Goldman Sachs Motivational Profile
In 1869, a German immigrant Marcus Goldman formed Goldman Sachs & Company. Over the last century, Goldman Sachs has been an innovator in developing the many aspects of the nation’s current financial system. In 1906 Goldman Sachs managed its first IPO. They were gaining the confidence of companies across the country. As with most financial firms, the depression era was tough. With financial confidence at its lowest point, the government created the Securities Exchange Commission. With the new guidelines set forth, Goldman Sacks provided more information with investment recommendations aiding in their slow but upward recovery. Goldman Sachs continued to grow and expand through the years. After World War II, the economy was booming and Goldman found growth by marketing stock in companies like Ford Motor Company and Alcan Aluminum.
Goldman Sachs once again encountered turbulent waters in he 70’s because of Penn Central Railroad. This was a disaster for Goldman Sachs creating lawsuits and credit ratings to drop. Since that time, Goldman Sachs rebounded and expanded to an international market. With this global market, Goldman Sachs became the most profitable company in the world by expanding yet further into Russia and China.
Sachs continued to be successful until the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007. They profited by short selling mortgage related securities. By 2008 Berkshire Hathaway had purchase five billion dollars in Goldman’s preferred stock with warrant to buy an additional five billion in common stock. In addition, 10 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds was paid by the U.S. Treasury. Since that time, the company has paid back the 10 billon TARP fund with interest, yet the company is the center of reticule concerning employee compensation and bonuses during these

Corporate Culture and Management
Organizational Structure
Goldman Sachs has adopted a flat organizational structure. This type of organizational structure has few or no levels of management between the staff and managers. This allows less bureaucracy, and more employee involvement that translates into faster decision making and more responsibility for the workers. If the employees are properly trained, a flat organizational structure can result in greater efficiency and competitiveness, which ideally leads to a higher profit. This type of structure often works best within small corporations, or smaller divisions of larger corporations. Goldman Sachs has learned what many companies have, which is by allowing their employees to have increased decision making power and increased responsibility, they are appealing to their employees intrinsic motivation, increasing their desire to do a good job.
Based on the company profile, it appears that the decision-making strategy most often used by Goldman Sachs is Optimizing. The optimizing strategy requires that the company or individual looks at alternatives to solving a problem and chooses the best one. To do this, the decision makers can look at different things, like time involved and available for solving the problem, the importance of the problem and finding an ideal solution, values, cost, and resources needed and their availability, and knowledge need.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are both common forms of motivation found among Goldman Sachs employees. At Goldman Sachs paychecks, bonuses, and competition are a few methods used by the organization on a regular basis to boost the morale of their employees. These types of approach have made the organization one of the world’s most profitable and successful organizations. Goldman Sachs recognizes the importance of employee empowerment within their organization. They believe that people are a firm’s most underutilized resource and that the more entrepreneurship and initiative that exist within an organization is important. They also believe that managers should be mentors and leaders who task and work toward providing employees resources that will make their jobs productive.
The selection and training process at Goldman Sachs are reaping many dividends for the organization. The organization believes strongly on possessing a diverse workforce and in today’s society that is very important for an organization to have. Therefore, the company’s recruitment policy is not only geared to hiring the best and the brightest but also to be diverse. The organization approach is that their culture is built on teamwork, excellence, and diversity. They provide opportunities for everyone within their organization to have an important impact on the building of the business.
Goldman Sachs offers a variety of incentives such as salary and bonuses. The organization believes that the demands as an employee are great. Therefore, they will compensate everyone accordingly especially those who go above and beyond his or her duty. Incentives include annual bonuses, annual base salary, and certain local allowances. The organization Equity Award Program is an outstanding motivational tool that is used to attract and retain outstanding employees. Another motivational tool that Goldman Sachs offers is the
Many benefits are offered by Goldman Sachs to their employees which range from personal to professional development. Their benefits generally include health care insurance, vacation policies, and retirement. Their health care plan includes both medical and dental, with their insurance covering illness, life, and travel accident. The retirement plan that the organization offers is very attractive because it allows employees the flexibility to build a strategy to meet personal financial goals.
Goldman Sachs is committed to provide quality programs for not only their organization but also the communities they serve. The organization quality programs range from scholarship programs to many community projects in which the company invests millions of dollars.

Managerial Roles
The managerial role at Goldman Sachs focuses on empowering their employees to be successful both personally and professionally. The organization believes that management is there to lead, motivate, and mentor their employees. This type of approach has been very successful for the organization thus far. The retention rate of Goldman Sachs has been very good for many years. A survey conducted amongst Goldman Sachs employees reveal that employees are satisfied with the managerial approach of doing business and this is rewarding for both parties involved.
The Goldman and Sachs Company prides itself on providing quality work in everything they undertake. Goldman Sachs has many goals and objectives that determine the way they do business and how its employees conduct themselves daily. Goldman Sachs Company completes performance appraisals regularly using a merit system. The merit system allows their employees the opportunity to advance professionally and do so more rapidly than within many other companies.
At Goldman Sachs, they believe that the clients’ interest is always to come first, their assets are their people, they take pride in their professional quality of work, and they stress teamwork, creativity, and imagination in everything they do. Goldman Sachs strives to provide superior gains and returns for its shareholders by identifying and recruiting the best candidates for each job. The dedication of Goldman Sachs employees is the reason they offer their employees the ability to advance within the company rapidly. Goldman Sachs is a large company and they consider their size an asset. This company works to anticipate the changing needs of their industries while staying highly competitive and holding on to the integrity and honesty of their business. This company is committed to supporting, and developing the careers of its employees, and offers programs through Goldman Sachs University in a variety of innovative formats, including Web cast seminars, computer-based trading simulations and interactive role-play scenarios.
Working for Goldman Sachs is a positive experience because the company strives to attract a diverse base of employees wishing to learn more than experienced in the traditional education process. New employees attend orientation classes that are uniquely provided by its own Goldman Sachs University. Goldman Sachs objective is the growth of the company as well its employees and customers.
The essence of the Goldman Sachs approach is to motivate its employees to reach their goals together as a team. Goldman Sachs strives to achieve the best service possible for their clients. Success is based on how the client believes he or she is being treated, not on how large the corporation becomes. Goldman Sachs combines the use of various motivational techniques to be successful. Goldman Sachs uses both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Salaries at Goldman Sachs alone are a powerful extrinsic motivator, sometimes exceeding $100,000.00. However, intrinsically and extrinsically motivated behaviors look precisely the same. Just as the intrinsically motivated person reads a book, paints a picture, or goes to school or work, the extrinsically motivated person does so as well. Goldman Sachs approach is just that all motivators need to mix to fit the company’s goals. Goldman Sachs provides for individual goals of the employee, as long as the individual goals are from within the realm and also meet the company’s main objectives to secure its assets and provide the appropriate service to their customers. Goldman Sachs motivational strategies serve as an attraction for new employees improving employee retention. The company attracts those who have spent a great deal of effort to educate themselves. Diverse employee base allows a cultural information exchange leading to an experienced, knowledgeable, and expert workforce. The employee, regardless of their location can meet the needs of their customers any geographic region.
Conclusion
Goldman Sachs has been an innovator in developing many aspects of the nation’s current financial system since 1869. Through the use of business principles rather than a specific mission, the company has achieved many goals. Goldman Sachs organizational structure allows less bureaucracy and more employee involvement. This results in a greater efficiency and competitiveness, leading to a higher profit. The company uses a motivational system leading to employee incentives that attracts and retains outstanding employees. Goldman Sacks believes the managerial role should be to empower their employees in a successful manner both personally and professionally. Everyone at the firm is expected to be a contributor. No one can survive at Goldman Sachs as just an employee because the company insists on teamwork.
References
http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-g/goldman-sachs-group.htm http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/our-people/business-principles.html http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook5.htm http://www.mahalo.com/goldman-sachs http://www.opportunitynow.org.uk/about_us/members/champions
http://www.radical-leadership-management.com/flat-organization-structure.html