SAN FRANCISCO ? Soon after joining Twitter in 2019, Dantley Davis gathered his staff in a conference
Question:
SAN FRANCISCO ? Soon after joining Twitter in 2019, Dantley Davis gathered his staff in a conference room at the company?s San Francisco headquarters. Twitter was too nice, he told the group, and he was there to change it.
Mr. Davis, the company?s new vice president of design, asked employees to go around the room, complimenting and critiquing one another. Tough criticism would help Twitter improve, he said. The barbs soon flew. Several attendees cried during the two-hour meeting, said three people who were there.
Mr. Davis, 43, has played a key role in a behind-the-scenes effort over the past two years to remake Twitter?s culture. The company had long been slow to build products, and under pressure from investors and users, executives landed on a diagnosis: Twitter?s collaborative environment had calcified, making workers reluctant to criticize one another. Mr. Davis, the company believed, was one of the answers to that problem.
The turmoil that followed revealed the trade-offs and conflicts that arise when companies attempt dramatic cultural shifts and put the onus on hard-nosed managers to make that change happen.
Mr. Davis repeatedly clashed with employees because of his blunt style. His treatment of workers was also the subject of several investigations by Twitter?s employee relations department, and of complaints to Jack Dorsey, the chief executive, that too many people were leaving.
?Identify the major problems at Twitter according to the case.
?What is the current state (problem state) and desired state (where we want to be).
?Apply Litwin?s Model of Planned Change or Kotter?s Eight Step Model to explain how we would go from current to desired state.
Read the Case study. Responses should be at a minimum 500 words.
Data Analysis and Decision Making
ISBN: 978-0538476126
4th edition
Authors: Christian Albright, Wayne Winston, Christopher Zappe