Motivational Perspective of Google Success - Case Study Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: A CASE STUDY OF GOOGLE B Client Inserts His/her Name Client Inserts Grade Course Client Inserts Tutor’s Name 13/10/2012 Executive Summary Google Inc. is an iconic telecommunication company with branches worldwide. The company offers a number of services of the communication industry. These include: the internet and related services, web mapping, web advertisements among others. The company was started in 1998 by two university students namely: Larry Page and Sergei Brin who met at Stanford University. The company was initially a private entity until on 19th September 2004 when it went public. Google has made tremendous achievements over the years and is currently ranked by Alexa.com as the 2nd most popular company in the telecommunication industry worldwide. The success of Google is attributed to able leadership and high level of employee motivation. This paper examines the success of Google Inc. from the perspectives of employee motivation and leadership approach. Employee motivation is vital in ensuring success of a company. Google Company operates in a system that offers motivation and inspiration to employees at all levels. Factors of motivation discussed here include: Hertzberg (1959) “Two Factor Theory of Motivation”, House and Mitchell (1974)’s Path – Goal theory, and Adams (1960) Equity theory. This paper observes that the work environment in which Google operates is consistent with the ideals of these theories. Leadership style is also seen as key to the success of Google. The identified leadership approaches are: Transformational, Mentoring, and Consultative. These styles have been applied by the company at different levels. The paper observes that the varied leadership styles have enable Google solve contemporary challenges enabling it to remain competitive in the telecommunication industry. The paper recommends that companies and corporations that strive to succeed need to emulate the versatile management approaches applied by Google. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 The Management Board 4 Executive Office 4 Senior Leadership 4 Critical and Theoretical Analysis of Google 5 Qn. 1 A motivational Perspective of Google Success 5 Achievements of Google Company 5 Achievements of Google and Motivation 5 QN. 3: Relationship between Managerial Practices of Google and Its Executives Leadership Approach and Style 7 Transformational Leadership 7 Mentoring Style 7 Consultative leadership Style (Leadership Action Team) 8 Practical Implications of Google Strategy 8 Conclusion 9 List of References 10 Introduction Google Inc. is a company that operates a popular web search engine. The company came into existence in1988. It was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin both who were students of Stanford University at the time (Google.com). The company launched its first public offer (NASDAQ) on August 18, 2004 on Wall Street. Google is ranked as 2nd most popular website worldwide (Alexa.com). The company offers several internet based services. Some of the services include: Gmail, Adwords, Keyword Tool, Google Adwords, Google Earth, Google Adsense, and Google Keyword Tool. Google Company today has over 30,000 employees with the company’s management including some of the most experienced professional of the communication industry (Google.com; b). ). The company focuses on consumer preference with a mission of satisfying all its clients. It strives to be efficient in its operations so as to provide to clients the very best of services possible in the market. Google is interested in speed as a way of attracting clients. It believes that “Faster is better than Slow”. The management personnel are sub-divided at three levels namely: The Management Board, Executive Officers and The Senior Leadership. The Management Board The Management Board consists of 11 members. Three are members of the executive office and include the co-founders together with the company executive chairman. The eight other members are professional who are not affiliated to the executive council. This board is charged with planning, managing the resources of the company, initiating development plans, and monitoring the progress of the company. Executive Office This consists of six members, three of which are members of the Management Board. All the six executives are highly qualified professionals of the telecommunication or business industry. The executive office monitors the day-to-day running of the company, appraise staff, ensure staff development, handle the public and oversee the implementations of policies passed by the management. The company’s CEO is the chief operations officer in charge of all operations and he is the company’s secretary. Senior Leadership Members of this team head different operational departments. There 15 members of this team all of who are Senior Vice Presidents of the company. They head departments most of which are linked to Google services. For instance, Google Mobile and Digital Content. The Senior Vice –Presidents ensures that all operations in their departments meet quality expectation of the company. They also collect customer views and forward for consideration by the higher officers. Finally, they offer technical advice to the executives regarding their areas of specialization thus ensuring progress of the company. Critical and Theoretical Analysis of Google Qn. 1 A motivational Perspective of Google Success Google Company has made tremendous achievement over the years. No wonder company is today ranked 2nd most popular worldwide. The success is attributed to motivation of employees in the company. Some of the several achievements of Google are identified below while the motivational relations to the achievements are also discussed. Achievements of Google Company Google has been a very successful company of the telecommunication industry. The success of Google is characterized by several services to the public. Most of these services are inventions of the modern technology necessary for communication. They include: AdSense - a self-advertising platform for websites, You Tube for video loading, Google Maps – useful for Navigation, Gmail – for sending and receiving electronic messages, 20% Time – free time allocation to its employees during which they are free to do personal or non-duty activities, Android – a highly selling smart phone, iPhone search service among many others (PCWorld, 2012). Achievements of Google and Motivation The rapid development of the Google Company is attributed to the level of motivation of personnel working for the company from the management to the low- ranked subordinates. The behaviour of Google employees is consistent with certain motivational theories and different factors of the work environment are attributed to this level of performance. The factors include: Departmentalization Based on Specialization Google Company is segmented into several departments. Each deals with the management of a specific service. For instance, there is a department concerned with engineering. The departments are headed by senior officials who themselves are specialists in the fields they head. The subordinates of a department down the hierarchy, therefore, have bosses who are like them in terms of specialization. Such bosses understand the challenges of their trade and hence can provide technical assistance to subordinates. This kind of work environment provides a room for continuous professional growth instils a sense of responsibility and, above all, is friendly. This design of work environment is consistent with a view of Hertzberg (1959) “Two Factor Theory of Motivation” (Miner, 2002.pg.167; Champoux, 2011. pg. 162). Hertzberg classified the Hygiene factors of a work environment into satisfiers and disatisfiers. Among the satisfier factors are responsibility, work itself, room for advancement, recognition and growth. Google workers unique skills and abilities are recognized by their bosses who are professionally akin them. The subordinates also have icons available within their departments to inspire them. These factors present at the work environment of Google Company motivate employees Wide experience of the company Executives The Google company founders are relatively young. However, they have engaged the services of experts at all levels of operation. For instance, all members of the Management Board with the exception of the co-founders are experienced professionals drawn from different fields. The Executive Chairman of the Company has a very rich management profile. The kind of leadership he offers to Google is therefore competitive. The Senior Vice Presidents who head the departments are equally skilled and widely experienced in their areas. It is for this reason that employees of Google are highly motivated to perform making the company stand out of the rest. House and Mitchell (1974)’s Path – Goal theory supports this view of motivation. According to the theoretical perspective, four styles of leadership are paramount in providing motivation. These are: Supportive, Directive, Participative and Achievement-oriented leadership styles (Miner, 2002; p. 284). An ideal leader in this case should engage subordinates in setting the organizational goal(s), clear the path, direct followers to move behind him along that path while the leader removes obstacles (helps solve challenges) along the path. From the context of Google Company, such leadership styles exist. The observed dynamism of the management offices is indicative of a participative and goal-oriented leadership. This is a reason for the success. Equity in Management The senior officers in charge of departments are of equal rank according to the Company hierarchy. They all have the title Senior Vice - President. This clear definition of title, responsibility and authority acts to limit conflicts of interest. There is a level playground for each departmental head regardless of the sensitivity of a department. This organizational behaviour is in line with Adam (1960)’s Equity theory of motivation. According to this theoretical finding, employees tend to strike a social comparison of their work environment against benefits (Schermerhon, 2010; p. 360). If factors of the work environment from which an employee benefits are consistent with his/her skill and output level, then the employee will be motivated to work . However, an imbalance on this is a sure source of demotivation. From Google company point of view, it is the title Senior Vice Presidents given to the departmental heads that steers aggression towards work. Each head is motivated to work regardless of professional by this virtue. Google, with its style of dynamic leadership, offers chances of promotion from time to time. This is a motive for junior staff members who, at good performance, are elevated to higher ranks. QN. 3: Relationship between Managerial Practices of Google and Its Executives Leadership Approach and Style The success of Google is attributed to the kind of leadership styles it has adopted. The design of Google company work force provides for the application of a number of leadership approaches (Google.com, 2012; c). It is observed that Google applies different leadership styles at different levels. The different leadership approaches act to solve contemporary needs in the industry and provide room for management at different levels (Champoux, 2010). It is observed that Google is iconic in its approaches to leadership since very few companies can rival it. It is for this reason that the company stands unique among others. The following styles of leadership have been applied by Google. Transformational Leadership Google applies a Dynamic Leadership Approach. Since inception, Google has not had a successful decade under one CEO. There have been changes in office of the CEO from time to time. The Most Celebrated CEO, Erick E. Schemidt, is currently serving as the Executive Chairman of the company while the current CEO is Larry Page who previously served as an executive officer. The rationale behind this leadership style is to provide services relevant to the market needs by allowing the right person to lead (Achua & Lussier, 2009). This kind of dynamism has enabled Google to transform from time to time making it exploit the rich human talents of employees. The styles allows incorporation of new ideas into the industry, promotes development of human resources, promotes competition within the task force in service delivery and above provides the company with skills for managing change (Achua & Lussier, 2009). Mentoring Style Google has employed this approach at the managerial level. Erick E. Schemidt, the current executive chairman, joined Google as a CEO in 2001 bringing with him the vast experienced in the managerial field. Apart from his office duties, he became a coach to the young co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin. In 2011, Schemidit stepped aside to allow Larry Page take over his office (Google.com, 2012; c). This style, by a greater magnitude, has contributed to the incorporation of interests of the younger and older generations leading to production of services acceptable across all generations. Mentoring is a sure way of ensuring that the legacy of a great leader is upheld beyond the leader. Mentoring Leadership style is one of the most effective leadership approaches. However, it requires that the mentor must be great himself in order to coach a great future leader. In most cases, companies prefer using own leaders to mentor others. This practice is of benefit to the industry for longer (Fairholm & Gilbert, 2008). Consultative leadership Style (Leadership Action Team) This is a style in which the CEO arrives at decisions after extensive consultation with subordinates. Such a leadership style is beneficial since decisions made are thoroughly vetted and accepted by everyone (Fairholm, 2009). In the management ranks of Google, consultative leadership exists. The departments of Google Company are each headed by a Senior Vice President who is also the chief specialist in that line. It is expected that all senior leaders are bosses in their departments (Egeni, 2011). However, decisions made at the executive level must seek the approval of the senior leaders since such decisions affect their departments (Egeni, 2011; p. 88). In this kind of leadership design, the Google CEO is assisted in making decisions that are widely informed and are effective. In systems where this approach is applied, there are very few cases of employee aggression since everything is owned by everyone. The system, however, has a shortfall in that decisions are not made faster. Emergency instances may not be addressed in time since there has to be wide consultation. Such a practise may slow development in an industry (Fairholm & Gilbert, 2008). Practical Implications of Google Strategy The managerial practises of Google with respect to employee motivation and leadership approach are applicable to other enterprises. An ideal industry need to foster internal competition among employees by providing a level pay field, one typical of Google. The approaches of motivation and leadership discussed are relevant to any organization since they are consistent with theories of organizational behaviour. However, a carefully tailored administrative structure is imperative for the success of an organization. To this end, organizations should endeavour to design their approaches to management on the basis of company establishment. In conclusion, Google could be lucky in having revolutionary leaders that have steered the company to success. Human beings are complex ‘machines’ and hence should be handled in well-structured way. Moreover, there is need to modify leadership and services of a company so as to suit the market expectation. This will ensure that the product lasts longer in the market. Conclusion The success of an industry depends, by greater magnitudes, upon the level of employee motivation and the leadership styles adopted by its management. From Google’s company perspective, it is imperative for a company to employ more than one approach to both motivation and leadership as none of the approaches discussed is perfect in dealing with humans. Human beings show complex behaviour and are dynamic in need and emotions. This therefore calls for constantly dynamic approaches. List of References Achua, C.F., Lussier, R.N., 2009. Leadership: Theory, application and Skill Development. London: Cengage Learning. Alexa.com. 2012.The Web Information Company. [Online]. Available at: Accessed on October 12, 2012. Champoux, J., 2010. Organizational Behaviour. Integrating Individuals, Groups and Organizations. (4th edition). London: Taylor & Francis. Egeni, C., 2011. The Anatomy of Leadership. A Conceptual analytical Approach. New York: AuthorHouse Publishers. Fairholm, M. R., & Gilbert, W.F., 2008.Understanding Leadership.Theoritical and Practical Applications. (4th Edition). : Springer. Google.com.2012.Google Company. [Online]. Available at: Accessed on October 12, 2012. Google.com; b. 2012. Company Management Team. [Online]. Available at: Accessed on October 12, 2012. Google.com. 2012. Investor Relation. [Online]. Available at: Accessed on October 12, 2012. Miner, J., 2002. Organizational Behaviour. Foundations, Theories, and Analyses. Oxford: Oxford University Press. PC World. 2012. Top 10 Google Accomplishments Under Eric Schmidt. [Online]. Available at: Accessed on October 12, 2012. Read More