This presentation focuses on communication and power structures within Google, and what Google is doing to better their management.

1. BY JACOB A. MCGINNIS
GOOGLE: CLASSICAL APPROACHES
TO ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATION

2. ARTICLE SUMMARY
• Although Google may seem like career paradise to many,
there are a significant amount of downsides to working at
the search engine tech giant as well, the main detractor
being that Google tends toward a classical approach to
organizational communication, in which the organization is
hierarchical and rigidly structured.
• Through Project Oxygen, Google has been, and is still
working to change their approach to management.
• This presentation will focus on the way Google operates as
an organization, specifically internally in dealing with their
employees, what Google is doing to improve their
management tactics, and ending with questions and
suggestions for future improvement.

3. ABOUT GOOGLE
• Google is the world’s most used search engine, clocking
in at an estimated 1,600,000,000 monthly users.
• Google was started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two
college students who met at Stanford.
• The “Googleplex”, Google’s main corporate office is
located in Mountain View, California.

4. ABOUT GOOGLE
• The Googleplex rents goats to mow its lawn with.
• On average, Google has been acquiring more than one
company per week every year since 2010.
• As of 2015, Google has 57,000 employees
• Google has over 70 offices in more than 40 countries

5. ABOUT “THE CLASSICAL
APPROACH”
• Best explained as the “Machine Metaphor”, in which
employees are nothing more than cogs in a machine,
viewed as money makers rather than valued human beings.
• Power structure is hierarchical, with a top-down approach
to management (e.g., bosses’ bosses’ bosses’ boss making
decisions for the whole corporation, no exceptions).
• Ideally in this approach, the company has unity, which is
manifested in command, with orders coming from one
source; the supervisor, manager, C.E.O., etc., and in
direction, with the goals of the company being the goals of
each and every individual. This can be likened to a sort of
“Borg Collective” mindset.

6. GOOGLE AND ITS PROBLEMS
• Google has many cases of hiring overqualified people,
meaning that, for example, brilliant data scientists may be
stuck doing menial coding tasks because they simply need
to be done.
• Google does not respect its employees personal lives,
expecting them to nearly live at work, and providing them
with the means to do so.
• Google puts a heavy emphasis on measurable productivity,
so thriving at the company depends upon the employee to
meet and/or exceed metrics. This means that Google is
results, rather than people oriented.
• Managers are not necessarily good leaders, but rather
smart, hard working employees who have been promoted
as a reward.

7. GOOGLE AND ITS PROBLEMS
• Being that Google is a tech company, it focuses its
efforts on innovating in tech areas. This means that
employees in non-technical roles may feel “left out” of
the action and simply forgotten.
• Google doesn’t allow any of its employees to work
remotely. You must come to the office, if you ever leave,
that is.
• Google is a large company, so change is slow. If a
system being used is out-of-date and needs to be
replaced by a newer model or tactic, the process is
frustratingly long.

8. GOOGLE AND CLASSICAL
APPROACHES
• Management is top-down at Google, meaning that those
in lower positions don’t often have a say in company
decisions.
• Employees are valued for their contribution to profits
and innovation and nothing else. Life at Google is like a
giant “bragging rights” contest.
• Since employees aren’t valued as human beings,
workplace socialization can be hard among peers,
because Google doesn’t work to make sure people know
each other well and are comfortable working with each
other in teams.

9. GOOGLE AND CLASSICAL
APPROACHES
• "The biggest negative, by far, for me has been seemingly
arbitrary project cancellations," said an anonymous
commenter. "To add insult to injury, people who worked
on canceled projects have promotion applications
denied for failing to have made an impact.“- Business
Insider
• This quote furthers the evidence that the higher-ups in
management make decisions that cannot be reversed or
pushed back against.

10. WHAT GOOGLE IS DOING TO
REMEDY THEIR MANAGEMENT
• Starting in 2009 and continuing on even today, Google
developed what they called “Project Oxygen”, a
multiyear program in which data was collected about the
traits of effective managers and then implemented into
Google’s management system.
• Through Project Oxygen, Google identified 8 behaviors
of effective managers, which were listed in order of
importance.

11. THE 8 BEHAVIORS OF EFFECTIVE
MANAGERS
• Be a Good Coach
• Empower; Don’t Micromanage
• Be Interested in Direct Reports, success and wellbeing
• Don’t Be a Sissy: Be Productive and Results Oriented
• Be a Good Communicator and Listen to Your Team
• Help Your Employees With Career Development
• Have a Clear Vision and Strategy for the Team
• Have Key Technical Skills So You Can Advise the Team

12. PROJECT OXYGEN CONT.
• What Project Oxygen found was that Google’s managers
had the key technical skills required to advise their
teams, but since that was at the bottom of the list, they
needed to focus more on being good coaches and
empowering their people.
• In addition to the 8 Behaviors of Effective Managers,
Project Oxygen also found three managerial pitfalls:
• Have Trouble Making a Transition to the Team
• Lack a Consistent Approach to Performance Management
• Spend Too Little Time Managing and Communicating

13. PROJECT OXYGEN CONT.
• Below is a link to a video that speaks to Google’s views
on management and HR, and what Project Oxygen is
doing to further improve employee’s work environment.
• Much of this video revolves around the history of Google
and how Google treats its employees. Bock begins
mentioning Project Oxygen at the 14 minute mark.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXpajH89hw

14. GOOGLE AND ITS VICTORIES
• Although this presentation is focused mainly on how
Google is fixing its managerial pitfalls, I would like to take a
moment to highlight what Google has been getting right all
along.
• It is apparent that if Google were nothing but rigid, with
complete disregard for its employees, it would not be so
successful as an organization. This is simply not the case.
• For example, Google’s culture is and always has been:
• Open
• Innovative
• Smart, with emphasis on excellence
• Hands on
• Supportive of small-company-family rapport

15. GOOGLE AND ITS VICTORIES
• Google is and always has been an extremely
competitive workplace, which can be both good and
bad, as is seen in Amazon’s highly stressful
competitive company culture.
• Google began as a flat organization, an experiment
which lasted no more than a few months, due to the
myriad of employees coming directly to the
founders for help and guidance. This means that
Google initially revolted against structure and
hierarchy, instead choosing to focus on employees
and individuals rather than the collective.

16. PUTTING IT TOGETHER
• Although beginning as a flat organization with the
intent of focusing on individual employees rather
than measured productivity, Google has grown to be
a large corporation and in turn adopted many
Classical Approaches to Organizational
Communication, especially in management.
• Google has recognized this development of rigid
hierarchy and has launched a long-term solution,
Project Oxygen, to remedy this ineffective
managerial approach.
• Google has always encouraged innovation and
excellence, and it is what gives them the competitive
advantage over other tech companies.

17. QUESTIONS
• What is Google as a large company doing to make
sure that their employees don’t feel lost and
forgotten in a sea of co-workers?
• In Google’s view, can productivity take place without
employee job satisfaction, or are the two symbiotic?
If they are not symbiotic, is productivity considered
more important?
• Suppose that SpaceX chooses Google to be the first
to colonize Mars. Would Google be an effective
Martian Colony? Why or why not?

18. SUGGESTIONS
• While employee productivity is of utmost importance,
job satisfaction is also important. Although working at
Google in and of itself is an achievement, satisfaction
can manifest itself in other ways, such as returning to
work after vacation and reestablishing one’s daily
routine. In other words, time off can be an effective
way of respecting an employee’s individuality.
• Competition is healthy in proper doses. Too much
emphasis on competition creates constant stress about
underperformance in the workplace. Perhaps
instructing the managerial staff on how best to
encourage friendly competition and “reign in” brutal
competition would remedy this issue.

19. WORKS CITED
• Edwards, Jim (9/30/2015), retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worst-things-
about-working-at-google-2015-2/#being-under-
used-can-be-a-nightmare-22
• Anon, (9/22/2016), retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/22/wha
ts-the-worst-part-about-working-at-
google/#6839757d3dfa
• Hall, Brad (2/11/2014), retrieved from
https://www.thestreet.com/story/12328981/1/google
s-project-oxygen-pumps-fresh-air-into-
management.html

20. WORKS CITED
• Anon, (10/1/106), retrieved from
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines
• Worstall, Tim (6/21/2013), retrieved from
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines
• Bryant, Adam (3/12/2011) retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.h
tml?_r=1
• Garvin, David (12/1/13), retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-
engineers-on-management
• Anon, (n.d.), retrieved from
https://www.google.com/about/company/history/

21. WORKS CITED
Bort, Julie (6/17/2015), retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-has-57000-
employees-2015-7
Anon (n.d.), retrieved from
https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/locatio
ns/
Mishra Sasmita, (n.d.), retrieved from
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/13-
interesting-facts-about-google-that-you-may-not-
know.html
Miller, Katherine (2012), pp. 17-35