Google Management Style: Is it Really New?

There are others, of course. Viximo has a come and go as you Home Management in Long Beach
California please policy, Facebook also provides meals for their employees, Zapppos encourage their
employees to pimp their own cubicle and has once a month company party, Paul Smith (the brand)
allows pets to be brought in, and others.
Many have raved about the supposed management styles of these young leaders. The questions is
whether or not the management style is really new. Let us go back to some of the classic leadership
theories and understand how the company set up may be as old as old can get.
This "revolutionary" approach has led many to believe that the young leaders are also . However,
there are some who believe that this kind of leadership style is not new. This paper will examine
both classic and modern leadership theories and analyse whether any of these theories fit internet-
based organizations or businesses.
Servant leadership was first mentioned by Robert Greenleaf in 1977. He emphasized the importance
of leaders being able to recognize the value of his constituents. This recognition is manifested by
putting their interest ahead of the leaders'.
However, such a concept may actually not be an original one. Socrates and Xenophon (Adair, 1989)
already introduced the concept of leaders putting more value to the act of listening and
understanding others more than imposing their will. Even earlier than Socrates and Xenophon is St.
Paul. He, in fact, was open about his strategy to influence people in joining Christianity. He listened
to other people and analysed what are their needs that Christianity can fulfil or questions that
Christianity can answer (Cross, 1998).
Ken Melrose, CEO of Toro Company, said that the act of serving is also a strategy of manipulation. A
leader conditions the mind of the constituents that their needs will be met by the leader, that the
leader will work hard to provide for them and that no one else can give their needs to them. When
they are hungry, the leaders provide the food. In an organization, physical hunger is replaced by
other needs like recognition, opportunities, and validation. These things allow the employees to grow
and learn and do their jobs (Dess and Picken, 2000).
Many attest that servant leadership motivate people to work harder based on many organization
with leaders claiming they use the strategy (Greenleaf, 1977). Servant leaders prove the system is
working when people are more independent and able surpass the quality of work expected of them.
It can be argued that an organization with a servant leader actually serves a purpose, not the
person. Some examples are Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. They all rule their nation but put
their cause front and center instead of relying on their authority (Zohar & Marshall, 2001).
Adair (1973) also developed the Action-Centered Leadership theory. Under this, leadership has three
levels: the team, the job, and the person. Each element does not exist in isolation which means that
even when leading one element is different from leading another, they also overlap.
This theory argues "leadership" is a tangible concept. The key is in determining what kind works
best for a certain situation. If servant leadership puts the members' need in front and center, ACL
believes that the task is the most important element in leading an organization (Adair, 1989).
This theory is a new theory and is highly influenced by the internet technology. Ori Brafman and Rod
Beckstrom (2008) examined two emerging organizational trends, one that involves the leaders
bequeathing the power to every member of the organization.
Being new, it is expected that many continue to doubt how effective it is or whether it Many will
argue of is valid or not. Brafman and Beckstrom liken the characteristic of a starfish to an
organization that has no leader. Once you cut off any of the parts, it will only grow itself back to
produce a new whole organization. The sheer concept of a leaderless organization is where the
questions start. How can you consider an absence of leadership, a style of leadership?
This is the style used by Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholic Anonymous (AA). There is only one thing
constant in every chapter of AA, the 12 steps. However no one is in-charged of making sure the 12
steps are upheld but everyone is in-charged of making sure it is upheld. Removing one element,
doesn't kill the others.
Craiglist, Wikipedia, and Google use the same principle. The founders set up the bare bones. Google
set up a code that searches results but everyone can put their content. Wikipedia set up codes to
create an online encyclopedia but everyone can put contents and everyone can police them.
This theory believes that a leader's success depends on the how the psychodynamic works between
the leader and the members of the organization. It argues that leader may make a "command
formal" but https://app.box.com/s/b6tb97u28fq84sy8l5f7 the real directives come from the members.
This theory believes that a leader must adjust his style on the individual temperaments of the
members. Leading an organization with 100 members may mean 100 different leadership styles
(Dansereau et al., 1975; Graen, 1976; Graen et al., 1977). It is very individualistic in approach rather
than social (Stech, 2004).
Karlgren (1950) emphasizes that leaders under this theory must be decisive despite the emphasis on
leading each person according to the personality of the employee. This decisiveness must be
communicated with gentleness rather than terror..
Under the Contingency theory are four kinds of leaders. All of it, however,
believes that an effective leader must learn how to adapt and change to fit the need of the situation
and the person being led. Often, a leader must balance and find the meeting point between the
behavioural need, the situational need, and the historical need (Hodgson & White, 2001).
Fred Fiedler first published his theory in the 60s (1969). He suggested that there are three elements
to consider when a leader is making decisions or setting directions:
The setup of the situations including the dynamics and relationship between the people involved
The leader's amount of influence over the organization of situation
The regard of the subordinates to the leader
When the dynamics between the employees and the leader, employees and employees, and
employees and situation are clearly defined and has been tried and tested, then the leadership works
well. When the situation is too complicated, this kind of leadership calls for the change of the leader
rather than the style (Wright, 1996) which Bryman (1992) criticizes because it directly contradicts
what a contingency theory stands for.
Stating that organizational trends and organizational structures will evolve is a universal truth.
Things change, trends change, technology change, and it exercises influence on how people work
which calls for adjustments in the system. Some leadership styles and theories may remain true but
would have to be contextualized as it will render itself less relevant to other factors that affect an
organization or a culture (Whipp and Pettigrew, 1993). Theories that focus on the personal
characteristic of a leader, for example, fail to figure in the evolution of the employees that are
getting empowered more and more with the growth of ITC (Korman, 1966; Kerr et al., 1974;
Schriesheim and Murphy, 1976; Katz, 1977; Schriesheim, 1980).
New organizations that aim to thrive in this day and age, where customers are soon going to be
dominated by people who have never known a life with ITC as we know it, must study these new
theories and, perhaps more importantly, study the cases by which these theories are put to test.
This internet domination makes exercising complete control over organizations as dead as an
analogue phone. Every member are finding it easier to become a leader and if they are not given
that opportunity, it will be harder to keep members and losing members is the sure fire way of
killing a leadership.

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