that employees are the company’s leading stakeholders, meaning that this firm should satisfy its employees’ needs to become successful. In an attempt to meet team members’ expectations, human resource management can address their remuneration, working conditions, and what they think about their employment.
Secondly, a significant correlation between management and human resource management functions has been identified. The primary management functions are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. They stipulate that the company’s management should make specific efforts to set aims, provide a suitable environment and resources to reach them, and assess how successfully they are achieved.
Human resource management functions are limited to work with employees. Consequently, these two departments cooperate in the way that management establishes larger goals, while the human resource department should do its best to select the suitable resources to achieve these objectives. As for Google, the established human resource management principles demonstrate how the corporation’s managers can directly influence the organization’s performance. It means that these two divisions complement each other in achieving organizational goals.
Thirdly, it has been found that human resource management supports Google’s strategy formulation. This term denotes how a company can achieve its objectives, and competitive advantage is an essential element of strategy formulation. Thus, human resource management can significantly improve Google’s competitive advantage in multiple ways. They include valuing optimization, employee competency development, and using appropriate stimuli to motivate team members. While previous studies emphasized the importance of finances and technology, the current research field highly appreciates the living force. These approaches are sufficient for Google to accumulate adequate human resources and intellectual capital to overcome its direct rivals in the market.
To summarize, one should claim that the given assignment has relied on multiple academic sources to ensure that the data are credible. These scholarly articles demonstrate that human resource management is a popular topic in the modern world. Since many scientific works exist, one can assure that numerous businesses draw their attention to making their human resource departments more effective. In addition to that, the sources have shown that Google can impress with successful human resource management. One can suppose that the corporation is aware of the scientific achievements in this field, which contributes to establishing a productive working environment within the organization. Thus, there is no doubt that the human resource management functions help Google achieve its organizational goals.
References
Bansal, R., Sethi, S., Mahajan, V., Bawa, R., & Sharma, P. (2017). Strategic human resource management in work and development in Google. EP Journal of Human Resources, 5(1), 21-25. Web.
Fridayani, J. A., & Pranatasari, F. D. (2020). Application of flipped learning model as implementation of basic management functions. Management and Sustainable Development Journal, 2(1), 62-78. Web.
Google. (n.d.). Commitments. Web.
Kazlauskaite, R., & Bučiūnie, I. (2008). The role of human resources and their management in the establishment of sustainable competitive advantage. Engineering Economics, 60(5), 78-84.
Obedgiu, V. (2017). Human resource management, historical perspectives, evolution, and professional development. Journal of Management Development, 36(8), 986-990. Web.
Ulrich, D. (1997). Measuring human resources: An overview of practice and a prescription for results. Human Resource Management, 36(3), 303-320. Web.