Google, the internet innovator par excellence, relies less on top-down strategies and more on grassroots ideas for new products and services. These ideas are often developed in small project teams that have little supervision. In a typical organization, the span of control of a manager might range between 5 and 30 subordinates. However, according to consultant Gary Hamel, a single manager at Google professed to have 160 employees reporting to him!

What does this structural feature tell you about how work is organized at Google? How does a large span of control promote grassroots innovation?