Headcase: Google This, Censors!

Some companies seem to embody their leaders. Despite myriad encumbrances—market forces, stockholder interests, corporate protocol—a founder or CEO's character can somehow appear to animate a giant machine.

Consider Google. Sergey Brin and Larry Page set out with the mission to do no evil, and by many people's standards they've succeeded, despite 20,000 employees and a market cap of over $100 billion. In March, for example, Google pulled its services out of China rather than let the country censor search results.

But was this truly an ethics call or just shrewd business maneuvering? Mark one up for the non-cynics: A paper in the Journal of Business and Psychology reported that executive personality can, in fact, shape corporate values. For example, agreeable and emotionally stable CEOs lead companies that are people-oriented; neurotic chiefs run innovative and competitive organizations; and execs highly open to new experiences cause their companies to place less emphasis on standards and efficiency. Cultural artifacts from Google's startup days such as Friday beer breaks "likely reflect the founders' agreeableness, altruism, collectivism, and openness," says study coauthor Tomas Giberson of Oakland University in Michigan.

What leads to a strong link between personality and cultural values? "Some people are focused on creating an organization to fulfill a certain purpose" beyond making money, coauthor Christian Resick of Drexel University says. "Larry and Sergey are good examples." Help people find stuff, fairly.

Of course with few natural predators, Google has the luxury to be as good—or evil—as it wants to be.