No Woman Is an Island: Societal Impacts of Brash Management Decisions

No Woman is an Island: Societal Impacts of Brash Management Decisions

Since 2007, Yahoo has been experiencing a significant reduction in its market position. Its current CEO, Marissa Mayer, attributed this possibly to the lack of innovation, brought about by a low level of in-person collaboration between Yahoo employees and the low productivity level of the telecommuting employees; evidenced by an irregular log-on rate in the Yahoo IT network, among other factors.

To address these issues, Mayer released a confidential memo banning employees to work from home; shocking 200 of the 12,000 affected employees. Some of these employees took the issue to social media, resulting in a giant hit for both Mayer and the company.

Although there is no doubt that Mayer did what she had to do to be able to save Yahoo, the challenge that faces her now is minimizing the damage caused by the memo and regaining the trust of her employees while still rebooting the culture of Yahoo. How should she go about this? I would push open the communication channels between the management and employees, resulting in a compromise that is amenable to both her productivity standards set for her employees and the culture that the employees are trying to preserve.

Mayer showed her firmness as a CEO, evidenced by her decision-making. She was unafraid to make the decisions that she believed she had to do to strengthen Yahoo. The problem lies in her lack of emotional intelligence; not being able to see the impact her decisions have on the people in her company, and in her lack of communication with her employees.

To mitigate the damage that has been caused and to regain the trust of her employees, Mayers should conduct a town hall meeting explaining her rationale for revoking the benefit of telecommunicating, depicting the current status of the company, and the direction she wants to move towards. Instead of being a unilateral decision dictated by the CEO, she should note that the initial announcement is not final and her doors are open to affected parties for negotiation. Through this, employees are made aware of the current status of Yahoo and are given an avenue to voice out where they are coming from and propose a compromise as an alternative to the complete removal of telecommuting in the company.