Banning Telecommuting at Yahoo!

This case is set in February 2013, when several Yahoo! employees leaked a confidential memo from the human resources department concerning a telecommuting ban that is to be imposed in June that year. There are strong responses from many people, both from inside and outside Yahoo, criticising the new policy and Marissa Mayer, the recently appointed CEO. This new policy is clearly bucking the telecommuting trend of the 21st century workplace. However, Mayer is clear that the policy is needed to bring about innovation and a culture of communication and collaboration that could drive great ideas and be absolutely crucial for Yahoo’s success.

How can Mayer leverage her leadership towards capturing employee trust and redressing the negative sentiment that has come about from the telecommuting ban? What should Mayer do to signal the company’s cultural reboot and win trust and employee buy-in for the new policy? And if the policy had been delivered differently, would she have avoided all the negative press?

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· The Case (SMU-13-0020)

· Teaching Note (SMU-13-0020TN)