But their initiatives are not that new... since the late 1920s organizational researchers have tried to overcome the limitations of a perspective that sees organizations as machines (such as bureaucratic structures). The result of many studies have demonstrated the importance of human beings and their needs in the workplace. It was the beginning of a perspective that built the idea that individuals operate better only when their needs are satisfied, just like biological organisms. Thus, organizations were starting to be seen as organisms (as open systems that are more adaptable to changes and to the environment where they are).
Following that approach, organizational theorists suggested a set of means to motivate employees at all levels of the need hierarchy, namely:
- physiological (salaries);
- security (health care plans);
- social (interaction with colleagues);
- ego (jobs with scope for autonomy, innovation).
This idea is so old and yet it gets more and more important each day. So when Google does all this, why does it seem so new, like we didn't know that this could be? Why does it look so innovative?
I feel the main difference is that they did it in a COLORFUL manner. Color was the innovation, the attraction, each color brought out a good feeling for their employees and for outsiders as well ;-)
