Understanding and Leading Change in Amazon

This article explores the barriers to change faced by Amazon and how they impact leadership decision-making. It also discusses the difference between initiated and imposed change and the influence of barriers on leadership.

Running head: UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
Understanding and Leading Change in Amazon
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Authors Note:

1UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
Executive Summary
Amazon is also facing a great barrier in imposing change successfully within the organisation for
improving its profit position. The change of introducing Amazon Fresh faced barriers from
maintaining its competitive edge against its major rivals because of the quality maintained by its
food delivery services. Considering the barriers to change faced by Amazon, the company is
observed to implement the imposed change to improve its decreasing profits position along with
justifying all its investments.

2UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
Table of Contents
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Barriers for Change and their Influence on Leadership Decision-Making in Amazon...................3
Part A: Different Barriers to Change...........................................................................................3
Part B: Initiated or Imposed Change...........................................................................................5
Part C: Influence of Barriers on Leadership................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

3UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
Task 2
Introduction
Change in the organisation is deemed to be the function of a shared vision of future
impacting success of the organisation. The report will explain distinct barriers for change along
with determining the ways in which these barriers impact the leadership decision making in
Amazon.
Barriers for Change and their Influence on Leadership Decision-Making in Amazon
Part A: Different Barriers to Change
There are certain barriers those impacts the major functions of change in Amazon impacting
the success of the organisation and they are explained below:
 Amazon faces the fresh food barriers against its competitors- The change of
introducing Amazon Fresh faced barriers from maintaining its competitive edge against
its major rivals because of the quality maintained by its food delivery services (Anderson
2016). In addition, Amazon faced barrier to change in its poor distribution network and
delivery experience along work working hard in the distribution. The organisation’s fresh
food offering could not effectively operate than its competitors as its price leadership
position posed a great challenge to maintain its quality credentials in its offerings.
 Lack of effective communication strategy- Amazon has a ruthless working
environment that disrupts effective communication flow among the employees and the
management regarding any new change (Bormann and Rowold 2016). This serves as a

4UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
huge barrier in successful change implementation. Lack of employee engagement in the
decision making process in Amazon has resulted in a barrier to implement effective
change in attaining international growth through successfully implementing change.
 Unknown current state- The unknown current state of Amazon’s market situation and
employee position within the organisational culture that is affecting implementation of
right change at right time (Maheshwari and Vohra 2015).
 Management behaviour that does not support change- Another issue that is observed
in Amazon which can be a major change barrier is the management behaviour of setting
unreasonably high standards and expectations along with breeding unhealthy competition
among the co-workers. Moreover, another barrier is overly forthright leadership in
Amazon resulting in high employee criticism (Bormann and Rowold 2016).
 Change is imposed on the staff- Another barrier to change in Amazon is imposing
change on staff that is observed to make employees feel exploited. In addition, the
organisation is dealing with issues such as increased workplace disputes for neglecting
the health and safety of the workforce. Strict targets are apparently imposed on
employees in the change process and the employees feel that they are given disciplinary
points unfairly (Moore 2019).
 Absence of suitable skills and knowledge- Amazon is also facing a great barrier in
imposing change successfully within the organisation for improving its profit position.
The company is facing the barrier of an effective management of knowledge along with
developing necessary skills to manage change for decreasing their change resistance.
Additionally, it is observed that Amazon is facing challenge related with lack of offering

5UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
leadership training along with support skills is affecting increase in the morale and
confidence of employees for supporting change (Bormann and Rowold 2016).
 Failure to priories the business objectives- Another barrier to change initiatives is its
challenges face in prioterising the business objectives in comparison to its competitors
(Zhao et al. 2016). Due to non-involvement of the employees within the change process,
Amazon is not successful to implement people-centred change management within the
organisation. Moreover, aligning business objectives with employee goals along with
company culture has resulted in making poor product change investments and change in
organisational culture.
Part B: Initiated or Imposed Change
The difference between the initiated and imposed change in relation to the proactive and
reactive change is indicated in the table below:
Initiated Change Imposed Change
 This change is the proposed change that
is decided to be implemented in an
organisation to attain competitive
advantages and attaining further growth
in the international marketplace
(Hornstein 2015).
 Initiated change is a proactive change
that is initiated by the companies s it is
desirable to do so.
 This is change that is already
implemented in the organisation in its
methods, technologies, organisational
structure and strategies and is forced to
implement in surviving the competitive
marketplace or due to drastic concerns
faced by the company (Jeong and Shin
2017).
 Imposed change is reactive change that
is implemented within the companies as

6UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
it is made necessary by the external
forces (Bormann and Rowold 2016)
Considering the barriers to change faced by Amazon, the company is observed to
implement the imposed change to improve its decreasing profits position along with justifying all
its investments (Zhao et al. 2016). The change that is imposed on Amazon is to improve its
supply chain management to build reputation through implementing effective strategies and
technology. In effectively implementing such change the company will build up necessary skills
and knowledge training among employee for boosting their morale in supporting change. This
can facilitate the company in attaining rapid growth in competing with intense market pressure.
Within the change process of the supply change strategy, Amazon will develop effective delivery
strategy along with implementing innovative supply chain management practices (Bormann and
Rowold 2016).
Part C: Influence of Barriers on Leadership
The barriers to change those are faced by Amazon can impact the management along
with leadership of the company. For dealing with the barriers to change identified in the
company, the management of the company must take initiates to implement the best suitable
among the soft management and hard management strategies within the organisation (Giauque
2015). Considering the barriers faced by Amazon in imposing change within the organisation, it
is gathered that implementing the hard management strategy in successful change
implementation. The hard management strategy to successfully implement change in Amazon
will be focused on attaining the long term change objectives through implementing Amazon web
services. Hard management has also focussed on maintaining hard management through

7UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
focussing on the consumer satisfaction instead of the competitors (Heckmann, Steger and
Dowling 2016). In this strategy Amazon is intended to implement constant changes in the
business processes and particularly the supply change process to ensure consumer satisfaction.
In implementing this hard management strategy, Amazon will be focussed on making
effective supply chain development plans, setting up relevant structures and monitoring
performance of such implemented change plans. Such hard management strategy will be
aggressive and tough and will make sure that all the change activities are focussed on the bottom
line (Zhao et al. 2016). Amazon will focus on maintaining hard management based change in its
supply change process through being focussed on attaining consistency and effective
management of employee skills directed towards attaining organisational change. Such hard
management leadership approach implementation can facilitate in decreasing the identified
change barriers in Amazon through imposing effective organisational culture for improving
employee morale, well developing strategic change management goals along with observing
linear increase in performance.
Conclusion
It was gathered from the report that the unknown current state of Amazon’s market
situation and employee position within the organisational culture that is affecting implementation
of right change at right time. The change that is imposed on Amazon is to improve its supply
chain management to build reputation through implementing effective strategies and technology.
In effectively implementing such change the company will build up necessary skills and
knowledge training among employee for boosting their morale in supporting change.

8UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
References
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Bormann, K.C. and Rowold, J., 2016. Ethical leadership’s potential and boundaries in
organizational change: A moderated mediation model of employee silence. German Journal of
Human Resource Management, 30(3-4), pp.225-245.
Giauque, D., 2015. Attitudes toward organizational change among public middle
managers. Public Personnel Management, 44(1), pp.70-98.
Heckmann, N., Steger, T. and Dowling, M., 2016. Organizational capacity for change, change
experience, and change project performance. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.777-784.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Jeong, I. and Shin, S.J., 2017. High-performance work practices and organizational creativity
during organizational change: a collective learning perspective. Journal of Management,
p.0149206316685156.
Maheshwari, S. and Vohra, V., 2015. Identifying critical HR practices impacting employee
perception and commitment during organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change
Management, 28(5), pp.872-894.

9UNDERSTADING AND LEADING CHANGE IN AMAZON
Moore, K., 2019. Amazon’s Annual Report in 2017 (Growth Highlights + Challenges). [online]
The BigCommerce Blog. Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/amazon-annual-
report/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].
Zhao, H.H., Seibert, S.E., Taylor, M.S., Lee, C. and Lam, W., 2016. Not even the past: The joint
influence of former leader and new leader during leader succession in the midst of organizational
change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(12), p.1730.