Need a paper like this one? Get in touch via the email address or order form on our home page.

Case background

• Assignment 3 (900 words)
• This assignment requires you to write a 900-word original essay on the following topic.
• Take the organization led by the leader discussed in assignment 2. +
• Critically analyze the way in which this organization was led and managed during the period when your leader (of assignment 2) was the CEO. You should draw on relevant leadership and management theories, and draw linkages between these theories and specify differences between these theories. Illustrate how goals were attained by your leader’s leadership.

Introduction

Google Inc is a multinational corporation that was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1995 during their college years at Stanford. The firm started out as a search engine services provider and has steadily grown in portfolio and size to become a leading search engine services provider (Google Inc, 2015). Google’s success can be attributed to the kind of products and services that it offers. However, a fundamental constituent of this success is based on the leadership of Larry Page. His visionary ideas that also guide his leadership style have served to place Google among the top companies and the best places to work at (Elmer, 2011). This essay critically analyse leadership and management theories using the case of example of Larry page and Google Inc.

Larry Page’s management style

According to Drummond (2000), Larry page is a democratic leader. This is attributing to the fact that decisions at Google are open and can be tailored to incorporate the ideas put forth by employees in different departments. To further support this, Larry page has been quoted disputing the fact that Google is doing so many things by saying that letting employees pursue “crazy” ideas has been part of the success of Google’s (Nisen, 2013). Besides being democratic, Larry page has a keen interest in ensuing comfort and productivity for each employee. According to Fortune (2014), Google Inc, currently ranks as the best place to work at globally. Employees are offered benefits such as free food, healthcare, fitness gear and also financial incentives alongside hefty checks. Furthermore, Stewart (2013) notes that work load at Google is little given even engineers spend almost 20% of their time developing personal projects. Larry page has also entertained an attenuated the formal aspects related to an office environment by allowing informal communication within the firm as well as adapting open office plans that removes the stereotypes associated with closed-door offices and superiority (Stewart, 2013). Such flexibility in Page’s leadership has earned him respect from employees with some remaining at Google solely because they will serve under him (Elmer, 2011).

Management and leadership approaches

Literature on management and leadership puts forth different approaches that can explain the leadership style adapted by a leader such as Larry Page. Berger and Meng (2014) identify some of the approaches to leadership as (a) the trait theory (b) the skills approach (c) the style approach and (d) the situational leadership theory. Essentially, each of these approaches to an extent explains the leadership of Larry Page. For example, the traits approach identifies certain characteristics that are invaluable and inevitable for a leader. Connors (2012) does note that the trait theory uses inborn personality attributes to distinguish between leaders and non-leaders. Specifically, the attributes include determination, integrity, sociability, intelligence and self-confidence. Firstly, Larry Page exhibits determination and self-confidence given he started Google Inc and was focused enough to grow it into a multinational corporation. In addition as Nisen (2013) notes, Page refused to budge to the trends in other firms that necessitate focus in the market and decided to focus on improving products at Google. Secondly, Page is a sociable person given the free interaction with his employee where each gives him an update. This evidenced by his democratic as opposed to autocratic leadership.

The second leadership theory that best explains the leadership by Larry Page is the transformational leadership theory. According to McCleskey (2014), transformational leadership emerges when the leader knows exactly the areas that need change, offers direction and the inspiration to achieve the set leadership goals. Bass and Riggio (2006) point out that a transformational leader has a keen interest on the employees and believes that they can do their best. Thusly, a transformational leader will offer inspiration, empowerment and motivation to employees in a bid to get them to exceed their normal productivity. In addition, such a leader is empathetic to the general well-being of the employees and goes to a great length to offer support. In light of this elaboration on transformational leadership, Larry page’s leadership style can be clearly brought out. For example, Page is possesses extraversion characteristic attributing to interaction with employees at all levels including at the hiring process (Vella, 2012). Extroversion is also associated with offering inspiration to employees which Page does Nisen (2013). Further, openness to experience, an attribute of transformational leadership is seen in Page seeing he is open to “crazy” ideas and often offers direction on how to get there. Larry page has gone to a great extent to make employees comfortable at Google through offering salaries, perks and other benefits (Stewart, 2013; Elmer, 2011; McGregor, 2014).

Criticisms and linkage of trait theory and transformational theory

The trait theory of leadership has been under constant criticism by researcher for a number of reasons. Firstly, Conger and Kanungo (1998) considers the trait theory not only as too simplistic but also as erroneous because it focuses on the personal traits of a leader which Ng, Ang and Chan (2008) notes limited research linking it to any form of leadership effectiveness. However, transformational leadership theory better complements the trait theory because it can be easily adopted by managers as a way of inspiring employees towards progressive goals. In addition, transformational leadership evidences that firms can choose leaders based on personality traits such as extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness among others (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2010),

Summary

Larry page is a good example of a transformational leader whose leadership capabilities are built along his personal attributes. The trait theory captures various attributes such as determination, intelligence and sociability that he has. Despite the criticisms of trait theory in identifying and explaining leadership, transformational leadership proves that personal attributes are imperative in selecting leaders.

References

Bass, B. and Riggio, R. (2006) Transformational Leadership. Pychology press.

Berger, B. and Meng, J. (2014) Public relations leaders as sensemakers. New York, US: Routledge.

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. and Furnham, A. (2010) The Psychology of Personnel Selection. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Conger, J. and Kanungo, R. (1998). Charismatic leadership in organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Connors, T. (2012) The volunteer management handbook. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley.

Drummond, H. (2000) Introduction to organizational behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Elmer, V. (2011) What would Larry Page do? Leadership lessons from Google’s doyen (online) Fortune. Available at: http://fortune.com/2011/04/18/what-would-larry-page-do-leadership-lessons-from-googles-doyen/ (Accessed 10 Feb. 2015).

Fortune, (2014). Best Companies to Work For 2014 (online) Available at: http://fortune.com/best-companies/ (Accessed 11 Feb. 2015).

Google Inc, (2015) Our history in depth – Company – Google (online) Available at: http://www.google.com/about/company/history/ (Accessed 10 Feb. 2015)..

McCleskey, J. (2014) ‘Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and Leadership Development’, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), pp.117-130.

McGregor, J. (2014) Google CEO Larry Page knows what you think about work (online) Washington Post. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/07/07/google-ceo-larry-page-knows-what-you-think-about-work/ (Accessed 10 Feb. 2015).

Ng, K., Ang, S. and Chan, K. (2008) ‘Personality and leader effectiveness: A moderated mediation model of leadership self-efficacy, job demands, and job autonomy’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), pp.733-743.

Vella, M. (2012) Inside Google’s recruiting machine (online) Fortune. Available at: http://fortune.com/2012/02/24/inside-googles-recruiting-machine/ (Accessed 11 Feb. 2015).