Abstract

This case is about a new HR Policy initiative started by Marissa Mayer (Mayer) at Yahoo!, Inc. (Yahoo) shortly after she joined the company. Yahoo was plagued with many problems and lost its dominance in internet services. Yahoo’s board appointed former executive at Google, Inc., Mayer, as the new CEO of Yahoo and assigned her the task of reviving the company’s fortunes. As soon as she took over as the CEO of Yahoo, Mayer started to focus on changing the culture at Yahoo as a major strategy to turn around the company and make it competitive again. One of the new HR policies she implemented was cancelling the work from home option for Yahoo’s employees. The new HR policy was severely criticized by both analysts and employees of Yahoo on the grounds that it would take away the flexibility enjoyed by its employees. Some analysts even said that this new HR policy could have negative results on a company which was looking to hire more talented people. But Mayer defended the new HR policy saying that it was necessary given the present condition of the organization.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Discuss and debate the pros and cons of Yahoo’s new HR policy which banned the work from home option for all its employees.
• Analyze the reasons which led to Yahoo implementing the new HR policy asking all its employees to work from their offices.
• Understand issues and concepts related to work-life balance and how HR policies can be formulated to support work-life balance
• Appreciate the importance of culture for the long term success of companies.
• Understand the link between an organization’s culture and its business strategy.

Keywords

HR policy, Flexible work options, Work-life balance, Organizational culture, Culture of innovation, Geek creed, Motivation, Strategic change management, Leadership, Talent management, Four Cs strategy to nurture talent, Process, Bureaucracy, and Jams or PB&J, Performance measurement, Goal metrics, Yahoo