Google
Google
Team Four: Elizabeth (Fallon) Bridgeland, Kevin Hart,
Anna Iglesias, Adam P
#1 Best Place to Work (Fortune’s 2014 List)
Founded 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Positive Deviance
"POSITIVE
DEVIANCE FOCUSES ON THOSE EXTREME
CASES OF EXCELLENCE WHEN ORGANIZATIONS AND
THEIR MEMBERS BREAK FREE FROM THE
CONSTRAINTS OF NORMS TO CONDUCT HONORABLE
BEHAVIORS. IT HAS PROFOUND EFFECTS ON THE
INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT PARTAKE
AND BENEFIT FROM SUCH ACTIVITIES." -GRETCHEN
SPREITZERNH
Positive Deviance
-Deviance is often associated with negative behaviors
-Businesses now distinguish between positive and negative deviance
-As a noun
-Positive deviants find new, and more efficient ways, to get their job done.
They do this by breaking away from the current, normal directive on how to
do something. A positive deviant will find a better way to get things done.
-As a process
-The new approach to organizational change will result in alternative, but
more useful methods of problem solving
-As a management Strategy
-Although it requires taking an amount of risk, organizations that represent
positive deviance feel it is necessary to differ from established norms by
being adaptable and innovative.
How Positive Deviance Manifests
Within Google’s Structure
- Strong Culture
- Commitment to Employee Satisfaction
- Unique Leadership
Mission Statement
“Google’s Mission is
“Google’s
is to
to organize
organizethe
theworld’s
world’s
Information and make
Information
make it
it universally
universallyaccessible
accessible
and useful”
useful”
and
Cultural Values
● Dedication to the consumer
● Teams and Teamwork
● Transparency
● Diversity
● Entrepreneurship
Culture
“Don’t Be Evil”
1. Dedication to the consumer
2. Empowerment of the employee
Applying Cultural Values
Personal Development
1. Quarterly personal goals
2. Meaningful feedback from superiors
3. Support for achieving higher education
Unique Leadership: Management Triad
Strong Executive Triad
- Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric
Schmidt
- Shared Judgements, Extra
Momentum
- Meet daily to ensure a strong
front, fluidity, and to be informed
of everything happening within
such a large operation
Figure 11. Corporate Structure (Google,
2008)
Unique Values Emphasized by Leaders
“People Centric” Approach leads to 2. “70-20-10” Time Allocation Managerial
Employee Empowerment
Guideline:
1. Founder’s commitment to their
- 70 percent of time: core business
own independent thinking and
- 20 percent: projects related to core
research impacted overall
business
leadership style
- 10 percent: pursuing ideas based on
- encourage employees to
one's interests/ skills
come up with and take
- an estimated 50 percent of Google’
time to research
s new products generated using
innovations
this “free time”
- Only hire “class A”
3. Incentivized Creativity:
employees because they - Rewards and awards given for
are given so much
successful implementation of creative
freedom and trust
ideas
Unique Values Emphasized by Leaders Cont.
4. Cross Functional Management of Teams/
“Distributed Leadership”
-
-
-
Decisions made in teams:
- Groups made up of people from
different functional areas within the
company work together
- Decision making designed to occur at
much lower levels than is customary in
most companies
Management does NOT set Goals:
- executives work closely with
employees to help them complete
objectives THEY set for themselves
Choice of new products and strategies to be
not determined by management
- ideas compete on their own merits and
through supportive research
Emphasis on Catalytic Managers:
“Our best managers have teams that perform
better, are retained better, are happier- they do
everything better. So the biggest controllable
factor that we could see was the quality of the
manager, and how they sort of made things
happen. The question we asked was: What if every
manager was that good?” - Laszlo Bock, Google’s
innovative SVP for Human Resources
Unique Leadership- 8 key qualities of
Good Managers
1. Be a good coach
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Empower your team and don’t
micromanage
Express interest in your team
members success and well-being
Be productive and results-oriented
Be a good communicator and listen
to your team
Help your employees with career
development
Have a clear vision and strategy for
the team
Have technical skills so you can
advise the team
A Few Impacts of Leadership Style:
-
Employee Enrichment and Empowerment:
- allows workers control over how they complete their tasks and take
responsibility for their work
- has been shown to reduce turnover and absenteeism and increase
productivity
-
Job Design has a direct impact on worker motivation:
- Knowledge of results, responsibility and meaningfulness are job
design factors that directly influence worker motivation and
performance
High Employee Satisfaction
Two main ways Google takes care of their
employees
- Google Perks
- “People Operations”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=9No-FiEInLA
Google Perks
● Gourmet Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
● Discounted weekly massages in Office
● Nap Pods
● Hybrid Car Subsidies
● Free haircuts, dry cleaning,
and health and dental
● Free gym membership
● Free “swag” (Google memorabilia)
People Operations
● Known as Human Resources at most companies
● Sole job is to keep employees happy and maintain
productivity
○ Interaction between Science and Human Resources
○ Optimize people in terms of happiness and
performance
■ Lunch lines times, diner booths vs. conference
rooms
● Google is at the top of assessing employee satisfaction
High Employee Satisfaction
● High Employee Satisfaction leads to better
performance
○ Performance = Motivation x ability x environment
● Job Characteristics Theory (VISAF)
○ Variety
○ Identity
○ Significance
○ Autonomy
○ Feedback
High Employee Satisfaction
● Google ensures their employees have inspiring
work
● Greater discretion on work hours
● Employees are given a significant voice
● Positive relationships with coworkers
● Prefers employees do not bring any work home
over the weekend
● Weekly address from Larry and Sergey on the
progress of all current projects and major changes
How they Maintain Uniqueness- Sustained Unique Leadership
- Selective Hiring
- Strong Commitment to Mission
Maintaining Uniqueness: Sustained
Leadership Ideals:
- empowerment and incentivization of creativity
ensures that Google’s entrepreneurial employees
keep their creativity within the company. By
nurturing their employee’s ideas, Google makes
sure that great ideas can become a part of
Google as opposed to employees leaving the
company to create competition through new
business ventures.
Maintaining Culture through Emphasis on
Hiring
Looking for “googley” people or
“Nooglers”
-
good at many things
embrace challenge and change
long-term employees
smart
team-oriented
efficient
Hiring Process Basics:
1.
2.
3.
Conversation with Recruiter
Phone Interview
On Site Interview
How Their Hiring is Different:
- each candidate is likely to
interview with four to five google
employees
- interviews look for:
- leadership skills
- role related knowledge
- how candidate thinks
- not an emphasis on gpa
- “Googleyness”
- will candidate thrive at
Google?
How They Maintain UniquenessCommitment to Mission
- 1998: Initial Public Offering emphasized that Google:
- would not change Google’s operation to please Wall
Street
- will sacrifice short term profits to satisfy users
needs
- for example, no lucrative pop up advertising on
Google search page; keep it clean
References
http://www.geek.com/news/google-uses-high-tech-nap-pods-to-keep-employees-energized-1264430/
Organizational Behavior by Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/googles-culture-of-success/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3007268/where-are-they-now/not-happy-accident-how-google-deliberately-designs-workplace-satisfaction
http://qz.com/284548/what-google-really-means-by-dont-be-evil/
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140904061228-154884582-organizational-culture-in-google-inc)
https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/)
http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/distributed-leadership-at-google-lessons-from-the-billion-dollar-brand/
http://benmorrow.info/blog/leadership-culture-at-google-inc)
http://www.strategos.com/google-model-managing-continuous-innovation-rapidly-changing-world/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140904061228-154884582-organizational-culture-in-google-inc)
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/googles-business-leadership-organizational-culture-58108.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2013/05/16/leadership-lesson-the-difference-between-google-and-apple/
http://www.realtimeperformance.com/RealTimeLeadership/2011/the-8-most-important-qualities-of-leadership-at-google/
http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/cross-functional-teams.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_6692920_google_s-organizational-structure.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/10/13/googles-two-secrets-of-success/