6MG001 Organisation Behaviour Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: 6MG001 Organisation Behaviour Assignment Sample
Executive summary
The company Amazon has grown as a multinational organization which controls online retail and also provides web services to few best brands of the world. The American multinational technology company, Amazon.com, Inc., concentrates on cloud computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, digital streaming, etc. The company has been referred to as the most influential economic and cultural forces of the world and also the world’s most valuable brand which has revenue of 386 billion USD as per 2020. The company was established on 5th July of 1994 in Bellevue, Washington, USA. And now it has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, USA (Solanki,2019).
The case study which is being analyzed and is written by Adler Bell (2019), concentrates on the workers perspective of working in the culture of Amazon (Logic Magazine,2022). This essay also examines the problems that have been raised considering the organizational behavior of Amazon, application of proper and correct academic theories and concepts for the better understanding of the cooperation between employers and employees and also to create solutions for their recognized problems.
In this assignment, the discussed case study concentrates on the way in which the employees of Amazon are treated and brings out the negative portion of Amazon in this area (Logic Magazine,2022). The author of this assignment analyzes the case study around the three main themes- organization culture, employee engagement and conflict management and assesses areas where these problems emerge from using some of the main theories of academia and constructs around those areas (Logic Magazine,2022). From this analysis, recommendations for improving the situation from the perspectives of employers and employees have been made.
Findings
From the case study it can be seen that the company Amazon suffers from various issues that not only harm their production but also the work culture, employer employee relationship (Logic Magazine,2022).
Organization culture
There are a number of issues regarding the organization culture of Amazon that can be seen from the case study (Logic Magazine,2022). One of the most common problems is the immense performance pressure that employees get. In recent days it’s been a belief that the workplace should be encouraging and nurturing and the manager should be friendly and nice and treat their employees like family and friends, but one the other hand, the workplace of Amazon is pushy, bruising and combative rather than say and so the behavior of the managers and employers.
Amazon includes a culture that is very intense and it creates not only emotional but also physical pressure on the employees (Denning,2019). The founder of Amazon constantly opposes the one size fits all culture for decision making, rather they put pressure for constant changes and innovation in the work culture. Also, Amazon is known to be the most customer centric company that makes it merciless to its competitors and employees. The management system of Amazon is also insensitive to their employees when they need support as can be seen from the case study (Kartolo and Kwantes,2019).
Employee engagement
As the case study has highlighted the great employee engagement problem of Amazon which is very common in the business world (Logic Magazine,2022). The upper management of the company lacks a clear and brief employee engagement strategy (Kim and Scott,2019). On the other hand, from the case study it can be seen that they have taken their employees for granted and so their customers (Logic Magazine,2022). This is really leaving a very bad impression on the employee engagement system of the company.
Taking the employees and even the customers are the biggest scandals that a multinational company can do. Hence, to avoid the scams, the executives should set examples through making and then sharing their employment strategy with the public and employees alike. To become successful the company should have measurable goals, objectives, transparency as the priority and the management should be held accountable. Another failure of Amazon in employee engagement is lack of training and onboarding for new employees. Even after hiring the employees they are straight thrown into work without a little guidance. The company needs to listen to its employees to enhance the workforce of the company and improve the employee engagement.
Motivation
The main issue that Amazon faces regarding its motivation is the abundant choices available to the company. Sometimes many choices available to the company can overwhelm it. This leads to the exhausting of both the employers and employees and hence it affects the company badly (Kaveti and Akbar,2020). And the employees in the work culture of Amazon are constantly pressurized and treated badly which obviously turn them demotivated enough to leave the work even.
It has been seen that very rare employees have worked for more than 6 months in the company and who have continued to work only because of their packages and benefits (Wang et al.,2019). Lack of clarity is another important reason for the lack of motivation in the work environment of the company. Employees need to be clarified about their roles and responsibilities in the company which will motivate them to work in the environment and will also make the work easier for them. Exhaustion of the employees is the biggest reason which is responsible for the lack of motivation.
Teamwork
Here again, another great problem of the Amazon company is that they lack the spirit of teamwork which is really responsible for the negative work environment and getting difficulties always whenever they try to start over a new project. When a work environment lacks the spirit of teamwork, the working gets very difficult there. The employers are subjected to a lot of criticism and they often put on performance review after a cancer or miscarriage. Workers also have been found to cry on their desk because of the sabotaging of other employees.
There is lots of conflict in the team always and it’s only because of the mismanagement and demotivation for the employees to work in a team. Employees are always kept in competition which leads them to not work in a team and find a way for the betterment of individual performance. Hence the lack of teamwork always affects a project of the company and its customers also. In Amazon, performance management is very necessary to influence the teamwork in the company.
Ethics
As many other issues, Amazon suffers from ethical issues in their organizational environment and culture. From the case study it can be seen that Amazon is one of those companies that make their profit maximization strategy by avoiding taxes at different levels (Logic Magazine,2022). This is totally unethical and the company can be sued at the worst level for these unethical performances. It also leaves a bad effect on other organizations that think that taxes should be paid. Amazon is known to be a serial tax avoider. In the US also, Amazon avoids all the federal income taxes.
Amazon is also very expert in playing state and local governments against each other. And this unethical behavior affects the employees who also indulge in unethical activities inside the organization and the examples can be seen in the case study (Logic Magazine,2022). Another unethical movement of Amazon is warehouse abuses (Classen,2019). The fulfilment of centre wages of Amazon are much lower than the average wages for warehouse employees elsewhere. Though in 2018 Amazon has announced to raise wages for warehouse workers but still many problems have been left. Many reports have shown that employees have been pushed to meet very high targets and are subjected to strict breaks and a vulnerable work environment.
Leadership
The main problem of the work environment of Amazon is in its inefficient leadership problem. Bezos’ performance as a leader has left many gaps in the work culture of Amazon that has led to bad work culture and ethics in the company. Even Amazon has been subjected to state and federal antitrust investigations. In a charge, Amazon has been accused of using its access to data from the third-party sellers to get unfair benefits over them.
Also, it has been seen that the workers are constantly put under pressure which is really another big problem for leadership which affects the roles and responsibilities and working ethics of the employees also. The leaders treat its warehouse workers with so much pressure. The picking of technicians by Bezos is really showing the bad effects Amazon is getting in its business. Jeff Bezos should give importance to AWS which will be the reason for ultimate success in Amazon. Amazon is also facing many threats from the big retailer which indicates the weak and inefficient leadership problem.
Conflict management
Another issue of Amazon’s organizational culture is their weak conflict management. In recent weeks, there has been a heated discussion about whether the employees of Amazon urinate in their bottles as they never get time to go to the washroom. The inconvenient environment of the amazon’s office such as the disloyalty of some employees and unethical behavior of the employers and management group create much conflict in the company and the organization’s lack of sincerity to manage the conflicts make the situations more worse that harms the business in its profitability.
Definitely some healthy conflicts can benefit teamwork by creating a healthy competition between employees. But from the case study it can be seen that in the work environment of Amazon there are lots of bad conflicts that harm the relationship between employees and employers and between employees and employees and also the progressive nature of the team (Logic Magazine,2022).
Discussion
Some theoretical solutions to above discussed problems are highlighted below:
Organization culture
The organizational culture of Amazon is really not that in a good place which is not only harming the employee and employer relationship but also harming the business of the company and leaving negative effects on both customer’s mind and employees’ mind. Some recommendations are listed below which Amazon can implement to improve their work culture. Such as in Amazon there should be a proper vision for the new culture. There is lots of confusion and conflicts among the employees about the organizational culture of Amazon.
Hence, this new vision can be communicated with the employees through email or meetings, etc. This will help the employees to understand why this culture is important for the company’s future and will improve the organizational culture. Processes should be created that will support the organizational culture and it should be always monitored if that culture is sticking or not (Dhir,2019). There should be observation that the core elements of the culture are implanted across the whole organization.
Motivation
Amazon should always keep their employees motivated for a better and healthy work environment. The basic key element Amazon uses to keep their employees motivated is money, but not always this works. Amazon should recognize the work of their employees. Such as when an employee is working hard for a project and the commendation was done to the organization by clients, but none of them appreciate the employee. Hence this will demotivate the employee very much and that will be harmful for the company itself. Hence the works of employees should always be recognized and appreciated.
It plays an integral part in the organization’s success. For the working from home because of the current situation, the company can keep their employees motivated by building a community or collaborative work. The company must take up the health and wellness of the employees solemnly and engage them in different activities for their health. The wellness program of the company will benefit them and keep the employees healthy which will motivate them immensely.
Teamwork
Teamwork is very much needed for Amazon to get success in their business and maintain a healthy relationship amongst the work environment which will improve the progress of the company. To maintain a healthy teamwork environment in the work culture of Amazon, the company needs to set team goals and in this way all the team members will be able to share a different point of view from each other that will improve the quality of the projects.
All the team members should be allowed to brainstorm in a non-judgemental framework that holds the team’s direction and purpose. The team should be secure enough to take a risk not only as a team but also as an individual. Every team member should have the opportunity to use visuals for sharing and clarification of ideas in simple forms that will improve the teamwork of the company a lot. Using multiple channels for communication that will break down the barriers among the team and will lead to collaborative work.
Ethics
The unethical works and avoidance of taxes are really not expected from Amazon and it can lead to the organization’s unsuccess. Hence, the employer and leaders and managers of the Amazon company should be well aware of giving all kinds of taxes to all the governments such as state and local governments. This will portray the loyalty of Amazon and customers will be more attracted towards them.
Also, when the upper level of the company follows ethics, then the employees will already follow the ethical rules set by the company and this will create transparency in the work environment and culture of Amazon. The company should work hard to remove their name as the ‘tax avoider’ as this can leave a negative impact on its customers (Burnette et al.,2022).The company should set up a list of ethics that are needed to be followed by them and the employees will follow the ethical rules only when the employers and managers will follow ethics and behave in ethical ways.
Leadership
The leadership of the Amazon company is the main weak point that is discussed in the case study and only the improvement of the leadership will help the business to get success and develop their growth (Denning,2018). The company should pledge to put their customers as their first priority all the time and should earn their trust by time and process. The loyalty of the company towards their customers can only bring success for the both internal and external environment of the company (Solanki,2019).
The leaders of Amazon have many prejudices about their actions when it’s time for them to take leadership. The leaders need to think themselves as the owners of what they do, only then proper leadership attitude will come out and lead the team members. The leaders of Amazon should be creative enough for innovative ideas that will help them to find solutions to problems. The leaders also should have good instinct and judgement that will help to make efficient decisions for the company.
Conflict management
Amazon should take some actions for better conflict management and less conflict will create a healthy work environment. The company needs to accept the conflict that is going on in this organization. Conflicts are very natural and are an on-going process in every relationship and it is nearly impossible to avoid conflicts. Hence it is better to accept conflicts and then take actions to resolve them.
For the better conflict management of the company, the leaders and managers and conflict manager should listen actively to the problems of employees and also analysis of the conflict is important for resolving it quickly (Mestanza et al.,2018). Also, the person or the people should be separated from the problem which will help to stop the spreading of the conflict. Working together or in a team for any project will help to stop blaming the other person and the company should publish some rules and regulations for every employee which will help them to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
Conclusion
From the case study it can be seen that Amazon suffers from many problems that are responsible for the failure of its business and unethical works of employees and also the employers (Logic Magazine,2022). The organization culture of the company is the one that needs to be developed and improved for the benefits of the company’s success and also for the employees. From the case study it can be seen that the teamwork of Amazon is also very weak which is responsible for the conflicts in the company (Logic Magazine,2022).
There should be strict rules and regulations and policies for every one in the company who have done unethical work or are doing the same. The ethics of Amazon are not only weak but almost invisible to everyone in the company which leads to the various unethical working in different sectors of the company. Also, the case study pointed out that Amazon is known to be an unethical company for its various performances such as avoiding taxes, the unethical behavior of the employees towards their customers etc. (Logic Magazine,2022).
The case study mostly throws light on the issue of insensitive management in relation to their employees and it creates a stressful environment for the employees that demotivates them a lot and lack of praise of their work leaves them in doubt if the work is done well enough or not to meet the objectives (Logic Magazine,2022). And secondly Amazon is considered to be as the world’s most customer oriented company and merciless to its competitors. But the importance should also be shown to the employees also. Also, Amazon has huge disrespect regarding the employees’ work-life balance.
Recommendations
Organization culture
To improve their organizational culture, Amazon is needed to create a proper vision for a new culture that every employee and employer will follow. The new vision of the culture will help the new employees and also the existing employees to know about the culture of the organization in detail.
The company should adopt some effective support system that will help in the implementation of the new culture in an easier way. Moreover Amazon should monitor every step and situation if the new vision culture is being implemented and applied or not. This new vision can be distributed amongst the employees through meetings and emails and via this effective communication the employees will come to know the importance of the new vision of culture for the future of the company.
Motivation
To improve the motivation of the employees in the company, Amazon should recognize the good works of their employees and should be given appraisal and rewards for their performances (Wu,2019). The employees in Amazon though do their part of responsibilities well enough but never get recognition from either clients or from the employers. Hence, it should be implemented in the work culture of the organization to give recognition of the employees good work.
Such as when an employee is involved in a big project and has done excellent performance, then it is the responsibility of the company to recognize their good work and praise it and provide proper reward for their performance (Hyland et al.,2018). This activity will keep the employees motivated enough to perform good and innovative works. Recognition of their good performance and reward are very important to keep the employees motivated.
Teamwork
The teamwork of Amazon is really very weak and it needs to be developed for the sake of an effective work environment and reaching the objectives of the company. From the case study it can be seen that there is no collaborative work culture in Amazon and employees are often involved in conflicts that are never acceptable for a healthy and improving work culture (Logic Magazine,2022).
So, to improve teamwork, Amazon can set common goals for which the focus of the group will always remain on the final object and this will help them to forget about personal competition and to work as a team for the finishing of the projects. Also, open communication should be encouraged amongst the employees. The forthcoming of ideas will help in the success for the team. Two way communication of information should be established, so that everyone has the same and relevant information regarding a project.
Ethics
Amazon is known for its unethical behaviors and also their avoidance of every tax that has made a very bad impression on both the customers and also the governments. Firstly, the company should try to give all the income taxes to state and local governments that will help them to have the side of government at any problem and also this will gain the trust of customers (Dastin,2018).
Also, to improve the ethics both inside and outside of the company, Amazon can create a code of practice or ethical code that will help the employees to identify a set of values to guide them and engage with society or customers (Silva et al.,2018). To have a strong code of practice is really important for the company. But also, the code should be consistent to work well (Runyan,2018).
Leadership
Leadership is also a weak point of Amazon as can be seen from the case study and this weakness of Amazon in its leadership has led to the non-transparency in the work culture of the company (Logic Magazine,2022). To enhance the leadership of the company, Amazon should hire leaders who are goal oriented (Walton,2021). Instead of concentrating on the problem, an effective leader should direct attention towards the solution of the problem.
A leader should never complain about the issues which can leave negative impacts on the customers. They should focus on the objectives so that proper strategies can be created to achieve those desired objectives. Also, the leader should never play the blame game with their team members which is never an actual feature of a good leader. A good leader is needed to take responsibility for the actions and consequences of their teams (De SANTIS et al.,2018).
Conflict management
Conflict is also another great issue of the Amazon company as described in the case study (Logic Magazine,2022). To manage the conflict in Amazon, the upper level of the company and also the departmental managers should analyze the conflict first after hearing explanation from each side. It is important for the leaders to accept the conflict and find solutions to resolve it (Tou et al.,2019). Also, working together in a team is very helpful in resolving a conflict. So, as part of conflict management, accepting conflict and teamwork are very important. Everyone in the team should be committed to work together and listen to each other for the quick resolving of the conflict (Tebbutt et al.,2021).
References
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