Group 3ba human resource management

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM
FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

MIDTERM ESSAY
Module: Business Administration
TOPIC: HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Advisor:

Assoc. Prof. Dang Hoang Linh

Student:
Ngo Mai Huyen

KT47C10159

Le Kim Ngoc

KT47C10162

Nguyen Ngoc Cam Tu

KT47C10167

Class:

KT47C1

Ha Noi, 3/2023

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Summary of human resource management
I. Overview of human resource management
1.1 Introduction of human resource management
1.1.1 Definition
1.1.2 The role of human resource management
1.1.3 Goals of human resource management
1.2 The fundamental functions of human resource management
1.3 Models of human resource management applied in enterprises
1.3.1 Overview
1.3.2 Types of human resource management models
1.4 Human resource management environment
1.4.1 The surroundings
1.4.2 Internal environment
1.4.3 Human factor
1.4.4 Management factors
1.5 Challenges of human resource management
II. Theories of human resource management
2.1 Abraham Maslow's Theory of Needs
2.2 William Ouchi's Theory Z
3.1 Human resource planning
3.1.1 Definition of human resource planning
3.1.2 Human resource planning process
3.2 Job analysis and design
3.2.1 Job analysis
Job analysis process contains 4 steps
3.2.1 Job Design
3.3 Manpower recruitment
3.3.1 Definition

3.3.2 Recruitment process
3.4 Training and development in human resources
3.4.1 Overview
3.4.2 Training process and training methods
3.5 Performance appraisal
3.5.1 Performance appraisal process
3.5.2 Methods of performance appraisal
3.6 Payment for labor
3.6.1 Overview of payment for labor
3.6.2 Payment methods
B. Case study: Human resource management and the failure of Yahoo!

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I. Reasons for choosing this case study
II. History of development and operation of Yahoo!
2.1 A little about Yahoo!
2.2 Milestones of the history of Yahoo!
III. Human resource management and the failure of Yahoo!
3.1 A little about Marissa Mayer

3.2 The controversial human resource management policies of Marissa Mayer
3.2.1 About working culture
3.2.2 About the recruitment
3.2.4 About the stage of job performance evaluation
3.2.5 About employee compensation and benefits

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INTRODUCTION
Human resource planning is a critical component of any organization's success.
By strategically managing its workforce, a company can achieve its goals and
objectives, adapt to changing market conditions, and stay competitive in today's
fast-paced business environment. However, poor human resource planning can have
devastating consequences, as evidenced by the case of Yahoo. Once a leading internet
giant, Yahoo's decline and eventual sale to Verizon in 2017 can be attributed, in part,
to its unstable human resource planning policies.
In this essay, our group will summarize human resource theories and the
process of determining human resources, as well as, explore the factors that
contributed to Yahoo's demise and examine the lessons that can be learned from this
case study for effective human resource planning in organizations.

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A. Summary of human resource management
I.

Overview of human resource management
1.1 Introduction of human resource management
1.1.1 Definition
Human resource management refers to the process of developing and

implementing tools, means, strategies, and solutions to logically and effectively use
employees' abilities and strengths. In other words, human management in the
employer-employee relationship. As a result, the enterprise's corporate goals are met
while employees' particular needs are met.
1.1.2 The role of human resource management
Human resource management has four primary roles, which are as follows:
The first is to manage and create policies for the enterprise's human resources.
The second is the consultancy for various aspects of the company. The third function
is to support other departments with recruiting, training, and welfare services. The
fourth responsibility is to check personnel and oversee the application of HR
regulations.
1.1.3 Goals of human resource management
Human resource management focuses on basic goals related to business, people
and society as follows: 1) The objective of the enterprise is to attract, develop and
maintain a quality and effective workforce that meets the strategic business objectives.
2) Objectives of functional departments in the enterprise are responsible for
contributing to the common goal of the whole enterprise in accordance with their
professional scope. 3) The personal goal is to meet the increasing needs of the

employees of the enterprise, creating conditions for the employees to be
career-oriented, to develop their personal capacity, to be motivated and motivated at
the workplace. work school. 4) The goal for society is to meet the needs and
challenges of society.
1.2 The fundamental functions of human resource management
Attracting, training, developing, and keeping employees are the three major
roles of human resources. Attracting human resources entails guaranteeing a sufficient
quantity of individuals with the necessary skills for the job. The purpose of training
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and development is to increase staff capacity and ensure adequate working skills and
certifications. The maintenance function's role is to stabilize and effectively utilize the
enterprise's human resources.
1.3 Models of human resource management applied in enterprises
1.3.1 Overview
A human resource management model is a set of human resource management
policies and viewpoints that are used to implement human resource management in an
organization.
1.3.2 Types of human resource management models
First is the secretarial model. This paradigm is primarily concerned with data
collection, reporting, and administrative responsibilities. Second is the legal
framework. This strategy is primarily concerned with understanding legal difficulties
to assist firms in avoiding labor disputes. Third is financial modeling. This concept
focuses on resolving wage disparities between employees and businesses. Fourth, is
the governing model. Human resource managers understand and share goals and
values to provide business-appropriate solutions. The human resource management
department's employees serve as online managers' trainers. The fifth model is the
humanistic model. This concept is intended to foster and nurture human ideals and
potential. The sixth model is based on behavioral science. Organizational psychology

and behavior serve as the foundation for human resource management activities in this
approach. This concept is now extensively utilized in areas like evaluation, incentive,
training, staff development, and so on.
1.4 Human resource management environment
The external environment, internal environment, human factors, and
management elements comprise the human resource management environment. Each
section has several aspects that influence each company's human resource
management process.
1.4.1 The surroundings
The external environment includes 8 basic factors: 1) The economic
environment; 2) The work force; 3) Legal rules; 4) Culture - society; 5) Science and
technology; 6) Agencies and authorities; 7) The client; 8) Competition.
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1.4.2 Internal environment
Internal environment affecting human resource management includes 1)
Objectives of the enterprise; 2) Business development strategy; 3) Corporate culture;
4) Union.
1.4.3 Human factor
The human agent consists of 4 factors including 1) Qualifications of workers;
2) Tastes; 3) Salary.
1.4.4 Management factors
Managers are in charge of establishing policies and directives for the overall
development of the company. Managers must also establish an open and intimate
environment for the company, making people glad to work there. Managers must also
be paid and evaluate staff objectively and equitably.
1.5 Challenges of human resource management
The first is business restructuring. Workers confront several obstacles
following the reform and restructuring of the enterprise apparatus, including job loss,

lower benefits, relocation, workplace… Second, because globalization will be a
regular trend in the future, businesses will confront various human resource issues
such as communication, loyalty, wage, and so on. Thirdly, delayed growth might be
attributed to market shifts and competition reasons. Fourth, there are two major types
of labor diversity. Age, social trends, ethnicity, gender... are core factors, while
supplementary variables include income, marital status, religion, education… Finally,
as a company grows, its employees' ideals and desires alter dramatically. They desire
better treatment, a more productive workplace...
II.

Theories of human resource management
Some prominent theories include Abraham Maslow's theory of needs, Douglas

McGregor's theory of X and Y, William Ouchi's theory of Z, Frederick Herzberg's
two-factor theory, etc.
2.1 Abraham Maslow's Theory of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs has five stages.
The first level is physiological requirements (Physiological Needs). Each
person's most practical and vital necessity is physiology. Eating, relaxing, physiology,
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and so on are all things that help individuals live and develop. Physiological
requirements are at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy. Higher wants will be unable to
arise until this need is supplied and satisfied.
The second level is security requirements, and safety (safety, security needs).
The Maslow pyramid moves on to the next requirement. As these basic requirements
are addressed, individuals will progress to greater demands for their security and
safety. It is the desire for a pleasant life and a stable community.
The third level is societal requirements (Belonging needs). Social needs include

both mental and emotional requirements. As a result, everyone desires to be a part of
social ties such as the workplace, school, family, etc. This is an incredibly significant
and fundamental necessity for everyone.
The fourth level is esteem requirements. In every company or setting, this is the
urge for recognition, they want to be liked and respected.
The urge for self-actualization is the fifth stage. The ultimate need in the
Maslow hierarchy is self-actualization. This is the drive to succeed. To follow their
talents and interests while contributing positive values and advantages to society.

Source:Simply Psychology.com

2.2 William Ouchi's Theory Z
Some features of Theory Z include:

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First, mutual trust and openness. According to Ouchi, there should be mutual
trust among employees, supervisors, workgroups, unions and management. In fact,
trust and openness are closely related. When trust and openness exist in an
organization, the chances of conflict are reduced to a minimum. Second, close links
between the organization and employees. To make employees loyal and committed to
the organization, a strong bond (strong connection) must exist between the
organization and the employee. Third, collective decision-making. To elicit employee
commitment, it is desirable that employees participate in the decision-making process.
Fourth, the free-form organizational structure. Theory Z holds that there is no formal
structure for organizations. The structure should be based on teamwork and
collaboration with the sharing of information, resources, and plans. Fifth, the role of
facilitator and coordinator for management and leadership. Managers must act as
facilitators and coordinate the actions of everyone, including within their workgroups.

Sixth, general culture. To promote mutual understanding, excellent human relations
and cooperation within an organization, theory Z emphasizes on common culture, e.g.
uniforms for employees without distinction, common canteens for all. everyone,...
III. Human resources management process
3.1 Human resource planning
3.1.1 Definition of human resource planning
Human resource planning is the process of studying and determining human
resource needs in order to make policies and activities related to human resources to
ensure that enterprises have enough quality, productive and qualified human resources
and achieve the stated overall goals.
3.1.2 Human resource planning process
Step 1: Analyzing the environment and defining goals => Step 2: Analyzing
the current status of human resource management => Step 3: Forecasting human
resource needs => Step 4: Forecasting human resource supply => Step 5: Planning
human resource programs => Step 6: Inspecting and evaluating the implementation
status

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3.2 Job analysis and design
3.2.1 Job analysis
Job analysis is essentially the process of studying job content in order to
determine the working conditions, tasks, authority, and necessary qualities and skills.
Job analysis process contains 4 steps
Step 1: Defining the scope of job analysis => Step 2: Preparing for job analysis
=> Step 3: Collecting data and analysis => Step 4: Developing job descriptions and
job specifications
3.2.1 Job Design
Job design is the process of combining discrete pieces of work together to form

a complete task to be assigned to an individual or employee. Job design is the process
of identifying specific tasks to be completed and the methods used to accomplish
them, and the relationship of that work to other jobs in the organization. Several
approaches to job design include:
Method

Strength

Weakness

- Reduce the scope of work, divide
the time to get the work done
- Repetitive work leads to
Work specialization - Save time, allow workers to learn boredom and mechanical work
quickly
- Employees lose interest in work.
- Training costs are low
- Reduce stress, boredom, create
excitement at work
- Improve the quality of workers’
Job rotation
life
(switching positions
- Create conditions improve their
and positions)
professional qualifications
- Enterprises can flexibly use labor
in the future.
Job expansion
(taking on many

different jobs at the
same time)
Job enrichment

- It is easy to disrupt production
because in the early stages,
workers have not caught up with
the work
- Complicated in controlling,
organizing learning and working
- Requires a lot of deep training.

- Inefficient use of time and
- Satisfy employees, create
resources
attractiveness in work
- Criticized for increasing the
- High flexibility and mobility to
amount of boring work
quickly adapt to market changes
- Increased pressure on workers.
- Ensure specialization according -

Resources

are

fragmented,

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(expanding work in to each job
reducing the advantage of scale
depth, enhancing - High flexibility should create - Reduced system control
workers' power) good adaptability
- Promote the initiative and
creativity of employees
3.3 Manpower recruitment
3.3.1 Definition
Recruitment is the process of attracting human resources from different sources
and selecting the right people with suitable standards to use in the right job positions
that the business wants to recruit. Human resource recruitment is a specific step
towards realizing the goal of human resource planning. Human resource recruitment
activities in the enterprise include: activities to ensure that the enterprise has enough
qualified candidates in order to select the most suitable people for the enterprise.
3.3.2 Recruitment process
The content and order of the recruitment process in enterprises is usually
carried out in 9 basic steps:
Step 1: Recruitment preparation => Step 2: Recruitment announcement => Step
3: Receipt and study of applications => Step 4: Preliminary interview => Step 5:
Multiple-choice test => Step 6: Second interview => Step 7: Verify investigation =>
Step 8: Health check => Step 9: Hiring decision
3.4 Training and development in human resources
3.4.1 Overview
The process of training and development is an activity that tries to
provide employees with information, skills and understandings about the
organization’s work and goals with the aim of improving the organization's
effectiveness and the performance of the individuals to future work.
3.4.2 Training process and training methods

About the training process, training programs need to be developed
systematically and based on consideration of the real needs of enterprises. The process
consists of 3 stages: needs assessment, training phase and evaluation phase

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3.5 Performance appraisal
Performance appraisal is the process to ensure that employees meet current
standards and improve job performance in the course of their work in the organization.
This is a very important activity in human resource management.
General Purposes

Particular Goals
- Identify individual training needs
- Feedback on job performance
Personal development
- Define transitions and job duties
- Identify individual strengths and development needs
- Wage
- Advancement
- Maintain or lay off
Administrative decisions
- Recognition of personal achievements
- Temporarily laid off (temporary unemployment)
- Identify weak employees
- Human resource planning
- Identify the training needs of the organization
- Evaluate the achievement of the organization's goals
Maintaining and

- Information for creating and setting goals
developing the
- Evaluate human resource systems
organization
- Consolidate
and maintain the organization's
development needs
- Standards for reasonable research
Providing
- Documentation for human resource decisions
documentation
- Assistance in achieving legal requirements
Table 1. The basis purposes of the performance appraisal
3.5.1 Performance appraisal process

Picture 1. Performance appraisal process

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3.5.2 Methods of performance appraisal
Scorecard method: list the main requirements for employees when performing
work such as: quantity, quality of work, style, behavior, …Alternate ranking method:
rank employees from best to worst on a trait or vice versa on key points such as work
attitude, work performance, … Retention criticism method: record employees’ major
errors or good results in the work in order to evaluate who performs very well or very
poorly. Behavioral observation method: observe the employee's job performance
behaviors based on the number of observations and repetition frequency of the
behaviors.
3.6 Payment for labor

3.6.1 Overview of payment for labor
Salary is a motivating factor. Employees will feel excited if they are well-paid
which deserves their effort and performance, thereby striving more in the future.
Payment for labor is not only the needs of employees but also the responsibility and
obligations of the enterprise towards employees.
About the employee's income structure, an employee's income includes basic
salary, allowances, bonuses and other benefits.
3.6.2 Payment methods
There are two types of payment methods: material payment and non-material
payment.
Material payment includes direct payment (daily salary, monthly salary, basic
salary, allowance, bonus) and indirect payment (health insurance, social allowances;
other types of benefits such as retirement benefits, job search, bonus for workers
working in hazardous environments, sickness, maternity;...)
In addition to material payment, enterprises also have non-material payment for
labor. Non-material payment is shown through factors such as attractive, interesting
work or a working environment with reasonable payment policies and comfortable
working conditions,...

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B. Case study: Human resource management and the failure of Yahoo!
I. Reasons for choosing this case study
Yahoo! once held the monopoly throne of the internet, while Google was still a
startup and Facebook had not yet formed. Yahoo! rapidly became the most
well-known brand in the world and experienced many unexpected triumphs. However,
for a variety of subjective and objective reasons, Yahoo declined from the top to the
bottom before being bought out by another business. The following are some of the
major causes of Yahoo's decline:

Firstly, Yahoo!'s inflexible and cautious operating system and human resource
management system should have long-term effects. Yahoo! lost out on numerous
M&A deals due to poor and arbitrary choices made at the top, such as declining to
purchase Google and Facebook, two companies with current market values in the
trillions of dollars.
Secondly, despite changing many generations of leaders and hiring Marissa
Mayer, who was expected to turn the situation around, Yahoo! could not reverse the
decline. Within a year under CEO Marissa Mayer, in 2013, Yahoo! continuously
bought 16 new companies with too much haste. Many times, Yahoo! announced
carrying out two M&A deals in just one day or six in a month (Thanh Hai, 2013).
From the reasons mentioned above, the team decided to choose Yahoo! as a
typical case of human resource failure, although CEO Marissa Mayer implemented
many new policies and reforms for HR during her tenure.
II. History of development and operation of Yahoo!
2.1 A little about Yahoo!
Yahoo!, in full Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet brand and services provider
based in Sunnyvale, California, and owned by Verizon Communications since 2017
(Britannica, 2023). Yahoo! provides users with online utilities, information, and
access to other websites such as: Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail,
Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance,... Yahoo! once had a golden age and became the most
popular “first social network” globally in the period 1995 - 2007 but for many
reasons, after 2008, the development of Yahoo! was more bleak than ever.

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2.2 Milestones of the history of Yahoo!
Timeline
1994 - 1995

Yahoo!’s milestones
January 1994, Yahoo! Inc was founded as “Jerry and David's guide to
the World Wide Web” by Jerry Yang, David Filo and renamed
“Yahoo!” in March 1995.

From 1995 to 1998: Yahoo! was growing fast and becoming one of the most
visited websites in the world
1998

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Yahoo! Messenger's first version (Yahoo! Pager) was born.
Google has “touted” Yahoo! bought the company for 1 million
USD but was rejected.

From 2002 to 2007: The Golden Age of Yahoo! when accepted by millions of
users and had potential M&A deals

2002

Yahoo! chance to own Google again for $3 billion. But during
negotiations, Google raised it to $5 billion. CEO Yahoo! At that time,
Terry Semel said no because he thought that the partner's price was too
high.

2005

Yahoo! acquired Ludicorp Research & Development (Canada), the
company that owns the famous photo-sharing website Flickr, and
acquired a 40 percent share of the Chinese e-commerce company,

Alibaba.

2006

Yahoo! had the opportunity to buy Facebook with an offer to buy back
1 billion USD, but again CEO Semel refused the opportunity to
acquire this social network.
From 2008 to 2017: The “unlucky” and volatile period of Yahoo!

2008

Yahoo! began to fall into a difficult situation, many times having to cut
staff. In February 2008, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! with a price
of 44.6 billion USD but Yahoo! refused.
-

2009 - 2011

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Yahoo! repeatedly changed CEO, after Terry Semel, Jerry
Yang, Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson to Ross Levinsohn, but all
were unsuccessful.
On July 28, 2009, an agreement between Yahoo! and Microsoft
was reached in which Yahoo! would use Microsoft's search
engine, Bing, for its Web site and would handle premium
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advertisements for Microsoft's Web site, an arrangement

scheduled to last for 10 years.
2012 - 2013

In July 2012, Marissa Mayer took over as President and CEO of
Yahoo! and caused the company to have many positive growth signs,
the stock increased.
-

2013 - 2014
-

2016

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2017 - now

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Yahoo! had data stolen twice in a row, causing 500 million user
accounts to be leaked, causing more than 300 million USD in
damage.
On March 12, 2014, Yahoo! officially announced its partnership
with Yelp, Inc., which will help Yahoo! boost its local search
results to better compete with services like Google.
On November 21, 2014, Yahoo! announced that it would
acquire the video advertising provider BrightRoll for $640
million.
Yahoo! shuts down messaging app Yahoo! Messenger to switch
to the new version, but only for 2 years.

On February 2, 2016, Yahoo!'s CEO Marissa Mayer was
expected to cut 15% of its workforce.
Yahoo! was sold to Verizon for nearly $5 billion, 10 times
lower than the price nearly 10 years ago Microsoft asked to buy
and Yahoo! has officially "collapsed" from here.
Yahoo! subsequently became part of the newly created
subsidiary Oath, though it continued to exist as a distinct brand.
The portion of Yahoo! that was not sold—notably its interest in
Alibaba—was reformed as Altaba.

III. Human resource management and the failure of Yahoo!
Human resource managers need to be careful that their decisions do not lower
employee morale, as it can greatly impact the future of the business. After more than
10 years of development, Yahoo! reached its peak in 2006 with revenue of 1.9 billion
USD and profit of over 5.3 billion USD (Ngoc Vy, 2016). However, not long after
peaking, Yahoo! began to rest on its laurels and eventually had to sell itself in 2017.
Marissa Mayer, the female CEO of Yahoo! at that time, was considered to be
one of the main reasons for the collapse of the company. There are many theories
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about the demise of Yahoo!, such as being backward, conservative, lacking a defined
development direction, or making wrong decisions in buying and selling. However,
Mayer's governance is the most controversial issue.
3.1 A little about Marissa Mayer
After graduating with honors from Stanford University, Mayer received 14 job
offers, including a consulting job at McKinsey & Company. However, she decided to
join Google in 1999, becoming the company's first female engineer when Google was
still not an internet search giant. In fact, the company had only 19 employees at that
time. Mayer became the 20th employee and an excellent one during her 13 years of

working at Google, even though experts believed that there was only a 2% chance of
survival (Nguyen Nguyen, 2017). In 2003, she officially took the position of
managing Google's products, including the company's core search engine. However,
Mayer's focus on details and management orientation made many employees at
Google unhappy, such as Doug Bowman, a famous designer at Google who quit his
job because he could not work with her (Ngoc Vu, 2016).
In 2011, Mayer decided to go to Yahoo! to take over as CEO with the mission
of resurrecting the company that had been surpassed by Google in many business
areas. Thus, Mrs. Mayer “Googled” Yahoo! by repeatedly acquiring small and
medium-sized companies to acquire talented employees, the same way Google did
(Thanh Hai, 2013). Mayer's focus on this strategy was an important part of the plan to
turn the tide at Yahoo! at that time, but it also raised many potential risks leading to
the collapse of Yahoo! in 2017.
3.2 The controversial human resource management policies of Marissa Mayer
3.2.1 About working culture
Firstly, Mayer forced employees to work at the office. Mayer's first major
policy at Yahoo! was forcing remote employees to work at the office. Mayer believed
this would increase the efficiency of communication and collaboration. However, this
policy was thought to be not suitable for Yahoo!.
Working in an office has many benefits, however, there are some types of work
requiring more operational than creative, especially in a technology company like
Yahoo!. Mayer didn't realize that one of the advantages of working remotely was that
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it would reduce the social burden and pointless interaction that can waste hours in the
workday. Forcing an unproductive, unmotivated person into the building is not a
solution to their lack of productivity or their motivation. Working remotely helps
individuals be more focused and efficient while avoiding affecting the productivity of
others.

Moreover, many experts believed that this policy could prevent Yahoo! from
attracting the best employees who might not want to work in San Francisco or other
cities where Yahoo! has offices. If that was an issue for a potential employee, they
would simply look elsewhere at more flexible companies. Some analysts even said
that this new HR policy could have negative consequences for a company which was
looking for more talented people. But Mayer defended and said it was necessary for
the organization's current conditions.
Secondly, Mayer was conservative in receiving or listening to employees'
opinions related to the survival of Yahoo!. The lack of ability to listen and absorb
ideas was one of Mayer's biggest failures. According to Yahoo! employees, Mrs.
Mayer repeatedly rejected the opinions of her subordinates, making them hesitate to
share as well as feel untrusted and disrespected.
Instead of arguing for the sake of learning, Mayer, who was an aggressive
person with a high ego, always tried to justify her opinion and constantly disapproved
of other opinions that were different from hers. While a great leader needs to know
how to put themselves in the shoes of others to come up with the most intelligent
strategy. For instance, by the decision to ban employees from working remotely,
Mayer’s way showed a lack of trust, a lack of respect, and a lack of partnership. She
didn’t ask employees to work with her to solve a problem but ordered them to follow
her decision.
The consequences of these mistakes were a series of improper decisions such
as spending more than $2 billion to buy 50 different companies causing losses,
failing" to catch up with Google and Facebook, ignoring security that caused more
than 1 billion accounts to be hacked and a $350 million loss for Yahoo!, etc.

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3.2.2 About the recruitment
Mayer's hiring policies were reasonable and considered necessary to Yahoo’s

human resource change. However, they were not suitable for Yahoo's circumstances at
that time. Yahoo employees had struggled with the fact that Yahoo was no longer at
the top and was facing fierce competition to attract talents in Silicon Valley. Some
problems in the recruitment process under Mayer's policy include:
To begin with, Mayer's rigorous recruitment practices were said to have caused
the company to miss out on top technical talent. According to employees who worked
at Yahoo, they complained about the way Mayer tightened recruiting practices that
rejected good candidates because they didn't have qualifications from prestigious
universities. Moreover, Mayer challenged her employees to improve hiring practices.
Mayer brought Google's hiring standards to Yahoo, with a particular focus on special
academic credentials from Stanford University or a degree in computer science that
was valued much higher than others.
Secondly, Mayer personally reviewed and signed in every hires - another
Google method that Mayer adopted at Yahoo - which inevitably slowed down the
hiring process at Yahoo!, leaving applicants with a long wait and leading them to look
for potential opportunities at other companies, including Yahoo's competitors.
3.2.3 About training and developing human resources
For new talents, the big problem with Yahoo was that it didn’t have the right
system in order to nurture new talents, make them feel as a part of the company, which
made employees feel like they were not welcome at Yahoo.
Sullivan who worked at Hewlett-Packard (a large information technology
corporation) said that the stifling culture often made newcomers unhappy. For talents
to do well under new management, the company must be enthusiastic to attract them
to continue doing their jobs. However, Yahoo! was not like that. They did not have a
clear strategy or policy for employee compensation and its employees even had to
look for information in other news sites. This made employees feel demoralized,
unclear about their work and gave up working for the company.

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3.2.4 About the stage of job performance evaluation
Firstly, Mayer often had her own way of evaluating employee performance,
called Mayer's Q.P.R (Mayer's quarterly performance review) - a forced distributions
performance appraisal that forces managers to rank employees from 1 to 5 and then
those ranks are used to categorize the employee into various classifications, including
the “bottom 5%” and then fired hundreds of employees using that data.
Secondly, Mayer often secretly conducted layoffs based on silent reviews.
Nobody knew who would be next and why they would be fired. This had caused
competition among employees, creating an atmosphere of tension, low employee
morale, and even lower profits and web-traffic, the lifeblood of Yahoo!.
Thirdly, Mayer often prolonged layoffs in Yahoo!. While other large and
professional companies considered payroll cuts to be done quickly to take time to heal
the "wounds". However, Mayer made this important human resource planning
campaign for Yahoo! become more stressed. She even announced to the entire
company that the "mass layoff" campaign was over but then broke the promise. This
had discredited her, causing company employees to no longer trust this leader.
3.2.5 About employee compensation and benefits
Mayer spent a significant amount of money retaining key employees at Yahoo!
when it was going into recession. In addition to catching up with the trend of high
salaries for other leaders, Mayer's main mission was to save costs while growing. This
meant there would have to be a pay cut when Yahoo! continuously lost. As a result,
Mayer used a centralized "investment" approach, paying high salaries to ensure the
professionals didn't leave. And while there was not much money on hand, the high
wages of one group of people would affect the work of another group - the group of
employees who did not meet the performance milestones set by Mayer.
The pay cut caused employee morale to drop, so it swept Yahoo! into a spiral of
crisis after a series of human resource management policies that Mayer applied above
and Yahoo!’s lower paying. This created a wave of discontent among employees who
were loyal to Yahoo! and further motivated senior employees to look for other

companies.

18


CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the demise of Yahoo can be attributed to a combination of poor
governance and unstable human resource planning policies implemented by former
CEO Marissa Mayer. Despite her efforts to turn the company around through
acquisitions and product improvements, Mayer's leadership style and strategic
decisions ultimately failed to bring the desired results. The company's downfall serves
as a cautionary tale for other companies, highlighting the importance of effective
leadership, sound decision-making, and stable human resource planning policies in
achieving sustainable success. The legacy of Yahoo's demise also underscores the
need for companies to prioritize their employees, their human resources and establish
a culture that fosters growth, innovation, and long-term viability.

19


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