Google "Don't be evil" motto

Running Head: Ethics and Governance
Introduction
When Google transformed in Alphabet Inc., in 2015, the company released a new code of
conduct and removed the old motto of Google "Don't be evil." The old motto of the company
was first released in 2004, when Google went public. The motto of the company shows a
reply for those people who criticise the company for its involvement in unethical practices
(Valinsky, 2015). During the analysis of the essay, I will argue that removing the motto will
affect the image of the Google because people knew the company as an ideal organisation,
which believes in ethical practices. It has been argued that changing the motto in Google’s
code of conduct affects the public image of the company because people are focusing on the
wrong side of the change. It has been said by the individuals that if Google is bringing change
in the motto then it shows that company is going to do something unethical. It is examined
that Google’s decision to change its motto definitely changes the perception of people. It can
be said that changing the motto of company effect the emotional state of employees. The
change in employee’s behaviour resulted in unethical practices in the organisation as well.
Thus, it is evaluated that the approach of changing the motto of Google negatively affects the
perception level of the individuals.
Why the Alphabet remove the motto of Google?
‘Don't be evil' was the famous phrase in Google's corporate philosophy which was part of
Google's code of conduct. However, very silently Google removes this phrase from their code
of conduct, which was from the starting of the code of conduct documents. Company also
repeat this phrase two times in the first two paragraphs. Since 2000, Google’s motto was
“Don’t be evil,” but when Google came under the new parent company ‘Alphabet’ and
changed the motto and adjusted the tag line with “do the right things” (Archer, 2018).
However, Google retained its motto until late April and early May 2018. Alphabet and its
subsidiary company defined that they should do the right thing, which is based on the law.
People in the organisation should treat each other with respect and honour.
However, it has been argued that if people are already practicing ethical practices in the
organisation then why company removed its motto. Both Alphabet and Google stated in their
‘code of conduct’ documents that all employees are expected to follow the ethical practices
and failure to do so can be resulted in disciplinary action against those employees who
involved in such unethical practices. If company inspires its employees to work ethically and

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legally then there was no need to change this motto. It has been also argued that Google is
somewhere involved in unethical practices and required change in its motto. Thus, it is one of
the major reasons that show the mentality of Google, because it spread a wrong message in
the mind of other people as well.
Google and ethical practices
The Google Code of Conduct provides the way and determines the ethical guidelines for the
company and its people to put Google’s values into practice. The main purpose behind the
phrase “Don’t be evil” is to avoid unethical business conducts in Google. The code of
conduct ensures that every work of the company will be, and should be done according to the
greatest possible moral and ethical standards (Martin, 2017). The major emphasis behind
altering the motto of Google was to set a high standard of business practices with the highest
possible ethical business conducts. However, company was also focusing on retaining and
attracting loyal users by changing. The main intention behind changing the motto was to help
the company to hire skilful and talented people. However, it can be argued that change in
motto presented a wrong image of Google in the mind of job seekers. Other emphasis that
was on building and providing superb quality products and services to the users, but it will be
meaningless if people will not trust on the company.
Fig. 1 Annual Revenue of Google (Source: Statista, 2019)

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It can be clearly seen in the Graph that the revenue of Google is increasing tremendously
from 2015 to 2018. It can be said from the above graph that changing the motto could not
affect the revenue of the company rather it helps the company to increase its revenue. The
growth of the company is still 21% per annum. It means we can say that changing the motto
affect the perception of people but not affect the revenue growth of the company.
Google mines and packet the personal search information and convert it in a data profile for
advertisers to follow the Google users on the internet and show them annoying advertisement.
However, the one thing is considerable that removing the motto of Google has not stopped to
guide the organisational culture, because if people in the organisation already believe in the
ethical work practices, they will not lack in their ethical standards.
Relation between Google and controversies related to breaching the User's
privacy issues
In an interview to ‘Playboy,’ Larry Page, who is a co-founder of Google, stated that the motto
of Google "Don't be evil" forces people for doing good things in the organisation and always
do the right thing. Eventually, the motto of the company is the easiest way to express the
thinking of company by a small tagline "Don't be evil.” I think we can say that motto of the
company attracts and aware users that Google does not believe in any unethical way of doing
business or doing something that people personally do not like (Lee, 2016).
Ethical mottos and statements of Google are the matter of public discourse and there are
numbers of IT companies shows the motto to display their ethical thinking and practices with
the people. Especially, Google and Alphabet are two big companies that are known for it. The
motto of Google functions in the moral space and urge people to work within the ethical
boundaries and contextual moral judgement. In contrary to this, it can be said that there are
many ethical issues that Google is facing from last few years. It leads to the gradual
increment in the cases related to ethical complications and thus these cases are subject to
political scrutiny and social importance rather than ethnicity and moral space of the company
(Carbone, 2018).
However, many people ask a question, whether Google will always do the right things as its
motto- the answer is, it has not and it will not. Actually, it can be argued that Google have
thirst for the personal information and company utilise this information for the ads and other
things. When the Internet users are searching for a query on the search engine like Google,