Changes in culture and leadership at Yahoo spells trouble for teleworkers

Teleworking is a great concept to discuss in Business Studies, as the topic covers everything from organisation to leadership, motivation and business culture. Recently I wrote about trouble for teleworkers, following after the findings of a report that suggested that many potential teleworkers fret that time away from the office means missing out on promotion opportunities. Apparently, the report by the London Business School finds that companies still reward ‘presenteeism’; telecommuters are less likely to be promoted because they aren't present in the office.Now we learn that Yahoo are to place severe restrictions on opportunities for teleworking, promoting more interesting debate and coverage. For one thing, the boss of Yahoo is female. You might think this point irrelevant, but to many commentators, this is yet another angle to a fascinating debate….

The Economist starts with a terrific article, which argues an obvious point: “it is understandable that Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s recently appointed chief executive, should want to extract some more value from the humanoids she leads. Google’s workers each generate $931,657 revenue, 160% more than the $353,657 produced by each of Yahoo’s employees. And it is also reasonable for a company to want to discourage its employees from behaving like freelancers. After all, firms exist largely because people are more productive together than apart”. Yet the article finishes on a negative note: “a well-managed company’s workers want to be productive, and managers trust them to decide how and where they will perform best. If that’s not happening, the boss needs to find out why. You can shackle a Yahoo to his desk, but you can’t make him feel the buzz”.

The BBC also runs a helpful article that starts with the observation that Yahoo has banned its staff from "remote" working. Yet after years of many predicting working from home as the future for everybody, why is it not the norm?

This is a great topic, so I’ve found it helpful to group together lots of related material on organisations here – with everything from teleworking to groovy offices to life in a call centre. Similarly, when I’m introducing a discussion about leadership, motivation and business culture I’ve put quite a lot of ideas here.