Leadership Strategy

21st Century Leadership

Introduction

As CEO, Larry Page has a personality that distinguishes him from anyone else. Larry Page is the opposite of a social animal and concentrates on living, breathing, and eating everything about Google. He is very ambitious about his work and believes that the only way to get people to notice something great is to perform useful tasks better than everyone else. Page was the purpose behind Google’s vision; he is a conceptual designer who loves challenges. This assignment will discuss the leadership style of Larry Page and its impacts on the culture and structure of Google.

Overall Leadership Style of Larry Page

Larry Page approaches his role as the leader of his global empire very much like a family. Because Google is a company that thrives on high innovation and participation, the culture he has fostered has empowered his employees. Larry Page needs his teams for to believe in innovative ideas. He strives to eliminate bureaucracy and have an all-inclusive management of Google. In my opinion, Larry Page very much fits the bill of a Charismatic Leader; the Google employees are empowered to think for themselves and take control of their jobs. As per text, “The charismatic leader is one who creates an atmosphere of motivation based on an emotional commitment to and identify with his or her vision, philosophy, and style on the part of followers” (Ivancevich, 451).

A charismatic leader is a great communicator. Their speech is simple, clear, and straightforward. They are confident and persuasive whenever they are addressing the people. Most charismatic leaders use stories and metaphors; this is to enable the people in the audience relate with them more easily. Relating to the audience makes them lively and eases their address,  thus enabling them to hear their views on the point they are addressing. When there is a natural relation, a charismatic leader can quickly learn about the environment by relating to the people.

Organizational structure and culture of the company

The culture of an organization plays a crucial role in shaping an individual working for an organization apart from creating the right environment to work for, which ultimately impacts on performance. Even if the organization spends an enormous amount of money and time in selecting the right people, it would fail in its objective to succeed as a company if it cannot provide the proper environment for work in. At an organizational level, Google provides an informal and organic structure to its employees. This culture gives them freedom to manage their jobs the way they like, ultimately to provide outputs that matches with the company’s requirements. Google’s organizational structure is placed in a way that it is organic in structure; however, it borders a bit towards boundaryless organization. Out of the seven different types of power, expert power is very predominant in Google; employees have this power, and this can be seen as a motivating factor for employees. The sustaining culture at Google is due to A.S.A, top management (their approachability, principles/values, and attitudes) and socialization among Googlers, and top management is very informal. The culture development at Google due to the above factors resulted in organic structure and informal culture. Google does not have any management structure, which allows the employees to work and behave flexibly and respond quickly to changing and unusual situations by taking responsibility for their project/product. (Reiss, 2011)