Google Case Study- Do Managers Matter?

Eric Kim- ek484 4/22/2014

Insoo Chang- ic243

Google Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

In 2009, Google planned to improve its managerial capabilities with Project Oxygen, a multi-year research project designed to help employees become better managers. Three options of further work that Mr. Setty could concentrate on performing are getting a deeper understanding of the specialized attributes of the most senior managers of the company, learning more about the complete life cycle of managers to hire managerial talent internally and externally, and applying Project Oxygen to study the composition of effective teams.

It’s a good idea to have a set of expected managerial behaviors, but the downsides are that we want to create a formulaic ways of managing and forcing them to act in recommended behaviors without any genuine interest. Even though managers will not completely agree with the suggestions, they will at least think about the suggested behaviors and try to improve their management behavior and act on them. (Internalize the behavior). It is not to make them follow a specific, prescriptive guideline to be a good manager and follow them without passion or interest, but suggestions on becoming good manger. The managerial behaviors espoused by Project Oxygen will not work for all managerial setting in all organizations because certain management need pure instruction and specific guidelines in order to accomplish their goals. For example, in a factory setting it will be more effective and efficient for the managers to micromanage and make employees follow prescriptive guidelines and be more assertive and directive. However, in a lot of managerial settings, managerial behaviors espoused by Project Oxygen will promote better results from the employees and make not only managers better but also make the company more efficient and profitable.

Through developing a deeper understanding of the specialized attributes, Google can focus on a top-down approach...