New Worker Hiring Information System for Amazon Australia

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Executive Summary
The objective of this report was to identify and analyze a human activity system in
Amazon Australia that is problematic to the stakeholders in Amazon Australia online
retail. The problematic human activity system identified was worker hiring and
management system in the warehouses, where workers were complaining through the
media of the unfair and unlawful dismissal from their posts. Amazon Australia online
retail should therefore adopt a new worker hiring and management information system
that will be able to solve the issue of unfair and unlawful dismissal of the workers at the
Amazon Australia’s warehouses.
The findings mean that Amazon Australia has to cut links with the third party labor-
hiring firms that are currently providing labor to Amazon Australia warehouses and
adopt the new proposed worker hiring and management information system. By
adopting the new information system the Amazon Australia, will deal with the workers
in the warehouse directly through the human resource manager at Amazon Australia.
Keywords: CEO – Chief Executive Officer, HAS – Human Activity System
Assignment Report – 1803ICT or 7610ICT (omit one)
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New Worker Hiring Information System for Amazon Australia
1. Introduction
This report comes as a response to the request made by the CEO of Amazon Australia to
analyze the existing human activity system, identifies the issues facing the system,
propose a new system with recommendations based on the analysis. Amazon Australia is
an online retail business based in Australia. It is responsible for selling a range of
products to its customers, sells products on behalf of other retailers at a fee and
provides shipment services for products ordered. It is however faced with problems in
the worker hiring and management human activity system.
The worker hiring system is based on third party hiring of workers which lead to
employee mistreatment and poor productivity at the warehouse. The report studies the
existing HAS, finds its faults and proposes a new system that will enable Amazon
Australia to employ workers directly without a third party firm. It also gives
recommendations to the Amazon Australia stakeholders.
2. Overall Business Analysis of Amazon Australia
2.1 Amazon Australia information and strategy
Amazon Australia is an online retail shopping center that majorly serves the Australian
people. It massively expanded its operations in Australia in 2017, branching from its
parent retail Amazon which was started back in 1994 as an online books retailer by Jeff
Bezos. Amazon Australia deals in a range of products including clothing, baby items,
beauty products, books, music, home-wares, sports/fitness goods, stationery, toys,
electronics and video games.
Amazon provides buying opportunities for customers, shipping services for products
and selling opportunities for sellers and other retailers. For a customer to buy from
Amazon Australia, the customer has to open an account with Amazon Australia from
their website. Once registered, the Customer will be able to order goods from within
Australia. Australian customers are not enabled to shop from the international Amazon
site; if they try they will be redirected to Amazon Australian site because the
international Amazon will not be able to deliver products in Australia. After ordering
the products, the customer will pay via the debit or credit card linked to his or her
account. The delivery of the products, depend on where the customer stays and the
preparedness to pay for the delivery. Products are delivered within three to four
business days in the cities and in other areas within three to seven days
Amazon Australia grants sellers and other retailers an opportunity to sell their products
through the Amazon Australia website for a fee. Nevertheless, it has its own products in
ware houses owned by Amazon Australia which provides products for sell.
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New Worker Hiring Information System for Amazon Australia
To stay competitive in the business Amazon Australia provides a user friendly user
interface where a customer is shown how the various icons and processes work. This
enables fast and efficient placing of orders on products and payment of the products
ordered. Amazon Australia offers promotion codes on products and on shipment of the
products ordered. The promotion codes reduce the price rates for products and the
charging rates for shipment of the products bought by the customers. Once a product is
ordered, Amazon Australia provides an interface where the customer is able to track
and trace the delivery progress of the products. In case of a problem with the products
ordered and the delivery Amazon Australia provides for return of the products. These
features among many others make Amazon Australia a customer attracting business.
2.2 Amazon Organization Based on Mintzberg’s classification
The organizational form of Amazon Australia is both divisional and innovative in
organization Qrunig and Qrunig (2016). It is divisional in the sense that it deals in a range
of products which include clothing, baby items, beauty products, books, music, home-
wares, sports/fitness goods, stationery, toys, electronics and video games. It is also
found in different geographical areas with other branches in Japan, USA, United
Kingdom, China, Italy, Mexico and Brazil among others. This makes it divisional with
the daily decisions decentralized to the regional managers and the strategic decisions
centralized to the board of directors.
It is also innovative in the sense that there has to be new features added to the website
of Amazon Australia to enhance user-friendliness according to Janićijević (2013). The
running of processes and activities need to be improved to have efficiency, effectiveness
and timeliness in the ordering, payment, shipping and delivery of the products sold by
Amazon Australia.
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New Worker Hiring Information System for Amazon Australia
2.3 Value chain of Amazon Australia using Porter’s value Chain
The Primary activities according to Pathak and Pathak (2010) are inbound logistics,
operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and services whereas the support
activities are Firm infrastructure, Human resource management, Technology
development and procurement.
Primary activities
Inbound logistics is the handling and warehousing of the supplies from different
suppliers of Amazon Australia.
Operations are the day to day activities that Amazon Australia conducts. These are
processing of the products ordered by customers and packing the products.
Outbound logistics is the shipment and delivery of the products ordered and paid for to
the specified customer address.
Sales and Marketing involves the pricing of the products Amazon Australia sells,
promotion on products and delivery services and advertising the products they sell and
the promotion codes available.
Services – these are the services Amazon Australia offers its retailers and customers.
For instance, Amazon Australia sells products for retailers at a fee and also sells
products to customers through the Amazon Australia site.
Support activities
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