Google's Change Management Strategy

This assignment examines Google's effective change management strategies. It analyzes how leaders and employees collaborated to drive innovation and adapt to a rapidly evolving technological landscape. The analysis emphasizes the role of communication, employee engagement, and clear vision in enabling Google to become a leader in the tech world.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Organizational Change and Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Back Ground of Change Management in Google Australia............................................................2
Implementation of Change Management in Google........................................................................4
Resistance of Change Management.................................................................................................6
Recommendation of change management in Google, Australia:....................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Organizational Change management is a process of implementing new rules of operation
in the business process. This involves changes in the organizational structure and culture within
the workplace. It is important for every company to follow a certain Framework in order to
implement change within the operational process. Effective models are applied in order to
implement change within the organization and ensure that there is no resistance (Hornstein,
2015).
The aim of this current report is to describe in details about the history of Change
management that are being implemented in Google Australia. In the past several years, the
company has encountered several changes within the organizational structure due to introduction
of various digital products. Due to the implementation of timely changes over the years, it is
possible for the company to become one of the technological giants at global scale.
It is also important to mention in the context that most of the organizational changes are
highly essential in the current period of digital market that can help in the process of maintain
sustainability and gain competitive advantage.
Back Ground of Change Management in Google Australia
Google is one of the companies, that has is famous for its innovation. In the quest of
innovation, the company has undergone various changes. Google started as a research project of
Larry page and Sergey Brin, in the year 1995. They were students of the Stanford University and
they had taken up this project as their PhD project (Hayes, 2014). This marked the beginning of
the greatest IT Company that rules the world today. Originally, the search engine that the two
students made used the Stanford University’s website with the domain google.standford.edu

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
(Laudon & Laudon, 2016). The domain google.com was registered for the first time on
September 15, 1997. This was a major change, and a major initiative for the formation of the
company Google. The formal inauguration of the company was done on September 4th, 1998, in
a garage in California (Hayes, 2014). Both the founders, Brin and Page were against the
advertising pop-ups in the search engine that was conventional in the contemporary search
engines of that time. By the end of the year 1998, Google had an index of 60 million pages, for
their search engines (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). This enhanced the search features of Google and
had a better result than contemporary search engines such as Hotbot or Excite.com (Verma et al.,
2015). The development of the company was so rapid, that by the year 2006, the company was
successful in buying a property from SGI for US$319 million ("Change management – Google
Setup", 2017).
The search engine of Google was so efficient, that soon it started attracting thousands of
customers. With the increase of the customer base of Google, the need for effective change
management was felt (Helfat & Martin, 2015). Along with giving importance to innovation and
technological development, the customers had to be effectively handled and choice of the
customers were to be identified and incorporated (Verma et al., 2015). Another significant
change that marked the beginning of a new phase is the launch of the Google+ in the year 2011.
This change was a major one, and changed the outlook of the use of the Internet and the various
features of Internet. Google has challenged the conventional way of thinking and management
and thus established them as the leader in the information technology industry. The five major
principles that Google have been working on, in order to implement changes and manage the
changes for years are:
1. Dynamic capabilities

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
2. Continuous innovations
3. A systems approach
4. Open organization that networks its surroundings
5. Distinguished leadership
Implementation of Change Management in Google
It is important to note that at the initial stage of change implementation process there are
various resistances that are obtained from the employees and various stakeholders of the
organization. There are some critical elements that are implemented in Google Australia in order
to implement change within the organization of structure and thereby able to improve upon the
Quality of service that is provided by the company (Aladwani, 2001).
Strong executive sponsorship for every project that is being implemented by Google is
one of the primary processes of change implementation. The business leaders are the primary
sponsorship that helps in the process of change implementation of the company (McCalman et
al., 2016). Communication is one of the important aspects that the leaders of Google have shown
in order to implement change within the organizational structure and culture. New resources are
being allocated with the help of effective leadership skills that are needed to satisfy the needs of
the organizational staffs. Buy in support from the senior management is also one of the Essential
elements that are implemented by Google Australia in order to encourage their employee to deal
with the challenges of Change management.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Complete organizational analysis is done in order to understand the impact of change and
also deal with the new skills and tools that are required after the changes of policies are being
implemented within the organization. Google have provided timely training today employees
after implementing change within the organization of structure. As new services are being
implemented, it is essential for them to understand the nature of the market and the demand of
the stakeholders. Google have also recruited new employees, with latest skills and of software
and digital technology that have helped them to deal with new services and products that are
being introduced in the market. With the introduction of new operating system of Google that
include Android Smartphone, Google has developed new training program for the working
software engineers and other employees in order to provide them, the expertise level that is
required to deal with the challenges and issues. The project teams that are in charge of
implementing change should have high level of skills in order to ensure that they are able to meet
up with the new requirements (Hamel, 2008).
It is important for every organization to have a clear vision and also the ability to predict
the changes within the market after new policies and products are being launched (Hayes, 2014).
This will help the stakeholder to understand the importance of change and also have the ability to
understand its advantage in context of the current situation. Effective communication plan is
highly necessary in this context in order to ensure that most of the stakeholders can overcome the
resistances that are being obtained by the process of change implementation.
One of the major reason for successfully applying in management in Google Australia is
due to the fact that they are able to celebrate the success that are being obtained after the launch
of every new product. The company has also shared detailed information related to extra profit

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
that is gained by the company after the process of change has been implemented. This will help
the stakeholders to motivate themselves about the positive effects of change implementation.
Hence, it can be said that high level of working motivation and effective communication
skills of the leaders have enabled the company to deal with the changes over the years in history.
Resistance of Change Management
It is important to note that resistance to change management is a natural process that is
encountered by all organizations (Matos Marques Simoes et al., 2014). There have been several
resistances to the Change management in the form of Criticism that are faced by the executives
of Google Australia. With the introduction of new operating system for smart phones, there have
been several criticisms among the stakeholders about it applicability due to the fact that Apple
and Windows have introduced effective software that is highly developed for the use of
Smartphone. Most of the stakeholders of Google did not understand the fact that it is not possible
for a company of search engine of Internet to introduce the service of operating system ("Change
management – Google Setup", 2017).
The stakeholders hear that the company will have to face with financial loss due to the
introduction of new operating system service. It is also important to note that most of the
stakeholders hear that it is not possible for Google to survive in the competitive world of
Smartphone industry due to the fact that Apple have introduced Smartphone under the brand
name of iPhone which has been one of the most popular devices all around the globe ("Change
management – Google Setup", 2017). Moreover, due to the reputation of the Rival brands of

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Google including Microsoft and Apple, it was not possible for them to implement high level of
changes that are needed in the process of improving the culture of digital technology (Cameron
& Green, 2015).
The system of Google Map has been one of the significant parts of the service that were
introduced by Google Australia. As during the time of its introduction, there were many reputed
GPS navigation service that were already present in Australia. Hence, many of the stake holders
also believed about the fact that it would not be possible for Google to survive in the tough world
of competitive in the GPS navigation industry as most of the people and technology lover may
not be able to accept the user interface that are offered by Google Maps.
Recommendation of change management in Google, Australia:
The effective management of the Google, Australia can be implemented by proposing
certain rules. Therefore, by applying certain principles the organization management can be
successfully maintained. The change management involves thoughtful planning and
implementing sensitively along with consulting and involving the people who are affected by
these alternations. The problem arises when the changes are forced on the people. Thus, the
changes should be real in nature, quantified and achievable. The aim of the change management
is to confirm the quality chance in order to put a positive impact on a long term basis on the
Google organization of Australia (You et al., 2017).

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
But it is found that the change in organization fails most of the time. Thus, before
applying nay change the organization should be properly assessed in order to investigate whether
it is ready for any change and the leaders should actively support the change by following the
changing process (Kuipers et al., 2014). They can seek inputs from the stakeholders both
internally and externally, and thereby maintains the support from stakeholders if the changed that
is proposed is going to succeed. The person in charge for introducing and including the changes
should definitely focus on the change process management. The change management can involve
procedures such as planning, implementing, assessing, organizing and evaluating.
Hence, with the effective change management plans, it is possible for Google to have h
ability to survive and sustain in the tough world of competition in the digital market industry.
Conclusion
Change is essential and has to be implemented by every business organization, in order to
remain a leader in the competitive world. Google has incorporated various changes and managed
the changes effectively. Though the company had started with no intension of becoming the
leader of the IT world, yet the courage and the innovation that the company and the people
associated with Google has taken up, makes it a true leader. The changes and its implementations
have been done with the assistance of various effective leaders and the efforts of the employees.
In order to ensure effective change management, the leaders have to play a key role. In case of
Google, it is evident that the company, all the stakeholders associated with Google has played a
key role. As a result of the effective change management, Google has been successful in
becoming a leader in the technology world, with almost no company, which could be chosen as a
true competitor of Google. Though face book and Microsoft is often seen as competitors of

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Google, yet that are on the basis of only few products. The effectiveness of the changes and its
effective management makes Google an undoubted leader.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
References
Aladwani, A. M. (2001). Change management strategies for successful ERP
implementation. Business Process management journal, 7(3), 266-275.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Change management – Google Setup. (2017). Gsuite.google.com. Retrieved 5 September 2017,
from https://gsuite.google.com/setup/resources/change/
Hamel, G. (2008). The future of management. Human Resource Management International
Digest, 16(6).
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan..
Helfat, C. E., & Martin, J. A. (2015). Dynamic managerial capabilities: Review and assessment
of managerial impact on strategic change. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1281-1312.
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
291-298.
Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014). The
management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public
Administration, 92(1), 1-20.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education
India.

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Matos Marques Simoes, P., & Esposito, M. (2014). Improving change management: How
communication nature influences resistance to change. Journal of Management
Development, 33(4), 324-341.
McCalman, J., Paton, R. A., & Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: a guide to effective
implementation. Sage.
Verma, A., Pedrosa, L., Korupolu, M., Oppenheimer, D., Tune, E., & Wilkes, J. (2015, April).
Large-scale cluster management at Google with Borg. In Proceedings of the Tenth
European Conference on Computer Systems (p. 18). ACM.
You, J., Kim, J., & Lim, D. H. (2017). Organizational Learning and Change: Strategic
Interventions to Deal with Resistance. In Handbook of Research on Human Resources
Strategies for the New Millennial Workforce (pp. 310-328). IGI Global.