Personal and Organizational Values of Larry Page - Case Study Example

? Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading? of the of the Background of the CEO LawrencePage, now famous worldwide as Larry Page, is the current CEO of one of the world’s most successful companies, the Google Inc. He was born on 26th March in the year 1973, in a place named East Lansing in Michigan. He graduated as Bachelor of Science as a computer engineer from the Michigan State University. Then he received the Master of Science degree in the same stream (computer science) from the Stanford University in California (Achievement, 2013). He showed remarkable intelligence and was highly dexterous in computer science as a student. One of the greatest inventions by Page is the ‘Pagerank’, which is a search algorithm capable of returning results with high accuracy to queries made by users (Brin & Page, n.d.). Larry page along with his friend, Sergey Brin, a Ph.D from the same university Page had completed Master’s degree, co-founded the Google in the year 1998. Google found its position at the top among all other search engines existing at that time and it still maintains its position very effectively. In the beginning it was a small company operating from a small garage. Gradually this company became an international giant. Google has been voted as the best employer in the world at present (Universum, 2012) and attracts the best talents from around the globe. In 2012 Google had employee strength of 53546 people (Newton, 2013) at a large number of offices in different countries. Leadership style and philosophy Larry Page’s intellect, interest in computer science and his style of leading form the front has been shaped in the cradle by his good upbringing as the child of parents that are professors of computer science in a Michigan college and later on his educational background as a computer science engineer. Although Page’s leadership style has not been unwrapped completely, his ideals are gradually becoming transparent. The secrets of Larry’s leadership qualities come up in his discussion with employees and faculty and from his speeches (Elmer, 2011). A number of studies have been made of this issue and researchers have identified five strategies followed by Larry page in his way to leadership success. The CEO of Google pays attention to the most apparently infeasible ideas and picks the best ones to cultivate them into something fruitful. In the fifteen years of his association of Google, he has emphasized on one important philosophy; development of teams is important for growth and success and bureaucracy has to be forsaken. Another crucial strategy that has taken the company and its CEO to the pinnacle of success is “Be quick. Be concise” (Elmer, 2011). Besides, Page has always made an effort to recognize “the significance of small moves” (Elmer, 2011). Small activities appear to be negligible in the midst of a big task; however, according to the leader, these small moves are the storehouse of futuristic ideas and a base for making innovations. Perseverance is the basic and the most important element that works behind the leader’s views of his profession and his personal life. Page has always nurtured his ideas and pursued them till they took shape and bore fruit. One example is found in Page’s interest in cars that run on alternative forms of fuel. While Google at present provides the detail of the destinations where electric cars’ batteries can be re-charged, Larry’s interest in this field dates back to his college days (Elmer, 2011). This is reflected in the culture of the organization headed by Larry page. Personal and organizational values Harmony between the organizational values and the personal values of an individual is crucial for bringing success to the individual. This in turn benefits the organization as a whole. Most successful and growth oriented companies realize that a competitive edge for the company is brought by its committed employee base and therefore these organizations consider the personal values of these employees very seriously. A reconciliation between the corporate values contained within the organizational framework and the employees’ personal set of ethical considerations and value strengthens the ethical environment within the organization (Reece, Brandt & Howie, 2010). An important aspect in the study of organizational and personal values is the determination of personal ethical priorities and comparing them with the objectives of the organization. The founders of Google have always emphasized on learning from mistakes. Mistakes are the learning point and this is a personal value that Larry page has also incorporated into the values of his organization. According to him, “being too cautious and doing too little” (Notter & Grant, 2011, p. 226) implies that they are “not taking enough risks” (Notter & Grant, 2011, p. 226) and therefore are not taking the chance of earning the maximum profit. Google willingly tolerates the mistakes of its employees even when they are costly, since the company values learning from mistakes. Ethical behavior within the organization Personal values of the organizational leaders affect the company’s ethical framework to a large extent. Larry page along with Sergey Brin has worked extensively to bring the appropriate balance between the two factors leading to growth; innovation and discipline. While innovation is indispensible for growth of an organization, it has to be disciplined in its actions in order to be successful in the long run. Ethical values within the organization are maintained through the priority list followed by the company’s managers, Page and Brin. Their leadership trend reflects the high priority they place on “leading through shared values” (Daft & Lane, 2009, p. 6), which actually kindles the employees motivation and keep them energized. It increases productivity of the employees and also retains their interest in work. Larry page is an effective leader that makes use of his influence to motivate people associated with the organization. He along with Brin also puts enough efforts to maintain fun elements in the work place (Ainsberg, 2010). It creates a shared culture and a defined set of values that help in communicating with the employees across the different levels in the organization and infuses the desire of making high level performance. It is very important in this era of competition and uncertainty, since the success of the organization depends on a good ethical base and the leader’s ability to shape the organizational culture and manage the diverse workforce (Daft & Lane, 2009). Strengths and weaknesses of Larry Page Three biggest strengths of this successful leader are that Page is more intelligent than the average humans. His level of intelligence allows him to concentrate on multiple things at the same time. Besides he is one of the most intellectually honest persons in the world. This brings him respect from his peers as well as subordinates. Finally, Page is a strong visionary and it might be argued that his vision is stronger than most others in the industry. It allows him to visualize the future and take steps accordingly that makes his decisions to fit the market well (Carlson, 2011). However, Page as an individual is totally unpretentious. He does not hide his intentions behind shades of formality. This sometimes makes his decisions or actions look odd in comparison to the general expectations. Another aspect of Page is that his ways are sometimes considered rude. Page does not consider being overtly polite at times when it comes to expressing his opinions regarding any issue. This sometimes makes his interactions with the stakeholders of the company complicated. Larry page has also been considered ‘ego maniacal’ according to some sources (Carlson, 2011). Undoubtedly he is brilliant and his ideas are of great value. At times, however, associates of this great leader consider him to be egomaniac owing to his extreme obsession with his decisions and opinions. He at times shows childlike determination and possessiveness about particulars identified by him and demands appreciation. This creates a sense of dissimilarity with his co workers. In spite of these weaknesses, the leader is a huge talent holder and the greatest quality that has the greatest contribution to his success is his perseverance. Google has been founded and Larry page is the co founder of this company because of the perseverance of this man. Had it not been his interest, to find the pages on the World Wide Web that have the maximum links with other pages that appear on similar searches, this highly efficient search engine would not have been developed. Organizational dynamics According to Schein (1991), organization culture simultaneously exists at three levels; at the basic assumptions, the values and the artifacts that are visible in the tangible outcomes of organizational performance. Within an organization, politics plays an important role in influencing the way in which the goals are achieved. Empowerment at each level of organization is crucial in enhancing employee freedom and boosting up their willingness to work independently (Gadot, 2003). It enhances collaboration among the employees thereby improving the work culture and also employee productivity. It leverages research capability within the organization and improves the level of organization’s economic performance. Political stability within the organization creates an atmosphere of trust among the employees and also develops a transparent communication path across all the levels in the hierarchy. Good leadership is a prerequisite for this kind of organizational dynamics. It allows development of uniform shared values in the organization thereby building a healthy work culture. References Achievement. (2013). Sergey Brin & Larry Page. Retrieved from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/pag0bio-1 Ainsberg, A. (2010). Shackleton: Leadership Lessons from Antarctica. Bloomington: iUniverse. Brin, S. & Page, L. E. (n.d.). The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hyper textual Web Search Engine. Retrieved from http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html Carlson, N. (2011). Googlers Say Larry Page Is A "Rude" "Egomaniacal" "Jerk," Who Is An "Intellectually Honest Visionary". Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/googlers-say-larry-page-is-a-rude-egomanical-jerk-who-is-an-intellectually-honest-visionary-2011-1 Daft, R. L. & Lane, P. (2009). Management. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Elmer, V. (2011). What would Larry Page do? Leadership lessons from Google's doyen. Retrieved from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/18/what-would-larry-page-do-leadership-lessons-from-googles-doyen/ Gadot, E. (2003). Developments in Organizational Politics: How Political Dynamics Affect Employee Performance in Modern Work Sites. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing. Newton, C. (2013). Google revenue hits $14.42B in fourth quarter, up 36 percent. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57565236-93/google-revenue-hits-$14.42b-in-fourth-quarter-up-36-percent/ Notter, J. & Grant, M. (2011). Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World. Indianapolis: Que Publishing. Reece, B. L., Brandt, R. & Howie, K. F. (2010). Effective Human Relations: Interpersonal and Organizational Applications. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Schein, E. H. 1991. What is culture? In P. Frost, L. Moore, M. Louis, C. Lundberg, & J. Martin (Eds.), Reframing organizational culture. Newbury Park: Sage. Universum. (2012). World?s Most Attractive Employers 2012. Retrieved from http://www.universumglobal.com/Newsroom/News/Global-News/World-s-Most-Attractive-Employers-2012 Read More