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Essay / Google Case Study: Organizational Culture and Project Management
Google continues to excel at the forefront of its industry through its specialization in providing IT services ranging from its powerful search engine, software and materials, its advertising campaigns and cloud computing. The reason why Google continues to be a monumental success is because of its employees who work there. Google looks for people who really think outside the box and try to find solutions to ambiguous questions instead of just finding a solution to a normal problem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay Laszlo Bock, former senior vice president of Google's people operations division, listed thirteen qualities he looked for in people candidates likely to work at Google. To name a few, Bock says Google hires employees with "high cognitive abilities" with additional qualities of "emerging leadership, analytical skills and humility" to meet the "ridiculously high standards" of problem solving complex. With these characteristics in its employees, it sets the tone of its organizational culture and supports its motto of continuous excellence in innovation; however, Google's organizational culture is not what one would expect. Google's organizational culture "emphasizes change and direct social connections within the company" because, in theory, having "strong alignment between a company's organizational structure and its organizational culture can lead to higher levels of achievement.” If a company has an organizational culture and organizational structure working together cohesively, this will maximize its innovation effectiveness to continually seek new solutions to different problems. Google's culture strongly influences the company's capabilities because it maintains a culture that is "open, innovative, intelligent, emphasizing excellence, practical, and supportive of small business-family relationships." All of these characteristics of organizational culture contribute to Google's mission to create innovation excellence by giving and developing ideas that will quickly address the changing dynamics of its current market. Google's organizational culture primarily contributes to "people operations", also known as human resources. resources; however, Google wanted to "go well beyond administering benefits and overseeing performance reviews" in its human resources division (Garvin). Typically, the role of human resources is simply to recruit highly qualified candidates who meet the job specifications and also ensure employee well-being. Google improved on this definition by hiring a subdivision into its people operations called "people analytics" that was intended to be "hypothesis-driven to help solve business problems and questions with data." From this subdivision, that’s when they asked the big question: do managers matter? Since Google asked this question, we should also look at the question, what do managers do? Managers have the responsibility to ensure that all employees do their jobs effectively and efficiently, to declare their expectations and goals to the people for whom they are responsible, and to emphasize the company's goals by ensuring that theseobjectives are at least achieved, if not exceeded. But Google was going through a very difficult period with its managers, particularly in its engineering division. The reason is that engineers have their own way of doing things and they don't like to be micromanaged. Companies become inefficient in production when they have managers who micromanage; employees lose that creativity and innovation when their bosses are breathing down their necks. So, in response to Google engineers' criticisms and complaints about management, Google launched Project Oxygen. Project Oxygen was trying to prove that the quality of management does not have a significant impact on Google's business performance. Google hired statisticians to collect data on the characteristics of high- and low-ranking managers and discovered that great managers actually make a difference in the efficiency and effectiveness of a company. These eight attributes are: Is a good coach. Empowers the team and does not micromanage. Expresses interest and concern for the success and personal well-being of team members. Is productive and results-oriented. Is a good communicator, listens and shares information. Help with career development. Has a clear vision and strategy for the team. Has key technical skills that help advise the team. Although this list seems somewhat obvious, Google has done three things that have greatly impacted its management style. Their conclusions were based on people's analyzes which allowed the project to be more credible with their conclusions because they had more feedback from employees, which bought more trust from employees, thus incentivizing managers to improve their current management style. The second thing is that they have seen the essential elements that a manager needs, which is communication and coaching, and technical skills are the icing on the cake. It is important that managers have the technical skills to guide employees, but that does not mean they will be good managers. Finally, their eight management qualities are actually a checklist for managers to follow. This checklist serves as a daily reminder to managers of their expectations and what they should strive to become. By examining these eight management qualities, Google achieved sustainable competitive advantage according to Michael Porter's differential strategy. If Google leaders follow these eight qualities, Google can create a differential strategy and maintain its competitive advantage over other competitors. It is vital that Google continues to benefit from this competitive advantage surrounded by its uniqueness and adaptation to continually innovate. Google managers can have a significant impact on market penetration, market development, and product development if their leaders continue to “fulfill their mission and vision.” These growth strategies are "relatively equal in importance to Google's business" because they allow the company to "expand and grow its global presence through intensive development and market penetration strategies." With these different growth strategies in leadership positions, Google has the ability to stay ahead of the pack with this power, giving the company more flexibility when it comes to financial growth. Businesses can emulate the eight attributes of Google's Project Oxygen and could experience success and some failure. Google's Eight Attributes Can Build Better Leaders and Managers, But It'simportant to recognize the fact that good employees do not always make great managers. Google's view of the ideal manager should have great communication skills, think long-term, and have a holistic view of improving the company. Other companies can easily follow this pattern. Another thing that companies like Google need to do is facilitate the right feedback format. Individuals want leaders who know the difference between coaching and micromanaging because it equates to giving individuals well-balanced feedback on their performance and areas for improvement and achievements that deserve praise. Feedback should be focused on actions rather than the individual's personality traits in order to make them more open to receiving feedback. Finally, this goes strongly in the direction of knowing your employees. Understanding the people a manager is responsible for, and their strengths and weaknesses, will help provide better feedback and show a true understanding of their development. It will also gain respect and loyalty, as Google likely did with the discovery of these eight attributes of effective management. Now, other technology companies belonging to the same industry as Google might have difficulties in their organization to project themselves into the market, because Google has done an incredible job of staying at the forefront with its sustainable competitive advantage. It's almost as if Google has mastered the blue ocean strategy that other companies should strive to implement. If companies master the blue ocean strategy, which Google is poised to perfect, they explore untapped market spaces with opportunities for increased profits and business growth. Basically, they are competing in markets with no competition, and because Google is a multi-billion dollar industry, they can easily thwart other competitors by buying them out. Now, Prasad Setty should set his priorities around the Oxygen project. More specifically, he must have the intellectual curiosity to go further in understanding the eight attributes necessary to become a great manager. By having a deeper understanding of these eight attributes, it can also identify potential pitfalls that these attributes can lead to. One of the pitfalls is that it can be very difficult for an individual to transition from a normal employee to a team leader. Companies may identify fantastic employees, but they lack the skills needed to lead effectively. This also applies to Google in that they need outsiders who can speak their language because people need to understand the specifics of the business to have a better chance of being effective. Another pitfall of these eight attributes is that they can be vague and do not have a consistent approach to improving performance through management. Specifically, these attributes may be perceived in a way that fails to promote to employees what exactly the company expects of them and even hinders their career advancement. This is not a truly proactive approach for an innovative company, as it encourages the idea of employees reporting their problems to upper management. So, this can also be seen in a way that spends incredibly limited time on management rather than actual communication. Setty could also look at the manager lifecycle in Google and see what are the defining phases and activities that these managers must complete to complete a project. Managers must demonstrate.