Marissa Ann Mayer: Leadership and Motivation Presentation

Leadership and Motivation

• Merissa Ann Mayer: the Chef Executive Officer at Yahoo
• Sources of influences and authority she uses
• The need to direct employees at this firm
• The legitimate source of power

Marissa Ann Mayer is the current Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo. Merissa has been ranked as one of the most powerful businesspersons in the United States. She has been able to transform this firm positively over the past one year and few months that she has been at its helm. According to Mrityunjay, for a person in a leadership position to be able to make an organization succeed, it is necessary that such a leader possess some form of power that will make followers respect him or her and follow the guidelines given by the leader (71). Marissa’s power comes from a number of sources. By the virtue of being the chief executive of Yahoo, Merissa has a legitimate power over other employees. She has the power to determine the way in which various activities are supposed to be carried out within the firm.

Types of Influences and Authority Merissa Uses

• Coercive power
• Merissa stops telecommuting at Yahoo
• Resistance from employees
• Effectiveness of the new strategy

Merissa’s position as the chief executive also gives her a coercive power over employees. When Merissa joined Yahoo, the polices at that time allowed employees to work from home. This was seen by employees as a good strategy as they did not have to report to work every morning. However, she changed this policy and demanded that all employees had to report to their respective places of work during the working hours. Some of the employees who were used to the policy that allowed them to work from anywhere considered this new strategy a punishment. They complained, and some even considered quitting the firm. However, she stood her ground, and the policy has proven successful (Indvik 1). This scholar says that the output of the employees has increased massively since she introduced this new policy.

Effectiveness of the Influences

• Management strategies employed by Merissa
• The need to regain the lost market share for yahoo
• Merissa introduces ‘My Yahoo’
• Effectiveness of the strategies employed

Merissa has taken a keen interest in the work done by the engineers of this firm. Given her background in engineering, she has expert power to influence activities of the firm’s engineers. According to the management strategies that she has employed over the past one year, it is apparent that she has been keen to turn around the performance of this firm. According to Mrityunjay, Merissa has influenced the engineers to introduce new products in this firm (56). She influenced the firm’s engineers to introduce “My Yahoo,” a product that has gained a lot of popularity in the market. This has earned her more respect among the employees, especially because of the success of the new products she is introducing in this firm.

Effectiveness of the Strategies

• Leadership strategies in the current market
• The effort put by Merissa to improve employees’ performance
• Merissa’s growth strategy
• Effectiveness of her strategies

According to Indvik, Merissa’s tenure at Yahoo as its chief executive has made this firm very successful (92). Through her charismatic leadership qualities, she has managed to acquire a number of other firms to increase the market share of Yahoo. Through her charisma, she was able to negotiate a deal that saw Yahoo acquire Tumblr at 1.1 billion dollars. Her influence and admiration among other top executives was witnessed when she managed to convince all the top executives of Tumbrl to cross over and become employees of Yahoo. The support she has received from the board of directors in her acquisition strategy shows that the board trusts her expertise in management. This power has helped her move this firm to higher heights over the past one year.

Appropriateness of the Approach

• Merissa’s success in providing information to the stakeholders
• The increasing value of Yahoo’s stock
• Merissa’s plan of motivating employees
• Appropriateness of the approaches she has taken
• Using transformational leadership to motivate employees
• Towards success
• The current performance of Yahoo
• Merissa’s future plans for Yahoo

It is important to note that due to poor performance of this firm in the past, the shareholders have been demanding information about the progress of the firm and the possible future developments. This information must come from the highest office, which is held by Merissa. She has used her charismatic leadership qualities in order to convince the shareholders that the firm has taken the right turn toward success. This has created confidence of the investors in this firm, making its stock prices rise consistently over the last one year. Merissa has also been very keen in ensuring that her employees remain highly motivated in order to increase their performance. The strategies employed by this leader are very appropriate. According to Griffin, in the current dynamic society where firms are faced with numerous challenges in their working environment there is need to employ leadership strategies that would help ensure that employees remain motivated (78). This is what she has perfected, and it has helped this firm gain a new competitive position in the market.

Merissa has been very concerned of the self-esteem among the employees, especially the software engineers of this firm. Transformational leadership has been very effective in motivating employees, and influencing them to act in a given desirable manner (Indvik 1). This has proven to be very effective in ensuring that this firm remains profitable in the market. Given the current performance of Yahoo, it is clear that Merissa has achieved what was expected of her at the helm of this firm. She has kept the employees constantly motivated. The stock price of the firm is on the rise, and the stakeholders are convinced that this firm is on the right track.

Works Cited

Griffin, Ricky. Fundamentals of Management. New Jersey: Southwestern Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.

Indvik, Lauren. “Mayer Is Turning Yahoo Around.” 2013. Web.

Mrityunjay, Srivastava. Transformational Leadership. New Delhi: Macmillan India, 2003. Print.