Google is fairly regarded as one of the most advanced and successful examples of a transnational business organization. It was initially created as an IT organization. With time, the company acquired a unique organizational form characterized by flexibility, creativity, inimitability, and openness. Google’s commitment to open systems eventually became one of the most distinguishing features of the company’s organizational development and leadership. The purpose of this report is to describe Google through the prism of the open systems theory and provide recommendations for how the selected organization can strengthen its open world mindset.
Google is a global technology company that was founded on October 22, 2002 (Reuters, 2012). The company’s mission is to organize information, making it available, accessible, and useful to people around the globe. The transnational nature of information have predetermined the structure and organizational principles used by Google in its performance. Today, the company operates in four key areas, which include operating systems and platforms, advertising, search, and hardware and enterprise products (Reuters, 2012).
Although search is believed to be the key area of Google’s performance, in reality it is online advertising that generates most company profits (Reuters, 2012). It is possible to say that Google remains the world’s most popular search engine, and its successes in online advertising are tangible enough to let the company acquire former competitors and future allies, as its owners seek to expand their presence in the global information market.
Since the end of the 1980s, many theorists, practitioners, and managers have promoted the idea of organizations as open systems. According to Ashmos and Huber (1987),
the systems paradigm includes, but is much more elaborate than the rudimentary systems concept – that systems are composed of interrelated components and that the properties of both the system and its components are changed is the system is disassembled in any way. (p. 607)
However, open systems imply that the organization is open to the environment. It absorbs the information that comes from the environment, uses it to benefit its purpose, and gets back to the environment with its products and results. In the age of information and trans-border cooperation, it comes as no surprise that companies like Google seek to sustain their openness in the long run. Eisenmann (2009) writes that for traditionally trained managers and employees, open systems are counter-intuitive. Yet, Google can be treated as an open system on the basis that it has managed to develop a flexible and adaptive relationship with the environment, in which it operates.
Google is an open system, because its values and principles are harmonized with those of the environment. Actually, it is one of the primary factors of the company’s ongoing commercial success. More importantly, Google treats its people as open systems. These people are intelligent and well-educated, and they do not accept any authoritarianism or fixed organizational hierarchies (Croston, 2009). As an open system, Google meets the following criteria: (1) it anticipates and uses changes in the external environment as an opportunity for growth; (2) it influences the environment, promoting sustainability; and (3) it adapts quickly to environmental changes before they become obsolete (Croston, 2009).
The four principles of the open world as proposed by Don Tapscott also provide some useful clues as to Google’s openness in its leadership strategy. Tapscott’s principles include transparency, collaboration, sharing, and empowerment (Suarez, 2012). Transparency is probably one of the brightest features of leadership and organizational performance at Google. Since 2009, the company has published regular transparency reports to uncover the number and frequency of government requests for user information.
These reports also confirm the fact that Google treats its relationships with stakeholders as a matter of the highest priority. In this sense, the principle of transparency is also associated with sharing important information. In the meantime, Google strives to empower its employees. Given that creativity and innovativeness are the sources of the company’s competitive advantage, empowerment remains a crucial condition for achieving the highest degree of free self-expression, better employee productivity, and unlimited creativity for the purpose of organizational development, profitability, and growth. Google does not have too many employees, but those who have been lucky to become a member of its team can use a variety of channels for professional creative expression such as direct emails to leaders, Google Cafes, Google+ conversations, and others (He, 2013).
Recommendations
Among the four aspects of the open world, collaboration seems to be underrepresented in the company’s leadership strategy. Even if Google emphasizes the importance of collaboration, the way in which it achieves the goals of openness remains unclear. Therefore, Google should become more specific in its approaches to collaboration as a principle of openness and systems approach to organizational performance and leadership.
Conclusion
Google is one of the best examples of an open systems organization in the global information market. The company maintains one of the highest levels of organizational transparency and provides a remarkable opportunity for every employee with a talent for creativity and innovativeness. Simultaneously, Google must be ready to clarify the collaboration element of its systems approach, in order to provide its stakeholders with fuller information about the quality and effectiveness of its performance.
References
Ashmos, D.P. & Huber, G.P. (1987). The systems paradigm in organization theory: Correcting the record and suggesting the future. The Academy of Management Review, 12(4), 607-621.
Croston, D. (2009). Employee engagement: The people first approach to building a business. NY: Moonstone Media.
Eisenmann, T. (2009). Google and open systems. Web.
He, L. (2013). Google’s secrets of innovation: Empowering its employees. Web.
Reuters. (2012). Google, Inc. Web.
Suarez, L. (2012). Four principles for the open world by Don Tapscott. Web.