Telecommuting better known as work from home is defined when the employees of a company provide their services even from home or some location other than office. This is to share the workload of office and take away work to their homes. This enables the employees to considerably increase their input in the organisation. The past decade has significantly raised the popularity of telecommuting culture and a number of global companies like American Express, First Data are now using this culture in the business operation. The employee in telecommuting communicates with their team members and co-worker using telecommunication services like phone, email, video chat that are available to them. Forbes (Forbes.com, 2017) has identified a number of benefits and disadvantages of telecommuting in a company. However, the CEO of Yahoo took a drastic decision on telecommuting in the company by completely banning the culture. The following essay will provide in depth idea of related to the policy and identify the impact of situational leadership it could have on the issue.
Yahoo Telecommuting Policy 2013
Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo took a decision back in 2013 to completely stop the telecommuting culture in their organisation. The decision completely stopped the telecommuting facility provided to the employees of the company. As per Mayer, the decision was taken on the grounds of work efficiency of the employees (time.com, 2017). She argued that the decision would address the issues the company is facing due to the gap between the employees for the work culture prevailing in Yahoo. Moreover, a number of employees are misusing the facility for their own personal gain by starting start-ups. Banning telecommuting will increase the level of communication and collaboration between the employees involved in the same project. As per Mayer’s opinion, telecommuting culture reduces the work culture of an organisation creating a communication gap between the employees along side with the motivation. She related socialisation with work motivation and argued that stopping telecommute will help the employees to get socialise, which in turn will supplement motivation among the employees 9 Inc.com, 2017). She further supported her idea with the fact that telecommuting restricts the employees from running into each other. It is only possible if the employees are working alongside with their colleagues. They might often come up with ideas that they can share if they are in close physical proximity. Telecommuting completely limits the process of idea sharing within the organisation. The CBS news highlights the extended support of Harvard Business Review in the Decision of Mayer. This review also communicates the need of the culture of employees into the office to increase of flow of novel ideas between the workers (Cbsnews.com, 2017).
The policy banning the telecommuting in Yahoo discourages any work from home culture in the organisation. It further threatens the employees by stating clear rule on telecommuting. According to the policy stated by Mayer, employee seeking to work from home or any authority encouraging the practice would be terminated on the grounds of the event without prior notice. This policy proved to be disadvantageous for a significant number of employees working for the company, especially the single mothers who had to look after their children while working for the company. This led many potential employees to discontinue their journey Yahoo.
Situational Leadership
According Madlock (2012), telecommuting is an wonderful opportunity for the employees over industries. It can potentially increase job satisfaction and employee performance. However, it requires proper leadership style to guide the telecommuters on specific projects. As identified by Madlock over 157 full the telecommuter in United State reflected the usefulness of situational leadership in this particular scenario. This is due to the task oriented approach it takes in the process of guiding the subordinates. This particular style of leadership was developed in the middle of the 20th century by Kennet Blanchard and Paul Hersey. Their definition of situational leadership proposes change in the leadership approach of the leaders according to the level of development attained. This recommends for a change in the leader him or herself in spite making the employees adjust according to the leadership style of the manager. This potentially increases the job satisfaction of the employees. Lynch, McCormack and McCance (2011) in their study reflected a number of styles the situational leaders can take in accordance to the situation in hand. They can be telling and directing, selling and coaching, participating and supporting, and delegating. Different approach reflects efficiency in different situation as stated by the authors. The leader in telling ad directing approach takes the decision and communicates it to the followers. The employees have no role in decision making in this approach and have to work accordingly. However, the leader closely supervises the project and is involved in the entire task. Leaders in selling and coaching approach are also closely involved with the project and the decisions are taken by the leader him or her. However, the employees can present their opinion before the decision is being made and they are considered in the decision making process. In the participating and supporting approach, the employees are placed in the decision making position. The decision are taken by the employees themselves and the leader works as a supervisor. The role of the leader in this approach is to guide the employees and make sure they are taking the required decision. The leader in delegating is involved through the feedback proposal. The leaders only offer their feedback on the task performed by the subordinates.
The decision of banning telecommuting made by Mayer in 2013 came out to be partially effective in present market. Though it aroused number of debates and was criticised by many, the policy help the company to completely stop the misuse of the telecommuting facility. Moreover, this has helped the employees to share their ideas among the group members effectively. Yahoo has come up with a number of new ideas that were important for the company for avoiding extinguishment. Hence, from this perspective, the company did gain some benefits and found success in improving their work culture.
Count of the adverse effects on the other hand is comparatively greater. The company had to face a number of criticisms regarding the decision taken. The first criticism was on the grounds of feminism as the larger number of employees taking advantage of telecommuting was single mothers who had to look after their children at the same time (Elfity, 2017). A large number of single mothers lost their job due to the policy that was supposed to stop the misuse of the system. Moreover, Yahoo lost a large number of potential employees who worked from the remote areas. This limited Yahoo to explore the talents that could provide benefit to the company. Moreover, it was evidenced that a large number of heir employees were provided efficient performance while distributing their work in both office and home. This restriction in telecommuting potentially decreased their performance while increasing the efforts of some. Moreover, banning the telecommuting culture considerably increased the cost incurred. They now have to incur the cost of the employees working from home. Moreover, the pay for the regular employees was higher than that of telecommutes. This also supplements in raising the incurred cost of the organisation.
Mayer took the decision on banning to control the employees and minimise the wastage company’s assets. The results of banning telecommuting have a mixed effect on the organisation bringing both advantages and disadvantages for the company. However, Yahoo could have attained the advantages sought to gain from the banning telecommuting by simply implementing situational leadership (Brown et al, 2016). This would have avoided the loss of potential talents that worked from home and regulate the movements of the employees who miss utilised the facility. The situational leadership that was required in case of Yahoo was the telling and directing. This could have helped the company to avoid misuse of the facility (Hines-McCoy, 2016). The decision related to the project then would have rested in the hands of the managers. The employees working from home then would have to work accordingly as per the details provided. This could have increased the job satisfaction of the employees as well as the performance of the employees (Bowling et al, 2015). However, the responsibilities of the manager would have potentially increased as they had to micro-manage the employee and constantly supervise the telecommute employees.
Conclusion
It is possible to draw conclusion from the above discussion that the decision taken by Mayer in 2013 was a bit too harsh from the employees. This had many pros and cons and brought both favourable and adverse effect on the company. However, the company could have easily avoided the adverse effects if Mayer would have chosen the situational leadership style in place of complete ban of the telecommuting. The greatest adverse impact the company faced due to the ban is the loss of potential talents. The situational leadership would have easily avoided the situation.
References
Bowling, N. A., Khazon, S., Meyer, R. D., & Burrus, C. J. (2015). Situational strength as a moderator of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analytic examination. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(1), 89-104.
Brown, C., Smith, P., Arduengo, N., & Taylor, M. (2016). Trusting Telework in the Federal Government. The Qualitative Report, 21(1), 87.
Cbsnews.com. (2017). In defense of Yahoo’s telecommuting ban. [online] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/in-defense-of-yahoos-telecommuting-ban/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
Elfity, V. (2017). Yahoo’s Telecommuting Ban and How it Affects Feminism – Persephone Magazine. [online] Persephonemagazine.com. Available at: https://persephonemagazine.com/2013/03/yahoos-telecommuting-ban-and-how-it-affects-feminism/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrealoubier/2017/07/20/benefits-of-telecommuting-for-the-future-of-work/2/#e969cb7edd9d [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
Hines-McCoy, T. R. (2016). Influence of supervisors leadership style on mitigating the lack of face to face communication associated with telecommuting (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).
Inc.com. (2017). Yahoo CEO: Why I Was Right About Telecommuting. [online] Available at: https://www.inc.com/jill-krasny/marissa-mayer-twitter-telecommuting-policy.html [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
Lynch, B. M., McCormack, B., & McCance, T. (2011). Development of a model of situational leadership in residential care for older people. Journal of nursing management, 19(8), 1058-1069.
Madlock, P. E. (2012). The influence of supervisors’ leadership style on telecommuters. Journal of Business Strategies, 29(1), 1.
time.com (2017). Telecommuting: What Marissa Mayer Got Right and Wrong. [online] Available at: https://time.com/money/2791618/telecommuting-what-marissa-mayer-got-right-and-wrong/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].
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