Topic > Google Case Study: Organizational Culture and Project Management

Google continues to excel in its industry thanks to its specialization in providing IT services ranging from its powerful search engine, software and hardware, advertising campaigns and cloud computing . The reason why Google continues to be hugely successful is because of its employees who work there. Google looks for people who truly think outside the box and try to find solutions to ambiguous questions instead of the norm of simply finding a solution to a normal problem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Laszlo Bock, former senior vice president of People Operations at Google, listed thirteen qualities he looked for in candidates who would potentially work at Google. To list a few, Bock says Google hires employees who possess “high cognitive abilities” with added qualities of “emergent leadership, analytical skills, and humility” to meet “ridiculously high standards” of solving complex problems. With these characteristics in its employees, it sets the tone for its organizational culture and upholds its motto of continuous excellence in innovation; however, Google's organizational culture is not what you expect. Google's organizational culture "emphasizes change and direct social connections within the company" because in theory, having a "strong alignment between a company's organizational structure and its organizational culture can lead to higher levels of success ”. If a company has organizational culture and organizational structure working together cohesively, this will maximize its effectiveness in innovation to continuously seek new solutions to different problems. Google's culture strongly influences the company's capabilities because it maintains the culture as "open, innovative, intelligent with an emphasis on excellence, practical, and supportive of the small business-family relationship." All of these characteristics of organizational culture contribute to Google's mission to create excellence in innovation through the delivery and development of ideas that quickly recognize the changing dynamics of today's market. Google's organizational culture mainly contributes to "human operations", also known as human operations. resources; however, Google wanted to “go well beyond administering benefits and overseeing performance reviews” in its human resources division (Garvin). Typically, the role of HR is just the process of recruiting highly qualified candidates who meet the job specifications and also ensuring that employee relationships and well-being are respected. Google improved on this definition by taking on a subdivision in people operations called “people analytics” that was intended to “be driven by hypotheses to help solve the business's problems and questions with data.” From this subdivision, that is, when the big question was asked: Do Managers Matter? Since Google asked this question, we should also look at the question: What do managers do? Managers are responsible for ensuring that all employees do their jobs effectively and efficiently by stating their expectations and goals to the people they are responsible for and emphasizing the company's goals by ensuring that these goals are at least met if not exceeded . But Google was having a very difficult time with its managers, particularly in its engineering division. The reason is that engineers have their own style of doing things and don't like to be micromanaged. Companies become inefficient with theproduction when they have managers who micromanage; Employees lose creativity and innovation when their bosses are breathing down their necks. Then, in response to complaints and complaints from Google engineers about management, Google launched Project Oxygen. Project Oxygen was trying to prove the point 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-level managers and found that great managers actually make a difference in a company's efficiency and effectiveness. These eight attributes are as follows: He is a good coach. He empowers the team and doesn't micromanage. Expresses interest and concern for the success and personal well-being of team members. He is productive and results-oriented. He is a good communicator: he listens and shares information. Helps with career development. He has a clear vision and strategy for the team. He has key technical skills that help him advise the team. While this list seems pretty obvious, Google has done three things that have greatly influenced its management style. Their results were based on people analytics which made the project more credible with their results because they had more employee feedback which gained more employee trust, thus conveying to managers the need to improve their current style of management. The second thing is that they saw the essential elements that a manager needs, which is communication and coaching, and technical skills are the icing on the cake. It is important for managers to have the technical skills to lead employees, but that doesn't mean they will be great managers. Finally, their eight management qualities are actually a checklist for managers to follow. This checklist reminds managers daily of their expectations and what they should strive to become. By looking at these eight management qualities, Google has achieved a sustainable competitive advantage according to Michael Porter's differential strategy. If Google managers respect these eight qualities, Google can create a differential strategy and sustain its competitive advantage over other competitors. It is crucial that Google continues to have this competitive advantage surrounded by its uniqueness and its adaptation to continuous innovation. Google's managers can have a significant impact on market penetration, market development, and product development if their leadership continues to "deliver on their mission and vision." These growth strategies are “relatively equal in importance in Google's business” because they provide the company's ability to “expand and grow its global presence through intensive development and market penetration strategies.” With these different growth strategies in management positions, Google has the ability to stay at the forefront with this power which in turn gives the company more flexibility with financial growth. Businesses can emulate the eight attributes of Google's Project Oxygen and may find success and some failure. Google's eight attributes can create better leaders and managers, but it's important to recognize the fact that great employees don't always make great managers. Google's perspective of an ideal manager is to have great communication skills, think long term, and think about the bigger picture for the betterment of the company. Other companies can easily match this pattern. Another thing companies like Google need to do is facilitate the right format for feedback.Individuals want leaders who know the difference between coaching and micromanaging, because this equates to providing well-balanced feedback to individuals about their performance and which areas need improvement and which achievements deserve praise. Feedback needs to be focused on the individual's actions rather than personality traits to make them more open to receiving feedback. Finally, this is strongly tied to knowing your people. Understanding the people a manager is responsible for and their strengths and weaknesses will help provide better feedback and show genuine understanding in their development. This will also earn respect and loyalty, as Google probably did with the discovery of those eight attributes of effective management. Now other technology companies operating in the same industry as Google may be struggling in their organization to project themselves into the market because Google has done an incredible job staying at the forefront of its own sustainable competitive advantage. It's almost as if Google has mastered the blue ocean strategy that other companies should strive to practice. If companies master the blue ocean strategy, which Google is close to perfecting, they explore untapped market spaces that have opportunities to increase company profits and growth. Basically, they compete in markets with no competition, and since Google is a multi-billion dollar industry, they can easily counter other competitors by purchasing them. Now Prasad Setty should set his priorities around Project Oxygen in future. Specifically, he should have the intellectual curiosity to deepen his understanding of the eight attributes necessary to become a great manager. By having a deeper understanding of these eight attributes, you can also identify the potential pitfalls that these attributes can lead to. One pitfall is that an individual may have difficulty transitioning from a regular employee to a team leader. Companies may identify great employees but lack the skills needed to lead effectively. It also applies to Google in the sense that they need external people who speak their language, because people need to understand the specific ways of the company to have a better chance of being effective. Another pitfall of these eight attributes is that they can be vague and lack a coherent approach to improving performance through management. Specifically, these attributes can be viewed in a way that does not promote to employees what exactly the company wants from them and even hinders their career development. This is not a proactive approach for an innovative company because it promotes the idea of ​​employees approaching top management with their problems. Therefore, it can also be viewed in a way that devotes an incredibly limited amount of time to managing actual communication. Setty could also look at the lifecycle of managers at Google and see what phases and tasks these managers define they need to do to deliver a project. Managers must have initiative, organization, planning, implementation, and closure when executing these projects because they are vital to project management. This is why it is also crucial for project managers to identify which projects are important to tackle first based on time, money. and scope. The triple constraint dictates projects what needs to be delivered in terms of time, cost and scope, while meeting customer demands. Other criteria that may be important to consider before undertaking these projects would be to first examine the resources available and the pros and cons of implementing.