BE400 Leadership & Management: Google's Leadership in Industry

This essay examines the distinctions between leadership and management, drawing upon the views of Alvesson and Sveningsson, and uses Google as a case study within the technology industry to illustrate these differences. It analyzes how Google's leadership style, characterized by distributed leadership and employee empowerment, contrasts with traditional management approaches. The essay explores Google's unique organizational culture, including its '70-20-10' time allocation policy and the impact of Laszlo Bock's 'Work Rules' on HR innovation. Ultimately, the essay argues that the traditional distinctions between leadership and management are not always applicable in real-world organizations like Google, where managers often embody leadership qualities to foster innovation and employee productivity. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Leadership and management are two terms based on the operations of modern
organizations that are considered to be synonymous with each other. However, the leadership
based activities that are performed by organizations are considered to be a major part of the
management based activities. The proper accomplishment of goals and objectives that have
been set by the organization is based on the management of various operations in an effective
way. The environment that is developed by the management of the organization is able to
affect the work process and productivity in a huge manner (Bird and Mendenhall 2016).
The technology based industry has been considered in order to analyse the differences
that exist in the functions related to leadership and management. The organization in
technology industry that will be considered for this analysis based on role played by leaders
or managers is Google.
The analysis in the essay will be mainly based on the ways by which leadership and
management in organizations differ from each other. The views that have been provided by
Alvesson and Sveningsson will be discussed in the essay in detail. The example of an
organization will be considered in order to understand the differences that are evident
between different activities that are performed based on these aspects.
Analysis based on the differences between leadership and management
As opined by Ciulla (2017), the leadership and management based activities that are
performed by different organizations have an impact on the ways by which the organizational
operations are maintained. The responsibilities that need to be fulfilled by the leaders and
managers in organizations are quite different from each other. The major differences that
have been stated by Alvesson and Sveningson are as follows,

2
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
Leaders are able to create a vision and the managers develop the goals. The
leaders are responsible for developing a picture of different possibilities that
can be turned into reality by the employees. The people or members of the
organization are prepared for the ways by which they can achieve their goals.
Managers on the other hand aim at setting the goals and measuring them based
on the performance levels of the employees (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu and
Kukenberger 2016).
The leaders of an organization are considered to be a part of the changes that
can be implemented or major change agents. They are able to embrace the
changes and work according to the requirements of implementing the changes
as well. Managers tend to stick with the organizational processes that have
been implemented from the start of their operations (Donate and de Pablo
2015).
Leaders are able to develop and depict a style that is unique in nature and are
able to include the employees within the style of work that is followed by
them. Managers do not have a unique style and tend to adopt the leadership
style that has been followed by others (Engelen et al. 2015).
Leaders are able to take risks and try new processes even after failure. The
failures are considered to be a major part of their success. Manager on the
other hand aim at reducing the risks that are related to the effectiveness of
organizational operations (Alvesson 2017).
The operations and goals that are set by the leaders are based long term gains
and the motivation that can be provided to the employees. The managers are
able to develop strategies that are related to the short term based gains of the
organization (Feng et al. 2017).

3
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
The leaders are able to show personal growth in the organization and are able
to show their personal skills as well. The curiosity levels that are depicted by
leaders within the organization are also quite high. The changes that are taking
place in the external environment are considered by the leaders and the
operations are maintained accordingly. Managers are dependent on the skills
that have already been proven (Harris and DeFlaminis 2016).
As discussed by Hoch et al. (2018), the leadership and management related activities
that are performed by the modern companies can be effectively analysed with the help of the
example of a major organization named Google. The organization operates in the technology
based industry and has been able to maintain a unique position with the help of the unique
management style and the leadership of the CEO as well. The leadership style that has been
followed in Google since the inception of the organization is based on the distribution of
leadership based activities in different organizational operations.
The 70-20-10 based norm has been implemented by Google in order to allocate the
time to employees. 70 percent of time needs to be devoted to the core business operations of
Google, 20 percent time will be provided to the off-budget projects and 10 percent time is
allotted to ideas that are related to the personal competencies and interests. The style of
leadership that has been implemented by the company is based on the levels of empowerment
that can be provided to the employees (Mendenhall et al. 2017). For example, the “Darwinian
environment” based on survival of the fittest has been developed in Google. The development
of Gmail was based on the ideas that have been implemented by the Paul Buchheit. The CEO
of the organization Sundar Pichai has aimed at the communicating vision and providing
freedom to the employees (Harris and DeFlaminis 2016).

4
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
The management of employees has been performed by Google in such a manner that
can help the organization to provide standard levels of packages and compensation to the
employees. The work process of employees is facilitated in an effective manner by the
benefits that are provided to them and the levels of empowerment as well. The innovations in
Google are based on the empowerment of the employees and the proper communication of
the vision of the organization as well. The insane approach that has been shown by Google in
the industry are able to provide a lesson to many other organizations. Laszlo Bock, who is the
head of the people operations based department of Google has played the most important role
in the development proper management based strategies (Ruben and Gigliotti 2016).
The “Work Rules” that have been written by Laszlo has become the most important
part of the HR innovation and leadership of the organization. The most important factors that
need to be taken into consideration by the managers according to Bock are, sharing the
leadership, providing inspiration to the teams and clearing different roadblocks. The factors
have been able to state that the managers in the organization need to work in the organization
like leaders. The growth and learning based opportunities that are provided to employees with
respect to the work rules that have been written by the HR boss of the organization are
considered to be important for the managers (Umans et al. 2018).
The leader-leader based culture needs to be developed within the organization and it
is able to increase the levels of empowerment in Google. The empowerment of employees is
able to play a major role in the development and implementation of innovation in Google.
The Google way has proved to be highly effective and has provided the organization with a
unique position as well. The high freedom based culture that has been developed in Google is
considered to be a major factor that is related to the management process of the organization
(Yahaya and Ebrahim 2016). The managers are not provided with the right to hire the
employees, fire the employees, rating the levels of performance, deciding the increase in

5
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
salary, providing promotions and developing the final designs of products. The managers of
Google also have to major complaints based on their work process and relationships that have
been developed with the employees as well (Mendenhall et al. 2017). The role that is played
by the managers in Google is similar to the leaders with respect to the levels of collaboration
that is developed with the employees. The employees are provided with high levels of
empowerment in order to improve the productivity levels.
The differences that have been provided between management and leadership are not
entirely applicable to the operations of Google. The managers in the organization are able to
play a major role in empowering the employees. They are able to lead the employees in order
to fulfil the objectives that have been set by the organization. The differences that exist
between the actual management and leadership are not applicable for the real life
organizations. The example of Google has been able to depict that the development of
management and leadership based functions can be considered to be an important part of the
organization and the processes that have been developed (Harris and DeFlaminis 2016).
Conclusion
The essay can be concluded by stating that the functions based on leadership and
management are different from each other and the organizations need to develop the
operations in a successful manner. Google has been successful in its operations with the help
of proper development of its operations based on the activities related to management and
leadership. The proper collaboration of the leaders and managers is considered to be a major
factor that has an impact on the ways by Google has success in the technology industry that is
highly competitive in nature.

6
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
References
Alvesson, M., 2017. Leadership: Convergence and divergence in leadership
relations. Journal of Management Inquiry, p.1056492617717339.
Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.
Ciulla, J.B., 2017. Trust and the future of leadership. The Blackwell guide to business ethics,
pp.334-351.
D’Innocenzo, L., Mathieu, J.E. and Kukenberger, M.R., 2016. A meta-analysis of different
forms of shared leadership–team performance relations. Journal of Management, 42(7),
pp.1964-1991.
Donate, M.J. and de Pablo, J.D.S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in
knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(2),
pp.360-370.
Engelen, A., Gupta, V., Strenger, L. and Brettel, M., 2015. Entrepreneurial orientation, firm
performance, and the moderating role of transformational leadership behaviors. Journal of
Management, 41(4), pp.1069-1097.
Feng, Y., Hao, B., Iles, P. and Bown, N., 2017. Rethinking distributed leadership:
dimensions, antecedents and team effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development
Journal, 38(2), pp.284-302.
Harris, A. and DeFlaminis, J., 2016. Distributed leadership in practice: Evidence,
misconceptions and possibilities. Management in Education, 30(4), pp.141-146.

7
INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
Hoch, J.E., Bommer, W.H., Dulebohn, J.H. and Wu, D., 2018. Do ethical, authentic, and
servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-
analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), pp.501-529.
Mendenhall, M.E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G.R., Stevens, M.J., Maznevski, M. and
Stahl, G.K. eds., 2017. Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. Routledge.
Ruben, B.D. and Gigliotti, R.A., 2016. Leadership as social influence: An expanded view of
leadership communication theory and practice. Journal of Leadership & Organizational
Studies, 23(4), pp.467-479.
Umans, T., Smith, E., Andersson, W. and Planken, W., 2018. Top management teams’ shared
leadership and ambidexterity: the role of management control systems. International Review
of Administrative Sciences, p.0020852318783539.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment:
literature review. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), pp.190-216.