Leadership Practices 
Introduction
The paper will provide a comprehensive analysis of the leadership practices adopted by Google Inc in tackling the organizational challenge the rapidly changing business environment. Google is a multinational corporation that deals in internet related services and items. Some of the services offered by the company include software, search and online advertising services among others. The mission of the company is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google has an unofficial slogan “Don’t be evil” that aims at improving the overall communication of the company with its stakeholders. The primary stakeholders of Google includes the users, investors, employees, It developers and advertisers. The stakeholders of Google work closely with the company to deal with the inherent business environment challenges. To expand its business operations, Google has acquired and collaborated with small companies (Crevani, Lindgren, & Packendorff, 2010). In the late 2006, the company accrued Youtube, in which now contributes much revenues to the company today. Google faces stiff competition from other companies including Facebook Inc., Samsung Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, and Apple Inc. among others. In spite of the increased competition and changing business environment, Google is making efforts in improving the performance of the company innovating new ideas and products. As a result, the report would identify the strategies and ways necessary to counter the effects of the changing business climate organizational challenge.
Rapidly Changing Business Environment Organizational Challenge
The CEO of Google has insisted that the rapid changing environments call for proactive actions to support effective control of the external changes in the organization. Some of the processes that have been implemented in Google to deal with the dynamic business climate include process improvement, restructuring, total quality management and business process reengineering among others. The organizational challenge is dependent on the ability of the leaders to develop effective ways to manage its employees. The leadership of Google Inc has noted the rapidly changing business environment as major organizational challenges affecting the success of the company. The rapidly chaining environment is responsible for shaping the organizations through societal changes, technological advancements and globalization (London & Mone, 2012). Thus, the leaders are faced with the problem of creating innovative and transformative ways of adapting to the various forces while still maintaining the relevance of the business operations. The organizational challenge of changing environments includes the shifting population, economic changes, and political instabilities. The external aspects are influential in supporting the performance of the organization.
In the current business world, technology has been noted as the main elements fueling the rapid changes in the business. The difficult of changing environments affects the success of the organizational operations. According to Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, A. (2013), rapid changes in the operation could cause the loss of self-confidence, loss and conflicts. Thus, the management of Google has been keen on implementation relevant employee networks to offset the effects of environmental changes in the organization. Over the years, Google has become one of the most relevant companies due to its ability to adapt to the changing business climate. However, it still faces challenges with matching other crucial environmental changes such as competitive and cultural changes in the society. It is usually not easy to deal with the changing external environment, since the company does not have any control of the factors. The external factors are usually described as uncontrollable factors (London & Mone, 2012). This requires the leadership of the company to develop appropriate strategic approaches of dealing with the challenge. Many companies have significantly declined in terms of organizational performance due to their inability to adapt to the changing environment.
In addition, the challenge could note the challenge of meeting the cultural expectations and norms of the employees. It is clear to noted that the business environment is not stable and its faces contractions and expansions at different times. Thus, Google has a difficult task to handle the changing environments in the different markets. Google is present in different countries that make it even more challenging to control the changing environments in the regions. The company is required to continually conduct monitoring and review programs for the success of the company (Crevani et al., 2010). Coping with the external environment is difficult considering the uncertainty and ambiguity associated with the inherent business operations. Therefore, it is important for the leadership of Google to communicate and develop strategic ways of dealing with organizational challenge of rapidly changing business climate. This would promote current performance and expansion of the company’s operations to new markets.
Dealing with the Organizational Challenge
The leadership of Google has implemented suitable strategies in dealing with challenge of the changing business environment. Most of the leaders in Google are transformative and visionary leaders who seek to match any rapid changes in the business environment. Google has also implemented relevant strategic plans towards managing the effects of the external business environments. The strategic plans are often flexible to tackle the changes in the inherent business environments. Strategic planning has been able to determine the number and influence of the company competitors. During the strategic planning process, the leaders assign different people to particular assigns in order to ensure the effective control and management of the rapid environmental changes. The company has also emphasized on some of the strategic principles related to leadership (Wallace, de Chernatony, & Buil, 2013). The leadership process applied in tackling the rapid changing environment includes the identification of the adaptive challenges, handling its associated stress, and the protection of the affected employees. This occurs through informal means relevant to support quick adjustments to the environmental changes.
Considering the effects of the current changing environment, the leadership of the company has focused its efforts towards the mobile fronts. For instance, the company has been able to develop high-speed mobile networks. LTE is new mobile network that allows the mobile operators to provide faster networks to its clients. The new networking also comes with new applications to support the social and entertainment components of the mobile phones. This is an example of the initiative taken by the leaders of Google to adapt the rapidly growing business environment. Today, customers are seeking for strong networks and innovations in the mobile and technological industries. Thus, the innovation initiatives have been clear strategic focus for Google to dealing with the challenging environment (Crevani., et al., 2010). The awareness of the local and global information through the Google initiatives has been crucial for tackling the organizational challenge.
Apart from the innovation initiatives supported by the leaders of the company, Google has a strong entrepreneurial spirit relevant in supporting the effective monitoring and leadership in the technology industry. To support the improved innovation growth, it is important to understand the present opportunities in the current environments. The leadership entrepreneurial spirit has offered relevant success for its brands. The concept of opportunity identification and management has also been used by the company’s leadership to direct the probable success of the company. Since, it is important to be vigilant in identifying any possible opportunities in the technology industry. As a result, the entrepreneurial spirit has been crucial in supporting growth of new ideas and opportunities. This is crucial in offsetting the dynamic business environment in the company. In spite of the various efforts by the leadership of Google, they still face major threats from the changing environment in the industry.
Effectiveness of Leadership Practices
For effectiveness of the leadership aspects, the leadership practices follows the various ways to support effective management and dealing with the organizational challenge. First, Google should seek to implement appropriate organizational change processes to respond to the changing situations. The change management processes are appropriate in managing the various aspects. The processes are also effective in enhancing flexibility, adaptability and stability for the overall success of the organization. The change management mechanism also supports the implementation of the organizational strategic plans. This would improve Google’s organizational culture towards dealing with inherent expectations in the industry.
Second, the changing of behaviors, cultures and the perceptions of employees is necessary in dealing with the organizational challenge. The leadership practices should also transform the perception and behaviors of the employees towards the changing business aspects. It focuses on encouraging the employees to interact with other persons and external stakeholders to learn new approaches of dealing with dynamic organizational changes. In changing the actions and perceptions employees, the centralization of the institutions and control of power is important. This helps in instilling communication and teamwork in the various consumer markets. The change of behaviors and perceptions through leadership practices defines instrumental tools for effective leadership approaches in dealing with the rapidly changing environments. In addition, it would be effective to tackle the organizational challenge if the top leaders and managers supported the passion of the employees (Wallace et al., 2013). The employee satisfaction forms one of most essential items in supporting the organizational performance in the company. Google has allowed improved informal groups and teams that focus improving innovative and creativity. However, it also important for the managers and leaders to ensures achievement of the passion of the employees and the departmental business leaders to allow for the overcoming of the various organizational changes.
Strategic Recommendations
For the future leaders to tackle the organizational challenge of rapidly changing environment, I would the various strategic efforts and approaches. First, I would the future leaders to put more efforts in understanding the organization structure. The organization structure of Google usually indicates the nature and ways of meeting the company’s missions and visions. Also, the organization also affects the performance of its employees. Thus, the leaders should ensure that the organization structure aligns with the inherent changing business environment. In competitive environments, the organization structure should have different levels to pass information in order to develop effective decisions. A flexible organization structure is also important in dealing with the challenges brought about by the changing business environments. As a result, I recommend the leadership practices to focus on designing the organization structure in a manner that would help in maintaining stability in the current challenging business world.
In addition, I would recommend for the company to maintain a high level of financial strength. Financial strength of any company affects the both internal and external factors influencing a company. Google has strong financial strength that helps in creating innovation and creativity in the technological industry. However, the aspects of financial strength can also be used in cushioning the company from external impacts of dynamic aspects such as political influences and societal changes (Voegtlin, Patzer & Scherer, 2012). Moreover, it would be relevant for the company to create new development for tackling with dynamic changes in business problems. The creation of a new department would determine the impact of changing external environment and its effects in the performance of the company. Most important, the department should have a team specialized in the creation of reliable strategic plans. The practice of strategic planning helps in highlighting the probable changes in the business spectrum.
The strategic plan should be communicated to the involved stakeholders in the company. The effective communication of the strategic focus and plans of the company is appropriate in encouraging necessary strategic leadership in Google. Communication of the goals to the involved stakeholders is indicating the progress of the company as well as the associated performance amidst the changing environments. Strategic communication and planning is recommendable for Google leadership in order to identify the specific issues created by rapidly changing environments (Wallace et al., 2013). In future, I would also recommend for the performance of regular evaluations related to the organizational insights towards eliminating the various barriers in Google. Google assesses the team efforts through the various performance evaluation and promotional programs. In addition, it conducts regular employee surveys to track the performance of the individuals in the organizations. The evaluation programs should form part of the leadership practices towards tackling the challenge of changing business environment. They illustrate the ability of the different employees to adjust and deal with the various external adjustments and changes in the society.
The aspects indicated in the leadership theory suggest that the leaders should develop a strategic thinking towards resolving the organizational challenge. The leadership theory is keen on explaining the need to plan for future uncertainties in the company. For instance, the Google integrated the aspects of SWOT analysis with strategic environment changes for understand the nature of the dynamic business environments. Another suggestions offered from the leadership theory aligned to strategic thinking is the development of good plans of product development. According to London and Mone (2012), leaders are support to have a full understanding and knowledge of immediate environment that influences businesses operations. One of the theories by Mintzberg identifies the different sets of competencies that could form part of the successful organizations. Strategic focus and thinking is not different from the traditional thinking, but it offers the reliable competencies for improved performance and environmental changes adaptation.
Conclusion
In summary, the paper sought to provide a comprehensive analysis of the organizational challenge of adapting to the changing environment. Google is a company that deals with technology and innovation and thus, it faces stiff competition from other companies such as Facebook and Samsung. Thus, it should have a better understanding of the dynamic business environment to support improved performance. Currently, the Google has been able to develop new approaches of dealing with the dynamic business climate include process improvement, restructuring, total quality management and business process reengineering among others. It has also a strong entrepreneurial spirit relevant in supporting the effective monitoring and leadership in the technology industry. The entrepreneurial spirit helps in supporting innovation and understanding the present opportunities in the current environments. The organizational challenge is dependent on the ability of the leaders to develop effective ways to manage its employees. The leadership of Google Inc has noted the rapidly changing business environment as major organizational challenges affecting the success of the company. To enhance effectiveness, the leaders should develop and implement appropriate organizational change processes to respond to the changing situations. The change management processes are appropriate in managing with adverse situations from the organizational challenge. The leadership theory encourages strategic thinking in order to enhance the effective performance and development of the company. It would be recommendable for the leaders to evaluate and align the organization structure to the changing business environment. Therefore, Google would enhance its productivity and performance by tackling the challenge of the changing environment through its leadership practices.
