JEFF’S BEZOS LEADERSHIP STYLE

By Eirini Tougli

Human Resource Management

Professor Penny Vlagou

New York college

January 21, 2020

roles. Individuals can play the role of a leader and at the same time a follower, depending on their

circumstances, their interest and their experience. Although there is widespread agreement that leadership and

management skills are necessary for change there is some confusion about where leadership begins and where

management ends.

Businesses believe that leadership skills bring valuable assets to their operation consequently development and

revenue. Therefore, businesses around the world invest in the subject of leadership training and development.

However, leadership is a way by which an individual influences the behaviour, thoughts, and attitudes of other

induvial. As Spillane and Healey (2010) explained, leaders set a direction for their team; they assist them to see

ahead or visualize what they could accomplish and inspire the society. Overall, leadership is the capability to

influence other people to do something important that they might not otherwise do. Thus, it motivates

individuals keeping them committed to the organization’s goals. However, a survey proves the fact that when

teams are more committed , the organizations tend to increase 21% percent their profits and employees

increase up to 34% percent their performance. (Forbes.com, 2020).

The present paper seeks to identify the leadership style of entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. Specifically, it will examine

the leadership style adopted by Jeff Bezos and will compare Bezos’ leadership style with theories and concepts

about leadership. This essay will also examine the organizational culture that Jeff Bezos has embedded in the

company as well as the role of personality as a leader in public opinion. This essay aims to analyze Jeff Bezos'

leadership and appeal conclusions that can be examined from the analysis.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, an e-commerce company, from his garage in Seattle. Today, the

entrepreneur remains the CEO of Amazon and holds almost 12% of the company. Amazon can be considered

mainly as a customer-focused international company, and Bezos is recognized with setting the standard by how

buyers across the world view e-commerce shopping. Moreover, Jeff Bezos is known as a respected leader who

creates value and profitability since Amazon has seen remarkable progress under his leadership. The
entrepreneur also has characterized as a visionary and charismatic leader because of his innovative character

and forward-thinking (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider, 2015).

The Role of Leader’s Style

Contemporary Trait Theory

Contemporary trait theories such as the Big Five personality trait model (Figure 1) can be used to estimate

Bezos's personality. In terms of neuroticism, Jeff Bezos displays strong emotional stability. As entrepreneur, is

willing to take risks and accept failure. Through his active business attitude and passion for continuous

innovation, Bezos shows his extraversion. However, Bezos is openness to new experiences and thi is displayed

by his appreciation for creative concepts and ideas. Specifically, Bezos desires the company's successes and

achievements and is always looking for new opportunities. In addition, Bezos's conscientiousness can be

demonstrated through his organized nature and his work ethic.Nevertheless, Bezos demands to focus his

attention to the completion of tasks and detail (Indradevi, 2016).

Figure 1: Personality Model

(credibility and achievement) are traits that are closely linked to leadership. Individuals who are dominant and

social are more likely to join groups. The main trait that leaders need to possess is extraversion, which seems to

fit into the leadership style that Bezos follows.

Transformational leadership

Transformational leaders aim to motivate and encourage their followers to develop and enhance their abilities,

improving their performance and ensuring that employees are following the mindset of the mutual values,

beliefs, and principles that the business has created (Rafferty and Griffin, 2004). However, Bezos follows this

leadership style and influences his followers to increase their awareness of the desiresd organization’s outcomes

(Thamrin, 2012). As a result, Bezos has as first priority the high engagement of employees with organization’s

achievement, rather than their well-being. The high expectations of employees completing their tasks and his

obsessive attitude of satisfying the consumers can characterize him as a micro-manager (Wikins, 2014).

Nevertheless, Bezos is considered a transformational leader and he encourages his personnel to develop

creative solutions and new ideas for the subjects regarding the company (Dyer and Gregersen, 2013). The

entrepreneur believes that it is significant his employees have active participation in ideas as Bezos considers

that openness to experimentation could be competitive advantage leading to innovation.

Bezos's main goal is to innovate. He ranked in 2019 as the number one American most innovative leader,

increasing the sales 21.11 % percent, the last twelve months (Forbes.com, 2020). When Amazon was only

selling books, he started a new idea related to the book reviews that customers purchased. This innovative idea

had a positive response from the consumer audience but not from publishers. Specifically, one of the publishers

suggested publishing only positive reviews as this would increase the company's sales. Bezos thought of the

proposal but decided to continue publishing all the comments, as his aim was not to increase sales but to allow

the potential consumer to know what they are going to purchase (Jeff Bezos,2018) . This example indicates that

Bezos is a leader who takes initiatives and presents new and innovative ideas. Wikins (2014) explained that
transformational leaders can effectively motivate critical thinking and encourage individuals to take initiatives

and present new ideas. Moreover, Jeff Bezos strongly believes that “disagree and commit” are effective ways of

saving time and guaranteeing that employees come to a mutual agreement when a decision has been finalized

(Baer, 2013).

Reflection on Jeff Bezos’ leadership

Jeff Bezos have been characterized by several media as a passionate, enthusiastic and visionary personality.

The public opinion that has built around the entrepreneur states that Bezos is a charismatic and revolutionary

innovative entrepreneur who changed the business environment of e-commerce (Rosenbaum, 2014). Although

Bezos can be described as a transformational leader, the entrepreneur is not only the leadership style that he

follows. Bezos is a respected businessman in his field, but he is not only distinguished for his business

excellence . Specifically, at the ITUC World Congress 2014 in Berlin, Bezos was awarded as the world's worst

employer due to the inappropriate work conditions in Amazon warehouses and the tough working

environment. Amazon was ranked 2nd among Fortune 500 companies for having the highest employees’

turnover rates (Baer, 2013). Numerous fired employees of Amazon have shared their bad experience and the

high expectations that Bezos demands in Amazon workplace (Stone, 2015).

As a result, Bezos does not demonstrate concern for the well-being of his employees and only focus on short-

term goals that Amazon needs to accomplish. This unhealthy work environment creates a toxic leadership and

leads to decreased job satisfaction and distress (Indradevi, 2016). Since he gives great importance to customer

priority and expects employees to perform their duties, Bezos' leadership style is not completely

transformational. For instance, Transformational leaders do not lose respect and trust with their employees,

reducing their capabilities or ignoring their complaints by creating an unfriendly working environment.

Jeff Bezos applies a transactional and authoritarian approach to his management style. Bezos’ leadership style

can be described as micromanaging to his employees since he expects them to meet high expectations and goals

hat he sets for the firm (Stone 2013). However, Transactional leaders encourage their groups to achieve short-
term operational goals and make use of position and coercive or reward power (punish or reward, in

dependence the circumstances ) to enhance his employees’ performance (Caillier, & Sa, 2017). Bezos hates

mediocrity and always promote and struggle for the perfection and excellence, codifying ideas about the ideal

workplace.

Jeff Bezos is commitment personally and professionally with priorities and results of Amazon. However, I.

Believe that Bezos's leadership style tends to need compliance in the way that he make use of his power and

deals with his employees. Bezos is a dominant person that tend to impose his ideas to employees, in order to

adopt his working mindset . Therefore, Bezos could be characterized as task-oriented, since he prioritizes the

fact that his employees always should meet customers’ needs and follows these leadership principles in the

company. According to stone, Amazon operated a system of ranking employees’ monthly performance and

fired those who had the lowest-ranked scores. Even if there is a case of sickness or grieving, Bezos does not

take it into considerations and does not show any empathy. (Hughes, 2014). Bezos has established a corporate

culture that focus on high performance, innovation, excellence and perfection, which leads to a toxic

workplace (Stone, 2013).

Conclusion

All things considered, Jeff’s Bezos style of leadership can be presented in different approaches, depending on

how the effective leadership can be comprehended. Nevertheless, Bezos’ leadership style has challenged and

ranked Amazon as one of the most recognizable enterprises around the world. However, the negative traits that

Bezos had showed through his leadership has not affects Amazon's outcome, but harms employee's feelings and

well-being. Although, the entrepreneur is a visionary leader, he is so customer-focused that he is unable to

accept the limitations of his employees. Hence,Bezos should be more empathy to his human capital and invest

more in relationship between employer and employee, because that will lead to the effective followership and

consequently to better results. He should also understand that his pressure about high stadart and expectations

can lead to an unfair culture in the working environment. As a result, it would be advisable for Bezos to adopt a
more empathy leadership style, in combination with good practices, making Amazon a more positive and

flexible workplace.
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