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The impact of transformational leadership styles in management on the employees’ performance

and satisfaction: A case study of Google

Student Name

University Name

Course Name

Professor’s Name

Date
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Background................................................................................................................................3

Rationale.....................................................................................................................................4

Significance of the Study...........................................................................................................4

Research Aims and Objectives.................................................................................................5

Aims........................................................................................................................................5

Objectives...............................................................................................................................5

Research Questions................................................................................................................5

Literature Review..........................................................................................................................6

Data and Results............................................................................................................................7

Research Approach...................................................................................................................7

Research Design.........................................................................................................................8

Research Strategy......................................................................................................................8

Data Collection...........................................................................................................................9

Data Analysis..............................................................................................................................9

Result..........................................................................................................................................9

Critical Reflection........................................................................................................................10

List of References.........................................................................................................................12
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Introduction and Context

Introduction

Employee performance is a critical deliverable for overall organizational performance. Job

satisfaction is crucial to employee performance (Ouedraogo and Leclerc, 2013). Employees

derive satisfaction from accomplishing organizational goals. Satisfied employees are committed

to organizational goals. Transformational leaders drive performance by stimulating and inspiring

employees, and being considerate of their emotional needs (Bass and Riggio, 2006, p.32). This

paper will examine how transformational leadership mechanisms are applied in Google LLC, an

American multinational technology company, to create and sustain job satisfaction and high

performance among its employees.

Background

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company founded in 1998 by two PhD

students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, originally starting off as a search engine. Over the years

the company has grown and expanded to cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), computer

software, and other technology services. Even though the company went public in 2004, the

founders still retain 56% voting power despite holding only 14% of total shares. The sustained

control over key decisions by its founders is an important feature of Google’s leadership. The

name Google and the original logo were designed by the founders. Google continues to

encourage innovation through initiatives such as Innovation Time Off where the company’s

engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. The

initiative has yielded products such as Gmail and AdSense.

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The company as a rich culture with regular April Fools’ Day pranks. It maintains a casual

dressing culture for its employees. With the above-described practices, Google can be described

as epitomizing transformational leadership where innovation and ownership of company goals

are encouraged. With over 100,000 employees as of September 30, 2020, and revenues at

$256.74 billion in 2021 (SEC, 2021), Google is one of big five technology companies in the US.

The great performance of the company can be attributed to a highly performing team of

employees.

Rationale

Performance is the primary deliverable for all leaders in an organization. Performance is derived

from employee inputs towards achieving organizational goals. Employees need job satisfaction

for them to commit to organizational goals. Satisfaction both drives and comes from attaining a

high performance with satisfaction as a driver of performance being the superior relationship

(Bakotić, 2016). Employees who are satisfied with their job will put more effort and commitment

towards the realization of organizational goals (Varma, 2017). On the other hand, employees

derive satisfaction from accomplishing organizational goals (Tsai, 2011). Leaders have a duty to

ensure employees derive satisfaction from their jobs (Bushra et al., 2011). Transformative

leadership mediates between job satisfaction and performance by inspiring employees to commit

to achieving organizational goals and taking up challenges to create innovations that bring

success to the organization (Lai et al., 2020). This study looks at how Google LLC has leveraged

on transformational leadership to develop and maintain a high performing team.

Significance of the Study

Knowledge gained from the study will contribute to existing body of knowledge on the subject

of transformational leadership as an effective method of motivating employees to attain high

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performance. Additionally, other companies will find reliable leadership ideas that they can use

to transform their organizations to high performing organizations.

Research Aims and Objectives

Aims

This research aims to assess the leadership ideals and mechanics currently practiced at Google

LLC and assess their appropriateness and effectiveness in inspiring performance and job

satisfaction.

Objectives

 To critically analyze transformational leadership style and its integral features and

components.

 To derive a connection between transformational leadership and job performance and

satisfaction.

 To make a critical analysis of transformational leadership techniques practices in Google

LLC and their interdependent relationship with employees’ job satisfaction and

performance.

Research Questions

 What is transformational leadership and what are its defining features?

 How does transformational leadership impact on employee job satisfaction and

performance?

 How is transformational leadership practiced at Google LLC?

 How does transformational leadership impact on employees’ satisfaction and

performance at Google LLC?

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Literature Review

Transformational leadership entails leaders influencing followers to do what will lead to the

achievement of organizational goals (Steinmann, Klug and Maier, 2018). Transformational

leaders influence followers by stimulating creativity, encouraging innovation and being affective

to followers’ emotional needs. Transformational leaders influence their followers by altering

their needs to move to higher-level needs, transcending own interests for organization’s sake,

and holding value for designated outcomes. Motivation comes from individual’s conscious goals

which determine their intention to perform specific tasks. Integrating motivation with

performance, transformational leaders stimulate their followers to desires to achieve higher goals

and, in the process lead to higher performance for their followers (Lai et al., 2020). Motivation is

needed for employees to strive to attain higher order needs which would lead to job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction is an important parameter in stimulating employees to put in more effort toward

the realization of organizational goals. Studies by Aazami et al. (2015) defined job satisfaction as

an “affective emotional response to a job situation” and is determined by how well the outcomes

meet or exceed the individual’s expectations. Employees need job satisfaction in order to feel a

sense of value for their performance. The emotional state of an employee is affected by their job

and oscillates from negative to positive within a wide continuum. Satisfaction is derived when

the emotional state of the employee reaches the strongly positive end of the spectrum which is

derived from the outcome of their performance (Richa N. Agarwal, Anil Mehta, 2014). With

such satisfaction, employees are motivated to work towards the achievement of organizational

goals. The role of a transformational leader is to work towards realizing this emotional state

among their followers and maintaining the same high levels of positive emotional state.
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Transformational leaders use stimuli to motivate employees to work towards realization of

organizational goals. Since individuals will always seek satisfaction and avoid negative

experiences, they will always expend energy in maintaining and increasing pleasurable

experiences and, on the other hand, they will expend energy towards minimizing unpleasurable

experiences. From this theoretical convention we can hypothesize that, if employees derive

stimuli from work-related factors, they will seek to achieve pleasurable stimuli and put effort to

avoid unpleasant stimuli. Given the above understanding, transformational leaders seek to

understand and apply work-related stimuli to motivate employees to put effort towards

organizational goals. Since employees are in search of pleasurable experiences, and avoiding

unpleasant experiences, if transformational leaders align organizational goals with pleasurable

experiences and failure to achieve them with unpleasant experiences, employees, who seek

pleasurable experiences and wish to avoid unpleasant experiences, will expend energy towards

achieving organizational goals.

The above hypothesis explains how transformational leaders motivate employees to work

towards achieving organizational goals. They stimulate employees to seek and find pleasure in

excellence in performance. The current study seeks to explore if and how transformational

leadership at Google applies the mechanism of stimuli to motivate employees to seek satisfaction

through performance excellence.

Data and Results

Research Approach

Qualitative data is best suited to inductive approach. Under inductive approach, the research

starts with making observations regarding the research questions. The observations, which form
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answer to the research question result in a new theory about the topic. Deductive approach on the

other hand begins with a hypothesis and tests the validity of the hypothesis from observations. It

is an accepted theory that transformational leadership stimulates employees leading to job

satisfaction and ultimately excellent performance (Lai et al., 2020). Therefore, this research will

adopt a deductive approach seeking to validate or invalidate this theory in context of Google

LLC.

Research Design

Research design is the technique or framework that the researcher will use to collect, analyze,

and interpret data. Quantitative research design utilizes numerical data whereas qualitative

design is suited for comprehensive narrative form of data explaining the phenomenon of interest

to the researcher. In this case, the phenomenon of interest is transformational leadership. The

research will adopt a qualitative design in gathering academically plausible narratives about

transformational leadership at Google LLC. The study will take an exploratory nature that

critically reviews how transformational leadership is practiced at Google LLC and how it

impacts on employee performance.

Research Strategy

Research strategy is the step-by-step action plan that the plan will follow in achieving its

objective. In the current case, data will be collected by studying documents containing

information about Google LLC. Document study will also incorporate past studies on leadership
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practices at Google LLC. To maintain high quality of data a checklist of relevant features will be

used to assess suitability of sources.

Data Collection

Data will be collected solely from secondary sources. Such sources shall include past studies on

leadership at Google, published documents about the company, and any other relevant written

document that may provide insight into the company’s leadership and corporate culture practices

such as the company’s social media page posts. Policy documents and corporate philosophies

manual will be analyzed for inferences on what leadership and culture exists at Google.

Data Analysis

Qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) entails a researcher using data collected by another person

or using data for a different study other than one it was originally intended (Tate and Happ,

2018). Synthesis of knowledge generated from past studies will be made to develop further

insight. Further investigation of primary study questions and use of new perspectives will be

applied to secondary data to develop new knowledge.

Result

The findings of the study will help understand the relationship between transformative leadership

and high performance at Google. Other organizations may find the research results useful as a
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framework for developing leadership styles and ultimately performance improvement. Scholars

in leadership and management will also benefit from the new knowledge developed from the

study. The results will connect transformative leadership with job satisfaction and performance

and explain it in the context of Google.

Critical Reflection

I have experienced challenges in determining the appropriate strategy for data collection. It has

been a task trying to seek ways to obtain data that is specific to internal leadership interactions at

Google. Even though choosing the topic was easy and straightforward, developing appropriate

mechanisms to execute the research has been difficult. In searching relevant literature, the words

‘performance’, ‘satisfaction’, and ‘leadership’ were used as search criteria. Combinations of

words such as ‘transformational leadership’ and ‘job satisfaction’ were also used. Due to

Google’s success, inherent biases are likely to influence my opinion by incorrectly linking

leadership practices at Google with high performance. Due to perceived high levels of job

satisfaction at Google, and the desirability of Google as an employer by potential employees, the

research will experience difficulties in filtering leadership practices that are desirable from those

that aren’t desirable by subordinates. It still remains to be known whether the chosen procedures

will result in desired findings.

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Research Schedule Timeline

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Project Proposal Preparation

Proposal Submission

Presentation

Ethics Evaluation

Data Collection & Analysis

Final Report Preparation

Research Report Submission

Start Duration (Weeks)

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List of References

Aazami, S., Shamsuddin, K., Akmal, S. and Azami, G. (2015). The Relationship Between Job

Satisfaction and Psychological/Physical Health among Malaysian Working Women. The

Malaysian journal of medical sciences : MJMS, [online] 22(4), pp.40–6. Available at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4683848/.

Bakotić, D. (2016) Relationship between job satisfaction and organisational performance.

Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja. [Online] 29 (1), 118–130.

Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2006) Transformational Leadership. 2nd edition. New York:

Routledge.

Bushra, F. et al. (2011) Effect of Transformational Leadership on Employees’ Job Satisfaction

and Organizational Commitment in Banking Sector of Lahore (Pakistan). undefined. [online].

Available from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Effect-of-Transformational-Leadership-

on-Employees%27-Bushra-Usman/a7a443f864aaba3c3cf8a5ed4084531a4f4a2188 (Accessed 3

December 2022).

Lai, F.-Y. et al. (2020) Transformational leadership and job performance: The mediating role of

work engagement. SAGE Open. [Online] 10 (1), 1–11. [online]. Available from:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019899085.

Ouedraogo, A. & Leclerc, A. (2013) Job Satisfaction and Organizational Performance: Evidence

from Canadian Credit Union [online]. Available from:

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258210320_Job_Satisfaction_and_Organizational_Perf

ormance_Evidence_from_Canadian_Credit_Union.

Richa N. Agarwal, Anil Mehta (2014). Impact of Performance Appraisal and Working

Environment on the Job Satisfaction and Attrition Problem in the Indian IT Industry - Richa N.

Agarwal, Anil Mehta, 2014. Paradigm, [online] 18(1). doi:10.1177/0971890714540367.

SEC, U. S. S. A. E. C. (2021) goog-20211231 [online]. Available from:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204422000019/goog-

20211231.htm#i0ef93c820da04204a9c5a49f49a3b2eb_151 (Accessed 3 December 2022).

Steinmann, B., Klug, H.J.P. and Maier, G.W. (2018). The Path Is the Goal: How

Transformational Leaders Enhance Followers’ Job Attitudes and Proactive Behavior. Frontiers in

Psychology, [online] 9(2338). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338.

Tate, J. A. & Happ, M. B. (2018) Qualitative Secondary Analysis: A Case Exemplar. Journal of

Pediatric Health Care. [Online] 32 (3), 308–312. [online]. Available from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891524517303279.

Tsai, Y. (2011) Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job

Satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research. [Online] 11 (1),. [online]. Available from:

https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-11-98.

Varma, C. (2017) Importance of Employee Motivation & Job Satisfaction For Organizational

Performance [online]. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3073813.