Question 1 - Business

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Google's CEO Sundar Pichai has allowed staff to work from home to absorb the "difficult news" about the company's planned layoffs. Pichai sent a memo to staff on Friday morning to say that the tech giant is laying off around 12,000 employees, roughly 6% of its global workforce. "Please take good care of yourselves as you absorb this difficult news," Pichai said. As part of that, if you are just starting your work day, please feel free to work from home today.

Pichai said that the layoffs affected all areas, with jobs being lost in both the US and outside. "The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here," he wrote. The company is providing support to staff in the form of a 16-week severance package, full pay during the 60-day notification period, and six months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support.

Google joins several big tech companies in laying off thousands of staff amid worsening economic conditions. Meta announced plans to lay off 11,000 employees in November, Twitter cut 50% of its roughly 8,000 staff in the same month, and Microsoft said it's laying off 10,000 employees earlier this week.

In contrast to Pichai, when Elon Musk laid off half of Twitter's workforce in November, many staff found out they had lost their jobs because they were cut off from work programs and communication platforms. Musk also never apologized or offered a concrete reason as to why the layoffs were happening. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, however, did apologize for laying off staff saying the company hired too aggressively during the pandemic, and offered 16 weeks of severance.

QUESTION 1.5 Discuss why an organisation like Google must manage information to sustain its competitive advantage.

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The key to establishing a sustainable competitive advantage is not in having faster computers, more memory or more capacity but in using and managing information technology to continuously improve and support the core business and functions of the organisation.

• Competitive advantage can be defined as the ability of an organisation to provide greater value to customers than its competitors.
• A sustainable competitive advantage occurs when other organisations tried unsuccessfully to duplicate an organisations competitive advantage.
• In an ever-changing environment, information is as important as capital for the sustainable success, competitive advantage and long- term survival of the organisation.
• It takes capital, entrepreneurial skills, information and various other resources to start an organisation, but the organisation will not be able to survive and grow without information.

QUESTION 1.6 Assess the relevance of the contingency approach to leadership at Google.

QUESTION 1.7 Within the context of the article, recommend how management can apply the Herzbergs two-factor motivation theory at Twitter. Justify your recommendations.

below will assist with your answer, additional research may be needed

MANAGING INFORMATION FOR SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE - In general, organisations need to address three questions in order to sustain a competitive advantage through information technology: First, does the use of information technology create value for the organisation by lowering costs or providing a better product or service? Should the use of information technology not add value to the organisation, then investing in it would put the organisation in a competitive disadvantage relative to organisations that choose information technologies that will add value. Second, is the information technology the same or different across competing organisations? If all organisations have access to the same information technology and make use of it in the same way, then no organisation will have an advantage over another. Third, is it difficult for another organisation to create or acquire the information technology used by the organisation? If so, the organisation has succeeded in establishing sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors through the management of information technology. If not, the competitive advantage will only be temporary. CONTINGENCY/SITUATIONAL APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP Predicting leadership success is more complex than examining the traits and behaviours of successful leaders. Instead of trying to find one best style of leadership, focus should be on the most effective leadership style for any given situation/context. The situational/contingency variables may include the nature of the work performed by the leaders' unit, the nature of the external environment, and the characteristics of followers. Contingency approach research focuses on aspects pertaining to a situation that could enhance the relationship of specific leader behaviours to leadership effectiveness. HF