Change Management in Amazon: Leading and Managing Resources Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive case study of Amazon's change management initiatives, focusing on the company's transition from an online bookseller to a diversified e-commerce giant and its expansion into streaming services. It analyzes the challenges faced by Amazon, including employee resistance to change, managing quality, and addressing uncertainty during organizational shifts. The report highlights the crucial role of information technology, such as cloud computing, data analytics, and AI, in supporting these changes and achieving competitive advantages. It explores the issues related to change management, the impact of these changes on the company's mission, and the strategies employed to ensure smooth transitions, making it a valuable resource for understanding how Amazon has successfully managed its organizational resources and adapted to the evolving business landscape.

Leading and Managing
Organisational Resources

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
COMPANY'S SITUATIONS IN REGARDS TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT...........................1
Changes in Amazon....................................................................................................................1
Change management...................................................................................................................1
Situation of Amazon in 2015......................................................................................................2
ISSUES FACED BY COMPANY..................................................................................................3
Issues related to change management and contribution of information technology in managing
change.........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
.........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Their was a time when most of the company's were concerned about having proper
resources but now they have got a bigger and more important troubles i.e. management of
resources (Wehrmeyer, 2017). This assignment is based on case study of change management in
Amazon. Information technology supported them in making necessary modification in their
organisation. This file will discuss about past and present situation of mentioned enterprise. They
have coped up with various problems which ultimately forced them to bring changes in the
company. These issues will become significant part of this project.
COMPANY'S SITUATIONS IN REGARDS TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT
When Amazon started, they were only selling books through website. This corporation
gradually expanded their business and started selling more items through online mode. But after
several successful years of business, enterprise analyses they may face serious problem in
attaining their mission i.e. ''Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer-centric
company''.
Changes in Amazon
When an enterprise operates at small level then have limited sellers, customers,
developers and content creators. But when they enter in new market and start expanding their
operations that need of major change arises. This was a situation which Amazon was facing in
after year 2011-15. They were ready to enter in new market like India and planning to start
offering new products and services like Amazon music and Amazon video at the end of 2015.
Keeping their focus on their mission and vision was not an easy task for them in this period.
They knew that if they will not enter in more segment and countries then their competitors can
grab more market share and Amazon will fail to attain their mission (Evans, Dalkir and Bidian,
2015).
Change management
Every firm has to make necessary alternation in their organisation so they can gain
competitive advantages and survive in a highly competitive business environment. Change
management is systematic process of preparation and supporting employees and teams so they
can make an appropriate contribution in organisational change (Strategic Management:
Formulation and Implementation, 2014). In 2005, Amazon successfully used IT services for
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becoming leading player of e-commerce business. They invest huge amount of money in cloud
computing and crowdsourcing area. They started Amazon AWS and Amazon Mechanical Turk
in order to use IT services for growth of their business (Jain and Moreno, 2015). This company
was among the early players who started using latest technology for attaining their mission. Still,
they are controlling physical infrastructure of interest. Success of this effective change
management motivated them to bring more changes with time. Currently they are entering in
developing content relating to entertainment because they know that there is a huge scope in this
field and it is part of their long term planning. Entering in business of music and videos is new
for this organisation but they have enter in this industry as it is essential part of their long term
plans.
Situation of Amazon in 2015
When all the companies are focusing on getting attention of customer, Amazon was
concentrating on their main goal i.e. to attain loyal of customer and provide their high level of
customer satisfaction. This company was considered as leading corporation in e-commerce
business because they had many loyal customer. Repetitive purchase and high customer
satisfaction helped them achieving their mission. In 2015, this organisation was facing serious
competition from Alibaba and some local player of various countries like Flipkart of India.
Management of Amazon want to provide easy to use function, timely customer service and a
feature-rich content.
Attaining all of these objectives is not possible without updating technology which they
are currently using (Sparrow, Hird and Cooper, 2015). This organisation knew that Artificial
intelligence is the future of technology, they have to use it at the time of entering in new industry
like developing music and videos. They are not only entering in this new segment in domestic
reason i.e. USA. They have also started Amazon Prime, a video streaming service, in India. This
are on a mode of rapid expansion of business and this goal cannot be attained without using
latest information technology.
Amazon is known for introducing updated technology in their organisation. In present
situation, they may be entering in a completing new business, streaming of music and video, but
they are not leaving their basics i.e. they use of technology for doing business. Amazon has used
IT services for attaining competitive advantages on their competitors and this strategy helped
them in achieving desired growth. Every organisation have some factors which provide them
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extra edge on their competitors. Some have huge financial resource while other have quality
workforce.
As mentioned earlier, that Amazon started concentrating on streaming videos and music
in 2015, it was not easy for them (Renz and Herman, 2016). They have financial resources and
sound management for working in this field but developing and streaming quality content is a
different job. This organisation used AI for finding ''what kind of videos people like to see'',
''which music can go viral in no time'' etc. They were already using data analysis techniques in
past but AI is much better and future technology. Company started asking employees and
different team to get basic knowledge about it and prepare themselves work learn big and rapid
organisational change. Management of company sent a clear message that making modifications
is essential for running company successfully in long run so enterprise has to select a process
which assure smooth change in organisation.
ISSUES FACED BY COMPANY
Whenever an enterprise want to make alteration in their business they have to cope up
with various kind of difficult situations. Sometime employees resist for bringing changes in the
organisation because they have various kind of fear like unable to adjust in new position, fear of
uncertainty and spend extra time on getting additional training.
Issues related to change management and contribution of information technology in managing
change
Employee resistance
Human resource can be considered as the key asset of an organisation. At the time of
bringing modification in the company, employees generally do not support decision of
management because of various reason which are as follows:
Fear of uncertainty – Normally, human has a nature that they do not like change because
they feel that change will affect them in negative way (Omotayo, 2015). This nature stop them
for cooperating with manager and they do not agree with their terms of working. In case of
Amazon, company knew that employee may raise voice against entering in new segment because
they have to work on something which is very new to them and at the same time attaining
aggressive target is not an easy task. They assured workers that they will get support from the
latest technology which company is using like cloud computing, data analytics and AI.
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Employee knew that their workload have gone down in past because of the use of technology so
they did not even think about resisting change because they knew that technology will assist
them in managing this change. Technology may play crucial role in addressing the issue of fear
of uncertainty but it cannot bring employees employee on the same page as few may fail to get
desired amount of assistance from technology (Matthews, 2015).
Additional time for training – Another reason behind resistance from the side of
employees is because they are forced to give additional time i.e. time after working hours, in
order to get training for coping up with change. This is not a new problem and most of
multinational national firms like Ford has faced it in past. This issues can be resolved by using IT
facilities. If employee will get appropriate amount of support from the information technology
which is present in company then they may not have to spend any additional time in the office.
Employees of Amazon did not have to work hard at the time of making strategy for business of
streaming music and videos. Machine learning helped them in managing their workload and they
give fine training and learning without making much efforts.
Managing quality
Whenever a company enter in producing or selling goods & service in new segment then
their major issues which they face is related to managing quality. When Amazon launched their
video streaming website and mobile application (Amazon Prime) then employees was feeling the
pressure of performing well because this company is known for always fulfilling the
expectations of customers. It assisted this organisation in developing quality content. They use
AI and pattern recognition finding likes and dislikes of viewers. This ultimately gave confidence
to the team who was working on this project and it improve their performance. But like of every
resources, information technology also have several limitations. Needs of views can be
recognized by using algorithms and AI but it would not assist this company in developing
creative content. Amazon has a image that they never compromise in terms of quality. It is a
critical success factor and it can be managed by using technology in proper way.
Confusion and Uncertainty
Introduction of a change is a major step for the organisation as it involves a turnaround in
the activities and behaviour of an organisation. Amazon in this change took assistance from
communication tactics. Change in an organisation often leads to uncertainty as employees are not
informed about modification which is taking place in the organisation (Jain and Moreno, 2015).
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Employees when placed in a new climate are often confused relating to matter of tasks and
responsibilities. Such circumstances poses a major threat to managing change within the
organisation and often turn out to be major cause of failure. Therefore it is essential for change
leaders or managers to provide a framework which is to be followed by employees while going
through a change.
Under such circumstances, Information technology comes to rescue. It have redefined
manner in which communication takes place within institution. The use of IT tools such as
intranet, chat rooms, discussion forms and group messaging technologies assures that change
engages all components of business. The major benefits of using digital communication tools is
that it makes sure every individual in an organisation is informed. It is essential to engage
employees of a team so that efforts are channelised in the right direction. There is no denying in
the fact that it leads to speedy communication among member but it is referred to as poor
substitute to face-to-face information sharing (Gomes, Barnes and Mahmood, 2016). The another
aspect to it is that sharing information with everyone may not beneficial for a company.
Contradictory change
Amazon has attained remarkable success but this does mean that they will get repeat
history if a completely different industry. Focusing on single business can be considered as a
critical success factor for Amazon in past but the decision of streaming music and videos was a
complete shock for employees of company and external world also. Their is no doubt the scope
of growth in this industry is high but this does not mean then any enterprise can enter in this
segment and earn huge amount of profit. Many shareholders and employees raised their voice
against this change because they were failing to understand that how Amazon will achieve
success by investing huge amount of money in something which is completely new and different
for company.
Management of Amazon talks about keeping their focus on earning loyalty of customer
but on the other hand, they are doing investments in a different industry. They have limited
financial resources and they could have used on expanding their current business i.e. e-
commerce. Information technology play a significant role in getting resolving this contradictory
situation. It assisted company increasing the confidence of shareholders and employees (Evans,
Dalkir and Bidian, 2015). Amazon clearly gave a message that they are going to use technology
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like AI and machine learning for assuring that they stream high quality of content. Technology
was also used in understanding the nature of people who are going to work in this project.
Although IT made an impressive contribution in resolving this issue but it did not helped
company is delivering expected result.
Complexity of change
It can be defined said that changes which are being introduced into organisations have
often come out complex. The justification for the same is that alterations in business are far more
frequent than earlier. Such circumstances makes it difficult for manager to identify responses of
the employees relating to scenario. Therefore for manager it gets difficult to identify manner in
which such situation could be countered as they are unaware of reaction of employees. For
Amazon from being a e-commerce website had ventured into launching their online digital
entertainment platform was a complete turnaround for the company. The focus was on building
of artificial intelligence which assisted in performing tasks in an improved manner. The use of
technology helped organisation in overcoming such obstacles.
The necessary changes in the business were assisted by information technology. IT
provided measures through which support services could be utilised (Doppelt, 2017). The
another measure through which it assisted in change management is centralisation approaches.
The integration of computer systems along with communication tactics improved the process and
provided numerous opportunities for optimisation of activities. But the major drawback to this
approach is that technology is changing at a rapid pace and it is getting equally difficult for
business organisation to remain acquainted to a single one. It is important for amazon to speed
up process so that it can be capitalised while trend is favourable.
Introduction of new technology
Employees and other key stakeholders of Amazon have expertise is technology which is
required in e-commerce business. These expertise is a critical success factor for them as quality
workforce support them in earning competitive advantage. Streaming music and videos was a
new experience for workers and other stakeholders. They have proper knowledge about soft-
wares relating to logistics but they did not know anything about technology which is used for
making videos or music. Problems regarding ''technology'' can be resolve by using another
''technology''. Instead of relying much on human resource, Amazon kept started working on
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machine learning and AI. This reduces the need of training which employees needed for doing
their work in effective way (Anderson, 2016). This was a great contribution from the side of IT
as it assisted Amazon in tackling a severe problem.
But information technology has their own limitations. It may reduce the process of
training and reduce need of human resource but streaming music and video require talent of
predicting which content will be liked by viewers in future. Many experts of entertainment
industry feel that technology cannot assure success in this industry because this sector do not
have high dependence on latest technology. Although AI may change perception of many people
in upcoming time.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that change management is an important issue
for every organisation because, if not today then tomorrow, they have to go through major
changes in order to cope up with the internal and external challenges. Contribution of IT in
managing change at Amazon was remarkable. They smoothly entered in business of streaming
video and music by using IT. Although It has several limitation which reduces the amount of
contribution from the side of information technology.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Evans, M., Dalkir, K. and Bidian, C., 2015. A holistic view of the knowledge life cycle: the
knowledge management cycle (KMC) model. The Electronic Journal of Knowledge
Management. 12(1). p.47.
Gomes, E., Barnes, B.R. and Mahmood, T., 2016. A 22 year review of strategic alliance research
in the leading management journals. International business review. 25(1). pp.15-27.
Jain, A.K. and Moreno, A., 2015. Organizational learning, knowledge management practices and
firm’s performance: an empirical study of a heavy engineering firm in India. The
Learning Organization. 22(1). pp.14-39.
Matthews, J.R., 2015. Assessing organizational effectiveness: the role of performance measures.
The Library Quarterly.
Omotayo, F.O., 2015. Knowledge Management as an important tool in Organisational
Management: A Review of Literature. Library Philosophy and Practice, p.1.
Renz, D.O. and Herman, R.D. Eds., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership
and management. John Wiley & Sons.
Sparrow, P., Hird, M. and Cooper, C.L., 2015. Strategic Talent Management. In Do We Need
HR? (pp. 177-212). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Wehrmeyer, W. ed., 2017. Greening people: Human resources and environmental management.
Routledge.
Online
Strategic Management: Formulation and Implementation. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.introduction-to-management.24xls.com/en105>.
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