BY JACOB A. MCGINNIS

GOOGLE: CLASSICAL APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

ARTICLE SUMMARY

• Although Google may seem like career paradise to many, there are a significant amount of downsides to working at the search engine tech giant as well, the main detractor being that Google tends toward a classical approach to organizational communication, in which the organization is hierarchical and rigidly structured.

• Through Project Oxygen, Google has been, and is still working to change their approach to management.

• This presentation will focus on the way Google operates as an organization, specifically internally in dealing with their employees, what Google is doing to improve their management tactics, and ending with questions and suggestions for future improvement.

ABOUT GOOGLE

• Google is the world’s most used search engine, clocking in at an estimated 1,600,000,000 monthly users.

• Google was started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two college students who met at Stanford.

• The “Googleplex”, Google’s main corporate office is located in Mountain View, California.

ABOUT GOOGLE

• The Googleplex rents goats to mow its lawn with.• On average, Google has been acquiring more

than one company per week every year since 2010.

• As of 2015, Google has 57,000 employees• Google has over 70 offices in more than 40

countries

ABOUT “THE CLASSICAL APPROACH”• Best explained as the “Machine Metaphor”, in which

employees are nothing more than cogs in a machine, viewed as money makers rather than valued human beings.

• Power structure is hierarchical, with a top-down approach to management (e.g., bosses’ bosses’ bosses’ boss making decisions for the whole corporation, no exceptions).

• Ideally in this approach, the company has unity, which is manifested in command, with orders coming from one source; the supervisor, manager, C.E.O., etc., and in direction, with the goals of the company being the goals of each and every individual. This can be likened to a sort of “Borg Collective” mindset.

GOOGLE AND ITS PROBLEMS

• Google has many cases of hiring overqualified people, meaning that, for example, brilliant data scientists may be stuck doing menial coding tasks because they simply need to be done.

• Google does not respect its employees personal lives, expecting them to nearly live at work, and providing them with the means to do so.

• Google puts a heavy emphasis on measurable productivity, so thriving at the company depends upon the employee to meet and/or exceed metrics. This means that Google is results, rather than people oriented.

• Managers are not necessarily good leaders, but rather smart, hard working employees who have been promoted as a reward.

GOOGLE AND ITS PROBLEMS

• Being that Google is a tech company, it focuses its efforts on innovating in tech areas. This means that employees in non-technical roles may feel “left out” of the action and simply forgotten.

• Google doesn’t allow any of its employees to work remotely. You must come to the office, if you ever leave, that is.

• Google is a large company, so change is slow. If a system being used is out-of-date and needs to be replaced by a newer model or tactic, the process is frustratingly long.

GOOGLE AND CLASSICAL APPROACHES• Management is top-down at Google, meaning that

those in lower positions don’t often have a say in company decisions.

• Employees are valued for their contribution to profits and innovation and nothing else. Life at Google is like a giant “bragging rights” contest.

• Since employees aren’t valued as human beings, workplace socialization can be hard among peers, because Google doesn’t work to make sure people know each other well and are comfortable working with each other in teams.

GOOGLE AND CLASSICAL APPROACHES• "The biggest negative, by far, for me has been

seemingly arbitrary project cancellations," said an anonymous commenter. "To add insult to injury, people who worked on canceled projects have promotion applications denied for failing to have made an impact.“- Business Insider

• This quote furthers the evidence that the higher-ups in management make decisions that cannot be reversed or pushed back against.

WHAT GOOGLE IS DOING TO REMEDY THEIR MANAGEMENT• Starting in 2009 and continuing on even today,

Google developed what they called “Project Oxygen”, a multiyear program in which data was collected about the traits of effective managers and then implemented into Google’s management system.

• Through Project Oxygen, Google identified 8 behaviors of effective managers, which were listed in order of importance.

THE 8 BEHAVIORS OF EFFECTIVE MANAGERS• Be a Good Coach• Empower; Don’t Micromanage• Be Interested in Direct Reports, success and wellbeing• Don’t Be a Sissy: 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 Key Technical Skills So You Can Advise the Team

PROJECT OXYGEN CONT.

• What Project Oxygen found was that Google’s managers had the key technical skills required to advise their teams, but since that was at the bottom of the list, they needed to focus more on being good coaches and empowering their people.

• In addition to the 8 Behaviors of Effective Managers, Project Oxygen also found three managerial pitfalls:• Have Trouble Making a Transition to the Team• Lack a Consistent Approach to Performance

Management• Spend Too Little Time Managing and Communicating

PROJECT OXYGEN CONT.

• Below is a link to a video that speaks to Google’s views on management and HR, and what Project Oxygen is doing to further improve employee’s work environment.

• Much of this video revolves around the history of Google and how Google treats its employees. Bock begins mentioning Project Oxygen at the 14 minute mark.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXpajH89hw

GOOGLE AND ITS VICTORIES

• Although this presentation is focused mainly on how Google is fixing its managerial pitfalls, I would like to take a moment to highlight what Google has been getting right all along.

• It is apparent that if Google were nothing but rigid, with complete disregard for its employees, it would not be so successful as an organization. This is simply not the case.

• For example, Google’s culture is and always has been:• Open• Innovative• Smart, with emphasis on excellence• Hands on• Supportive of small-company-family rapport

GOOGLE AND ITS VICTORIES

• Google is and always has been an extremely competitive workplace, which can be both good and bad, as is seen in Amazon’s highly stressful competitive company culture.

• Google began as a flat organization, an experiment which lasted no more than a few months, due to the myriad of employees coming directly to the founders for help and guidance. This means that Google initially revolted against structure and hierarchy, instead choosing to focus on employees and individuals rather than the collective.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

• Although beginning as a flat organization with the intent of focusing on individual employees rather than measured productivity, Google has grown to be a large corporation and in turn adopted many Classical Approaches to Organizational Communication, especially in management.

• Google has recognized this development of rigid hierarchy and has launched a long-term solution, Project Oxygen, to remedy this ineffective managerial approach.

• Google has always encouraged innovation and excellence, and it is what gives them the competitive advantage over other tech companies.

QUESTIONS

• What is Google as a large company doing to make sure that their employees don’t feel lost and forgotten in a sea of co-workers?

• In Google’s view, can productivity take place without employee job satisfaction, or are the two symbiotic? If they are not symbiotic, is productivity considered more important?

• Suppose that SpaceX chooses Google to be the first to colonize Mars. Would Google be an effective Martian Colony? Why or why not?

SUGGESTIONS

• While employee productivity is of utmost importance, job satisfaction is also important. Although working at Google in and of itself is an achievement, satisfaction can manifest itself in other ways, such as returning to work after vacation and reestablishing one’s daily routine. In other words, time off can be an effective way of respecting an employee’s individuality.

• Competition is healthy in proper doses. Too much emphasis on competition creates constant stress about underperformance in the workplace. Perhaps instructing the managerial staff on how best to encourage friendly competition and “reign in” brutal competition would remedy this issue.

WORKS CITED

• Edwards, Jim (9/30/2015), retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worst-things-about-working-at-google-2015-2/#being-under-used-can-be-a-nightmare-22

• Anon, (9/22/2016), retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/22/whats-the-worst-part-about-working-at-google/#6839757d3dfa

• Hall, Brad (2/11/2014), retrieved from https://www.thestreet.com/story/12328981/1/googles-project-oxygen-pumps-fresh-air-into-management.html

WORKS CITED

• Anon, (10/1/106), retrieved from http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines

• Worstall, Tim (6/21/2013), retrieved from http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines

• Bryant, Adam (3/12/2011) retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html?_r=1

• Garvin, David (12/1/13), retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-management

• Anon, (n.d.), retrieved from https://www.google.com/about/company/history/

WORKS CITED

Bort, Julie (6/17/2015), retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/google-has-57000-employees-2015-7Anon (n.d.), retrieved from https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/locations/Mishra Sasmita, (n.d.), retrieved from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/13-interesting-facts-about-google-that-you-may-not-know.htmlMiller, Katherine (2012), pp. 17-35