-Read Google's search to find better bosses, Project Oxygen, chapter 12 (see attachment). - Also, read the following on Project Aristotle at Google: https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312

CASE STUDY

Google’s search to find better bosses.

In 2009, statisticians at Google began work on a highly ambitious undertaking code-named Project Oxygen. Using the data-mining and analytical resources at their disposal, their quest was to find the key ingredients of highly effective managers. Through investigation and study of performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards (which included over 10,000 observations, 400 pages of interview notes and more than 100 variables), the statisticians at Google were able to determine the eight key habits of effective managers. Such practices included: ‘Having a clear vision and strategy for the team’, ‘Helping your employees with career development’, ‘Be a good coach’, ‘Be a good communicator and listen to your team’, ‘Express interest in team member’s success and well-being’, ‘Have key technical skills so that you can advise your team’, ‘Empower your team and don’t micro-manage’ and ‘Be productive and results-oriented’. For a technology-oriented company like Google, Project Oxygen uncovered some unexpected findings. Far from prioritizing technical expertise, the research discovered that employee’s value fair-minded managers who guide and assist people in solving problems through asking questions and taking time for face-to-face meetings. Effective managers also took an interest in their employees’ skills and interests and formulated plans for their career development.

The results of Project Oxygen clearly highlight the instrumental role that managers play in both employee retention and employee development. The research found that quality of management was the single biggest factor affecting employee performance and employees’ intention to stay with Google. As well as identifying positive managerial attributes, researchers at Google also isolated the reasons why employees leave organizations, namely: they don’t feel a connection to the mission of the company, they don’t really like or respect their co-workers, or they have a bad boss. The results of Project Oxygen have dramatically helped Google reshape and recast approaches to training and development within the organization. Through embedding the principles discovered through Project Oxygen in their training and development programmes, Google has experienced a significant improvement in manager quality for 75 per cent of their worst-performing managers. Perhaps key to the overall under-standing of Project Oxygen however is the simple message that the core of effective management lies not in the technical expertise and skills of the managers themselves, but in their ability to communicate regularly with employees and provide open, direct and constructive feedback.

Questions

1. From the eight principles identified by Google, does the company subscribe to a trait- or behavior-based approach to leadership?

2. Based upon your own insights and the evidence of the case study, discuss the view that ‘employees don’t leave organizations, they leave their managers’.
   

MLA (Modern Language Assoc.)
David McGuire. Human Resource Development. Vol. Second edition. David McGuire, SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014.
APA (American Psychological Assoc.)
David McGuire. (2014). Human Resource Development: Vol. Second edition. David McGuire. SAGE Publications Ltd.