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Section One: Problem Statement
When exploring the dimensions of business management in the present decade, there may be many names and events coming up, but perhaps there are only a few to surpass the criticisms received and are being received by Twitter. From the external issues of hate speech, data manipulation, online harassment, and online abuse of different sorts, Twitter has also been criticized for its toxic workplace culture. In Washington Post, Oremus (2022) states – “Its ill-fated foray into adult content is emblematic of an unpoliceable platform — and a broken business model”, referring to the failing change management initiatives of Twitter. The problems faced by Twitter began early in this decade with a series of negative media publications and a ‘federal whistleblower complaint’, to the most recent ownership transfer to Elon Musk, which has forced its leadership problem to surface in a form that is no longer deniable or ignorable (Baine, 2022; Oremus, 2022). The problems faced by Twitter today are linked to the gap between the applied business model and the freewheeling platform characteristics it uses.
Twitter, Inc. was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (Britannica, 2019). By 2007, the app began to be promoted heavily by the tech community in the US (Vanian, 2022). In 2008, Dorsey was replaced by Williams as the CEO, on concerns related to his applied management style and the heavy public boasting (Vanian, 2022). Twitter gradually became a sensation in the mainstream, eventually becoming a platform that gave voice to many social reform protests (Britannica, 2019). By 2013, the organization was listed publicly, following which the user growth became slower in 2014, subsequently causing the decline of the stocks as well as analyst downgrades (Vanian, 2022). Competitive disadvantages also affected the company’s positioning in the industry, forcing Dorsey to return as the CEO (Vanian, 2022). In 2016, the platform came under fire for lacking any verifiable measure to ensure the credibility of the information being shared (Vanian, 2022).
Timeline records of the management problems faced by Twitter can be traced back to November 2021 when Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as the CEO of the organization after facing increasing pressure from activist shareholders (Vynck et al., 2022). He was succeeded by Parag Agrawal, who initiated certain reorganization measures to introduce positive changes and bridge the gaps within the applied business model (Vynck et al., 2022). However, the leadership approach taken by Parag Agrawal was disrupted by the sudden takeover of the organization by Elon Musk (Vynck et al., 2022). Halfway to the takeover, Musk had also recorded his willingness to terminate his bid of $44 billion on the grounds of non-disclosure but was forced to complete the purchase due to the high possibility of a legal battle (Vynck et al., 2022). Apart from the confusion caused by Musk’s hasty decision to take over Twitter, the organization was already facing problems in its external business environment with advertisers leaving the platform in mass with concerns regarding the potential content moderation policies to be introduced by the organization under the new leadership.
Furthermore, the paid verification system introduced on the platform allowed many parody accounts to advertise false statements and negatively portray the brand image of particular companies, such as Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company (Pintado, 2022). These issues and other associated worries regarding the uncertainty of Twitter’s future under Musk’s leadership have motivated almost 50% of its advertisers to abandon the platform (Pintado, 2022). Correspondingly, Musk’s decision to lay off the majority of its employees globally has also contributed to its problems, by weakening the morale and enthusiasm of teams in its marketing, engineering, product, trust and safety, and legal divisions. In addition to mass lay-offs, Musk has also instructed Twitter’s internal strategic teams to identify ways to save up to $1bn for its annual infrastructure costs (Paul, 2022). Laying off of employees globally and the aggressive measures being taken by Musk to reduce operational costs at the organization comes at a time when the organization is recording a steep decline in its revenue (Paul, 2022). These strategies indicate Musk’s intent to create a financial pool for the organization that would substantiate his mistake of purchasing Twitter at $44 billion, which was much higher than what the organization was valued at (Paul, 2022). The key problems identified by Twitter include change management complications, accompanied by leadership failures and gaps in the business goals.
Section Two: Literature Review
In the digital age today, change is widely regarded as the only constant. As organizations struggle to cope with the rapidly changing business environment, change management has evolved as a distinguished practice of the modern business management process (Jones et al., 2019). Although change management is a common practice today, more than 70% of the businesses using the tactic tend to fail, according to a range of academic and practitioner research works (Jones et al., 2019). According to Jones et al (2019), most change management initiatives fail because the leadership approaches used lack flexibility to adjust to the unique business features and specific environmental demands, internally as well as externally that directly influence the businesses’ value propositions. It is this requirement for flexibility that necessitates the integration of emotional intelligence into leadership practices, as was suggested by Issah (2018). Socially and emotionally skilled organizational leaders exhibit the qualities of self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation, which are then used by them to build and maintain relationships across the business model (Issah, 2018). Issah (2018) identified five specific components as the drivers of the successful integration of emotional intelligence in change processes to achieve success, which include self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Self-awareness, in this context, refers to the ability of the leader to understand the modes, drives, and emotions, as well as the impacts of the decisions taken on others, based on the elements of self-confidence, realistic self-assessment, and a sense of humor (Issah, 2018). Self-regulation subsequently refers to the ability of the leaders to control and/or redirect impulses that might be disruptive to the business and therefore, have the skill to function with integrity and trustworthiness, while also being comfortable with ambiguity (Issah, 2018). Self-motivation is when the organization leader has a passion to be effective and successful for an objective that is beyond financial or status gains (Issah, 2018; Ugoani, 2017). Self-motivation thus offers leaders a strong drive to prove their merits and retain organizational commitment as they display a high propensity to pursue their determined goals with persistent energy (Issah, 2018; Mazyck, 2008). The fourth quality identified by Issah (2018) was the ability of leaders to understand and relate to the emotional construct of others. This enables the leaders to treat people as per their emotional construct to avoid creating any negative perception but instead focus on positive impacts and a higher value proposition (Ugoani, 2017). In the present context, the most powerful virtue of empathy is cross-cultural sensitivity. Leaders also need to possess social skills to ensure success in change management, which implies their proficiency to effectively manage relationships and find common grounds to build networks (Issah, 2018). This allows the leaders to manage change with greater effectiveness by persuading, building, and leading the organizational teams (Issah, 2018).
Section Three: Case Elements
Since the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, the organization has been dwindling in uncertainty even more than it was under the leadership of the previous CEO, Jack Dorsey. The change was an imminent requirement for the organization, ever since it was promoted from a casual social platform to a prominent free-speech platform that was used extensively for political causes. The subsequent rise in moral and ethical complexities negatively portrays the role of the social media organizations to ensure the authenticity of information shared via the platform. The increasing pressure from the groups of activist stakeholders forced the organization to consider a change in its leadership approach and renovation of its business model. Therefore, after Dorsey was replaced by Agrawal in 2021 as Twitter’s CEO, Musk’s proposition to purchase the organization for $44 billion, a value that substantially exceeded a higher rate than its actual valuation seemed lucrative for the shareholders. However, as his proposition was accepted and procedures of ownership change were being executed, Musk realized his mistake which caused a substantial increase in his financial liability, especially as Twitter recorded a decline in its revenue. This reflects the impulsive decision-making quality adopted by Musk that can further be denoted as a depiction of poor self-regulation, and hence, is attributable to a quality that negatively affected his change initiative.
Musk then decided to immediately take measures to reduce the cost burden of the organization and increase its productivity, which was a rational decision considering the financial challenges he faced as an entrepreneur and those faced by Twitter. However, Musk’s decision to lay off workers in masses, especially from markets that provided extremely low-cost labor, such as India, created confusion, dissatisfaction, and distrust within the workforce, further inhibiting the organization’s ability to prosper. In addition, the policy changes implemented by Musk to use a paid verification system diminished the reliability of the information being shared via the social media platform, which forced the advertisers to exit. This problem can be linked to the lack of empathy and social skill displayed by Musk in his leadership approach to building and preserving a healthy relationship with the advertisers and the working teams at the same time. Arguably, a substantial proportion of Twitter’s revenue is sourced from advertisers and data licensing (Perez, 2022), while employees are fundamental assets that directly contribute to its productivity. The resulting chaos within the workplace culture at Twitter is likely to have a long-term impact on the organization, that is, under the assumption that it succeeds to overcome the present hurdles and turnaround.
As recommendations for Twitter, Musk must focus on prioritizing his objectives for the organization, fully accepting his ownership of the social media platform. He also needs to adopt an effective communication strategy that would display a greater level of empathy towards his advertisers and employees, clearly affirming his reasons for the layoff and sympathizing with those losing their jobs. It is also essential that he rethinks his position in the organization as the leader while emphasizing the impacts of his decisions on others. This will help him become more self-aware and find the motivation to achieve a greater value proposition. Maintaining transparency throughout the change practice is also a crucial element that Musk must integrate into his change management initiative for Twitter.
References
Baine, D. (2022). Twitter Facing Dire Problems On Multiple Fronts. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/derekbaine/2022/11/11/twitter-facing-dire-problems-on-multiple-fronts/?sh=42d2d4c31ebe
Britannica. (2019). Twitter | History, Description, & Uses. In Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter
Jones, J., Firth, J., Hannibal, C., & Ogunseyin, M. (2019). Factors Contributing to Organizational Change Success or Failure: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis of 200 Reflective Case Studies. IGI Global, 155–178. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-6155-2.ch008
Mazyck, D. (2008). What Makes a Leader? NASNewsletter, 23(6), 188–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602x08324904
Oremus, W. (2022). Analysis | The problem behind all of Twitter’s other problems. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/30/twitter-onlyfans-musk-problems/
Paul, K. (2022). Twitter layoffs raise questions about future of infrastructure and moderation. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/04/twitter-layoffs-misinformation-moderation
Perez, S. (2022). Twitter Blue’s troubles: Twitter’s app has only generated $6.4M in consumer spending to date. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/31/twitter-blues-troubles-twitters-app-has-only-generated-6-4m-in-consumer-spending-to-date/
Pintado, A. P. (2022). Half of Twitter’s top advertisers have left the platform since Elon Musk’s takeover, report says. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/11/28/twitter-loses-advertisers-after-elon-musk/10790189002/
Ugoani, J. N. N. (2017). Emotional intelligence and successful change management in the Nigerian banking industry. Independent Journal of Management & Production, 8(2), 335. https://doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v8i2.550
Vanian, J. (2022). Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk — here’s a brief history from the app’s founding in 2006 to the present. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/29/a-brief-history-of-twitter-from-its-founding-in-2006-to-musk-takeover.html
Vynck, G. D., Siddiqui, F., & Lerman, R. (2022). Elon Musk files to back out of Twitter deal. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/08/musk-deal-sec/
