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Google’s Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? – Case Solution

Case solution for Google's Project Oxygen case study. After several years of utilizing the comprehensive program to help employees become effective managers, Google saw important developments in terms of managerial effectiveness and performance. Executives are now contemplating how to replicate the same project to its senior leaders, teams, and other staff.

​David A. Garvin, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, Liz Kind Harvard Business School ( 313110-PDF-ENG ) Apr 3, 2013 (Revision: Oct 15, 2013)

Case questions answered:

Case study questions answered in the first solution:

• What kinds of people work at Google? How does this relate to the organizational culture? What should be the role of HR? What should be the role of managers?
• What is your assessment of Google’s Project Oxygen 8 attributes? Do you think there may be a source of sustainable competitive advantage (superior long-term performance) for Google? Are they generalizable to other organizations?
• What should Setty’s priorities be going forward? What criteria should he use to decide which project to pursue? Which of the proposed initiatives should he pursue and why?

Case study question answered in the second solution:

• Could an Oxygen approach be used to study: Upper management and executives; Complete the life cycle of managers; or Teams?

Case study questions answered in the third solution:

• Is it a good idea to have a set of “expected managerial behaviors”? As mentioned on pg. 12 of the case: “My biggest fear is that Project Oxygen is constraining. Are we boxing people in?”
• Do you think that the managerial behaviors espoused by Project Oxygen will work for any managerial setting in any organization? Why? Why not?
• Look at the section “Looking Ahead” of the case. Select three options for further work that Mr. Setty could concentrate on performing and express their advantages and disadvantages. Select the option that you believe would be most advantageous for Google to follow. NOTE: You may also select a “Do Nothing” option, which leaves the Project Oxygen work as-is.

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Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? Case Answers

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1. What kinds of people work at Google?   How does this relate to the organizational culture? What should be the role of HR?   What should be the role of managers?

Google is a company full of engineers. Software engineer Eric Flatt stated, “We are a company built by engineers for engineers. (Garvin 2)” Google also conducts operations to ensure that they hire top-level talent. Google reviews resumes looking for key factors for doing well at the company, including excluding high levels of cognitive ability (Garvin 3).

Google is looking for employees that contribute to the company’s human capital. Human capital includes the knowledge, skills, health, and values of an employee (Becker). In addition, Google looks for four things from someone during an interview: leadership, role-related knowledge, how you think, and googleyness. Google has many young, high achievers who crave autonomy (Garvin 3). Google has hardworking, ambitious people who are perfectionists (3).

Google has a culture in which good ideas are celebrated, and authority is derived from peer respect. (3). This type of respect is also known as referent power. Referent power is based upon identification with, attraction to, or respect for the leader (Zemsky). Additionally, Google hires people who are smart and determined, and they favor ability over experience (Google).

Google’s organizational culture encourages a very free and creative environment that allows employees to feel comfortable with sharing ideas and opinions (Google). Google holds a flat organizational structure. A flat organizational structure does not place an emphasis on hierarchy, and it promotes a culture of teamwork. Lisa Wirthman of Forbes says, “Flat structures work best when a company’s main point of differentiation is innovation. (Wirthman).

This applies directly to Google because innovation is exactly what they have done since its launch. Innovation deals with what is desirable to users, what is viable in the marketplace, and what is possible with technology (Smith 19). Firms must innovate to survive, and this is one thing that Google has done well (Smith 19).

Google is constantly looking for new ways to innovate, create new products on the web, and make searching faster. This is why Google recruits creative employees because they stimulate an innovative environment. Furthermore, Google practices the marketing concept. The marketing concept consists of the total company effort, profit, and customer satisfaction.

Google is concerned with all of these features. In regards to profit, Google’s total revenue and operating income have increased every year between 2001 and 2012. It is clear that Google has the customer’s wants in mind because they are the leading search engine in the world.

The total company effort is visible through Google’s Project Oxygen 8 attributes. Google fosters a teamwork setting, and they believe that teamwork leads to better ideas because there is input from more people. Google applies the marketing concept to its organizational culture as well.

The role of Human Resources should be to continue to find these employees, develop them, and keep them working for Google. This is beneficial because it is less costly to retain employees than to hire new ones. One way that Google does this is by offering its employees one day a week to work on whatever they choose. Benefits such as this boost employees’ view of the company and inspire them to stay with Google.

The role of Google’s managers should be to oversee operations and facilitate production. Google’s managers should make sure that everyone in the company has great opportunities and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society (Garvin 4). Managers should also continue to innovate their relationships with their employees and figure out the best things they can do for them (Garvin 4).

2. What is your assessment of Google’s Project Oxygen 8 attributes?    Do you think these may be a source of sustainable competitive advantage (superior long-term performance) for Google?    Are they generalizable to other organizations?

The Oxygen 8 attributes are Google’s version of the Air Force’s core values. Although Oxygen 8 is derived from feedback, it lists the eight key attributes essential to the success of Google’s managers, much like core values do in the Air Force.

Integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do are the pillars of how the Air Force wants its members to perform and behave. Google’s Project Oxygen 8 provides the same guidance, just in a different manner.

As far as content goes, the Oxygen 8 attributes are very good standards to build a company on. All of the attributes are ethical and promote a good environment that employees want to be a part of.

Additionally, these attributes allow Google to accomplish its positioning statement: Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful (Google). This positioning statement gives Google international opportunities and does not limit them to one geographical region.

Google’s Project Oxygen 8 attributes are certainly…

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How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management

• David A. Garvin

Hint: It’s all about the data.

Reprint: R1312D

High-performing knowledge workers often question whether managers actually contribute much, especially in a technical environment. Until recently, that was the case at Google, a company filled with self-starters who viewed management as more destructive than beneficial and as a distraction from “real work.” But when Google’s people analytics team examined the value of managers, applying the same rigorous research methods the company uses in its operations, it proved the skeptics wrong.

Mining data from employee surveys, performance reviews, and double-blind interviews, the team verified that managers indeed had a positive impact. It also pinpointed exactly how, identifying the eight key behaviors of great Google managers.

In this article, Harvard Business School professor Garvin describes how Google has incorporated the detailed findings from the research into highly specific, concrete guidelines; classes; and feedback reports that help managers hone their essential skills. Because these tools were built from the ground up, using the staff’s own input, they’ve been embraced by Google employees. Managers say that they’ve found their training to be invaluable, and managers’ ratings from direct reports have steadily risen across the company.

Since the early days of Google, people throughout the company have questioned the value of managers. That skepticism stems from a highly technocratic culture. As one software engineer, Eric Flatt, puts it, “We are a company built by engineers for engineers.” And most engineers, not just those at Google, want to spend their time designing and debugging, not communicating with bosses or supervising other workers’ progress. In their hearts they’ve long believed that management is more destructive than beneficial, a distraction from “real work” and tangible, goal-directed tasks.

A few years into the company’s life, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin actually wondered whether Google needed any managers at all. In 2002 they experimented with a completely flat organization, eliminating engineering managers in an effort to break down barriers to rapid idea development and to replicate the collegial environment they’d enjoyed in graduate school. That experiment lasted only a few months: They relented when too many people went directly to Page with questions about expense reports, interpersonal conflicts, and other nitty-gritty issues. And as the company grew, the founders soon realized that managers contributed in many other, important ways—for instance, by communicating strategy, helping employees prioritize projects, facilitating collaboration, supporting career development, and ensuring that processes and systems aligned with company goals.

Google now has some layers but not as many as you might expect in an organization with more than 37,000 employees: just 5,000 managers, 1,000 directors, and 100 vice presidents. It’s not uncommon to find engineering managers with 30 direct reports. Flatt says that’s by design, to prevent micromanaging. “There is only so much you can meddle when you have 30 people on your team, so you have to focus on creating the best environment for engineers to make things happen,” he notes. Google gives its rank and file room to make decisions and innovate. Along with that freedom comes a greater respect for technical expertise, skillful problem solving, and good ideas than for titles and formal authority. Given the overall indifference to pecking order, anyone making a case for change at the company needs to provide compelling logic and rich supporting data. Seldom do employees accept top-down directives without question.

Google downplays hierarchy and emphasizes the power of the individual in its recruitment efforts, as well, to achieve the right cultural fit. Using a rigorous, data-driven hiring process, the company goes to great lengths to attract young, ambitious self-starters and original thinkers. It screens candidates’ résumés for markers that indicate potential to excel there—especially general cognitive ability. People who make that first cut are then carefully assessed for initiative, flexibility, collaborative spirit, evidence of being well-rounded, and other factors that make a candidate “Googley.”

So here’s the challenge Google faced: If your highly skilled, handpicked hires don’t value management, how can you run the place effectively? How do you turn doubters into believers, persuading them to spend time managing others? As it turns out, by applying the same analytical rigor and tools that you used to hire them in the first place—and that they set such store by in their own work. You use data to test your assumptions about management’s merits and then make your case.

Analyzing the Soft Stuff

To understand how Google set out to prove managers’ worth, let’s go back to 2006, when Page and Brin brought in Laszlo Bock to head up the human resources function—appropriately called people operations, or people ops. From the start, people ops managed performance reviews, which included annual 360-degree assessments. It also helped conduct and interpret the Googlegeist employee survey on career development goals, perks, benefits, and company culture. A year later, with that foundation in place, Bock hired Prasad Setty from Capital One to lead a people analytics group. He challenged Setty to approach HR with the same empirical discipline Google applied to its business operations.

Setty took him at his word, recruiting several PhDs with serious research chops. This new team was committed to leading organizational change. “I didn’t want our group to be simply a reporting house,” Setty recalls. “Organizations can get bogged down in all that data. Instead, I wanted us to be hypothesis-driven and help solve company problems and questions with data.”

People analytics then pulled together a small team to tackle issues relating to employee well-being and productivity. In early 2009 it presented its initial set of research questions to Setty. One question stood out, because it had come up again and again since the company’s founding: Do managers matter?

To find the answer, Google launched Project Oxygen, a multiyear research initiative. It has since grown into a comprehensive program that measures key management behaviors and cultivates them through communication and training. By November 2012, employees had widely adopted the program—and the company had shown statistically significant improvements in multiple areas of managerial effectiveness and performance.

Google is one of several companies that are applying analytics in new ways. Until recently, organizations used data-driven decision making mainly in product development, marketing, and pricing. But these days, Google, Procter & Gamble, Harrah’s, and others take that same approach in addressing human resources needs. (See “Competing on Talent Analytics,” by Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Jeremy Shapiro, HBR October 2010.)

Unfortunately, scholars haven’t done enough to help these organizations understand and improve day-to-day management practice. Compared with leadership, managing remains understudied and undertaught—largely because it’s so difficult to describe, precisely and concretely, what managers actually do. We often say that they get things done through other people, yet we don’t usually spell out how in any detail. Project Oxygen, in contrast, was designed to offer granular, hands-on guidance. It didn’t just identify desirable management traits in the abstract; it pinpointed specific, measurable behaviors that brought those traits to life.

“Engineers hate being micromanaged on the technical side but love being closely managed on the career side.”

That’s why Google employees let go of their skepticism and got with the program. Project Oxygen mirrored their decision-making criteria, respected their need for rigorous analysis, and made it a priority to measure impact. Data-driven cultures, Google discovered, respond well to data-driven change.

Making the Case

Project Oxygen colead Neal Patel recalls, “We knew the team had to be careful. Google has high standards of proof, even for what, at other places, might be considered obvious truths. Simple correlations weren’t going to be enough. So we actually ended up trying to prove the opposite case—that managers don’t matter. Luckily, we failed.”

To begin, Patel and his team reviewed exit-interview data to see if employees cited management issues as a reason for leaving Google. Though they found some connections between turnover rates and low satisfaction with managers, those didn’t apply to the company more broadly, given the low turnover rates overall. Nor did the findings prove that managers caused attrition.

As a next step, Patel examined Googlegeist ratings and semiannual reviews, comparing managers on both satisfaction and performance. For both dimensions, he looked at the highest and lowest scorers (the top and bottom quartiles).

Essential Background

Evidence-based management.

• Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton

“At first,” he says, “the numbers were not encouraging. Even the low-scoring managers were doing pretty well. How could we find evidence that better management mattered when all managers seemed so similar?” The solution came from applying sophisticated multivariate statistical techniques, which showed that even “the smallest incremental increases in manager quality were quite powerful.”

For example, in 2008, the high-scoring managers saw less turnover on their teams than the others did—and retention was related more strongly to manager quality than to seniority, performance, tenure, or promotions. The data also showed a tight connection between managers’ quality and workers’ happiness: Employees with high-scoring bosses consistently reported greater satisfaction in multiple areas, including innovation, work-life balance, and career development.

In light of this research, the Project Oxygen team concluded that managers indeed mattered. But to act on that finding, Google first had to figure out what its best managers did. So the researchers followed up with double-blind qualitative interviews, asking the high- and low-scoring managers questions such as “How often do you have career development discussions with your direct reports?” and “What do you do to develop a vision for your team?” Managers from Google’s three major functions (engineering, global business, and general and administrative) participated; they came from all levels and geographies. The team also studied thousands of qualitative comments from Googlegeist surveys, performance reviews, and submissions for the company’s Great Manager Award. (Each year, Google selects about 20 managers for this distinction, on the basis of employees’ nominations.) It took several months to code and process all this information.

After much review, Oxygen identified eight behaviors shared by high-scoring managers. (See the sidebar “What Google’s Best Managers Do” for the complete list.) Even though the behaviors weren’t terribly surprising, Patel’s colead, Michelle Donovan, says, “we hoped that the list would resonate because it was based on Google data. The attributes were about us, by us, and for us.”

What Google’s Best Managers Do

By examining data from employee surveys and performance reviews, Google’s people analytics team identified eight key behaviors demonstrated by the company’s most effective managers.

A good manager:

1. Is a good coach 2. Empowers the team and does not micromanage (See the sidebar “How Google Defines One Key Behavior”) 3. Expresses interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being 4. Is productive and results-oriented 5. Is a good communicator—listens and shares information 6. Helps with career development 7. Has a clear vision and strategy for the team 8. Has key technical skills that help him or her advise the team

The key behaviors primarily describe leaders of small and medium-sized groups and teams and are especially relevant to first- and second-level managers. They involve developing and motivating direct reports, as well as communicating strategy and eliminating roadblocks—all vital activities that people tend to overlook in the press of their day-to-day responsibilities.

Putting the Findings into Practice

The list of behaviors has served three important functions at Google: giving employees a shared vocabulary for discussing management, offering them straightforward guidelines for improving it, and encapsulating the full range of management responsibilities. Though the list is simple and straightforward, it’s enriched by examples and descriptions of best practices—in survey participants’ own words. These details make the overarching principles, such as “empowers the team and does not micromanage,” more concrete and show managers different ways of enacting them. (See the exhibit “How Google Defines One Key Behavior.”)

How Google Defines One Key Behavior

Drawing on companywide survey responses, Google breaks down each essential management behavior into specific activities and best practices.

Best practice: Assign stretch assignments to empower the team to tackle big problems

“My manager was able to see my potential and gave me opportunities that allowed me to shine and grow. For example, early on in my role, she asked me to pull together a cross-functional team to develop a goal-setting process. I was new to the role, so she figured it would be a great way for me to get to know the team and also to create accountability and transparency. Once it was developed, she sent me to one of our Europe offices—on my own!—to deliver the training to people managers there.”

The descriptions of the eight behaviors also allow considerable tailoring. They’re inclusive guidelines, not rigid formulas. That said, it was clear early on that managers would need help adopting the new standards, so people ops built assessments and a training program around the Oxygen findings.

To improve the odds of acceptance, the group customized the survey instrument, creating an upward feedback survey (UFS) for employees in administrative and global business functions and a tech managers survey (TMS) for the engineers. Both assessments asked employees to evaluate their managers (using a five-point scale) on a core set of activities—such as giving actionable feedback regularly and communicating team goals clearly—all of which related directly to the key management behaviors.

The first surveys went out in June 2010—deliberately out of sync with performance reviews, which took place in April and September. (Google had initially considered linking the scores with performance reviews but decided that would increase resistance to the Oxygen program because employees would view it as a top-down imposition of standards.) People ops emphasized confidentiality and issued frequent reminders that the surveys were strictly for self-improvement. “Project Oxygen was always meant to be a developmental tool, not a performance metric,” says Mary Kate Stimmler, an analyst in the department. “We realized that anonymous surveys are not always fair, and there is often a context behind low scores.”

Though the surveys weren’t mandatory, the vast majority of employees completed them. Soon afterward, managers received reports with numerical scores and individual comments—feedback they were urged to share with their teams. (See the exhibit “One Manager’s Feedback” for a representative sample.) The reports explicitly tied individuals’ scores to the eight behaviors, included links to more information about best practices, and suggested actions each manager could take to improve. Someone with, say, unfavorable scores in coaching might get a recommendation to take a class on how to deliver personalized, balanced feedback.

People ops designed the training to be hands-on and immediately useful. In “vision” classes, for example, participants practiced writing vision statements for their departments or teams and bringing the ideas to life with compelling stories. In 2011, Google added Start Right, a two-hour workshop for new managers, and Manager Flagship courses on popular topics such as managing change, which were offered in three two-day modules over six months. “We have a team of instructors,” says people-development manager Kathrin O’Sullivan, “and we are piloting online Google Hangout classes so managers from around the world can participate.”

Managers have expressed few concerns about signing up for the courses and going public with the changes they need to make. Eric Clayberg, for one, has found his training invaluable. A seasoned software-engineering manager and serial entrepreneur, Clayberg had led teams for 18 years before Google bought his latest start-up. But he feels he learned more about management in six months of Oxygen surveys and people ops courses than in the previous two decades. “For instance,” he says, “I was worried about the flat organizational structure at Google; I knew it would be hard to help people on my team get promoted. I learned in the classes about how to provide career development beyond promotions. I now spend a third to half my time looking for ways to help my team members grow.” And to his surprise, his reports have welcomed his advice. “Engineers hate being micromanaged on the technical side,” he observes, “but they love being closely managed on the career side.”

Improving Management at Google: An Audio Interview

Harvard Business School professor David Garvin interviews Google software-engineering manager Eric Clayberg, a winner of the company’s Great Manager Award. They discuss how Clayberg and others at Google have benefitted from Project Oxygen, an internal research initiative that has evolved into a comprehensive management-feedback and -training program.

Download this podcast

To complement the training, the development team sets up panel discussions featuring high-scoring managers from each function. That way, employees get advice from colleagues they respect, not just from HR. People ops also sends new managers automated e-mail reminders with tips on how to succeed at Google, links to relevant Oxygen findings, and information about courses they haven’t taken.

And Google rewards the behaviors it’s working so hard to promote. The company has revamped its selection criteria for the Great Manager Award to reflect the eight Oxygen behaviors. Employees refer to the behaviors and cite specific examples when submitting nominations. Clayberg has received the award, and he believes it was largely because of the skills he acquired through his Oxygen training. The prize includes a weeklong trip to a destination such as Hawaii, where winners get to spend time with senior executives. Recipients go places in the company, too. “In the last round of promotions to vice president,” Laszlo Bock says, “10% of the directors promoted were winners of the Great Manager Award.”

Measuring Results

The people ops team has analyzed Oxygen’s impact by examining aggregate survey data and qualitative input from individuals. From 2010 through 2012, UFS and TMS median favorability scores rose from 83% to 88%. The lowest-scoring managers improved the most, particularly in the areas of coaching and career development. The improvements were consistent across functions, survey categories, management levels, spans of control, and geographic regions.

In an environment of top achievers, people take low scores seriously. Consider vice president Sebastien Marotte, who came to Google in 2011 from a senior sales role at Oracle. During his first six months at Google, Marotte focused on meeting his sales numbers (and did so successfully) while managing a global team of 150 people. Then he received his first UFS scores, which came as a shock. “I asked myself, ‘Am I right for this company? Should I go back to Oracle?’ There seemed to be a disconnect,” he says, “because my manager had rated me favorably in my first performance review, yet my UFS scores were terrible.” Then, with help from a people ops colleague, Marotte took a step back and thought about what changes he could make. He recalls, “We went through all the comments and came up with a plan. I fixed how I communicated with my team and provided more visibility on our long-term strategy. Within two survey cycles, I raised my favorability ratings from 46% to 86%. It’s been tough but very rewarding. I came here as a senior sales guy, but now I feel like a general manager.”

Overall, other managers took the feedback as constructively as Marotte did—and were especially grateful for its specificity. Here’s what Stephanie Davis, director of large-company sales and another winner of the Great Manager Award, says she learned from her first feedback report: “I was surprised that one person on my team didn’t think I had regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings. I saw this person every day, but the survey helped me realize that just seeing this person was different from having regularly scheduled individual meetings. My team also wanted me to spend more time sharing my vision. Personally, I have always been inspired by Eric [Schmidt], Larry, and Sergey; I thought my team was also getting a sense of the company’s vision from them. But this survey gave my team the opportunity to explain that they wanted me to interpret the higher-level vision for them. So I started listening to the company’s earnings call with a different ear. I didn’t just come back to my team with what was said; I also shared what it meant for them.”

Chris Loux, head of global enterprise renewals, remembers feeling frustrated with his low UFS scores. “I had received a performance review indicating that I was exceeding expectations,” he says, “yet one of my direct reports said on the UFS that he would not recommend me as a manager. That struck me, because people don’t quit companies—they quit managers.” At the same time, Loux struggled with the question of just how much to push the lower performers on his team. “It’s hard to give negative feedback to a type-A person who has never received bad feedback in his or her life,” he explains. “If someone gets 95% favorable on the UFS, I wonder if that manager is avoiding problems by not having tough conversations with reports on how they can get better.”

Loux isn’t the only Google executive to speculate about the connection between employees’ performance reviews and their managers’ feedback scores. That question came up multiple times during Oxygen’s rollout. To address it, the people analytics group fell back on a time-tested technique—going back to the data and conducting a formal analysis to determine whether a manager who gave someone a negative performance review would then receive a low feedback rating from that employee. After looking at two quarters’ worth of survey data from 2011, the group found that changes in employee performance ratings (both upward and downward) accounted for less than 1% of variability in corresponding manager ratings across all functions at Google.

“Managing to the test” doesn’t appear to be a big risk, either. Because the eight behaviors are rooted in action, it’s difficult for managers to fake them in pursuit of higher ratings. In the surveys, employees don’t assess their managers’ motivations, values, or beliefs; rather, they evaluate the extent to which their managers demonstrate each behavior. Either the manager has acted in the ways recommended—consistently and credibly—or she has not. There is very little room for grandstanding or dissembling.

This article also appears in:

HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2015

“We are not trying to change the nature of people who work at Google,” says Bock. “That would be presumptuous and dangerous. Instead, we are saying, ‘Here are a few things that will lead you to be perceived as a better manager.’ Our managers may not completely believe in the suggestions, but after they act on them and get better UFS and TMS scores, they may eventually internalize the behavior.”

Project Oxygen does have its limits. A commitment to managerial excellence can be hard to maintain over the long haul. One threat to sustainability is “evaluation overload.” The UFS and the TMS depend on employees’ goodwill. Googlers voluntarily respond on a semiannual basis, but they’re asked to complete many other surveys as well. What if they decide that they’re tired of filling out surveys? Will response rates bottom out? Sustainability also depends on the continued effectiveness of managers who excel at the eight behaviors, as well as those behaviors’ relevance to senior executive positions. A disproportionate number of recently promoted vice presidents had won the Great Manager Award, a reflection of how well they’d followed Oxygen’s guidelines. But what if other behaviors—those associated with leadership skills—matter more in senior positions?

Further, while survey scores gauge employees’ satisfaction and perceptions of the work environment, it’s unclear exactly what impact those intangibles have on such bottom-line measures as sales, productivity, and profitability. (Even for Google’s high-powered statisticians, those causal relationships are difficult to establish.) And if the eight behaviors do actually benefit organizational performance, they still might not give Google a lasting edge. Companies with similar competitive profiles—high-tech firms, for example, that are equally data-driven—can mimic Google’s approach, since the eight behaviors aren’t proprietary.

Because the eight behaviors are rooted in action, it’s difficult for managers to fake them.

Still, Project Oxygen has accomplished what it set out to do: It not only convinced its skeptical audience of Googlers that managers mattered but also identified, described, and institutionalized their most essential behaviors. Oxygen applied the concept of data-driven continuous improvement directly—and successfully—to the soft skills of management. Widespread adoption has had a significant impact on how employees perceive life at Google—particularly on how they rate the degree of collaboration, the transparency of performance evaluations, and their groups’ commitment to innovation and risk taking. At a company like Google, where the staff consists almost entirely of “A” players, managers have a complex, demanding role to play. They must go beyond overseeing the day-to-day work and support their employees’ personal needs, development, and career planning. That means providing smart, steady feedback to guide people to greater levels of achievement—but intervening judiciously and with a light touch, since high-performing knowledge workers place a premium on autonomy. It’s a delicate balancing act to keep employees happy and motivated through enthusiastic cheerleading while helping them grow through stretch assignments and carefully modulated feedback. When the process works well, it can yield extraordinary results.

That’s why Prasad Setty wants to keep building on Oxygen’s findings about effective management practice. “We will have to start thinking about what else drives people to go from good to great,” he says. His team has begun analyzing managers’ assessment scores by personality type, looking for patterns. “With Project Oxygen, we didn’t have these endogenous variables available to us,” he adds. “Now we can start to tease them out, using more of an ethnographic approach. It’s really about observations—staying with people and studying their interactions. We’re not going to have the capacity to follow tons of people, but what we’ll lose in terms of numbers, we’ll gain in a deeper understanding of what managers and their teams experience.”

That, in a nutshell, is the principle at the heart of Google’s approach: deploying disciplined data collection and rigorous analysis—the tools of science—to uncover deeper insights into the art and craft of management.

• DG David A. Garvin was the C. Roland Christensen Professor at Harvard Business School.

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Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

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To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes, designed to help Google employees become better managers. By November 2012, the program had been in place for several years, and the company could point to statistically significant improvements in managerial effectiveness and performance. Now executives were wondering: how could Google build on the success of this project, extending it to senior leaders, teams, and other constituencies while striving to create truly amazing managers?

Case Description Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Strategic managment tools used in case study analysis of google's project oxygen: do managers matter, step 1. problem identification in google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 2. external environment analysis - pestel / pest / step analysis of google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 3. industry specific / porter five forces analysis of google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 4. evaluating alternatives / swot analysis of google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 5. porter value chain analysis / vrio / vrin analysis google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 6. recommendations google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, step 7. basis of recommendations for google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study, quality & on time delivery.

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Case Analysis of Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? is a Harvard Business (HBR) Case Study on Leadership & Managing People , Texas Business School provides HBR case study assignment help for just $9. Texas Business School(TBS) case study solution is based on HBR Case Study Method framework, TBS expertise & global insights. Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? is designed and drafted in a manner to allow the HBR case study reader to analyze a real-world problem by putting reader into the position of the decision maker. Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study will help professionals, MBA, EMBA, and leaders to develop a broad and clear understanding of casecategory challenges. Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? will also provide insight into areas such as – wordlist , strategy, leadership, sales and marketing, and negotiations.

Case Study Solutions Background Work

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study solution is focused on solving the strategic and operational challenges the protagonist of the case is facing. The challenges involve – evaluation of strategic options, key role of Leadership & Managing People, leadership qualities of the protagonist, and dynamics of the external environment. The challenge in front of the protagonist, of Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?, is to not only build a competitive position of the organization but also to sustain it over a period of time.

Strategic Management Tools Used in Case Study Solution

The Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study solution requires the MBA, EMBA, executive, professional to have a deep understanding of various strategic management tools such as SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis.

Texas Business School Approach to Leadership & Managing People Solutions

In the Texas Business School, Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study solution – following strategic tools are used - SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis. We have additionally used the concept of supply chain management and leadership framework to build a comprehensive case study solution for the case – Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Step 1 – Problem Identification of Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? - Harvard Business School Case Study

The first step to solve HBR Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study solution is to identify the problem present in the case. The problem statement of the case is provided in the beginning of the case where the protagonist is contemplating various options in the face of numerous challenges that Oxygen Project is facing right now. Even though the problem statement is essentially – “Leadership & Managing People” challenge but it has impacted by others factors such as communication in the organization, uncertainty in the external environment, leadership in Oxygen Project, style of leadership and organization structure, marketing and sales, organizational behavior, strategy, internal politics, stakeholders priorities and more.

Step 2 – External Environment Analysis

Texas Business School approach of case study analysis – Conclusion, Reasons, Evidences - provides a framework to analyze every HBR case study. It requires conducting robust external environmental analysis to decipher evidences for the reasons presented in the Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?. The external environment analysis of Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? will ensure that we are keeping a tab on the macro-environment factors that are directly and indirectly impacting the business of the firm.

What is PESTEL Analysis? Briefly Explained

PESTEL stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that impact the external environment of firm in Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study. PESTEL analysis of " Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?" can help us understand why the organization is performing badly, what are the factors in the external environment that are impacting the performance of the organization, and how the organization can either manage or mitigate the impact of these external factors.

How to do PESTEL / PEST / STEP Analysis? What are the components of PESTEL Analysis?

As mentioned above PESTEL Analysis has six elements – political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. All the six elements are explained in context with Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? macro-environment and how it impacts the businesses of the firm.

How to do PESTEL Analysis for Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

To do comprehensive PESTEL analysis of case study – Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? , we have researched numerous components under the six factors of PESTEL analysis.

Political Factors that Impact Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Political factors impact seven key decision making areas – economic environment, socio-cultural environment, rate of innovation & investment in research & development, environmental laws, legal requirements, and acceptance of new technologies.

Government policies have significant impact on the business environment of any country. The firm in “ Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? ” needs to navigate these policy decisions to create either an edge for itself or reduce the negative impact of the policy as far as possible.

Data safety laws – The countries in which Oxygen Project is operating, firms are required to store customer data within the premises of the country. Oxygen Project needs to restructure its IT policies to accommodate these changes. In the EU countries, firms are required to make special provision for privacy issues and other laws.

Competition Regulations – Numerous countries have strong competition laws both regarding the monopoly conditions and day to day fair business practices. Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? has numerous instances where the competition regulations aspects can be scrutinized.

Import restrictions on products – Before entering the new market, Oxygen Project in case study Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?" should look into the import restrictions that may be present in the prospective market.

Export restrictions on products – Apart from direct product export restrictions in field of technology and agriculture, a number of countries also have capital controls. Oxygen Project in case study “ Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? ” should look into these export restrictions policies.

Foreign Direct Investment Policies – Government policies favors local companies over international policies, Oxygen Project in case study “ Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? ” should understand in minute details regarding the Foreign Direct Investment policies of the prospective market.

Corporate Taxes – The rate of taxes is often used by governments to lure foreign direct investments or increase domestic investment in a certain sector. Corporate taxation can be divided into two categories – taxes on profits and taxes on operations. Taxes on profits number is important for companies that already have a sustainable business model, while taxes on operations is far more significant for companies that are looking to set up new plants or operations.

Tariffs – Chekout how much tariffs the firm needs to pay in the “ Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? ” case study. The level of tariffs will determine the viability of the business model that the firm is contemplating. If the tariffs are high then it will be extremely difficult to compete with the local competitors. But if the tariffs are between 5-10% then Oxygen Project can compete against other competitors.

Research and Development Subsidies and Policies – Governments often provide tax breaks and other incentives for companies to innovate in various sectors of priority. Managers at Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study have to assess whether their business can benefit from such government assistance and subsidies.

Consumer protection – Different countries have different consumer protection laws. Managers need to clarify not only the consumer protection laws in advance but also legal implications if the firm fails to meet any of them.

Political System and Its Implications – Different political systems have different approach to free market and entrepreneurship. Managers need to assess these factors even before entering the market.

Freedom of Press is critical for fair trade and transparency. Countries where freedom of press is not prevalent there are high chances of both political and commercial corruption.

Corruption level – Oxygen Project needs to assess the level of corruptions both at the official level and at the market level, even before entering a new market. To tackle the menace of corruption – a firm should have a clear SOP that provides managers at each level what to do when they encounter instances of either systematic corruption or bureaucrats looking to take bribes from the firm.

Independence of judiciary – It is critical for fair business practices. If a country doesn’t have independent judiciary then there is no point entry into such a country for business.

Government attitude towards trade unions – Different political systems and government have different attitude towards trade unions and collective bargaining. The firm needs to assess – its comfort dealing with the unions and regulations regarding unions in a given market or industry. If both are on the same page then it makes sense to enter, otherwise it doesn’t.

Economic Factors that Impact Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Social factors that impact google's project oxygen: do managers matter, technological factors that impact google's project oxygen: do managers matter, environmental factors that impact google's project oxygen: do managers matter, legal factors that impact google's project oxygen: do managers matter, step 3 – industry specific analysis, what is porter five forces analysis, step 4 – swot analysis / internal environment analysis, step 5 – porter value chain / vrio / vrin analysis, step 6 – evaluating alternatives & recommendations, step 7 – basis for recommendations, references :: google's project oxygen: do managers matter case study solution.

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Great Managers Matter: The Evolution of Google’s Project Oxygen

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• Great Managers Matter: The Evolution…

Back in 2008, an internal team of researchers launched  Project Oxygen  – in an effort to determine what makes a manager great at Google. From this research, eight behaviors were identified that were common among their highest performing managers, then incorporated into their manager development programs. By talking about these eight behaviors internally they saw an improvement in management at Google and team outcomes including turnover, satisfaction, and performance. 

Since then, managers have changed, culture has evolved and the world has changed, but during this time Google have continued to review and revise their behaviors. They are now 10, not 8. 

Here are the 10 Oxygen behaviors of Google’s best managers:

• Is a good coach.
• Empowers team and does not micromanage.
• Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being.
• Is productive and results-oriented.
• Is a good communicator — listens and shares information.
• Supports career development and discusses performance.
• Has a clear vision/strategy for the team.
• Has key technical skills to help advise the team.
• Collaborates across Google.
• Is a strong decision maker.

So how can you take a similar approach within your organization to grow a top leader at your company? It all starts with great hiring, and FGP can help with that. Here are four steps we can help you take to identify and grow future leaders: 

Identify Traits.

We help organizations to identify specific traits, much like Google, using behavioral and cognitive assessment to capture data trends. This data driven approach provides a solid foundation to build from. What does an ideal candidate for your role look like? Well, we can show you. 

Define Great.

Spending time defining what great is, is really important, as organization’s definition may vary. 

Defining greatness is important as you are working to build a pipeline of great leaders who can grow with your organization over a period of time. During your search process we can help you define what your great person should look like, then help you find them. 

Hire Based on Potential.

The best way a company can maintain a high achieving culture long-term is to hire based on potential. Companies should assess potential during the hiring process and consider long-term success, beyond the position they are interviewing for. At FGP we spend time defining potential, to help guide hiring managers through this process.  

Build Capabilities and Empower. 

Building capabilities and providing opportunities for further exposure makes for great leaders. But more importantly, empowering future leaders is the ultimate goal. The onboarding process is essential, especially during the first 90 days to ensure successful integration into the team. With a strong foundation and framework for success, your new employee will feel confident and quickly build capabilities, with a drive for further learning. We can help provide guidance for structuring an onboarding plan that will help you not only integrate a great person onto your team but retain them long term.  

Our view – Great people build great companies . We work with a broad range of clients and this stands true, time and time again. We work with clients to help identify high potential traits and construct progressive competency models that enable employee mobility within an organization. Management matters, and we can help you find and develop your next great leaders. 

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Google's Project Oxygen Do Managers Matter? Case Study Solution Analysis

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Google's Project Oxygen: A Case-Study in Connection Culture

Google recently went public with the results of its Project Oxygen research to identify the practices of Google’s best technical managers. Their approach called for a study of 100 variables by data-mining performance reviews and internal surveys. Laszlo Bock , Google’s Vice President for People Operations, summed up the findings when he said the most important factor they identified was "making that connection" between the manager and the employee. Google is right that the manager-employee connection is important, but it is only part of the story. That is what I told Google’s leaders when I presented at the Googleplex in 2009 as part of the Leading@Google Series . In 2002, I first recognized that employees who gave their best efforts and aligned their behavior with organizational goals frequently used the word "connection" to describe why they were so fired up about their work. Since that time, my colleagues and I have been identifying the multiplicity of ways that great leaders in business, government, the social sector and sports connect with the people they lead to achieve sustainable superior performance. In 2007, we published our findings about connection in the book Fired Up or Burned Out .

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After of nearly a decade of studying connection, I have come to believe it is one of the most powerful and yet least understood aspects of organizational performance. In the business context, the feeling of connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage. Unless the people who are part of a business feel a sense of connection—a bond, which promotes trust, cooperation and esprit de corps—they will never reach their potential as individual employees, nor will the organization reach its potential. [eventPDF] An organization with a high degree of connection breeds employees who are more engaged, more productive in their jobs, and less likely to leave the organization for a competitor. Organizations with greater connection also have employees who share more information with their colleagues, leading to better-informed decisions and new products, processes and entirely new businesses. Connection is what transforms a dog-eat-dog environment into a sled dog team that pulls together. So what is connection anyway? When we interact with people, we generally feel that we connect with some and not with others. Phrases such as "we really connected" and "we just didn’t connect" are common in our daily conversations. Connection describes something intangible we sense in relationships. We define connection as a bond based on shared identity, empathy and understanding that moves self-centered individuals toward group-centered membership. When connection is present, we feel energy, empathy, affirmation and are more open. When it is absent, we experience neutral or even negative feelings. Although we know what it is like to feel connected on a personal level, few among us understand the effect connection has on us and on the organizations we work in. Reflecting on my personal and professional experiences and on the research I have read and conducted made me realize three things:

• First, connection is a powerful force that creates a positive bond between people based on both rational and emotional factors.
• Second, connection contributes to bringing out the best in people—it energizes them, makes them more trusting and resilient to face life’s inevitable difficulties.
• Third, connection can vary tremendously across organizations depending upon local culture and leadership.

What is it about connection that makes it so powerful? Without going too far into the psychology of connection , let me just summarize by saying simply that we are humans, not machines. We have emotions. We have hopes and dreams. We have a conscience. We have common deeply felt human needs: to be respected; to be recognized for our talents; to belong; to have autonomy or control over our work; to experience personal growth; to do work that we feel is worthwhile in a way that we feel is ethical. When we work in an environment that recognizes these realities of our human nature, we thrive. We feel more energetic, more optimistic, and more fully alive. When we work in an environment that fails to recognize this, it is damaging to our mental and physical health. For those of you who see the value of connection, I want to show you how you can bring it out in the workplace by creating a " Connection Culture "—a culture with the necessary elements to meet our human needs. The core elements of a Connection Culture that meet these human needs are vision, value, and voice.

The first element of a Connection Culture is vision . Vision exists when everyone in an organization is motivated by the organization’s mission, united by its values, and proud of its reputation. When people share a purpose or set of beliefs they’re proud of, it unites and motivates them. At Google, many employees connect with its mission to "organize the world’s information and make it accessible and usable." These Googlers understand that Google’s search engine will help change the world by making people smarter and better decision-makers . They are motivated by that prospect. Googlers are also united by its values that include "do no evil" and its "Googley" style, which incorporates the values of being authentic, genuine, fun, and curious. Being Googley ties in to Google’s passion for its modern, bright and colorful visual identity that is incorporated in everything from its website and written materials to its interior office design and building architecture. Google’s reputation connects with Googlers in several respects. The firm is well-known as one of the most innovative companies globally. It has a reputation for hiring smart people, and it is recognized for having one of the best workplaces in the world. All of this makes its talent feel proud to be associated with Google. Value The second element of a Connection Culture is that people are truly valued. My colleagues and I refer to this element in a culture simply as " value . " It means that everyone in an organization understands the universal nature of people, appreciates the unique contribution of each person, and helps them achieve their potential. Value also includes protecting people from abuses such as workplace incivility, sexual misconduct or prejudice—actions that make people feel disconnected from their community because it failed to protect them. At Google, research shows that employees feel valued if they connect with their manager. Google's Project Oxygen research picked up on some leadership behaviors that reflect value. The best technical managers help their employees with career development, take interest in employees’ lives and make time for one-on-one meetings with employees. Voice The third element of a Connection Culture is " voice ." The element of voice exists when everyone in an organization participates in an open, honest and safe environment where people share their opinions in order to understand one another and seek the best ideas. When people’s ideas and opinions are sought and considered, it helps meet the human needs for respect, recognition and belonging. "Being in the loop," so to speak, makes people feel connected to their colleagues, just as being "out of the loop" makes people feel disconnected. The CEO and founders of Google conduct " TGIF " meetings every Friday. Googlers vote on the topics they would like to see addressed in the TGIF. These meetings give employees a sense of voice that makes them feel connected. One of the variables that Project Oxygen identified was that the best technical managers ask questions and do not dictate answers. This also reflects voice.

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The bottom line is that we all need connection to thrive at work and in life. Here are a few suggestions about how to get started:

• Everyone should understand what connection truly is and continuously strive to increase it among the people with whom they live and work.
• Identify the vision that will unite and motivate everyone in your business. That vision may be becoming the best at what you do. It may be bringing something new to the world or conducting your business in a way that reflects your values. For example, Disney’s vision is to "make people happy." To jump start the process, get your most motivated people in a room and ask them when they have felt proud of the company. Listen to their stories and you’ll likely find a vision to rally around.
• Get to know the personal stories of the people you live and work alongside. Learn what has made them happy and what has disappointed them. Find out what their professional and personal hopes are for the future. As people get to know one another, value will increase and connection will be strengthened.

Connection is the key . It makes a difference in families, in workplaces, in schools, in volunteer organizations, in communities and in nations. No one can thrive for long without it.

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Revisiting Project Oxygen: A look at what makes a good manager

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It started with resistance from engineers and millennials

Project oxygen asked the question, how the findings on good managers apply to your company.

We've long heard about the role of tech in "disrupting" the status quo. 

Reflecting on the past decade alone, we've lived through plenty of workplace disruption. As a workforce, we've evolved from wanting ping pong tables and nap pods to a workforce craving connection , autonomy, and flexibility. We've pivoted from chasing efficiency and sticking to business to showing up as our whole selves at work and putting belonging and inclusion at the forefront of the employee experience . 

Through COVID-19 and the Great Resignation , we learned that employees want to find purpose in their work . They also want flexibility, health, and meaning. Employees want to choose when and where they work while still maintaining meaningful connections with others. We've learned that, for many, working remotely actually unlocked creativity , opened up new opportunities, and helped galvanize a workforce to reach more of its potential. 

Over a decade ago Google, a BetterUp customer, examined one question with the aim to disrupt the status quo of people operations . The question? What does it take to be a good manager? 

The answer? It starts with coaching. 

Now, more than a decade after Google launched Project Oxygen, many lessons still stand the test of time. Here are some reflections on Project Oxygen — and why coaching holds strong as a top attribute for any successful leader. 

The group that had the biggest problem with management was the company’s engineers. Engineers may have lower tolerance for bad management. It's a field that fosters creative individuals who have their own style and way of doing things.

When someone tries to micromanage this type of worker it results in conflicts and a loss of interest. Laszlo Bock, author of Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live,  explained:

"Engineers generally think managers are at best a necessary evil, but mainly they get in the way, create bureaucracy, and screw things up." Laszlo Bock, Former Senior Vice President of People Operations, Google 

However, it’s not just engineer-driven companies that looking for some change from the status quo when it comes to management. A survey by Virtuali found that   83% of millennials want fewer layers of management . This means they want managers who are easily approachable and willing to take their opinions into account. This became evident in millennial-led or millennial-heavy organizations that favored open workspaces where CEOs, managers, and employees worked alongside each other.  

In an environment where the conventional was often challenged, Google’s People Innovation Lab started Project Oxygen with a goal of proving that manager quality does not have an impact on performance. They hired a group of statisticians to evaluate the differences between the highest and lowest rated managers. Data was collected using past performance appraisals , employee engagement surveys , interviews, and other sources of employee feedback. However, instead of proving that manager quality did not matter, the statisticians found that good management actually does make a difference. To better define what makes a good manager they analyzed the data and arrived at the following list of eight qualities of good managers.

8 findings about good managers from Google’s Project Oxygen

• Is a good coach
• Empowers the team and does not micromanage
• Expresses interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being
• Is productive and results-oriented
• Is a good communicator— listens and shares information
• Helps with career development
• Has a clear vision and strategy for the team
• Has key technical skills that help him or her advise the team

While this list seems obvious, there were three reasons why it had such a big impact on management at Google. First, it was based on people analytics. In a culture that valued data and scientific evidence, using people analytics gave the project greater credibility.

The fact that it was based on employee feedback encouraged wider employee buy-in and trust. Similarly, the hard data helped to convince managers why they needed to improve their management style . Second, the interesting thing is that technical skills came in last. While it’s important that managers have the needed technical level to guide employees, soft skills such as coaching and communication are absolutely essential. This proves what many employees instinctively knew from their own experience:  being a great developer doesn’t necessarily make you a great manager. Third, it provided a checklist of management qualities. As Bock explained, whether or not your manager is well versed in management 101 and every training course your company offers, having a checklist makes a big difference as it actually reminds managers to remember and implement these skills on a daily basis. As a result, Google changed its feedback surveys to mirror these qualities. Instead of simply measuring how much output a manager achieves, the surveys now focus on how much time they spend coaching their team, whether or not they communicate a clear vision, etc. They also developed new management training programs centered around these skills.

Great employees don’t always make great managers

Though it may be common sense that a company of engineers would value technical knowledge and ability in a manager, it is telling that this skill came in last place on Google’s list.

Great employees don’t always make the best managers. Some engineers may prefer to focus on their work. You have to have patience, great communication skills, and the ability to see the big picture and create long-term goals.

The problem is that the traditional company is based on linking promotions with higher levels of managerial responsibilities. It’s time for your company to rethink this strategy.

Instead of putting people with great technical skills in management positions, put people with great leadership skills in management positions. Some companies have instituted dual tracks so that not everyone has to take the management path.

Become a great coach

Becoming a great coach, especially in the tech world, is essential. What engineers, developers, and everyone under the sun really want is a manager who knows how to distinguish the line between coaching and micromanaging.

To learn where this line lies, think about your employee. Are they an engineer with more than five years of experience? Then what they probably need most is a manager who will help them to set goals and then stand back and allow them to execute them in their own way (as long as this gets results).

As a manager, one of your most important responsibilities is to guide your employees towards goals that fall in line with your company’s objectives and long-term goals. That being said, also allow some space for creativity. Google gained a lot of traction with media and in-demand talent for its policy of letting employees devote 20% of their time to passion projects. 20% time resulted in popular products such as Gmail and AdSense. Other companies adopted similar policies. While this may not an official policy for your company, as a manager, encouraging employees to dedicate some time to working on innovative new ideas with colleagues can bring you great products and loyalty from motivated employees. New engineers on the other hand may need more coaching. Here the line may become thinner but the best way to provide guidance while not encroaching on your employee's freedom is through feedback.

Feedback culture

Being able to give feedback the right way is the strongest tool in your management utility belt (think more Batman than Home Depot). Two-thirds of millennials believe it’s their manager's responsibility to provide them with development opportunities.

Despite this, many managers are often hesitant to give constructive feedback to their employees, fearing their reaction. However, this is a major part of the development process, so if your employees don’t know what they need to do to improve, their professional development could become stagnant.

Many leading HR and People Teams have recognized this risk, and are finding   new ways to support Managers to have more continuous conversations   with their team to help fuel performance   as well as professional development.

Delivering well-balanced actionable feedback is the answer. When you have to deliver constructive feedback , some managers balance it out by first explaining to their employees what they’re doing well.

Always make sure your feedback places emphasis on actions and completely avoids personality traits. For example, “I noticed you talked over Mark in the meeting yesterday” rather than “You’re overbearing in meetings.” Always provide advice on how they can fix the situation and discuss the best solution. 

In return, it’s also important to millennials that managers are open to their feedback . This generation does not like to see hierarchal barriers that prevent their ideas from being heard. This means that managers also have to be good at not only   receiving feedback but acting upon it as well.

Finally don’t forget that positive feedback is also needed. When your employee reaches an achievement a great coach always remembers to recognize them for their efforts.

Get to know your employees

This is important both at a professional and personal level. Getting to know your employees’ strengths will help you give better feedback and show them you have a genuine interest in their careers.

Managers who know their employees’ strengths are 71% more likely to have people who are engaged and energized . Showing them you’re taking an interest in their career and professional goals will help you gain a loyal workforce.

Give your managers the tools they need to lead the modern workforce

Managing teams today is a tough job, and they rarely get the support they need to succeed. Just like your employees, offering regular trainings on key skills will keep managers engaged and motivated to improve their management strategies. Here are a few topics that every management training program should include:

• How to give and receive feedback as a manager
• How to run effective 1-on-1s
• How to engage employees
• Tackling unconscious bias

Beyond this, providing your managers with   helpful tools to provide more actionable and effective feedback   will go a long way to helping them keep their teams engaged and motivated.

And above all, how are you empowering a culture of coaching ? With BetterUp, provide your managers with personalized support to help navigate change, uncertainty, and tough conversations. With one-on-one coaching, you can grow your employees' mental fitness , increase productivity , and unlock their full potential. 

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

Leading people as people, a conversation with Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks

Why soft management skills are necessary for any leader, what to get coaching on here’s what managers are saying, how to make decisions like a multi-billion dollar corporation, data shows since pandemic team performance hinges on this leader skill, managers have a strong effect on team performance, for better or worse, how to build a high performance team, according to patty mccord, 15 leadership challenges you need to take this year, what we learned from leading a hybrid organization for 8 years, what do working parents need a supportive manager is a good start, winning at wfh: what to ask a manager when you’re working from home, 8 hard and soft skills a project manager should have, what does the future of management look like, 8 destructive myths about millennials in the workplace, upward communication: what is it 5 examples, how to develop google's top 7 leadership competencies, how hr can support effective manager coaching, coaching versus managing: what's the difference, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Google's project oxygen: do managers matter change management analysis & solution, hbr change management solutions, leadership & managing people case study | david a. garvin, alison berkley wagonfeld, liz kind, case study description.

To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes, designed to help Google employees become better managers. By November 2012, the program had been in place for several years, and the company could point to statistically significant improvements in managerial effectiveness and performance. Now executives were wondering: how could Google build on the success of this project, extending it to senior leaders, teams, and other constituencies while striving to create truly amazing managers?

Change Management, Human resource management, Leadership, Organizational culture , Case Study Solution, Term Papers

Order a Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study solution now

What is Change Management Definition & Process? Why transformation efforts fail? What are the Change Management Issues in Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study?

According to John P. Kotter – Change Management efforts are the major initiatives an organization undertakes to either boost productivity, increase product quality, improve the organizational culture, or reverse the present downward spiral that the company is going through. Sooner or later every organization requires change management efforts because without reinventing itself organization tends to lose out in the competitive market environment. The competitors catch up with it in products and service delivery, disruptors take away the lucrative and niche market positioning, or management ends up sitting on its own laurels thus missing out on the new trends, opportunities and developments in the industry.

What are the John P. Kotter - 8 Steps of Change Management?

Eight Steps of Kotter's Change Management Execution are -

• 1. Establish a Sense of Urgency
• 2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
• 3. Create a Vision
• 4. Communicate the Vision
• 5. Empower Others to Act on the Vision
• 6. Plan for and Create Short Term Wins
• 7. Consolidate Improvements and Produce More Change
• 8. Institutionalize New Approaches

Are Change Management efforts easy to implement? What are the challenges in implementing change management processes?

According to authorlist Change management efforts are absolutely essential for the surviving and thriving of the organization but they are also extremely difficult to implement. Some of the biggest obstacles in implementing change efforts are –

• Change efforts are often targeted at making fundamental aspects in the business – operations and culture. Change management disrupts are status quo thus face opposition from both within and outside the organization.
• Change efforts are often made by new leaders because they are chosen by board to do so. These leaders often have less trust among the workforce compare to the people with whom they were already working with over the years.
• Change management is often a lengthy, time consuming, and resource consuming process. Managements try to avoid them because they reflect negatively on the short term financial balance sheet of the organization.
• Change efforts create an environment of uncertainty in the organization that impacts not only the productivity in the organization but also the level of trust in the organization.
• Change management efforts are made when the organization is in dire need and have fewer resources. This creates silos protection mentality within the organization.

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, Weighted SWOT Case Study Solution & Analysis

How you can apply Change Management Principles to Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? case study?

Leaders can implement Change Management efforts in the organization by following the “Eight Steps Method of Change Management” by John P. Kotter.

Step 1 - Establish a sense of urgency

What are areas that require urgent change management efforts in the “ Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? “ case study. Some of the areas that require urgent changes are – organizing sales force to meet competitive realities, building new organizational structure to enter new markets or explore new opportunities. The leader needs to convince the managers that the status quo is far more dangerous than the change efforts.

Step 2 - Form a powerful guiding coalition

As mentioned earlier in the paper, most change efforts are undertaken by new management which has far less trust in the bank compare to the people with whom the organization staff has worked for long period of time. New leaders need to tap in the talent of the existing managers and integrate them in the change management efforts . This will for a powerful guiding coalition that not only understands the urgency of the situation but also has the trust of the employees in the organization. If the team able to explain at the grass roots level what went wrong, why organization need change, and what will be the outcomes of the change efforts then there will be a far more positive sentiment about change efforts among the rank and file.

Step 3 - Create a vision

The most critical role of the leader who is leading the change efforts is – creating and communicating a vision that can have a broader buy-in among employees throughout the organization. The vision should not only talk about broader objectives but also about how every little change can add up to the improvement in the overall organization.

Step 4 - Communicating the vision

Leaders need to use every vehicle to communicate the desired outcomes of the change efforts and how each employee impacted by it can contribute to achieve the desired change. Secondly the communication efforts need to answer a simple question for employees – “What it is in for the them”. If the vision doesn’t provide answer to this question then the change efforts are bound to fail because it won’t have buy-in from the required stakeholders of the organization.

Step 5 -Empower other to act on the vision

Once the vision is set and communicated, change management leadership should empower people at every level to take decisions regarding the change efforts. The empowerment should follow two key principles – it shouldn’t be too structured that it takes away improvisation capabilities of the managers who are working on the fronts. Secondly it shouldn’t be too loosely defined that people at the execution level can take it away from the desired vision and objectives.

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter? PESTEL / PEST / STEP & Porter Five Forces Analysis

Step 6 - Plan for and create short term wins

Initially the change efforts will bring more disruption then positive change because it is transforming the status quo. For example new training to increase productivity initially will lead to decrease in level of current productivity because workers are learning new skills and way of doing things. It can demotivate the employees regarding change efforts. To overcome such scenarios the change management leadership should focus on short term wins within the long term transformation. They should carefully craft short term goals, reward employees for achieving short term wins, and provide a comprehensive understanding of how these short term wins fit into the overall vision and objectives of the change management efforts.

Step 7 - Consolidate improvements and produce more change

Short term wins lead to renewed enthusiasm among the employees to implement change efforts. Management should go ahead to put a framework where the improvements made so far are consolidated and more change efforts can be built on the top of the present change efforts.

Step 8 - Institutionalize new approaches

Once the improvements are consolidated, leadership needs to take steps to institutionalize the processes and changes that are made. It needs to stress how the change efforts have delivered success in the desired manner. It should highlight the connection between corporate success and new behaviour. Finally organization management needs to create organizational structure, leadership, and performance plans consistent with the new approach.

Is change management a process or event?

What many leaders and managers at the Oxygen Project fails to recognize is that – Change Management is a deliberate and detail oriented process rather than an event where the management declares that the changes it needs to make in the organization to thrive. Change management not only impact the operational processes of the organization but also the cultural and integral values of the organization.

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Google's Project Oxygen: A Management Case Study

In the realm of modern management studies, Google's Project Oxygen has emerged as a compelling case study that offers valuable insights into effective leadership and organizational development.

This initiative, which sought to identify the key behaviors of successful managers at Google, has sparked extensive discussions and analysis within the business community.

By examining the key findings and implications of Project Oxygen, we can gain a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics of leadership and employee engagement in the contemporary corporate landscape.

As we explore the impact of this case study on leadership development, employee engagement strategies, and organizational applications, we uncover a wealth of valuable lessons that could potentially reshape the way we perceive and cultivate effective management practices.

Understanding Project Oxygen

Project Oxygen, a management initiative developed by Google, aims to identify the key behaviors of effective managers within the company. This project was based on the realization that great managers significantly impact team dynamics and overall performance. Google's Project Oxygen set out to codify management principles and pinpoint the specific behaviors that contribute to leadership effectiveness.

The initiative involved extensive data analysis and feedback collection from employees across various levels and departments. Through this rigorous process, Google was able to identify eight key behaviors that characterize effective management at the company. These behaviors include being a good coach, empowering the team without micromanaging, creating an inclusive and supportive work environment, being results-oriented, and fostering career development.

Key Findings and Insights

Based on extensive data analysis and feedback collection, Google's Project Oxygen uncovered key findings and insights into the behaviors that characterize effective management within the company. The study revealed the critical role of leadership effectiveness in fostering a positive work environment and driving team dynamics. It highlighted the significance of managers in creating an atmosphere of psychological safety, where employees feel comfortable taking risks and expressing their ideas. Additionally, the research emphasized the importance of performance management in providing constructive feedback and setting clear expectations to enhance employee engagement and productivity.

Furthermore, Project Oxygen shed light on the significance of skill development in managerial roles. It stressed the need for managers to actively support the growth and career advancement of their team members by providing opportunities for learning and development. The study's insights into skill development underscored the value of creating a culture that encourages continuous learning and innovation.

Impact on Leadership Development

The insights derived from the study on effective management behaviors have significantly influenced the leadership development strategies at Google. As a result, the impact on leadership development has been profound and has led to several notable changes within the organization:

• Emphasis on Leadership Effectiveness : Google has shifted its focus towards developing leadership effectiveness, rather than solely concentrating on technical expertise. This shift has resulted in a more holistic approach to leadership development, nurturing skills such as emotional intelligence, effective communication, and empathy.
• Integration of Managerial Skills : The study has led to the integration of specific managerial skills into leadership development programs. Google now emphasizes the importance of skills such as coaching and mentoring, conflict resolution, and performance management in developing effective leaders.
• Customized Development Programs : The findings have prompted Google to develop customized leadership development programs tailored to individual needs. These programs aim to address specific areas of improvement for each leader, ensuring a more personalized approach to leadership development.

These changes underscore Google's commitment to cultivating strong leadership capabilities, ultimately contributing to a more effective and empowered management cadre.

Employee Engagement Strategies

Employee engagement is pivotal for organizational success.

Recognition programs and effective communication channels are key components of fostering a highly engaged workforce.

These strategies not only boost morale but also cultivate a sense of belonging and motivation among employees.

Recognition Programs

Through the implementation of effective recognition programs, organizations can significantly enhance employee engagement and motivation. Recognition programs not only boost employee morale but also improve productivity and overall performance.

Here are three key ways recognition programs impact employee engagement:

• Employee Motivation : Recognition programs serve as a powerful motivator for employees, encouraging them to strive for excellence and contribute positively to the organization.
• Performance Evaluation : Recognition programs provide a structured approach to evaluating employee performance, highlighting areas of excellence and areas for improvement, thus fostering a culture of continuous growth and development.
• Employee Retention : By recognizing and appreciating employee contributions, organizations can increase employee satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately reducing turnover rates and retaining top talent.

Communication Channels

Incorporating diverse communication channels into employee engagement strategies fosters a dynamic and inclusive workplace environment, encouraging open dialogue and collaboration.

Team collaboration thrives when employees have various platforms to communicate and share ideas. Google's Project Oxygen emphasizes the importance of effective feedback as a crucial component of communication channels. Through tools such as regular performance evaluations, peer reviews, and 360-degree feedback mechanisms, employees can provide and receive constructive criticism, contributing to personal and professional growth.

Additionally, open-door policies, town hall meetings, and digital platforms enable transparent communication between leadership and employees, fostering a culture of trust and transparency.

Lessons for Organizational Application

Drawing from Google's Project Oxygen, organizations can glean valuable insights into effective management practices and leadership strategies. The study provides several lessons for organizational application, including:

• Understanding Organizational Behavior : Project Oxygen underscores the importance of understanding organizational behavior, recognizing the impact of different management techniques on employee productivity and satisfaction. By leveraging this understanding, organizations can tailor their management approaches to suit the unique dynamics of their workforce.
• Embracing Data-Driven Decision Making : Google's emphasis on data-driven decision making highlights the significance of leveraging data to inform management strategies. Organizations can adopt a similar approach by utilizing relevant metrics and feedback mechanisms to assess the effectiveness of their management practices and make informed decisions for improvement.
• Fostering Continuous Learning and Development : The study emphasizes the value of fostering a culture of continuous learning and development within organizations. By prioritizing employee growth and skill enhancement, organizations can cultivate a motivated and adaptable workforce, ultimately contributing to enhanced organizational performance and resilience.

These insights from Project Oxygen offer actionable guidance for organizations seeking to optimize their management practices and cultivate a thriving work environment.

Innovations in Workforce Empowerment

In today's dynamic business landscape, fostering a culture of empowerment within the workforce is paramount for driving innovation and achieving sustainable growth. Workforce dynamics have evolved, with employees seeking more autonomy and meaningful engagement. To address this shift, leadership dynamics have also transformed, with a greater emphasis on decentralized decision-making and inclusive leadership styles.

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of empowering their workforce to spur creativity and productivity. This empowerment involves providing employees with the autonomy to make decisions, take ownership of their work, and contribute ideas without fear of retribution. It also encompasses creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and where individuals are encouraged to challenge the status quo.

Innovations in workforce empowerment also involve fostering a culture of continuous learning and development, enabling employees to upskill and reskill as the business landscape evolves. Moreover, it encompasses establishing transparent communication channels to ensure that employees feel heard and understood.

In conclusion, Google's Project Oxygen has provided valuable insights into effective leadership development and employee engagement strategies.

The findings highlight the importance of empowering employees and fostering a culture of open communication and collaboration.

While some may argue that the project's success is largely attributed to Google's unique work environment, the principles and strategies can be adapted and applied in various organizational settings to drive positive change and innovation.

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Google- Project Oxygen Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Home >> Harvard Case Study Analysis Solutions >> Google- Project Oxygen

Google- Project Oxygen Case Solution

Situational Analysis

In 2012, Parsed Petty got appointed at the post of vice president of people analytics and compensation. He quickly identified that there is a need to develop better management although the organizational performing at best, but there was still a space for improvement. To pursue that vision, he,with his team incorporated “project oxygen” to determine the importance of managers in upgrading the performance of employees which in turns add value to retention, recognition and motivation of the employees.The project initially started with the hypotheses“Managers don’t matter in improving the performance and commitment of the employees” in which they failed, luckily. The second part of the project investigated deeply about the traits which are in common in the top performing managers of Google and thus formed “oxygen 8” traits which can be used as a benchmark to become a good manager.It really worked for many relatively low performing managers to reach the top position. However the key issue described is whether by offering the oxygen 8 formula, the company is boxing the traits of the managers and setting guidelines to strictly follow or whether following the Oxygen 8 would make the best managers which the world could reckon to? Above all, will the offerings and findings of the project oxygen remain sustainable with passing time or the whole paradigm of research will shift to the new approach of being inspirational managers.The challenge here is to make the managers best with aspiring qualities that matches the qualities of the vice president and CEO while keeping the learning path natural and not confined to oxygen 8 trait.The sustainability of the project in long run is also something to be considered.

Objectives Since the project oxygen offers a limited approach to be good managers, for many people it is like ‘boxing in’the people to follow certain traits in order to become the best managers. In such institutionalization objectives of the organization is to sustain the project in future and to make the best managers in the company that the corporate world aspires to have. There are few objectives that needs to be addressed:

• The organization has to develop a process which integrates the traits of the top positions of the company like VP, CEO to continue the learning curve of the manager and keep the managers professionally challenged.
• A continuous feedback system for the three divisions separately to incorporate the findings in the project in order to sustain the project and make the findings reliable and useful to the managers to deal with the shifting behaviors of the teams.

Google- Project Oxygen Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

• In order to refrain the manes from taking the Oxygen 8 guidelines as the best traits to become the top performing manager, the company has to devise a plan which construct such a culture in which the managers don't confine themselves to the sole traits but develop the personalityandleadershipstyle which is a mix and match of Oxygen 8 traits and the traits that they manage already holds. In other words, the leadership style has to be constructed in a way that it remains open and free yet incorporates the qualities of Oxygen 8......

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