Introduction
The team-based organizational structure used by Google is well known. Employees are at the bottom of the corporate hierarchical system, followed by supervisors, middle managers, and top management. The vertical management strategy is this. At the top, decisions are made, while at the bottom, employees receive commands. Google has a cross-functional organizational structure that emphasizes management by teams. Google fosters the idea that all employees contribute equally to the company’s success and preserves a small-company atmosphere by allowing all employees to participate in decision-making. This kind of organization prioritizes knowledge and concepts over titles.
History
According to Skyler (2018), using a team-based or cross-functional organizational structure by Google has frequently been associated with its success on a global scale. Employees were considered at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy in a traditional corporate structure. However, the introduction of the team-based system offered a vertical approach to management because it enabled the staff to participate in decision-making by expressing their ideas and notions, which significantly aided Google’s success. According to theory, the organizational structure’s implementation consists of a set of elements and resources that are arranged according to the general plan of the company. To support innovation and excellence before their near competitors, they have separated the corporate structure into operating units (Skyler, 2018). They have developed a set of behavioural inclinations, expectations, values, and beliefs that the staff must adhere to build strong connections within the business and encourage the adoption of the team-based structure.
What features distinguish the company as a team-based one? Which leadership philosophies are practised there?
Technically a matrix, Google’s team-based organizational structure results in a significant amount of flatness. The structure’s propensity for flatness promotes the organization’s expansion and competitiveness. The following are the primary traits that define the organization as team-based:
- Flatness
- Product-based definition
- Function-based definition
In order to group personnel in a way that will help the organization’s growth, the functions above are employed based on the employees. The company, for instance, has departments for engineering and design, sales and operations, and product development. For various items, the groups are kept up to ensure that every endeavour in the corporation is addressed by people who can collaborate to deliver exemplary results. Furthermore, because of the organizational structure’s inherent flatness, even lower-level employees can propose ideas to senior management ahead of middle-level managers. This enables them to have a direct channel of communication with the senior management, which encourages information flow and makes it simpler for employees to contribute to innovation (Smithson, 2022). The adoption of a team-based corporate structure aims to engage with and affect the organizational culture. These traits include openness, innovation, hands-oneness, and stress on quality.
Openness entails fostering personal connections between people to encourage information exchange in all company activities. The team-based structure promotes openness by allowing workers to express their thoughts and opinions in meetings with senior managers (Publisher, 2015). The company’s core mission is innovation, which aims to increase intelligence. In this instance, the team-based organizational structure encourages employees to support initiatives and research. When every employee shares in the focus on excellence, the ability to respond to the continuously evolving global marketplace is improved. Sharing ideas becomes essential in this situation.
At Google, the distributed leadership approach is utilized. Instead of micromanaging the workforce, this approach emphasizes employee empowerment. In order to ensure that everyone is goal-oriented, the team’s leader is more concerned with their needs and overall welfare. Because of this environment, Google has been able to draw in much top talent as they work to capitalize on the individualistic, go-getter leadership style. This type of management encourages the development of the workforce and the company.
How does the team-based environment impact leadership influence and authority within the company?
Individuals are significantly impacted by power and influence. The power structures may affect the level of team performance. In this instance, power is examined from the perspectives of the team’s power level and its distribution (Skyler, 2018). The amount of authority among the employees has undergone a radical transformation because of the team-based organizational structure. As was already said, older organizational structures incorporated a more hierarchically stratified authority level requiring workers to follow a chain of command. However, the team-based organization has eliminated numerous power levels, enabling the staff to speak directly with Google’s senior executives (Smithson, 2022). This effort encourages team engagement and broadens team dynamics (Publisher, 2015). Despite the presence of intermediate managers, much of the aggressive power has been curbed to prevent the team from working under so many different levels of authority, which would otherwise make it more difficult for them to share information.
Second, power dispersion has been impacted by the team-based organizational structure. In an effort to lessen the degree to which teams differ depending on their source of power, theoretical impacts have been observed. Each group within the team is guaranteed a certain degree of authority due to the division of the team into groups, allowing them to control interactions between the team members (Skyler, 2018). This power distribution aims to make people’s perceptions more legitimate and congruent.
Smithson, 2022 opines that Google does not want its employees to work in a culture characterized by a general lack of power, as this would prohibit individuals from making their specific contribution at that moment to advance organizational greatness.
What steps are taken by the leaders at this company to promote teamwork effectively?
Through team-based leadership development, the team’s leaders must create an important exercise in trust and relevance that elevates each team member to an important position (Smithson, 2022). Google’s management has developed several strategies for showcasing accomplishments and fostering teamwork. A few of these include
1) Improving the flow of communication
The managers ensure that there are open communication channels throughout all of their departments. Their main goal is to ensure communication channels open naturally to encourage discussion and idea sharing.
2) Promoting shared accountability
Ensuring that the team members are being watched over is the core of power in team development. However, because the team-based structure has reduced much of the power, the leaders have to institutionalize the idea of accountability (Markovich, n.d.). This ensures that each team member cultivates a personal trait that helps the team succeed.
3) Quicker integration
Increasing understanding among the members must go hand in hand with creating accountabilities. The managers see to it that each worker adopts a uniform approach to meeting the requirements of the business (Markovich, n.d.). Faster assimilation guarantees that people can explore various ideas to determine their areas of strength, which raises levels of personal satisfaction.
Conclusion
It has been determined that a chain of command and total subordination are optional for organizational effectiveness. The Google team-based organizational structure has made this evident. Every firm must have some hierarchy, but standards must also be established, mutual respect must be fostered, and people must work together in teams. The vertical method encourages quicker sharing of creative ideas that support organizational performance, making the team-based structure more successful.
References
Markovich, M. (n.d.). Introduction to Team-Based Organizations. Small Business – Chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/introduction-teambased-organizations-15259.html
Publisher, A. removed at request of original. (2015, October 27). 13.4 Understanding Team Design Characteristics. Open.lib.umn.edu; University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2015. This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution. https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/13-4-understanding-team-design-characteristics/
Skyler, H. (2018, October 25). Google’s Organizational Structure. Bizfluent. https://bizfluent.com/about-6692920-google-s-organizational-structure.html
Smithson, N. (2022, July 7). Google’s Organizational Structure & Organizational Culture (An Analysis). Panmore Institute. https://panmore.com/google-organizational-structure-organizational-culture
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