Google Analysis Based On Structures in 5's by Mintzberg

 

Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

Google Inc. by  Alexis Labrosse, Alina Ciobanu, Aron Marossy, Cristian Alexandru Onu, Emil Lauritsen, Michael Jensen & Mihail Milkov. 

Introduction Company evolution Sub-companies Levels of management Google’s structural configurations Conclusion References

Introduction The subject of organizational design has been highly addressed recently, in the pursuit of structuring work and people to increase efficiency and outputs(1), resulting into a large and varied literature. Mintzberg is trying to address this broad literature and research on organizational design, summing up all the important aspects and organizing them in “5’s”: five basic parts or elements of an organization, five “coordinating mechanisms” or ways of functioning and five “configurations” or types of structuring. This paper is giving a brief analysis upon one of today’s most widespread, yet innovative company’s structure - Google, using Mintzberg’s theory in his Structures in 5’ article. We start by presenting the company’s evolution from its founding, moving towards describing the organizational structure in present. Emphasis is put on describing and arguing why Google Inc. can be seen as belonging to one or more of the “configurations” described in Structure in 5’s article.

Company evolution When talking about Google, it is important to look into the evolution of the company starting from its early days when it was founded by two PhD students at Stanford University as a simple search engine. Throughout the years, due to the rapid growth of the company, it evolved from being only a search engine, to one of the most influential companies in the world. At the moment, Google Inc. consists of different companies around the world.  Along with the acquisition of other companies, the organisational structure of Google Inc. In c. was modified to accommodate the constant expansion.

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Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

Sub-companies  Google is a company consisting of many other sub-companies which were either bought or founded by themselves. Because of this, the architecture of Google is not homogeneous, since some of these sub-companies kept their original structure. Examples of important and well known companies that are part of Google include. ●   Motorola (Bought by Google in 2011 for $12,500,000,000) Purc Pu rcha hase sed d in  orde orderr to enter enter the the smar smartph tphon one e mark market et.. This This comp compan any y im impl plem emen ents ts Professional Bureaucracy. ●   YouTube (Bought by Google in 2006 for $1,650,000,000) Vide Video o on  de dema mand nd serv servic ice, e, Googl Google e bo bough ughtt it be beca caus use e they they saw saw inter interes estt in it as a medi me dium um for for  adver adverti tise seme ment nts. s. Us Used ed to be flat flat be befo fore re bo boug ught ht by Goog Google le,, but ful fully ly implemented the Google model after purchase. ●   Android (Bought by Google in 2005 for $50,000,000) This company  develops the Android OS, which is also owned by Google. Has the same structure  as Google, but with a bit more supervision due to the sensitive nature of developing an OS. Waze (Bought ●   Google in 2013 for $966,000,000) bought by thisGoogle company making navigation company to develop Google Maps. It is a small company, using Administrative Adhocracy as their company structure. ●   Doubleclick (Bought by Google in 2007 for $3,100,000,000) This company  is responsible for the handling of advertisements through the AdSense system. Uses the same hierarchy as Google.

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Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

Levels of management This categorization of Google’s company hierarchy is broadly done on 3 levels – the first one in-hold all the administrative level professionals while middle one in-hold executive level officials and at the end are operational professionals. The three levels in Google company hierarchy are explained briefly below in chronological order - the highest one in the hierarchy is placed at the top while the lowest one is placed at the end.

The administrative level: The professionals at this highest level of Google company

hierarchy take care of the entire administrative work for the corporation. Professionals to enjoy such high level job profile in Google are required to be equipped with extensive experience and knowledge of their field. The executive level: The professional at this middle level of Google company hierarchy

undertake all the executive level duties for the firm. Majority of them are team leaders of their specific departments and handle the entire team of professionals under them. The operational level: These professionals manage some definite & pre-specified area in

company as per their expertise. 3

 

Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

Google’s structural configurations   One of the things Mintzberg acknowledges in the conclusion of his study is that there is no “pure company type”, meaning that any organization would not fit in only of the five types described but inherit from different organizational structures where one is most dominant. It is impossible to put Google in one category as it fits multiple profiles. The most “obvious” one is the adhocracy configuration. One key characteristic for this model is decentralisation. According to Lisa Jackson, Google’s number one culture success secret is trust(10). In his book “What Would Google Do?”, Jeff Jarvis writes that there is an inverse relationship between control and trust. Trust is a two-way exchange and Google seems to have this very well integrated in their organizational culture. An important principle reflecting this is the “70-20-10” rule, a managerial guideline introduced by G Google. oogle. The 70-20-10 rule allow employees to use 70% of their time to do tasks their are responsible to work with, 20% of their time on projects related to their project, and the last 10% on projects of their interest in any area. This has in return turned out to be a great investment, since a lot of Googles new initiatives are a product of this model, to mention a few: Google Earth, Google Maps, Google News etc. The decentralization of a company can be used to visualize the internal structure of the company. Google consists of a lot of smaller companies, which all are connected in some way, but they are not directly controlled from a single upper fraction of the company. Rather, they are being led by a cross-functional direction with a lot of flexibility and freedom. This is the exact opposite control of most bigger companies, which tend to be linear and somewhat, if not all bureaucratic.(2) The reason behind Google’s management system is their motto: “Don’t be evil”. Although a company has to have an upper direction, which is above everyone else, the goal has always been not to interfere all that much with the individual organizations. Google would rather trust their smaller management sections, than resort to a centralized system of command.  An organizational structure as big as Google, which evolved so rapidly, requires a lot of managing structures.  After a failed attempt at totally wiping away their managing structure in 2002, Google employs 37 000 people in 2013, including 5000 managers, 1000 directors and 100 vice presidents.(3) Having this amount of management, does not really fit the adhocracy model, being more characteristic of a Divisionalized Form or a Professional Bureaucracy, but is a necessity in case of a company that is as diversified as Google. Large organizations with diversified products create divisions to handle related activities. The advantage of this divisionalized organizational structure is that the divisions can act with a high degree of autonomy to address their particular situations, while the central part of the organization concentrates on the big picture. 4

 

Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

Google also adopted this principle with their work work in diversified fields and projects, such as in Google Cars, Home Automation, Google Fiber, Robotics, Quantum Computing etc.  As many new tech companies, the adhocracy model is more attractive for younger people. As described by Mintzberg “Adhocracy is in Vogue” with emphasises on organic and matrix structures, team and tasks forces, sophisticated and complex systems, youth, complex and dynamic environments. The company is famous of its “Google Culture”, which favors a less formalized behaviour. It is normal to ride Segways’ and electrical bikes to navigate between offices and the Googleplex and discuss projects at the coffee place and talk directly with the managers of Google, even if you are an intern. When looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is easy to understand why Google is the most desired company to work for (4), and they have 2 million applications for 500 jobs. (5)

Conclusion  As described in this assignment, Google uses a decentralised architecture in order to keep the morale of its employees high and remain attractive on the job market, but because Google owns many sub companies and they do not have a homogeneous structure. The success of this structural organization resides in its intricate mix of Adhocracy and Divisionalized Form. Google maintains an organic and humanistic structure and at the same time, they are able to take important and strategic marketing decisions, all creating the successful and attractive company known as Google.

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Group 2

Organizational analysis

08-10-2014

References (1)“Organizational Structure: Looking Through a Strategy Lens, Barbara Keats and Hugh M. (1)“Organizational O’Neill”   O’Neill” http://www.blackwellreference.com/subscriber/uid=809/tocnode?id=g9780631218616_chunk_  g978063121861622   g978063121861622 (2)“Google hiring policy is key to its success as best place to work in UK”, Personnel today http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/google-hiring-poli http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/google-hiring-policy-is-key-to-itscy-is-key-to-its-success-as-best-place-tosuccess-as-best-place-towork-in-uk/   work-in-uk/ (3)“Does Google need managers?”- Drake Baer   http://www.fastcompany.com/3022131/leadership-now/does-google-need-managers   http://www.fastcompany.com/3022131/leadership-now/does-google-need-managers (4)“100 Best Companies To Work For” - Fortune http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/index.html  (5)”The Real Secret Behind Google’s Corporate Culture” - Corporateculturepros http://www.corporateculturepros.com/2013/07/the-real-secret-of-googles-corporate-culture/   http://www.corporateculturepros.com/2013/07/the-real-secret-of-googles-corporate-culture/ (6)Google’s Organizational Structure” - Ehow http://www.ehow.com/about_6692920_google_s-organizational-structure.html  http://www.ehow.com/about_6692920_google_s-organizational-structure.html  (7)“Google - The Company” Company” https://www.google.com/about/company/ https://www.google.com/about/company/   (8)"Google's Business Leadership and Organizational Culture" Chron. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/googles-business-leadership-organizational-culture-58108.ht ml   ml (9)"Google Company Hierarchy" Hierarchy Structure. http://www.hierarchystructure.com/google-company-hierarchy/  http://www.hierarchystructure.com/google-company-hierarchy/  (10)"Business." Google's Organizational Structure and Culture Greatly Foster Innovation and Creativity http://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/googles-organizational-structure-and-culture-great ly-foster-innovation-and-creativity-business-essay.php   ly-foster-innovation-and-creativity-business-essay.php

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