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Amazon: Problem, Analysis and Solution

Edgar Hernandez

South Texas College

ORGL-4352-V04-Capstone 1

Dr. Sandra Trevino

November 5, 2020
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Amazon: Problem, Analysis and Solution

Amazon is a widely known organization and is known for multiple things. When it comes

to retail organizations as big as Amazon, it is obvious that there are going to be multiple issues

within the company that consumers find out about. Once the consumers catch on to those

problems it becomes much harder for the organization, Amazon, to cover their tracks. Amazon's

strict environment is no secret so when one hears about issues within an organization that is

thoroughly run it worries consumers about how legit or how valuable their products really are.

Amazon has a very strict cutthroat culture. Employees are encouraged to criticize

each other harshly and this is why many employees quit or move to another company. There is

even a way for the Amazon employees to send their bosses these harsh criticisms which results

in them leaving. Amazon's environment is very difficult to work in and there have been many

employees’ complaints but they are not taken into consideration. Amazon leaders believe that if

leaders oppose each other they will be more creative and try to one-up the other. This seems like

an innocent belief on Amazon's side and maybe it was not meant to create the hostile

environment that it did but since it did create that environment it should stop. Amazon is not

wrong for having this mindset because yes, competition does provide motivation to do better at

your job but friendly competition does that. The type of competition that Amazon presents to its

employees is everything but friendly. They are harshly judging others' work and maybe they give

a few positive tips here and there.

Large organizations like to create competition between co-workers but when the

competition creates this type of environment in a large organization it becomes a toxic

workplace. The employees are forced to come to this harsh environment where they are not only

being mentally challenged but they are also being emotionally challenged. There are not many
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people that can take harsh criticism but those that can, can only take so much of it. Receiving

harsh criticisms every time one presents an idea can actually lead to the person feeling

incompetent. This was obviously not Amazon's intention but it is what happens on a daily basis.

The level of difficulty of being an Amazon employee is understandable, they need to keep their

reputation but making the work environment hostile on a daily basis is something completely

different than challenging your employees. When it comes to this hostile environment, there are

other issues that can arise from it. The employees are going to be at each other’s throats and the

criticisms will no longer be professional. The criticisms that are going to be given to one another

are going to be a lot more personal than they should be.

The problem with Amazon is that leaders are hard on followers to make change

happen and are spending too much time trying to make them the best. Amazon has a reputation

to keep up with and this is most likely one of the reasons for their hostile and strict environment

either way these challenges and harsh feedback should be given every now and then it should not

be a normality in the workplace. This is what is giving Amazon the harsh reputation that they

want to have but it is also driving off many qualified and experienced candidates. Therefore,

employees are used as machines, and there is no flexibility in the workplace. There needs to be

some sort of flexibility and some sort of creative freedom. There are so many other reasons that

the employees need to have some sort of creative freedom and it’s because without that creative

freedom they are forced to build off of others’ ideas rather than their own. Being that big of an

industry they need all of the creative freedom that they could get.

For this reason, many old employees are leaving with institutional knowledge. Previous

employees that worked for Amazon believed that they were fired unfairly for suffering from

cancer and women having miscarriages and other personal life issues that they were facing. This
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is one thing that Amazon needs to fix as soon as possible because everybody has issues even at

the most successful companies. Personal issues like miscarriages and cancer are not something

that one can just avoid or choose not to have because if it were the other way around then a lot of

people would be alive and there would be a lot of babies in the world today. These are not minor

inconveniences that the employees run into; they are life threatening situations that cannot be

avoided. There was a case where a woman was put on probation because Amazon claimed that

she was having some difficulties in her personal life and it was affecting her work goals. It was

said that she was being diagnosed with breast cancer. Cases like this are very difficult to deal

with and they are cases that many other industries would avoid but Amazon is basically asking

for the bad reputation. Amazon has a very big industry and the reputation that they build is going

to tarnish what they have taken so long to build. Amazon organizational communication is very

harsh and tough for an industry.

For Amazon to address its leadership challenge it will need both leaders and

followers exercising good leadership. What leaders in Amazon needs is trust. They need to trust

their employees. Amazon has this toxic and hostile environment because of their lack of trust in

their employees. The employees challenge the leaders and vice versa; there is no sense of order.

What is meant by order is that employees should not criticize their leaders if their leaders do not

ask for their opinions. This will create an environment where the leader respects his/her

employees and the employees respect their leader. By creating this order in the industry, the

employees will feel comfortable in asking for criticism and the severity of the criticism. The

leaders will also be able to relax and they will not be having to listen to those who are not as

qualified as them and they won't be driven out of the industry. Amazon is going to have so many

smart and reputable employees and from these employees’ creative ideas are going to flow and it
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is going to make the industry even better. Maybe they could apply friendly competition here and

there but every once in a while, and they should probably hold off on that for a while since they

did just get out of being at each other's throats constantly.

Amazon needs to build a new organizational culture which will make leaders rely on

every follower’s creativity rather than promoting unhealthy competition. This change is going to

be especially significant to all of the employees that stayed with Amazon because they are finally

going to see positive change in the workplace without having to worry about finding a new job.

If Amazon does change the organizational culture then they will not only repair the reputation of

their industry they are also going to repair the relationships between the leaders and those under

the leaders. The work environment in Amazon will be so much better if they were to actually

make these changes.

Amazon has a lot of changes to make and these changes can be very great for the

industry. Amazon's problems were addressed, analyzed and solutions were posed for the

problems that were found with the industry. It is obvious that not everything is going to get fixed

right away and maybe they never will. Amazon has a toxic environment along with a toxic leader

and employee relationships and nothing will ever get done right and fairly as long as Amazon

keeps this harsh competition going. They need to get rid of their ‘may the best survive’ policy so

that they could succeed.

References

Anderson, J. R., & Adams, A. W. (2016). Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for

Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results. New Jersey: John Wiley

& Sons, Inc.

Hartmans, A. (2017). 15 fascinating facts you probably didn't know about Amazon. Retrieved

from http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4/#amazon-

wasnt-the-companys-original-name-1

Schneider, L. (2018). Overview of Amazon.com's history and workplace culture. Retrieved from

https://www.thebalance.com/amazon-com-company-research-2071316

Seppala, E. & Cameron, K. (2015). Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More

Productive. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-

more-productive

Young, A. (2013). Amazon.com's Workers are low-paid, Overworked and Unhappy; Is this the

New Employee Model for the Internet Age?. Retrieved from

http://www.ibtimes.com/amazoncoms-workers-are-low-paid-overworked-unhappy-new-

employee-model-internet-age-1514780