Assignment On Organizational Change Development

Running Head: MANAGEMENT
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Amazon inc.
Organizational change development
Report
Student
10/12/2019

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Executive Summary
To sustain and attain a powerful position in the market, various organizations are
conducting changes or modifications in their structure as well as in their strategies. For some
companies like Amazon, such kind of changes has become a need for their survival and it needs
to evolve and develop into one of the dominating company. Hence it clear that the purpose of
initiating this assignment is to prepare a case study report to analyze the factors, which has led
Amazon to bring changes in their overall company. In this report, an in-depth analysis of the
problems and opportunities has been conducted through the utilization of two organizational
change models, which are Lewin change theory model and The ADKAR model. In the case
study report the case study Amazon as an “unbelievable change management stories have been
selected. At the end of the report, certain recommendations have been which can be implemented
for the success and profit generation for the company.

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Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Amazon.............................................................................................................................4
Organization problem-factors led to organizational change..............................................................5
Application of Two change management models.................................................................................6
Lewin Change Model:.......................................................................................................................6
ADKAR Model..................................................................................................................................7
Justification for a change intervention...................................................................................................8
Barriers addressed during the implementation of the change intervention...........................................9
Ethical Issue that Change Intervention can create in Amazon............................................................10
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Today in this competitive and dynamic market, organizational change has become a need of
every company. The companies, which are resisting such changes, are either leaving the market
by themselves or shutting down involuntary. Therefore, it has become important to understand
both these business terms, which are organizational change and development (Msmgf, 2019).
Organizational change refers to a procedure of changing and transforming the strategies, culture,
technology, and method of organization. While organizational development is the study of a
particular field, which is related to the changes in an organization. The learning obtained from
the organizational development helps in the identification of the changes and its influence on the
organization as well as on the employees who are striving hard to perform as per the
expectations. Effective organizational development guides organizations to manage dynamic
changes. Moreover, it directs the company develops it into a survivor by managing and facing
the challenges on the internal and external environment by introducing and implementing new
and advanced strategies (Al-Haddad, 2015).
Despite the availability of such tools, many well-known companies resist changes, which create
a negative impact on the performance of the company. The major cause of such resistance is the
fear to take the risk. Due to such an adamant attitude, many companies have lost their value in
the market. Therefore, to survive, evolvement has become essential.
In this case, the study report, emphasized will be placed on the factors, which have led to the
successful organizational change management of Amazon.

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Overview of Amazon
Amazon Inc. is the largest American multinational technology conglomerate company, which
was launched in the market in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. It is considered to be as largest e-commerce
company that has been operating on a global scale (Amazon, 2019). Through its e-commerce
website, it offers a wide category of products related to books, personal as well as home décor
products and apparel. To promote digital learning, the company created and launched a Kindle
e-book application as well as an in the form of products which result in unexpected growth in the
demand of the products and turned Amazon into the leaders of the book-launching market.
Currently, the company is planning to bring a new delivery system by introducing a drone
delivery system, where the will be delivering the products to the clients through the drone
(Tabaka, 2018). The secret behind such success and growth are 6, 47, 500 people and leaders of
Amazon, who have provided and produced various opportunities for their employees to grow,
innovate and have prepared them for the upcoming challenges. (Goran, 2017).
Organization problem-factors led to organizational change
Internal Issues
1. Low Work Culture: Discrimination and favoritism among the employees by the
managers have led to low life culture.
2. High standards and expectations: According to the New York Times, in the US, the
company has set unreasonably standard for the employees to meet the expectations of the
customers before time. However, such unrealistic aims have pressurized employees to
perform better at every stage. Due to such issues, the valuable employees of the
company are leading a stressful life (Hamilton & Caine, 2019).

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3. Lack of incentives: Incentives are regarded as a source of motivation. However, Jeff
Bezos Company is not offering equivalent assistance to the employees.
4. Tremendous pressure to meet deadlines commitments: Earlier this month Amazon
faced serious issues related to the delivery commitments. However, this issue was not
from the side of the customer, but it was from the warehouses' employees who were
pressurizing to meet the deadlines. Though the company is consumer-based which is
regularly striving hard to meet the demand of the customer. Such issues have become
concerning topics for the US government as the company is exploiting the employees
(Al-Haddad, 2015).
External Issues Political Criticism, Increase in the competition and Entrance to a particular
environment.
Application of Two change management models
There are various challenges and opportunities addressed in the working of Amazon. All these
factors will be explained through the utilization of two different models that is:
Lewin Change Model:
The foundation of the Lewin Change theory model is based on the 3 step process that is
Unfreeze, Change, and Freeze. Kurt Lewin's model provides managers or changes agents to
conduct modification in the strategies. All three steps are discussed below (Cummings, 2016)

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Figure 1
Source: (Hussain et al., 2018)
a) Unfreeze: This is the initial stage of the model, where people realize and receive
intuitions about the upcoming transformation. At this stage, it becomes essential for the
company to disclose the facts. In the business environment of Amazon, the company
was faced with criticism and even accused of their poor behavior towards their
employers, which is needed to be changed. Moreover, with the increase in the
competition, the company was facing challenges (Hussain, 2018).
b) Change: After identifying the areas where changes are needed, changes and
development are implemented at this point. To reduce the employer turnover, Amazon
has planned and offered support to the employees as well as to their family in the form
of medical assistance, 401 (k) saving plans, paid time- off and overtime pay, offer
discounts on the products of the company. Moreover, the company conducts growth and
development of the employees by implementing various skills enhancement programs

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like Career Choice program, and Amazon Career Skill that is a job development
program. The company is fostering flexibility in the working system by providing new
venture opportunities to the employees who want to be their boss. In the US, The
company is paying $ 10, 000 and 3 months advance salary for starting their own
Amazon delivery services (Mccraken, 2019).
c) Refreeze: This is the last stage of the process where after the implementation of the
change, the change is solidified and the company must monitor its existing working in
the organization. From the last few years, the company was receiving negative publicity
due to its worse working conditions where the employees were protesting against the
exploitation, however, after the bringing changes in the working, there has been positive
response over well- known sites like LinkedIn. Moreover, in the conversation with the
news reporter the employees have expressed their happiness and pride to work with the
world's largest technological company (Bakari, 2017).
ADKAR Model

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Figure 2
Source: (Expert program management., 2019)
This model stands for
1. Awareness: It means being aware of the change. Amazon has forecast about the
upcoming trends and development. It has created opportunities for the company to
majorly focus over customers rather than a competitor. However, it was the
opportunity for the company it retains its position by bringing innovations (Bejinariu,
2017).
2. Desire: It has already been understood that Amazon is obsessed with the customers,
as they majorly focus on the demand and wants of the customers.

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3. Knowledge: By analyzing the upcoming trends and offering them with the blend of
technology is the USP of the company.
4. Ability: Amazon treats every idea as an asset for the company, therefore they hire
professionals engineers and skilled persons for the job.
5. Reinforcement: Once the company implements such changes in its services, it will
need to monitor the right outflow of services to the customers.
Justification for a change intervention
The change intervention for the company has resulted and generated positive outcomes. Earlier
the company was facing various internal environment challenges, where the management of the
company was accused of their exploitation against the employers. The majority of the workers
were protesting outside the headquarters of the company, which not only created negative
publicity but the market value of the company was also declined. The major cause of such
accusations was the higher expectation of the company, which unnecessary pressurized
employees to meet the deadlines. Even the incentive and support provided by them was very
less. This led to employer turnover (Amazon, 2019). The company understood the gravity and
importance of more than 6 lakh employees. Therefore, the company has adopted flexibility in
their work system and introduced various well-being programs like Employee Assistance
Program, which will help its employees to deal with mental and physical related issues (Kutcher,
2019). In addition to this, for the well-being of the employees, Amazon has launched new app
related medical services for employees which not only reduces the expense related to the fees of
doctors and will restore the health of the employees (Tabaka, 2018). For the effective growth of
the employees, Amazon has introduced various programs skill development programs so that in

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their professional journey, employees can utilize them. Even Amazon assists the employee who
wants to start his or her own business. Such an initiative by the management has helped the
company in restoring the confidence of the employees. Besides this, management has developed
activity area where on every weekend various team-building activities will be conducted. Despite
such initiative, still now employees are facing a burden to be available and during the mega, they
have to work for 60 hrs. a week which has increased the issue of injuries over the workplace
(Hamilton & Caine, 2019).
Moreover, various opportunities have brought positive change intervention for the company.
However, in the initial research it was being counted as a challenge as with more globalization
and commercialization, various e-commerce companies have introduced a wide variety of things.
This has increased competition as on the social platforms, various shopping sites have opened
which are offering high-quality innovative products (Berger, 2019). Thus, for the company
competition to launch new products on a month basis has become challenging (Yousef, 2017).
However, when the company surveys the market, Amazon observed that many companies, which
claim to be satisfying the demand of the customers is believed to be more competition focussed
rather than customers focused. This has empowered Amazon to become customers obsessed and
fulfil the demand of emerging customers (Marks , 2019).
Barriers addressed during the implementation of the change intervention
To implement various development strategies, Amazon might have faced some resistance.
During the introduction of various new rules and policies for the employees, the company
addressed various barriers like lack of mutual trust and understanding between the management
and the employees. Since the company has faced criticism from its staff, the co-relation between

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both the parities had become strained (Althafairi, 2019). Moreover, the employees believed that
the company is launching all these programs to improve their image in the public rather than
taking any initiative to develop the skills of the employees, therefore, employees were not
interested (Amazon, 2019). Another barrier faced by the company was the competition and the
dictatorship, which has fostered negativity and jealousy among the workers. According to New
York Times, report, the corporate culture of Amazon is transparent where every employee was
expected to work by exceeding his or her standard working hours. Moreover, the competition
level is so high, that the employees publicly reprimand and insult each other. Before the
implementation of the successful organizational change, the company have to impart ethical
values related to the workplace. They need to make them realize the importance of the team
(Beckers Hospital Review, 2015). In addition to the barriers, lack of management engagement in
the wellbeing of the employees. During the peak season of Christmas and thanksgiving,
employees have been seen working for about 60 hours a week under extreme and tremendous
deadlines, Even they are not provided “off” during bad weather. In addition to this, lack of
communication between the management and the employs can be become roadblock in the
effective organizational change. If employees will be not to discuss about the prevailing
problems, then the management of the company will be not able to make crucial changes in the
organization. This entire kind of barrier has been observed during the ongoing process of change
management (Beckers Hospital Review, 2015).
Ethical Issue that Change Intervention can create in Amazon
During the implementation of an effective organizational change, the management of Amazon
has faced various ethical issues. The two main ethical issues that have been faced is the role of

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change agents and in the results of Lewin change model that is in unfreeze-change and refreeze
model (Cummings, 2016). It can observe that the management change agent has been allocated
the responsibility and duty of conducting effective organizational change (Fonseca, 2019)
Therefore, to conduct this process, the change agent has to follow the set of rules which includes
the confidentiality of the employees as well as of the stakeholders and they should decide and
manipulate the results (McFarland, 2015). If change management breaches any standard or goes
beyond that it will be considered as an ethical issue and its serve consequence have to be borne
by the management. During the change management in Amazon, various ethical issues has been
observed as they were exploiting the workers at the warehouses and invested huge amount in the
training of the employees which will be providing tax benefit to the company. Besides, imparting
knowledge to the employees, the main objective of the company was to attain tax benefit.
Moreover, this theory goes same with the clients who purchases and sell at the e-commerce
platform. The management intentially directs the company towards the products, which are sold
in the market by other clients. Hence, all this activities are accounted as ethical breach, which is
conducted by change management (Manuele, 2015). Ethical issues may arise when existing
culture reshaped into new culture and responsibilities. Re-establishing relationship may cause
resistance among the stakeholder, as it can be addressed by them as unethical and unfair.
Another issue that was addressed during the process is the outcome generated from Lewin
Change Model. This model indicates towards the ineffectiveness of the system. In the model, the
two major ethical issues addressed was who describes what is wrong and who decides what is
needed (Hussain, 2018)., it is considered to be ethical breach. In Amazon after the utilization of
this model, any issues has not been identified in the process (Bejinariu, 2017).

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Conclusion
It can be concluded that today to survive and retained a powerful position organizational change
and development have become essential. Organizational change means changing the strategies
and procedure of the company to meet and satisfy the emerging wants of the customers.
Moreover, change has become an important thing to survive in the stuff and competitive
environment. On the other hand, organizational development is a study of changes that might
influence the overall working of the organization. However, companies that resist and do not
accept such changes usually fails and in no time it will be eroded from the market. Therefore,
conducting regular changes in an organizational has become essential. To conduct a
comprehensive discussion over this concept the case study of Amazon has been taken. Amazon
is the world largest technological company that focuses on its e-commerce, and cloud
computing. However, their reason behind the success of the company which is organizational. In
this, report, a detailed study of Amazon problems and opportunities has been conducted which
has been addressed in the report. All the problems and opportunities have been explained
through two main models that is Lewin chain model and the ADKAR model.

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