Employee Theft - Factors of the Internal Conflicts at Yahoo - Case Study Example

Yahoo!

Yahoo Inc. is one of the big multinational technology companies that have been successful in developing amazing products and services to date. The company was established in 1994. Over the years, Yahoo has grown and expanded significantly. Based in California, USA, the technology giant provides a wide range of products and services that are popular among users across the world. Some of the popular Yahoo products and services include Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! News, video sharing, Yahoo! Directory and web portal. These are not the only products and services offered by the company. Yahoo products and services have been quite successful in the past. According to the company, over 500 million visit Yahoo sites every month. Third-party entities have also reported on the popularity of Yahoo sites. For instance, SimilarWeb and Alexa, Yahoo sites attracts over seven billion users every month making Yahoo one of the highest-read media and news website (SimilarWeb, 2015). Despite the past achievements of Yahoo, the company has been facing major problems in the recent past. The company has been in the process of trying to revive its struggling business in the last four years including the laying off of a significant number of employees as well as trying to restructure some areas such as the research lab (Kim, 2016a). Insider stories from the company from current and former employees also reveal some interpersonal conflicts that could be playing a significant role in causing the current problems.

One of the greatest decisions that Yahoo has taken in the recent past involves its revival. The company replaced the CEO and president in 2012. Former Google Inc. executive, Marissa Mayer was made the new CEO and President of this struggling technology giant. Part of her primary responsibilities was to revive the company. Among her top priorities were to ensure cost cutting and turning Yahoo into a leader in product and media. Part of the cost-cutting entails the laying off of 15 percent of the workforce (Kosoff, 2016). The decision to lay off some of the Yahoo employees did not go well with the affected employees. Apparently, the affected employees would lose their jobs and this would ultimately affect their lives negatively. For some employees, they had worked at Yahoo for many years and had developed a strong and intimate relationship with the company. Some had long term expectations of working with Yahoo. The decision to lay off some of them meant that these former employees would end up on the losing end. For some, finding other jobs that will be equally fulfilling would not be easy. For others, being laid off would mean that their lifestyles will change for the worse. Overall, the former Yahoo employees that were affected by the layoffs were not particularly happy. Likewise, even the employees that remained were not all happy. It is important to note that they had developed strong relationships with their colleagues who lost their jobs.

The layoffs also affected some of the top executives of the company. One such top executive was Robert Peck, who was among the first big hires by Marissa after she became CEO. Marissa replaced Peck with Mr. de Castro who was not considered to be well suited for the job according to his former and current colleagues. According to Goel and Miller (2014), the hiring of Mr. de Castro puzzled people inside and outside Yahoo. The implication of this is that there exist some interpersonal conflicts in Yahoo. Specifically, the current CEO and President has been said to do things her own way without considering the contributions of other executives, the board, and employees. According to Business Insider report, former Yahoo employees noted that the company had internal conflicts, especially on the Yahoo Labs unit because of a lack of clarity regarding roles (Baron, 2016). If this is true, it means that one of the causes of the internal conflicts is the lack of clarity on issues of importance. With regard to Yahoo Lab, the idea of reconstituting the unit by integrating it with the product and research teams has been a major source of the internal conflicts between the top executives and employees working in this unit.The Yahoo Labs unit has been controversial since its formation. Former employees in the unit felt that it was a mismatch for Yahoo given its struggling situation. However, Marissa Mayer has been adamant in ensuring that Yahoo Labs is part of the new Yahoo. Although her predecessor, Scott Thompson, was not convinced about the value of Yahoo Labs to the company and was about to shut it down, Mayer revamped the unit when she became CEO and expanded the workforce to 250 people. The failure of the Yahoo Labs to attain the expected positive results led to the decision to restructure it. For the employees working at the lab with long-term expectations, this decision was frustrating. Apart from the unclear roles, the new decision led to layoffs and relocation of many employees and their families (Kim, 2016b).

Another important decision that is causing internal conflicts in Yahoo is the imminent plan to sell the company. Apparently, the struggling technology company is looking for interested buyers. Already, various interested buyers have already shown interest in buying Yahoo including Time Inc., AT&T, and Verizon. Apparently, there is an internal conflict between the CEO, the board, and the shareholders regarding this impending decision of some of the core businesses. Mayer has is alleged to be seeking some personal interests as part of the selloff. Specifically, she wants to remain the CEO of the company after the selloff. She has hired a deal-maker, one Frank Quattrone, to represent her in the impending deals. According to analysts, this has caused “dysfunctional internal war” in the company such that Mayer has not been returning calls to some potential buyers (Kosoff, 2016). Such internal conflicts are not good for the company especially at a time when it is struggling.

Internal conflicts are common within all types of organizations. However, whenever there are internal conflicts, it is important to ensure that their underlying causes are identified and addressed to ensure that organizational goals are met. In the case of Yahoo, the internal conflicts, and interpersonal conflicts are undermining the revival of the company. These conflicts between the CEO, the shareholders, the board, and employees are harming the company in several ways. For instance, the company may not be able to make the important decisions discussed above effectively because of these conflicts. In the matter of selling off some core businesses, the conflicts between the CEO, the board, and the shareholders may delay the successful selection of thesuitable interested buyers and hence could undermine the entire plan. Therefore, it is important for Yahoo to address the underlying causes.

One of the possible underlying causes of the internal conflicts is the lack of effective communication. Effective communication is one of the main ingredients for ensuring clarity and reducing uncertainties in an organization. At Yahoo, there seems to be a problem in effective communication especially with regard to the major decisions. For example, in the recent layoffs, the employees seem to have no complete information leading to uncertainties. The top management is acting without first ensuring that employees are informed of who the layoffs will affect, how they will affect their jobs, and when they will occur. This creates a sense of misunderstanding between the management and employees. To address this problem, the leadership of Yahoo including the CEO and other top executives should ensure aconstant flow of information across all levels and units. This will ensure that the lack of clarity and unexpected decisions are not experienced.

Another possible underlying factor the internal conflicts at Yahoo is unclear managerial expectations. The management of the company seems to have some high expectations that are not clear or shared with the employees and shareholders. For instance, the CEO seems to have some personal expectations with regard to Yahoo Labs that is not shared across the company. Although this business unit was considered by employees and some former executives as not adding value to the company, Marissa has been too focused on ensuring the success of this business unit. This means the expectations of Marissa and those of the board, the shareholders, and the employees regarding the potential of Yahoo Labs could have been different. Hence, Marissa may have decided to lay off the employees working in this unit and restructure it because she felt that her expectations were not been met. Yet, according to some former employees, the restructuring of the business unit created more problems than solutions.

Going forward, Yahoo needs to reconsider its internal problems that are clearly emerging from the internal and external sources. Specifically, the different stakeholders should work together to avoid the internal conflicts. The CEO should work with the board, the shareholders, and other employees in ensuring unity of purpose and clarity in company decisions. Rather than relying so much on external or personal entities to run the company, Marissa should involve the other stakeholders to break the emerging internal conflicts and dissatisfactions. Although these internal conflicts may not be so evident today, they are likely to explode in the near future if not resolved. Yahoo is currently in a very critical situation that it needs not have internal conflicts that could be resolved. If addressing these internal issues internally will not be possible, it will be probably necessary to involve external entities that are well versed in matters of organizational management and human resource management. The external entity is also likely to have an objective perspective in addressing the underlying problems, unlike the internal players who may be biased. Ultimately, all involved parties should prioritize the shared goals and objectives of Yahoo. Having personal interests that are in conflict is a major reason for the interpersonal conflicts.