Running head: Comparative Case Study 1

Comparative Case Study

Student Name

Professor’s University

University Name

21st March 2022

Introduction 3
Comparative Case Study 2

Discussion 3

Google 3

Organizational Structure and Culture 3

Communication in Google 4

Leadership In Google 4

The Effects of Organisational Structure, Management, and Culture 5

HR Planning and Selection Strategy of Google 5

Recommendations 6

Yahoo 6

Organisational Structure and Culture 6

Communication in Yahoo 7

Leadership In Yahoo 7

HR Planning and Selection Strategy of Yahoo 7

The Effects of Organisational Structure, Management, and Culture 8

Recommendations 8

Conclusion 9

References 10

Introduction
Google and Yahoo were two of the most important companies that marked the start of the

age of information and the internet. Both started search engines and evolved into a digital space

that changed the way we perceive the world. In this report, a comparative study is done between
Comparative Case Study 3

these two companies with the help of case studies that have studied the reasons for Google’s

success and Yahoo’s failure. The report has been divided into two parts, the first part talks about

the case study on Google and the second part is on Yahoo.

Discussion
Google
Organizational Structure and Culture
Google’s culture motivates employees to be share information to support innovation. By

examining Google’s organizational culture, it is evident that the company’s continued success is

due to its ability to constantly take advantage of innovative ideas and opportunities (Joiner,

2017). As a result of this corporate culture that values innovation and information sharing, the

company can continually innovate and not depend on one idea or product line. This allows it to

remain competitive, keep up with technological advances, and address changing customer

demands and needs.

Google LLC maintains a corporate culture that emphasizes employee empowerment and

collaboration. In the short term, the company may have a less-competitive business approach

compared to that of other leading companies in the information technology industry (Davenport,

2014). However, through its organizational structure and corporate culture, Google LLC

implements the necessary internal mechanisms that strengthen its ability to compete against other

multinational firms within market niches where it operates.

Communication in Google
The level of Internal Communication within Google is the most valuable asset they have;

so much of our world today runs off it by ensuring communication is fast, and organized, this

allows a high-performing workforce to be successful.

Google wants its workers to work together, collaborate and solve problems, therefore a

culture that embraces Internal Communication that also reflects the mission statement will allow
Comparative Case Study 4

them to do so. Google's organizational structure does not need to be formalized because its

culture is based on innovation and idea-sharing (Levy, 2021). By creating a flexible and

collaborative environment, Google can execute its organizational plans seamlessly because of the

engagement, and ease of communications between employees.

Leadership In Google
In most companies, the person at the top is responsible for providing direction to the

people below. Good companies, also provide coaching and feedback. But in Google’s more

laissez-faire approach, instead of having one leader, multiple people are empowered to lead. That

gives people who might not have been natural leaders an opportunity to try on the role.

In 2010, Google engineers realized that many of the company's top managers were not only

talented engineers but also outstanding leaders (Davidson et al., 2018).

At the recommendation of Laszlo Bock, head of Google's People Operations, Larry Page

set out to identify those characteristics and integrate them into a training program for new

managers (Davidson et al., 2018). Google started to think about how it could change up its

manager training and development program to help people adapt and get better as they gained

experience at different levels.

The Effects of Organisational Structure, Management, and Culture

From its early days, Google's culture has been one where innovation thrives. This does

not mean that the team members have to take a risk on something new and untested, but it does

imply a mindset where all ideas are heard, evaluated, and discussed respectfully by all team

members. Google is a company that focuses on balancing the development of its employees as

well as the company. Google is a company that focuses on balancing the development of its

employees as well as the company.

Comparative Case Study 5

Google provides an open culture to its employees with transparency, trust & freedom to

explore secretiveness. Thus google employees are happy, loved, and loyal. This creates an

environment filled with love, passion, and productivity which reflects on the progress of

technology and innovation in the world.

HR Planning and Selection Strategy of Google

Google’s human resource management takes advantage of the flexible workforce and

innovative compensation for employees to stimulate productivity and retention. Since Google

has been a rapidly growing business organization, its HR managers need to ensure that they

attract and retain individuals who can make a positive impact on the performance and

competitive advantage of the company (Tran, 2017). There are challenges in applying different

strategies to manage employees from different parts of the world. These strategies are essential

for HR professionals to address the diverse needs of people working for Google such as

motivation level and ability to add value to the strategic objectives of the organization.

Recommendations
1. Google’s HR managers should focus on cultural diversity issues at the workplace

and other emerging challenges that influence people management functions

within Google.

2. Cultural differences pose challenges to the effective application of HRM policies

and practices used by Google across its offices in different countries around the

world. They should try to find a way to facilitate this effectively.

3. Google should maintain its competitive advantage over other firms in the same

industry through motivation, recruitment and training of its workforce.

Comparative Case Study 6

4. Google holds company-wide meetings daily, to discuss various happenings in the

company and strategy. They should create more adaptable organisation plans that

can make these daily tasks easier.

Yahoo
Organisational Structure and Culture
Yahoo follows a hierarchical, centralized and formal management system. The

organization is divided into different sections, business units, departments and other smaller

groups based on certain functions. These groups are supervised by different levels of managers

who have direct and supervisory control over the work of their subordinates. There are several

levels of management in this organizational structure (Trautman & Ormerod, 2016).

Top managers of the hierarchy decide about the things that are required for the company

and employees have to follow those rules and decisions. Therefore, it can be considered a

centralized system. On the other hand, some of the decisions can be taken by the middle-level

management and they also have some authority on daily operations. The second level

management also has to report their activities and achievements to top managers regularly. This

kind of organisation structure is rigid and it cannot adapt quickly to its environment. Thus,

Yahoo could not survive and its position was taken by Google as the world’s top search engine.

Communication in Yahoo
As Yahoo follows this traditional hierarchy in management, the company has missed

many chances to have diverse visions. So it's clear that employees who belong to different teams

often communicate only with their colleagues. This leads to a lack of communication between

team members (Aufa, 2018). The problem with Yahoo was that it had established a hierarchy

within the company. This created a division between executives and regular staff. This resulted

in poor communication between the upper management and the lower management.
Comparative Case Study 7

Leadership In Yahoo
When Marissa Mayer was hired as CEO of the struggling internet company, she was tasked with

revitalizing the moribund company and turning Yahoo into a place where smart people want to

work. But under her leadership, Yahoo's talent drain has only gotten worse and its revenues have

dropped sharply. Ms Mayer's inability to understand where Yahoo was going wrong and, more

shockingly, her inability to fix it, reflects several key leadership mistakes (Umut, 2020).

HR Planning and Selection Strategy of Yahoo

Ms Mayer understood nothing about the internet advertising market and missed every single one

of its transitions. She had no experience in fixing structures inside large organizations. Third, she

had no interest in undertaking the types of investments that would be required to enable the type

of innovation critical to any success at Yahoo! Finally, Ms Mayer made a critical mistake in not

engaging employees; especially talented employees who could have provided an informed

outside perspective on why they were leaving and what could be done to reverse the exodus.

The Effects of Organisational Structure, Management, and Culture

Yahoo once ranked among the top brands in the world. Yahoo's founders had a bold and

innovative vision that would revolutionize the way people communicate and connect. But Yahoo

failed to innovate or navigate disruptive change. Yahoo’s culture remained stubbornly

unchanged over the last decade. With inaction from CEO Marissa Mayer, lack of

communication, and a volatile atmosphere within the HQ office (Daft, 2014) it is easy to

understand why employees were despondent about their situation and ultimately this led to its

failure.

Recommendations
1. A new and intense vision is needed for Yahoo as a company and they need to define their

services with concrete ideas that are profitable

Comparative Case Study 8

2. A fresh perspective is needed at Yahoo to support the organization's ability to adapt to the

constantly evolving tech industry.

3. They should hire people with good skills and try to facilitate a healthy and more inclusive

work environment.

4. To maintain a comfortable communication attitude within the company, there should be a

broad knowledge of all employees.

5. The hierarchy needs to be revised in yahoo and people should be appointed according to

their skills, knowledge and experience.

Conclusion
Google evolved with time and integrated new technologies and features that catered to a

wide range of consumers all around the world. The company was a success story. On the other

hand, Yahoo failed to understand what people wanted and could not keep up with the changing

trends. This led to the failure of the company.

Comparative Case Study 9

References
Aufa, A. N. (2018). Critical Analysis of a Technology-Based Enterprise: A Case Study of Yahoo!. TIJAB

(The International Journal of Applied Business), 2(1), 39-49.

Daft, R. L. (2014). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.

Davenport, B. (2014). From A to Google: How technology is impacting information and leadership.

Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(2), 41-45.

Davidson, C. N., across America, A., Brin, S., & Page, L. (2017). The surprising thing Google learned

about its employees—and what it means for today’s students. The Washington Post, 20.

Joiner, B. (2019). Leadership agility for organizational agility. Journal of Creating Value, 5(2), 139-149.

Levy, S. (2021). In the plex: How Google thinks, works, and shapes our lives. Simon & Schuster.

Tran, S. K. (2017). GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management. International Journal of

Corporate Social Responsibility, 2(1), 1-14.

Trautman, L. J., & Ormerod, P. C. (2016). Corporate directors' and officers' cybersecurity standard of

care: The Yahoo data breach. Am. UL Rev., 66, 1231.

Umut, U. Y. A. N. (2020). CREATING A SHARED MEANING TOWARDS ORGANIZATIONAL

CHANGE INITIATIVES: YAHOO CASE STUDY. Çukurova Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü

Dergisi, 29(4), 423-442.