Open Systems Models the Company That I

Open Systems Models The company that I am going to study is Google. Their primary business is online advertising, where they are the industry leader. Google owns many of the world's top websites, and uses its immense database of information about user preferences to give it competitive advantage in this business. The company has also proven to be one of the most collaborative and innovative companies.

Two of its other products -- the Android mobile operating system and the Chrome browser, are also market leaders, even though they do not generate significant revenue for the company. This paper will focus on open systems as Google, to illustrate how the principles of open systems work. Open Systems Elements There are several elements to systems, including inputs (resources), organization culture, organization structure, behavior, processes and technologies. All of this lead to outputs.

When these elements work well together -- when they are aligned -- the organization will be more effective. Open systems analysis typically begins with an organizational diagnosis. The organization's mission and objectives are the starting point for understanding the organization's activities, then other inputs are also evaluated. There are four key input elements that are important at Google, and define the company's culture of openness -- work processes, structure, behavior and culture (Harrison, 2005). Leadership Strategy Google is a company that has a very different leadership strategy from many older corporations.

Tapscott (2012) would argue that Google is a "digital native," something quite different from older companies that have more traditional ways of doing things. The company begins by hiring the best and most creative people, but it also gives them room to work on their own projects. It gives them a more comfortable physical setting in which to let creativity thrive.

Google also sets aside specific time for each employee to work on their own projects, many of which will be collaborations with other Google employees, as they are constantly in contact with each other through existing project teams and in the open environment of the Google campus. Thus, the company empowers its workers to collaborate, and then it fosters this with an open culture. At the highest management levels, Google believes that innovation comes from anywhere.

The company defaults to an open process, accepting innovative ideas from around the world, but also defaulting to an organizational culture that focuses on bringing people together, to harness the power of collaboration (Innocentive, 2014). Because this is supported at the highest levels, all members of the organization embrace the culture of innovation and openness. This is what leads to Google's high level of innovation. Further, the organizational culture is not bound by the whims of shareholders.

There is no time frame on when a project has to earn money -- if it is a good project, it will be pursued. This removes a critical institutional barrier to innovation. It may be counterintuitive from a traditional perspective to dominate mobile operating systems and not earn money from Android, but Google does it anyway.

Android does drive more data and traffic to Google properties, but the bigger point is that the company has this market share because it removed the barriers to innovation, such as the need for short-term profit. It is safe to say that Google shareholders are not displeased by the company's financial performance, either. Openness Google is a leader in openness culture, and has an openness mindset. This mindset is embedded in its values.

One such value is that there is always more information out there, and another value is that the need for information crosses all borders. Thus, Google places tremendous value on creating information flows, a truly open world in which information is created and disseminated freely (Google, 2014). This philosophy has created problems for the company, in that it often clashes with a more traditional world in that is much more closed, and simply not accustomed to the level of openness that Google creates.

Tapscott (2012) argues that this creates a need for companies to be better, and governments as well. With more openness, there is greater accountability, and greater transparency. The interesting thing about Google is not just that it has this for itself, but that it creates this level of openness for everybody. There remains a high need for internal transparency as well, though, because most people -- especially the digital immigrants -- are a little bit wary of this high level of openness.

Google needs to foster trust if it is going to promote such openness readily. Maxwell (2006) argues that openness is critical for innovation. He does not reject a closed model per se, but argues that openness is going to deliver greater innovation, faster and more transformative. Google, by transforming the way people learn and the way people interact with one another, is a good example of the power of openness.

The company has become in a very short period of time one of the most successful in the world, and it is openness and fostering innovation through collaboration that has allowed it to innovate at a rate that has seldom been seen in the world. Recommendations To be frank, Google is the world leader in the openness mindset. Rather than recommend ways for Google to improve, it is recommended that other companies follow the Google model.

Any company that relies on innovation can benefit from the collaboration model, and there are few companies that do not rely on innovation. But there are times when Google might be a little too self-focused with regards to its innovation. I do not mean to suggest that it is guarded about innovating with other companies, but a lot of its innovation is internal. It does sometimes utilize the outside world to assist with its innovation as well.

It would be ideal for Google to actually position itself as the central hub around which collaboration takes place, not just between Google and external entities, but with Google as.