Google's Operational Management and Lean Principles

The assignment discusses Google's operational management strategies, including Six Sigma, and the application of lean principles to reduce waste. It highlights the significance of operational management for Google and how it has contributed to the company's objectives. The report also frames the lean principle that can be used by companies to minimize wastage.

MANAGEMENT
AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Different role and characteristics of leader and manager..................................................1
M1 Analysis of role of leader and functions of manager.......................................................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................4
P2 Examples of role of leader and functions of manager in different situations...................4
P3 Theories and approaches...................................................................................................5
M3 Strength and weakness of different approaches...............................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Key approaches to operations management .....................................................................7
P5 Importance and values of operation management.............................................................7
M4 Evaluations on improvement in efficiencies of operational management.......................7
LO4..................................................................................................................................................7
P6 Business environment factors that impact operational management and decision making7
M5 Analysis of factors that affect business environment......................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management is a process which refers monitoring and controlling. It requires
coordination between employees to target business objectives by dealing with available
resources related to finance, operations, research, technological, human resources. Operation
management deals with conversions of material with labour work into goods and services to
increase market share and productivity. Present study lay emphasis on Google. It is an American
multinational technology company founded by Larry page and Sergy Brin. There are approx
98,771 employees works in Google. This unit outline role of leader and functions of manager. It
also includes a presentation on approaches to operations management which will evaluate
improvement factors in efficiency of management in operations. It also frames a booklet on
factors that affect decision making and operation gentleman.
LO1
P1 Different role and characteristics of leader and manager
Leadership can be defined as an ability of person or individual to guide and give
instructions to team manners for better result. The role of leader is to maintain coordination
between members to takes a single clear sound and take decisions from having healthy
discussions (Sindhu and et.al., 2017).
Management refers to process of controlling and monitoring. Role of manger is to focus
on sustainable growth and expansion of organisation. It is a challenging task for mangers to
monitors whole organisation and makes decisions. Managers have responsibility to guide and
direct followers to achieve the target on time for better productivity of organisation.
Comparison of role and characteristics of leader and manager.
Roles Leader Manager
Vision Leader vision is to analyse the
future and achieve the goal.
Manager’s vision is to growth
of organisation in effective and
efficient manner.
Decision making Leaders take decision
independently and are not
dependent (Hu, 2017).
Managers are dependent on
supervisors to take decisions.
Conflicts Leaders always ready to deal Mangers always avoid
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and solve conflicts by having
healthy discussions with team.
conflicts. They do not want
any interruptions in their
career path.
Self approach Leaders don’t think about self
only. They take their team in
coordination in all situations.
Managers are selfish. They
want appraisal in their
performance only.
Characteristics Leader Manager
Relationship Leader always inspire and
direct team members which
leads to healthy and frank
environment.
Mangers focus on organisation
objectives only. They do not
care about relation with
employees (Anisman Razin
and et.al., 2017).
Direction Leaders focus to direct and
provide path to team members
for achieving the goal.
Managers are engaged in
finding resources for improve
the efficiency of work in
organisation.
Outcomes Leaders’ researches for
changes that can be implement
in work for efficient result.
Mangers want stability in work
which gives sustainable growth
and productivity of
organisation.
Environment Leaders focus to have
information from external
environment to bring new
changes to work.
Mangers look upon internal
environment to stability in
organisation.
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M1 Analysis of role of leader and functions of manager
Role of leader is to inspire and direct tea members to achieve business objectives whereas
function of manager is to maintain stability and have sustainable growth of organisation. There
are some theories which analyses role of leader and functions of manger which are explained
below:
As per Situational leadership theory, role of leader is to trust its team and direct them
instructions to achieve the target. A leader should constantly motivate its team members to
participate effectively in their work either of sales or promotion or decision making. Google
leaders have effective group discussion between team members to reach to a decision making for
welfare of organisation. Function of manager is to analyse competence and commitment of
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Illustration 1: Function of mangers
Source: (Functions of Management 2018)

employees. Competence and commitment, these two terms evaluate the confidence of employees
to do task within specified time which indirectly leads to growth of organisation.
As per System leadership theory, role of leader is to use a single clear sound to have
healthy discussion for making decisions. It helps leader to predict team member's behaviour and
concentration towards work. It helps Google leaders to build a moral for team members which
help to appreciate them for their work (Robles, 2017). Function of manger is to have feedback
from employees about their workplace and work. It supports decision making to manager to
provide good services which lead to growth of organisation. It helps Google managers to develop
a plan for organisation and then distribute the work to team leaders for better productivity.
As per Contingency theory, Role of leader is to motivate team members to complete the
task within specified time. Google leaders direct their team members in efficient manner which
make them to structure task as per standards and procedures. Function of manager is to give
appraisal to employees who work hard and smart to achieve the goal. But they also have the
power to punish employees if they are not efficient in their work. Google managers take
feedback from supervisors for reward management process (Slack, 2018).
LO2
P2 Examples of role of leader and functions of manager in different situations
Leader and managers play their individual role in growth of organisations. There are
always some situations arises in organisation where individual role make sense and which is
governed by both managers and leaders.
Conflict management- This is a situation where employees are engaged between
conflicts that they cannot reach to a decision. Here, leader plays an important role to solve the
conflict and provide correct path or guide them to work in specified direction for better result.
Function of manger is to support leader in their decision which motivates employees for their
improvement in performances. For example, at a time in Google, a conflict arises between
employees related to discrimination based on religion (Reichert and et.al., 2015). At that time,
managers take a step to have ant-discrimination law in organisation where all employees are
treated equally.
Reward management- This is a situation where every employee waits for their turn.
Rewards are given to employees based on their performance of doing work. Leaders give
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feedback to mangers for employee who is doing best and deserve appraisal of performance.
Managers think about this and take decisions to give reward to employees like tour, bonus,
flexible working hour or something else. For example, one of Google employee has done
excellent work to start successfully Google pay. For this, mangers of Google reward that
employee with 10% of market share at that time.
P3 Theories and approaches
Leadership means leading the group or tea by having appropriate discussions and direct
them in right way to achieve the goal. Management means managing the process and procedure
in organisation to have sustainable growth. There are some leadership theories which explains
role of leader and function of mangers in brief.
Situational leadership theory- It is a leadership style that is formed by Kenneth
Blanchard and Paul Hersey. It is a combination of both directive and supportive behaviour. There
are four different levels of supportive and directive behaviour i.e., telling, selling, participating
and delegating. Telling behaviour of leader defines in directive behaviour i.e., to direct
employees in right way to achieve objectives. Function of manger in this is to listen and support
the behaviour of leaders for sustainable growth of organisation.
System leadership theory- This theory is to enable leaders and managers to develop or
plan conditions for better productivity of organisation. A system is combination of integral parts
in organisation and role of leader is to direct the employees to work together and solve
complexity of work. This theory includes specialization, grouping, coordination and emergent
properties. Role of leader is to make coordination with team members for decision making and
for achieving the goal. Function of manger id to make effective group and their leaders according
to their skills and specialization.
Contingency theory- This theory refers to personality of leaders and situation in which
they work. It is important to match leadership personality of leader and the situations where they
work. This theory includes task motivation and relationship motivation. Role of leader is to
motivate team members to complete the task within specified time. Function of manger is to
support leader and provide resources to solve conflicts which rise while doing task.
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M3 Strength and weakness of different approaches
Each theory plays individual importance in role of leader and function of manager. But
they have strength and weakness too which are explained below:
Situational
leadership
theory
System
leadership
theory
Contingency
theory
Strength  It helps managers
and leaders to
bring changes in
their style of doing
work.
 It is a simple
method to
understand the
situations (Hopkin,
2018).
 This theory
increases chances
of adopting
changes in work
environment.
 It helps mangers to
focus on different
situations and
conditions of
work.
 Helps to make
profiles of leaders
in organisation.
 It helps to
combine leader's
style and situation
demands.
Weakness  It distracts leader
attention from
goals and is
requires plans to
implement.
 It lacks to explain
hoe commitment
can be
conceptualised.
 It lacks in decision
making means it
consumes time and
lead the process
for delay.
 This theory does
not approach to
small organisation
as it is very
complex.
 To implement this
theory in
organisation, it is
very complex.
 This theory is
reactive not
proactive for
managers like
mangers avoid
undesired
conditions in
organisation.
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LO3
P4 Key approaches to operations management
Covered in presentation.
P5 Importance and values of operation management
Covered in presentation.
M4 Evaluations on improvement in efficiencies of operational management
Covered in presentation.
LO4
P6 Business environment factors that impact
operational management and decision
making
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An operation management is the
applications of practices that done in
business to improve efficiency of employees
to do work within organisation. There are
some business environment factors that
affect management and operations which are
explained below:
Economic Environment- These
environment factors are very important for
operations. It determines the changes in
consumers’ demands and expectation in
competitive environment. As per monetary
policy, inflation rate, investment rate,
interest rates are changing from time to time.
Role of leader is to analyse economic
changes and then make a decision for
welfare of organisation. So it is very crucial
for Google mangers to analyse demand,
productivity, utilisation of other brand's,
economic news and then bring changes in
their technological unit based on economic
business environment (Kock and et.al.,
2016).
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Illustration 2: Business environment
Source: (Business Environment: Short Notes on Business
Environment 2017)

Technological Environment- This
environment factor is to analyse new
technologies that are upcoming and
beneficial for organisation too. Role of
leader is to evaluate and get information
about innovations or bring new ideas that
help in growth of organisation. It is
responsibility of leader to share ideas and
information with managers. Function of
manger is to research about ideas given and
then make decisions to bring changes
accordingly.
Competitive environment- This
environment factor is to bring qualitative
work in organisation to increase efficiency
of organisation. Its main role is to analyse
competitive market about what id favourable
and what are expectations and demands of
public. For example, Yahoo is a competitor
of Google, so it is a responsibility of leader
and managers to analyse strength and
weakness of competitors and pressurise
operations management to provide quick
and qualitative results in favour of
organisation (Cullen-Lester and et.al., 2016).
M5 Analysis of factors that affect business
environment
Business environment is
combination of all those factors which affect
business in both positive and negative
aspect. Factors are like political, economic,
social culture, technological, competitive,
and legal. These factors can be in control of
leaders and mangers or can be not. Every
business has different environment and get
influenced by different factors.
Economic Factors- This factor
analyse the economic situations in nation
like inflation rate, investment rate, interest
rate, economic rate, growth rate. Based on
all these rates, organisation decides their
productivity and market share (Shaw and
et.al., 2015.). It is role of leaders and
mangers of Google to analyse economic
situations of society and then participate in
events to expand business and influence
society.
Technological Factors- This factor
evaluates changes in technology which
influence process and procedure of doing
work in organisation. This factor refers to
development of business by implementing
new scientific researches. Google uses
strategic tools to solve problems occurred
during working in SQL software. Society is
surrounded by technologies and people are
indirectly habitual of these innovations. So,
Google keep this in mind and work
accordingly (Senge and et.al., 2015).
Competitive Factors- This factor
analyses competitive market and then make
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strategies to grasp public attention for
welfare of organisation. It gets information
of both direct and indirect competitors for
Google like Yahoo and Bing. It helps to
make substitutes against favourable search
engines. Google wins competition in society
by organising applications like Gmail, drive,
YouTube, Google+. These applications are
on top list of favourable apps. Public are
using more and more and get indirectly
habitual of all these applications.
CONCLUSION
This report briefly summarizes the role and characteristics of leader and manager that
helps company in accomplishing their objectives. Further, the report have highlighted the role of
leader and functions of manager within the organization. On the other hand, the project have also
highlighted the theories and approaches of leadership. Moreover, the assignment have also
framed the operations of Google based on key approaches like six sigma etc. Further, the report
have also highlighted the importance of operational management for Google and how it has
helped the company in accomplishing their objective. Eventually, the report have framed the lean
principle that is to be used by company for reducing their wastage.
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