Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to foreign media reports on May 23, Twitter boss Elon Musk's appointment of Linda Yaccarino as the company's chief executive is repeating the "glass cliff" model of putting women in leadership positions when the company faces a higher risk of failure. Although Ya Carino's challenge is great, success depends on Musk's willingness to let go.

In December, two months after buying social media platform Twitter, Musk launched a poll asking netizens whether he should resign as CEO. When 57.5% of people encouraged him to resign, Musk tweeted: "once I find someone stupid enough to take the job, I will resign as CEO! after that, I was only in charge of the software and server team."

Musk announced ten days ago that he had found someone stupid enough to take the helm of Twitter. For Yacarino, who used to be in charge of global advertising at NBC Global, being the chief executive of Twitter is a big step forward, expanding the number of female leaders in technology companies.

Although Yakarino is recognized as a talented person in the advertising industry, experts on gender dynamics in the workplace say she is likely to be a victim of the Glass Cliff model. This model describes that women tend to take the lead when an organization faces a higher risk of failure. When women break through the "glass ceiling" and are promoted to senior leadership positions, they find themselves on the edge of a cliff. This makes female leaders seem less likely to succeed because they usually take office during the most difficult times for the company.

Christy Glass, a sociologist at Utah State University who studies the phenomenon, said: "in some ways, I haven't seen anyone better define the concept of a glass cliff than the challenge posed by Musk."this seems to be the perfect storm for Twitter."

A classic example of the glass cliff in the technology industry in the past was the appointment of Google executive Marissa Mayer as chief executive of Yahoo in 2012, when Yahoo was rapidly losing out to Google and Facebook. Mayer eventually sold Yahoo to Verizon for $4.5 billion and resigned.

Musk's acquisition of Twitter has created textbook glass cliff conditions, and the platform has fallen into a downward spiral. In 2021, 90% of the company's revenue came from advertising, but now advertisers are fleeing Twitter, leading to a sharp drop in revenue.

Shortly after buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk began mass layoffs, including firing most of the company's content review and policy staff. Twitter reported a 40 per cent drop in revenue in December, two months after Mr Musk bought Twitter. Musk had planned to build a subscription business through a "blue V certification" paid service, but generated almost no revenue.

For any chief executive, these challenges are daunting. Alexander Haslam, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia, is one of the coauthors of the term "glass cliff". While there is no shortage of competent female leaders in many organizations, people tend to prefer male leaders until things become irreparable, he says. When a company is in trouble and wants to send a clear signal that a major change is under way, it is easy to choose a very different leader.

"you need to express as vividly and clearly as possible that the company is on a different track. The stronger the separation from the past, the clearer the signal," Haslam said. "so in this case, women or other minority members are often given priority."

Advertising is still Twitter's main source of revenue. Yakarino's background in advertising undoubtedly makes her a reasonable person to save the shaky business. But experts interviewed say one of the important reasons why women climb the dangerous glass cliff is that, despite their own competence, they often have few other opportunities for leadership positions.

The Athena Alliance (Athena Alliance) is an online organization for female business executives. "for many female executives, sometimes their first chance to get into a truly influential position is to turn around the whole department or company," says Coco Brown, chief executive.

Even if the risks are obvious, it may make it difficult for women to refuse to walk up the glass cliff. Glass of Utah State University says that while women are more likely to be appointed in times of crisis, they are also more likely to be blamed for the crisis itself and then replaced by male chief executives, a phenomenon researchers call the "messianic effect".

"female chief executives rarely get a second chance," Glass said. " For them, this is a double whammy: crisis appointments may be their only opportunity, and choosing to take these positions will put their future leadership careers at risk. "

But Glass says women are often best suited to help correct corporate mistakes. GM CEO Mary Barra pulled the company back from the brink of bankruptcy after the 2008 financial crisis. Anne Murach (Anne Mulachy) took over as chief executive when Xerox was in trouble and made the company profitable.

Sandra Quince, chief executive of Paradigm for Parity, an organisation dedicated to addressing corporate gender issues, believes that Ms Yakarino's success depends in part on how much time and freedom she has to turn things around. The support of the board and Mr Musk's willingness to really let go may be crucial.

Musk said that with Yakarino as CEO, he will become executive chairman of Twitter's board and chief technology officer. Musk is also chief executive of electric carmaker Tesla and space company SpaceX, where Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, oversees day-to-day operations.

"Yakarino needs the board to support her vision," Koons said. "she needs someone to provide cover for her. at a time like this, when you try to figure out the situation, no one is perfect and can make mistakes."

It is easy to see the appointment of Yakarino as a last resort when Twitter is on the verge of collapse. But Brown of the Athena League says Yakarino's courage is commendable whether he can save Twitter or not.

"We shouldn't say publicly that it's doomed to fail, but her decision is a chance to try heroism," Brown said. "in the eyes of most people, she will fail. But wouldn't it be cool if she could pull Twitter up?" If Yakarino can do that, it could be an unexpected reversal in Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

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