Case Study: Analyzing Leadership Styles at Amazon (Business Report)

This case study report examines the leadership styles employed at Amazon, specifically focusing on the charismatic and transformational approaches. The analysis draws upon a media article detailing Jeff Bezos's visit to Amazon stores and compares it with insights from academic journal articles to ...Read More

Leadership styles
Case Study of Amazon
Student details
JANUARY 1, 2020

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Leadership style at Amazon.......................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The management is required to focus upon different aspects to ensure the smooth working of
the organisation and retention of its position within the industry. To make decisions and to
ensure its effectiveness the organisations focus on adopting leadership practices, who are
responsible for managing the employee’s activities and ensuring that the activities conducted
by them will lead the organisation towards the achievement of the organisational goals. The
researchers have effectively defined different leadership styles which can be implemented as
per the requirements to ensure the effectiveness of the organisation (Carter & Greer, 2013).
The analysis is focused on the analysing the leadership practices adopted by the Amazon,
focusing on the management focus towards the employee performance management and their
satisfaction within the industry. The report focused on the media article that is focused on the
surprise visit by the CEO of the organisation at its stores to identify the issues in against of
the complaints, in comparison with the leadership journals by different authors, to identify
the leadership within the organisation and analysing how effectively the organisation deals
with the challenges through the leadership style adopted.
Leadership style at Amazon
Amazon effectively focuses on ensuring that the organisation’s focus is towards achieving
customer satisfaction within the industry and in order to achieve the goal the organisation
effectively focuses on leadership within the organisation which starts with identifying the
customer requirements within the industry and accordingly adopting leadership practices and
developing strategies and policies through which the organisational goals and objectives can
be achieved. The leadership at Amazon is the key success factor of the organisation, hence
the management focuses on ensuring the development of effective leaders within the
organisation that guides and motivates the employees to achieve the strategic goals and
objectives (Amazon, 2020).
The organisation effectively focuses on the employee needs and requirements within the
organisation and ensure that they are satisfied while working within the organisation, as
ensuring employee satisfaction results in improved employee engagement within the
operations and contributing towards the improved performance of the organisation.
Following the organisation’s principles of employee satisfaction, the CEO and founder of
Amazon Jeff Bezos made a surprise visit to its stores during the pandemic outbreak to

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analyse the protection and the preventive measures that are being performed at its stores, as
the management has received critics from employees regarding the misconduct of the
preventive measures at its stores (Vega, 2020).
The organisation is required to focus on adopting an effective leadership style that helps in
the management of the employees and the activities within the organisation and the
achievement of the goals and objectives. The leader's efficiency within the organisation
defines the success pattern of the organisation within the industry and its long term
sustainability, as the management cannot directly involve with the employee every time they
face any difficulty or issue in operations, therefore the leaders are required who are able to
guide and motivate them in such situations along with ensuring the success of the
organisation (Giltinane, 2013).
The media article reflects the Bezos visit to its stores during the pandemic, which is an
example of effective leadership by the organisation, as the employee’s concern about the
safety measures were addressed effectively by his visit, also to motivate the employees, the
CEO issued new safety measures, and thank them for their efforts during such situation. Such
practices by the organisation influence the performance as well as their satisfaction while
working within the organisation. As they feel that the management is concerned about their
health and safety and will ensure that the decisions within the organisation are made
considering their needs and requirements, hence the employees effectively contribute towards
the improved performance (Palmer, 2020).
The effectiveness of the leaders towards the organisation performance can be supported
through an analysis conducted by MK Copeland, which reflects that there are certain
leadership style adopted by the organisations within the industry and are required to be
adopted to ensure the achievement of the organisational goals. As with the changing industry
requirements and increasing competition the management is required to focus on the ethical
as well as authentic styles so that the decisions taken are aligned with the goals and leader’s
effectiveness can be ensured. The authentic or the ethical behaviour of a leader defines its
decision-making ability and ensures that they emphasise the vision, values and intellectual
stimulation, which ensures the employee development along with the improvement of the
organisation’s performance (Copeland, 2016).
The leadership style adopted at Amazon can be classified in comparison with the media
article and through the study done by Marc H. Anderson and Peter Y. T. Sun, on different

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leader styles which effectively reflects that there are various leadership styles that are being
adopted by the organisations within the industry to achieve operational efficiency. As per the
study leadership style can be classified as the charismatic, transformational, transactional or
the pragmatic leadership. The leadership style adopted by Amazon can be classified under the
charismatic or the transformational leadership which is focused on providing employees with
the motivation and guidance and ensures their development along with the organisational
performance improvement within the industry (Anderson & Sun, 2017).
The transformational leadership style is focused on developing the skills and capabilities of
the leaders within the industry and ensuring that they are effectively able to guide and
motivate the employees to focus towards the organisational goals and objectives and work
accordingly. the transformational leadership style ensures that the leaders make the decisions
within the organisation depending upon the situation and ensures that the employees are
being engaged within the process so that their satisfaction level can be achieved, and any
challenges or the issue within the operations can be either eliminated or can be minimised so
that the productivity can be improved and the organisation can effectively compete within the
industry (Mittal & Dhar, 2015).
On the other hand, the charismatic leadership style is also focused or based on integrating the
employee needs and requirements with the organisational goal and objectives. However, the
charismatic leadership style is effectively focused on the basic factors including identifying
the external threats and opportunities, being sensitive towards the situation, exhibiting
unconventional behaviour and taking risk within the organisation. The charismatic leaders
influence and manipulate their followers i.e. the employees to work towards achieving the
strategic goals and objectives. Such leadership results in achieving the organisation’s
organisational social and ethical responsibilities (Zehir, et al., 2014).
The difference between the charismatic and transformational leadership style can be
explained effectively through research conducted by JB. Lovelace, Brett H. Neely, JB. Allen,
ST. Hunter, the research indicates that the complex industry requirements are focused on
adopting the changes and the strategies that follow the changing requirements. Among the
industry requirements, the leadership style also plays an important role in ensuring the
success of the organisation within the changing industry. The charismatic leadership style, as
well as transformational leadership style, focuses on motivating and guiding the employees to
focus towards the strategic goals and objective. The major difference between the two-

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leadership style is that the charismatic leaders focus on the result before implementing a
decision, whereas the transformational leaders focus on the decision formation as per
situation and implement them without being concerned about the results (Lovelace, et al.,
2018).
The charismatic leaders can effectively be characterised based on their skills and capabilities
and their working within the organisation, whereas the transformational leaders do not
possess such identifiable characteristics they are just characterised based on their leadership
practices within the organisation. The effectiveness of the charismatic leaders are based on
their relevant experience within the industry and their future-focused vision, whereas the
transformational leaders do not necessarily have the past experience, they just focus on the
requirements of the organisation and accordingly develops policies and strategies through
which the goals can be achieved (Lovelace, et al., 2018).
The article reflects that management at Amazon effectively focuses on adopting the
leadership style that focuses on effective leadership management along with ensuring the
organisational development within the industry. The management ensures that the leaders
within the organisation effectively focuses on adopting strategies and practices according to
the requirements and through effectively analysing the industry requirements. The
management effectively focused on hiring and developing effective and experienced leaders
within the organisation so that success can be ensured and employees capabilities can be
improved and their satisfaction can be retained (Dudovskiy, 2020).
The leadership style adopted by the management effectively focuses on the management of
the human resources as well as integrating the strategic goals and objectives with the
employee’s personal goals so that the performance can be improved along with ensuring the
productivity as well as profitability within the industry. The effectiveness of the leadership
within the organisation also results in developing a competitive factor and improves the
organisation reputation in terms of employee need satisfaction within the industry. Also, it
focuses on the corporate social responsibility of the organisation and ensures that the
management goal and responsibilities are achieved (Birasnav, 2014).
CP.M. Wilderom Peter T. van den Berg, Uco J. Wiersma conducted a research to identify the
impact of the leadership on the organisational performance and identified that the leadership
style also plays an important role in developing an organisational culture that is focused on
the key aspects of management. As the organisational culture defines the management

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attitude towards its employees as well as the effectiveness of management in decision
making, therefore implementing an effective leadership style within the organisation ensures
that the employee's activities are managed effectively and the organisation decision and
strategy making process is effectively focused on the analysing the challenges and threats and
accordingly developed (Wilderom, et al., 2012).
Amazon has effectively achieved a leading position within the industry by providing its
employees with the quality and satisfactory services and ensuring that the organisation
effectively adapts the changing industry requirements and act accordingly. Therefore, the
management has effectively focused on adopting leadership within the organisation and
developing training programs through which the employees, as well as the leader’s skills and
competencies, can be improved and the competitive position can be retained within the
organisation. The management focuses on the effective analysis of the practices adopted by
the leaders so that their effectiveness can be ensured and can be developed (Medium, 2020).
Conclusion
The organisation’s leadership style effectively defines the organisation’s effectiveness within
the industry and its long-term sustainability. The management at Amazon ensures that the
leaders within the organisation focus on adopting the practices through which the leadership
can be improved and the focus on employee engagement can be ensured. The leaders at
Amazon ensures that the employees need and requirements are taken care of and accordingly
the decisions are being taken within the organisation. The leadership adopted at the
organisation can be classified as the charismatic leadership style, as the leaders effectively
focus on the industry experience and accordingly takes necessary decisions through which the
amazon competitive position can be retained.
The media article as well the journals based on analysing the leadership styles reflects that
charismatic, as well as the transformational leadership style, is mostly adopted by the
organisations within the industry, as they both focus on the situational analysis and
accordingly integrating the employee’s personal needs with the strategic goals so that the
organisational goals can be achieved along with fulfilling its corporate social responsibility
within the industry. The leadership style effectively contributes towards developing an
organisational culture that focuses on the overall development and the goal achievement.
Amazon operates with its focus on customer satisfaction along with ensuring that the
employee's needs and wants are being satisfied.

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References
Amazon, 2020. Our Leadership Principles. [Online]
Available at: https://www.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/our-leadership-principles
[Accessed 20 April 2020].
Anderson, M. H. & Sun, P. Y. T., 2017. Reviewing Leadership Styles:Overlaps and the Need
for a New ‘Full-Range’ Theory. International Journal of Management Reviews, Volume 19,
pp. 76-96.
Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional
leadership. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp. 1622-1629.
Carter, S. M. & Greer, C. R., 2013. Strategic Leadership: Values, Styles, and Organizational
Performance. Journal of Leadership and Organisational Studies, 20(4), pp. 375-393.
Copeland, M. K., 2016. The Impact of Authentic, Ethical, Transformational Leadership on
Leader Effectiveness. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 13(3), pp. 79-97.
Dudovskiy, J., 2020. Amazon Leadership: Visionary Leadership Focusing on Customer
Service. [Online]
Available at: https://research-methodology.net/amazon-leadership-visionary-leadership-
focusing-customer-service/
[Accessed 20 April 2020].
Giltinane, C. L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41), pp. 35-39.
Lovelace, J. B., Neely, B. H., Allen, J. B. & Hunter, S. T., 2018. Charismatic, ideological, &
pragmatic (CIP) model of leadership: A critical review and agenda for future research. The
Leadership Quarterly, 30(13), pp. 96-110.
Medium, 2020. Jeff Bezos’s Leadership Style and The Culture Within Amazon. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/@penneddownbynoddy/jeff-bezoss-leadership-style-and-
the-culture-within-amazon-e960d1efc6e9
[Accessed 20 April 2020].
Mittal, S. & Dhar, R. L., 2015. Transformational leadership and employee creativity:
Mediating role of creative self-efficacy and moderating role of knowledge sharing.

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Management Decision, 53(5), pp. 894-910.
Palmer, A., 2020. Jeff Bezos makes surprise visit to Amazon warehouse and Whole Foods
store amid worker safety concerns. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/09/bezos-visits-amazon-warehouse-whole-
foods-amid-worker-safety-concern.html
[Accessed 20 April 2020].
Vega, N., 2020. Jeff Bezos makes surprise visit to Amazon warehouse, Whole Foods. [Online]
Available at: https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/jeff-bezos-makes-surprise-visit-to-amazon-
warehouse/
[Accessed 20 April 2020].
Wilderom, C. P., Berg, P. T. d. & Wiersma, U. J., 2012. A longitudinal study of the effects of
charismatic leadership and organizational culture on objective and perceived corporate
performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(5), pp. 835-848.
Zehir, C., Müceldili, B., Sehitoglu, Y. & Zehir, S., 2014. Charismatic Leadership and
Organizational Citizenship Behavior: the Mediating Role of Ethical Climate. Social Behavior
and Personality: an international journal, 42(8), pp. 1365-1376.