Mark Zuckerberg is a widely recognized leader of change around the world and has clearly made a real difference in society as we know it today. In 2003, Mark founded the social networking website called Facebook, which since its establishment has experienced exponential growth. Facebook was solely created for college universities at the time so that students would be capable of easily networking with one another. However, in 2005 Mark then made the strategic decision of offering the websites services to some high schools and international schools. Several years later the website became available to virtually everyone in the world with an internet connection and is the current Facebook as we know it. These were some of the best nonprogrammed decisions Mark Zuckerberg has made from his available criteria as Facebook’s popularity rose from one million users in 2004, to over 500 million empowered users today. Mark’s popularity grew nearly as fast as his website with a recent movie being based around his life and the rise of Facebook in The Social Network, which won three Oscars. The creation of facebook.com has amounted to unsurpassed success for Mark Zuckerberg as at 26 years of age he has amassed a net worth of 6.9 billion dollars, or in translation, the 35th richest person in the United States according to Forbes. It would be flat-out erroneous to leave Mark Zuckerberg out of the Big Bang Impact Blog because of his outright success at such a young age, as well as the real difference he has made in society using his high task-oriented leadership abilities.
This success could not have been accomplished without the proper utilization of many critical theories and concepts from Organizational Behavior. These areas in which I have discovered to be most relevant in the development of Mark Zuckerberg’s role in Facebook relate to his leadership, and the decision making process. The Facebook as we know it today would not be the same if Mark did not excel in these two topical areas related to Organizational Behavior. He has demonstrated knowledge and passion to excel in these two organizational subjects, which is best described by the Washington Post as Mark Zuckerberg stated, “we really just believe in what we are doing (Frontiera).”
The formal task-oriented leader, Mark Zuckerberg, has proved to be an outstanding decision maker as this recent leader of change has not lost sight of Facebook’s long-term strategy. This long-term strategy includes taking a directive approach in structuring roles for his subordinates in an effort to perfect the social networking capabilities of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’ task-oriented approach to leadership has proven successful, as he did not invent social networking but rather must utilize task-management in order to guide his employees to see a common value in perfecting it. I personally believe that Mark primarily exercises inspirational motivation to create a need for achievement, and affiliation in his subordinates with Facebook as he is truly a charismatic personality. This charisma, along with a high degree of task-oriented leadership, has raised the expectancy of effort and performance in which Mark seeks from his employees. Mark Zuckerberg’s charisma is evident in the fact that his rise to success and fame has come in such a limited time frame. However, Mark’s charisma is not the only motivator for his employees as he has taken an uncompromising authoritarian leadership approach to delegate specific tasks to his subordinates. The Social Network does a fantastic job of depicting this approach as Mark essentially views the human nature of his employees in the Theory X sense. During the movie Mark is persistent in motivating his friends to input their maximum effort when he first moved to Palo Alto, California in order to achieve product development goals he had set for Facebook. Leading employees in this fashion basically fulfills Mark Zuckerberg’s task-management philosophy in creating a common vision for his employees. He has consistently stuck to this vision since founding Facebook, which was tested when Mark was confronted with a one billion dollar offer to sell his company to Yahoo at the age of 22. While pondering this offer, Mark used the rational decision making model to identify the problems, establish decision criteria, generate alternates, and choose the best alternative. He then chose to implement the decision of rejecting the offer after carefully examining the decision criteria and other available alternatives. This choice has become history upon evaluating Mark’s rational decision today, as Facebook is now worth well over 50 billion dollars. Mark Zuckerberg’s decision making ability is extremely unique because thus far he has not demonstrated a framing bias in the way offers are presented to him by others. Nor has he exhibited anchoring in decision making as he has not divulged into a single piece of information when confronted with choice. Mark Zuckerberg’s combination of highly intelligent decision making ability, and utilization of task-oriented leadership for his employees has brought Facebook to historical successes in the world of social networking.
Today still may be just the early stages of Facebook’s growth as the sky is the limit with Mark Zuckerberg’s vision. He has demonstrated an outstanding ability to lead others by utilizing task-oriented leadership and exercising a decision making process which is far more mature than his age. Mark Zuckerberg’s abilities have earned him a great deal of respect around the globe as a true leader of societal change. The social networking company Facebook has aided people in discovering long lost loved ones, and has been credited as an essential medium of communication amongst groups organizing uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. He is also taking a philanthropic approach to societal change in a much similar fashion to the recent trends established by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. According to the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg donated 100 million dollars to the struggling public schools in Newark, New Jersey. This act of philanthropy in helping these once "failed" schools has revealed Mark's true concern for the good of society; while being a high self-monitor and positively representing his company's acts of corporate social responsibility. The founding of Facebook has provoked a social revolution in the world as we know it, and this dramatic change in communication would not have been accomplished without the charismatic leadership of Mark Zuckerberg.
Do you believe that Facebook is still in the growth stage of success, or is the website about to reach its peak? Should Mark Zuckerberg also reach out to other recent leaders of change, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates or Google’s Sergey Brin, for further guidance related to leading or operating the successful website of Facebook? Is there any other social networking websites which you believe could compete with Facebook and reach their level of success in the future?
Works Cited:
A&E Television Networks (2011), “Mark Zuckerberg Biography,” (Accessed April 9, 2011), [available at http://www.biography.com/articles/Mark-Zuckerberg-507402]
Joe Fronteria, Washington Post (July 25, 2010), “Facebook’s Leadership: Dissecting Mark Zuckerberg,” (Accessed April 9, 2011) [http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/leadership_playlist/2010/07/facebooks-leadership-dissecting-mark-zuckerberg.html]
Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times (September 22, 2010), "Facebook Founder to Donate $100 Million to Help Remake Newark’s Schools," (Accessed April 9, 2011) [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/education/23newark.html]
Written by: Zach Seibel
Mark Zuckerberg has done a lot for the social networking community. I believe that Facebook has reached its peak, but might need to continue to grow if it wants to compete with up and coming competitors. Facebook has grown to surpass MySpace and other networking sites. There are other sites right now such as LinkedIn that is connecting professional groups as a way to interact with people that have similar career paths as you. This site also is a way for you to connect with possible future employers. I believe LinkedIn is primed to surpass Facebook in the near future. Since competition is fierce in the social networking community Zuckerberg might need to have some support and knowledge from other successful leaders of change throughout the computer age.
ReplyDelete-Mitchell Terry-
I believe that facebook still has some minor potential for growth, but overall is near its saturation point. A couple of potential markets that I think facebook could capitalize on are the older aged market (40+), a more global market, and possibly a more business professional market (similiar to LinkedIn). I think that Mark Zuckerberg could see some large benefits from reaching out to other transformational leaders of change, however based on his personality I do not see him doing this. I really think that Facebook has such a large edge over it's competitors in the social networking market that it would be hard for anyone to pass them up.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Zuckerberg runs the Facebook organization in an extremly aggressive culture. As we discussed in class the values, mission, and culture of the organization are really reflected from those of the founder and leader of the organization. Since Zuckerberg is always so competitive and task oriented these values are passed on to others through the culture of the organization. Mark's hardwork ethic and desire to out perform competitors has a large impact on others in his organization and has come to be what is expected from other co-workers. I think that Zuckerberg is currently doing all the right things in running this organization, which is evident from the success Facebook has experienced over the last 10-15 years.
Jason Dangles
I think facebook still has considerable room to grow. Every up-and-coming grade schooler in the U.S. either has or will soon create a facebook account. "Tweens", high school kids, college students, and professionals alike all enjoy using facebook. I think the only limitation on facebook's growth is the availability of computers and internet connections around the world. Facebook's market extends beyond the U.S. and Europe. Asia, particularly Japan and China, South America, Mexico, the Middle East, Australia and countless other countries have proven their demand for facebook. The number of people spending actual money on apps and games has continued to increase over the years. (Consider the massive success of just one game on facebook: Farmville.) I believe as long as the organization is run correctly and marketing continues, most likely through connections with peers, facebook will continue to grow exponentially.
ReplyDeleteFacebook is Mark's "baby." Facebook is successful because of his actions and personality. I don't think he should ask for help from other high profile stars, nor does he want to. Bill Gates didn't ask for help creating Microsoft and the creators of Google didn't ask others if they wanted to jump on the bandwagon of success. Mark wants to be famous for what Mark does, not for how Bill Gates helped him increase his bottom line. He is a different thinker and should receive the credit for his own work, the work that he prides himself on.
As for philanthropy, we may never know his true motives. He may indeed want to give back to the community. Or he may just want to get a large tax write off. Whatever the motive, the act itself is welcomed. I am a big fan of philanthropy and I don't particularly care what the motives of these big donors are. If he did for some strange reason ask me for advice, I would tell him to consider a particular type of philanthropy. I would tell him to invest in technological infrastructure of lower income neighborhoods or other portions of the world. By doing this, he is displaying his goodwill towards those who do not have access to computers and also creating additional potential facebook users. This two-way street methodology is the best way to approach CSR. Mutually beneficial projects that help society as well as businesses are the most effective endeavors.
Regards,
Jarek Palmer