Comparisons and Contrasts of Yahoo and Google
Google and Yahoo are the most popular search engines in the world. They are always competing to provide various services to their target users. In recent years, they have started diversifying in the services they provide. The two sites can easily be distinguished once you access their pages. However, Google has been dominating for a long time. Worth noting is that Google thrives due to its simplicity format as compared to Yahoo, which is a complicated site to navigate. Yahoo has evolved from a search engine to a web portal that displays recent news, events, sports, and entertainment. Nevertheless, both businesses have similarities and differences, which are going to be analysed. To understand both businesses, the discussion is going to compare and contrast the leadership culture, organizational culture and structure, job design and motivation, and power and politics.
Organization Culture
Organizational culture is the systematic ways in which a business operates and is usually adopted through mutual experiences. The culture has a significant impact on the management and organization. Google is a successful company business wise. The organisational culture of Google is effective as the business is constantly evolving with the development of applications such as Picasa, Google Earth, Gmail, and Google Maps (Smithson 1). In addition, Google workforce has grown immensely from 500 to 50000 employees. Therefore, this clearly depicts Google as a successful company. During the initial stages of the business, it was regarded as disorganised and dynamic. The former employee described Google as disordered as many decisions were said to be made all at once (Smithson 1). This is evident when the former employee claimed that “Many, many discussions over the years have boiled over to achieve ‘centi-thread’ (or larger) status” (Wickre 1) However, this culture was unique and may have positively contributed to the growth of Google.
On the other hand, the organizational culture at Yahoo is quite different, as the business does not work towards improving the relationships within. This is evident due to the employee who claims, “Part of the problem is that the company has not made any real attempt to get a handle on their culture for some time” (Nilsen, 1). Concerning the above statement, it is clear that at Yahoo, people do not communicate well as they should. The CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Meyer failed to do the most important job of rebuilding the organisational culture. According to Nilsen, this is supported by a statement from an employee who claims that the CEO failed in her most important job of creating and sustaining a strong vibrant culture (1).
Organization Leadership
Successful and effective leadership contributes to positive and productive development. Google has greatly invested in good leadership, and this is the reason the company is always expanding. This is clear when the former employee stated, “even at its size, it is rare for Google to be home to compromised leadership” (Wickre 1). The statement clearly indicates that leadership at Google has been great all through.
The effective and good leadership at Google has allowed the development of a good working culture. In this setup, the employees are able to co-exist. According to David, the business has three main structures, allowing the business to grow and continue working (9). The three structures include:
- Function-based definition
- Product-based definition
- Flatness
These structures are the main pillars that make Google develop and be productive.
Nevertheless, the leadership at Yahoo is quite disappointing as compared to Google. The Yahoo business leaders are bureaucratic, especially due to an excerpt from journalists. This shows that performance does not count in Yahoo while determining the promotion threshold. In fact, going up the ranks is determined by the people in leadership positions who indicate the convenient person to be around Marissa Meyer (Nilsen 1). Moreover, the employees at Yahoo seemed to have no freedom of doing what they wanted, as it is clear when the worker said, “I was forced to give an employee an occasional miss.” The word “forced” as used in the statement depicts the Yahoo leadership in a bad picture.
Motivation and Job design
When it comes to employee motivation, Google is a leader in this aspect. It is clear, as stated in 2014 in Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work Institute that Google is the “Best Company to Work For” (Smithson 1). The motivation comes from within. In fact, the leadership and employees who work for Google are always intrinsically motivated. Some employees are usually motivated by what they earn while others get motivation by achieving what they are set to do and the will to complete a task. At Google, employees are encouraged to give suggestions of what they want to improve. This is clear when the former employee, states, “The Company is deservedly famous for encouraging employees to explore a wide range of ideas” (Wickre 1)
As compared to Google, Yahoo seems to lack motivation towards its employees. This is clearly demonstrated by the employee who says that Yahoo lacks consistency and the company is disappointing, which means that employees usually lose the will to work, hence low performance (Hackman and Oldham, 258). According to Nilsen, employees are extremely disappointed with Yahoo’s dismal financial performance (1). De-motivated employees mean that they will be less productive, leading to a low Yahoo ranking as compared to its competitor, Google.
By improving the working conditions, companies are able to motivate their employees. The conditions work better if there is a job design. The aspect of job design is effective as each employee is placed in his/her position based on the abilities. According to Oldham and Hackman, Google has a successful job design that has divided the company into several departments, which complement each other and ensures that there is a smooth running of activities (268). On the other hand, Yahoo is under-performing compared to Google due to its leadership system. However, in reference to Oldham and Hackman theories, it is fair to state that Yahoo job design is advanced and employees are assigned roles on basis of their ability.
Power and Politics
In reference to the above information about the two internet business giants, it is significant to discuss the powers they possess in terms of reputation, employability, and brand positioning. Google has built a strong reputation for itself, and it is trusted by many users. In addition, Google has been considered to give more accurate results compared to its competitor, Yahoo. Moreover, the employability rate on Google is higher than Yahoo. Google is a powerful business hub, thus the high number of employees. The Yahoo low employability rate is blamed on the poor organization and leadership culture in the organization (Shekhar 1). On brand positioning, Google is rated higher than Yahoo since it has many users given that it is the oldest search engine. The power of brand positioning by Google follows the theory of rewards, referent, coercive, and extent that influences people to work hard and smart. Although Yahoo has a reputation for having better privacy rules, and backlink reports, in terms of power, Google is still leading.
Google and Yahoo both have influence in the political arena. Given that, their customers use them for news and events. However, despite Yahoo being more of a web page with news, Google is more connected with a significant number of media that are great sources of political instances that take place all over the globe. According to Shekhar, politicians use the media to keep themselves up to date with what is happening in the political arena (1). Thus, given that Google has good reputation compared to that of Yahoo, most people use it to search for information.
From the discussion above, it is clear that despite Yahoo and Google seemingly being similar they have major differences, especially in their organisation culture and how they carry out their daily operations. The business and organizational structure at Google is based on better working condition and hence giving better results. On the other hand, Yahoo employees are frustrated and appear discouraged as if they are forced to do daily tasks. Additionally, the leadership structure at Google ensures that each employee feels as part of the organization, making them feel comfortable, and hence becoming more productive. From the discussion and evidence provided, Google is leading as the best company based on the job design, motivation, and employability aspects.