Does Marissa Meyer Follow the Eight Step Path to Large-Scale Change?

¶ … Organizations Management Theory Case Summary: In 2013, when new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer overturned the flexible work at home policies, it created a maelstrom of media response. Public responses fell on both sides of the issue, while it seemed most Yahoo employees were outraged. The disruption to personal lives became a pivotal point in the discussions -- arrangements that enable parents to work-at-home, for instance, are not easily changed.

But, more central was the message communicated to Yahoo employees: The CEO (and likely a slew of other managers at the organization) did not trust telecommuting employees to efficaciously conduct their professional duties outside of the direct oversight of their managers. Note that many of the telecommuting Yahoo employees worked at home only one or two days per week.

Women particularly took issue with the workaholic Mayer's decision: she came on board when she was five months pregnant and took a maternity leave that lasted all of two weeks, during which she had a nursery built at the Yahoo headquarters (at her own expense) so she could see her son -- and as critics noted -- keep working excessively long hours. Criticism was levered at Mayer on the basis that her decision stripped away the delicate scaffolding that supports working mothers employed at Yahoo.

Battle-weary working mothers have considered the telecommuting policy as "the only way time-crunched women can care for young children and advance their careers without the pay, privilege or perks that come with being the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company" (Guynn, 2013). [Note: Reference to Kotter and Cohen's (2002) Eight Steps for Successful Large-Scale Change are made parenthetically in the text below as Step #, and so on].

Discussion: As the discussion will show, the primary issues in Mayer's change efforts of have to do with apparent weak strategies for: Communicating for buy-in (Step 4); Empower action (Step 5); and, Making change stick (Step 8); these will be addressed in the Recommendations section below. A limitation of this analysis is that many of the actions Mayer takes are beyond the purveyance of the media, however, this author is confident that enough scrutiny will be directed at Mayer to ensure any major moves are fodder for extensive media comment.

Scuttlebutt has it that the "data" Mayer used to defend her position was that the Yahoo parking lots "were slow to fill up in the morning" (ostensibly observed by Mayer as she soothed her newborn by pacing back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in her corner office) and "quick to empty by 5 p.m." (Guynn, 2013). It seems that Mayer's expectations for her employees are measured by competing Silicon Valley companies, whose standard working hours rival those of coal miners in the last century.

Presumably, those coal miners did not have to buy their own headlamps; extending that logic, Mayer upped the ante by offering free iPhones and free food to Yahoo employees, a move that could create short-term wins (Step 6). But they'll not see the natural light of day under the new everybody-has-to-be-at-headquarters-to-huddle-daily policy. Regardless of how the telecommuting ban has been received, it has achieved one critical function: an increased sense of urgency (Step 1) at Yahoo (Kotter & Cohen, 2002).

Following the unidirectional decision by Mayer, a fascinating internal email to effected employees from the Yahoo HR chief, Jackie Reses, stressed the importance of "communication and collaboration." Mayer's translation of those terms appears to be out of step with the meanings attributed by other successful CEOs: outspoken populist Richard Branson didn't hesitate to call Mayer out for her archaic management strategy, "This seems like a backwards step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever" (Guynn, 2013).

Moreover, CEO-of-the-moment Mayer has not endeared herself by agreeing to do a fashion layout and interview in Vogue magazine. Against a background described as of the "age of ego" by Michael Johnson, associate professor of management and GM Nameplate Faculty Fellow at Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, it is worth noting that Johnson asserts that "Humility is an important component of effective leadership in modern organizations" (Johnson, 2014).

Mayer's Vogue decision may have been a misstep in getting the vision right (Step 3), as it functioned as yet another polarizing action (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Yet, it certainly could be considered one step in many that are constituting a never let up presence (Step 7) by the CEO. Little doubt has been expressed in the media that this draconian move is part and parcel of the first 90 days behavior of new CEOs anxious to make a mark that will please the board of directors and bolster confidence in investors.

A retrospective look at the leadership fiasco that followed Mayer hiring, and then firing in January 2014, Chief Operating Officer, Henrique De Castro, who, like Mayer, came from Google and was tasked with increasing advertising revenue, underscores the significance of this take charge move intended to signal -- make no mistake -- things would be different at Yahoo under Marissa Mayer. With this significant demonstration of Mayer's clout, she made it clear that she would build a guiding team (Step 2) for the changes ahead (Kotter & Cohen, 2002).

Regardless, experts like David Lewin, professor of management at UCLA cautioned that the ban on telecommuting could substantively undercut employee performance and morale, at the same time that it undermines Yahoo's recruiting in a job market that has seriously heated up (Guynn, 2013). Recommendations and Conclusions: It is important to consider that Mayer was one of an impressively long list of Yahoo CEOs. With Silicon Valley culture and Wall Street impatience vectors not to be ignored, Mayer knew she had to act decisively and speedily.

Rumors abound about the extensive layoffs of Yahoo employees -- and whether Mayer was for it or against it, or had just been painted.