The management history of the Google company

Bureaucratic management is a theory introduced, studied and developed by a German sociologist, Max Weber, which is very influential in modern day organization. Bureaucracy is the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge, expertise or experience. According to Weber, he faced a problem introducing the idea of bureaucracy due to the monarchies and patriarchies organizations. Weber’s set of ideas consist of the following, qualification-based hiring, merit-based hiring, chain of command, division of labour, impartial application of rules and procedures, recorded in writing and managers separate from owners. His idea is brilliant that even big organization like Google implement his theory in achieving their goals.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 40 000 employees worldwide, with a management team represents some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry. There are numerous evidence that shows Google organization consist of the principles of Bureaucratic management. Firstly, Google hired all their employees based on their qualification. For example, Larry and Sergey themselves both have an excellent study background who completed their master’s degree from Stanford University. Eric E. Schimdt, the executive chairman of Google also holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and P.H.D in computer science from University of California, Berkeley. These three individuals in Google are prove that Google hiring system are based on technical training or educational background. Next, Google also follow the principle of bureaucratic management which is division in labour, which means tasks, responsibilities and authority are clearly divided and defined. Google company divide tasks to each employees depends on their skills. However, they need to be highly skillful in doing their own specific jobs. Specific jobs are usually a hard task hence they must be able to cope with the pressure in accomplishing the organization goals. This will increase efficiency and effectiveness of the organization as the tasks and responsibilities are assigned to those who are capable of doing it. Furthermore, Google also apply the impartial application of rules and procedures. This means all the staff and workers are treated the same regardless one’s position or status. For example, all the workers in Google have a free meal in the office, a laundry for all their workers to wash their clothes and also free gym (health fitness center) for their employees. Lastly, Google partnered with many companies to achieve their goals and this shows that the managers are separate from the owners which is also included in the bureaucratic management.

The application of Bureaucratic management is crucial to many modern day organization prove that Max Weber ideas were brilliant to accomplish goals that even big companies like Google implement this system to achieve theirs. This also proves that Max Weber contributes a lot to many organization due to his significant ideas in operating an organizations and although it has been over a hundred years, his ideas has not yet met its expiry date.