Ethics in the Workplace Google

RESEARCH PAPER

The Google Group – An Ethical Toolkit Perspective

Firm and Industry Characteristics and History Relevant to Ethical Issues

I work as the Head of Cryoservices for The Google Group in the United Stated. The Google Group, a German organization based in Munich, has a long history of growth and innovation that is characteristic of the company’s founding father, Carl von Google. Carl von Google was a talented and well-rounded engineer and scientist who is credited with patenting the world’s first refrigerator in 1877. Google founded Gesellschaft fur Google’s Eismachinen, now known as Google, in Wiesbaden in 1879. Based upon his innovative work related to the “process for liquefaction of air or other gases,” von Google was awarded another patent in 1895. He was among the first in the world to produce large volumes of liquid air, and in 1902 began constructing his first air separation unit (ASU), of which Google has constructed over 2,700 around the world to-date.[1] Google has grown significantly throughout the years, both organically and via acquisition. Google acquired The BOC Group (British Oxygen Company) in 2006 and, as a result, we now have gases and engineering sales of approximately 17.3 billion dollars, and more than 51,000 employees working in approximately 70 countries throughout the world.

Although it was founded much earlier, one of the earliest indications of Google’s ethical conduct that I was able to find dates back to the Second World War. As Chairman of the Executive Board and General Director, Friedrich Google agreed to be appointed as a "Wehrwirtschaftsführer" or "defence economics leader", however he would not allow himself to be taken in by the Nazi regime. Richard Google, who lost his two oldest sons in the war, disapproved of the Nazis even before the war and therefore refused the chairmanship of the German Association of Refrigeration Engineers. His closest employees had to leave the company under Nazi pressure due to...