Amazon's Operational Management: Leadership and Theories

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Management and operations
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
In this study, there will be study detailed in the factors of the management and their operations in
making the organisation thrive to its best position. The company organisation includes various
posts and designations, which contribute to the development of the organisation in a different
sphere and level. The higher authorities, leaders and the mangers along with the employees work
had to achieve the goals and objectives of the company (Quirke, 2017). These study will
therefore emphasize on the roles and objectives of various riles the leaders and manager s follow
and the way they led the employees to making the operations of the organisations high yielding
and accurate to the investment done. The report will also emphasize the organisational structure
of the company Amazon and the organisational processes guided by the company leaders and
managers
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Activity 1
Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
Comparison Leader Manager
Definition A leader is a person who
direct the employees in a
positive and optimistic way to
achieve the goals and
objectives of a company
The manager is a person who
directs the employees and
gives them orders to achieve
their tasks in a limited period.
The manager also controls the
activities of the employees
within the working space.
Work basis The leader sets the direction in
which the employees will
follow (Chiu et al.,2017)
The details of the objectives
set by the company is imposed
by the manager on the
employees
Traits Decisiveness, futuristic Very detailed ad goes in a
organised way
Type of Employees The leaders have followers The employees are just
subordinates to the manager
who work together
Style Transformational Transnational
Resolution Makes decisions in the basis
of everyone s opinions and
objectives(Pearce, 2018)
The Manager makes decisions
and imposes on the employees
Goals Focuses mainly on bringing
change in the organisation and
the development in with the
employees and the
organisation performances
Only complete set tasks and
does not do out of their
designated tasks
Table 1: The Difference between the leaders and the managers
(Source: Created by the learner)
P2. Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of the manager apply in
different situational contexts.
Amazon is an International Technology related company having the main business field in
electronic computing and have recently stated working in Artificial Intelligence. The
headquarters of Amazon is situated in the Seattle, Washington (Lasserre, 2017).The Amazon has
been popular for their online shopping applications selling electronics products,
apparels ,cosmetics and other necessary materials which are the necessity of the people in the
whole world. The leadership and the managerial skills in the organisation are very highly
disciplined. The company has gained such competitive advantage that they compete with top
technology related companies as if the Google and Apple. The company uses Disruptive
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innovation to overcast their rival companies and have recently started online application of
forecasting television shows and movie channels as well
The utilisation of the role and characteristics of the leader and the manger into the processes of
an organisation is that the processes of the organisation can be chalked out goals and objectives
which van be easy to assign with the usage of various theories and concepts. The constant CEO
Jeff Bezos has set many examples of the leadership in building up the strategy for the company
(Fayol, 2016). Jeff Bezos have been applying theories, which have been followed by the
company for more than ten decades, and therefore the management strategies applied by the
CEO has the highest work productivity and efficiency in the organisation that it has reached to a
level to compete with big companies like the Google and Apple. The theories that have recently
faced criticisms like that the strategies applied are very old fashioned and the constant following
of the strategies for such a long time can bring down a permanent breakdown to the company
The Amazon therefore should apply the strategic roles of the leaders and the manager to gain
sustainable competitive advantage. The Discipline and decorum only make the organization deal
with the trends of the market and get competitive advantage. The next step therefore includes the
inclusion of various theories and models, which can promote better organizational structure and
the leaders and the manager, can apply those theories to make the organization gain competitive
advantage.
P3. Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency
Situational Leadership- The Leadership style has been one of the leadership styles which is
used in the crises of the organisation .The model was developed the Kenneth Blanchard and Paul
Hersey. The leadership model emphasise on the adaptation of the leaders style to the employees
comfort level so that the leader can bring out more confidence and productivity from them. The
employee are not bound to the adaptation of the style of the company or organisation domain but
the leader should come up with the employee style so that they can be comfortable with the work
stream and can make the organisation work productively by applying their innovation and
expertise. In the case of Amazon, the Situational leadership can be applied to the problems and
crises they rate recently facing. In this case, the CEO of the Company has faced many problems
and criticisms and the Situational Leadership can be applied to the company. The situational
leadership can make the company give an icing in the old strategies. The major part after
applying this strategy the CEO and founder of the company made the old strategy present in a
much more better way and focused in the customers who liked their way of businesses. The
Business Model Jeff Bezos applied to the company was that modifying the business model they
followed was to concentrate on the things they already liked and making them present better.
This strategy application made them hold the permanent customers and stop them from creating
any barriers (Wallsten, 2015)
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.
Figure 1: The Model of Situational Leadership
(Source: situational.com, 2019)
Systems Leadership: Dr Ian Macdonald and Professor Catherine Burke developed the Model;
both of them were management expert and professor in their personal life. The Model deals with
the concept of working of the leader and the managers in a high yielding process along with the
employees to make the organisation cater to the demands and needs of the customers. The
System leadership enunciate and work understanding the human psychology. The understanding
of the human psychology makes the understanding and collaboration between the employees
more effective and among the higher authorities. The understanding of the human behaviour and
thinking also gives a way to effective leaders guiding the employees, chalk out strategy and
policy to make the organisation refill their drawbacks, the designing of the organisational
structure and the productiveness of the operational activities. The satisfaction among the
employees can also make them work effectively. As the employees are, the main resource and
they are the only one who can bring remarkable changes to the organisational structure by their
contribution and work.
Amazon hire employers are freelancers, they offer very flexible shift timings, and they work as
per contract. Nevertheless, the company strategy is different from place to place and various
according to the country. The employees are bound to be provided with all the services under the
Federal Law therefore they have to think about the comfort and the facilities they gives to the
employees. The application of the Systems Leadership can make Amazon understand the
psychology of the employees and therefore motivating them to work more fruitful. The Amazon
Company also follows strict rules and policies to follow up their structure of the organisation.
Therefore, the systems leadership also helps the leaders to understand the psychology of the
employees and let them decide the types of employee fit for adjusting in their company. The
leaders and managers of adapt these strategies and policies into the company they can bring high
level of success and bring out the fruitfulness in the employees work.
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Figure 2: The Model of Systems Leadership
(Source: leadershipcircle.com, 2019)
Contingency Leadership Theory: The Contingency theory twins with the theory of the
Situational leadership were the Leaders should adjust their strategies and policies according to
the crisis the company is facing. The Contingency therefore deals with the concept of the
adjusting or adapting to the situation of the company and then chalk out goals and objectives and
therefore train the employees accordingly to make the company overcome of the crises the
organisation are going through. The Model, which is adjacent to the concept of the Contingency
Leadership Theory, is the Fielders Contingency Model. Amazon should therefore apply this
model to their organisation to cater to the needs of the customers and make the critics believe on
the strategies Jeff Bezos have aligned to the processes of the company. Amazon should apply
some strategic policies especially the ethical thinking and behaviour among the employee and
the higher authorities so that they can reflect it in their work. The proper training for
communication and understanding along with the training if ethical behaviour and Code of
Conducts is a mandatory thing for Amazon and contribute be one of the leading technical
infrastructures which have made a remarkable effect on the Ecommerce and have also made
themselves a top retailing company with the most visitors in their sites and websites. However,
the recent researchers are stating that even after various criticisms from the critic’s and customer
dissatisfaction they have stayed as the most remindful in technological advances. The CEO and
founder of the company Jeff Bezos, made remarkable changes so that the customers still depends
and relies on Amazon as they have been providing the most cheapest electronic devices to cater
to the needs of the customers and offer them more discounts in their retailing sector application.
The recent application named as the Amazon prime has made the company come under the
entertainment business as well, which have vastly increased their customers and gain in
competitive advantage.
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P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play
The operation management is one, which deals with the operations and the processes of the
organisation; the management means that it refined the production of the operational process
more fruitfully to make the organisation a high quality infrastructure. This part of the report
therefore will emphasize on the usefulness of the operations management in monitoring and
controlling the processes of the company. In this case, we can use the example of Amazon to
update their operations management so that they can keep a check of the employee behaviour
and the work they are doing .The special attention to the training session of the employees can
make many diverse situations stop from affecting the processes of the infrastructure. The annual
checkups on the employees can be checked and monitored, through the following of the concept
of behavioural approach. Many companies use this approach to understand the quality of the
employees and their work according to their behaviour. The Key approaches for operation
management are as follows:
 The operation management instils in utilising the resources to the fullest
 Increase the productivity of the organisation
 The leaders and the mangers can work effectively with a structured operations
management in the organisation and it helps in developing the raw data into valid
information and raw materials into quality products and services as well.
There are other things in the operations management like the allocation of various theories to
make the organisation to productive and high yielding. Theories like Six-sigma and the TQM
used in the organisation can make the organisation deliver their products and services in time and
within the time limit to gain competitive advantage among their rival companies.
Six Sigma: The theory can be applied to refine the processes of the organisation. The utilisation
of the Sig sigma is that it eliminates the six disposable elements often found in an organisation,
which stops the free flowing of the processes. The six elements is generally related to the
transportation, uncontrolled functioning of the process of the organisation, flaws a d drawbacks
in the process of the company and motion.`
Time Quality Management (TQM): which is the process of the making the employees
bringing efficiency in their work. The TQM is the one which instils the organisation to make
their products and services more productive and of high quality.
In case of Amazon, the company is using a Disruptive innovation to surpass the business of the
Google and Apple Company. The policies of Amazon are very aggressive and intended to
surpass their rival companies and alliances. As the company has faced serious criticisms for
using these strategies and therefore they have to necessarily include the strategy of ethical
behaviour among the employees and therefore they have to train the employees so that they can
again get back their impression in serving well to the customers.
The inclusion of ethics and training the employees to improve the communication of the
employees the leaders have to apply the situational leadership. The current crisis can only be
handled by applying the situational leadership and the contingency and the system leadership
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theory to understand their employees, bring the best out of them, and get back to their previous
position.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives
The actual motive of the operations management is to make the production of the products
timely and the maintenance of quality products to cater to the recent trends and demands of the
market and the customers. The refining of the input and output processes is the main motive of
the operations management. The operations management actually looks after all the problems
related to the Operations of the management, which can also include the monitoring of the
employees performance and the target of the organisation thorough employees performance. The
report has therefore vastly explained the various, ethical theories, which should have applied to
the operations or the management system of the company to look after the processes of the
organisation.
The operations management also includes the theories and models explained in the report they
are the leadership styles and models like the situational leadership, contingency theory and the
systems leadership. However, the theories have other drawbacks as well.
 In case of Situational, leadership therefore the leader follows up with a lot of pressure to
keep up with the work as and the person has to keep on checking on his actions to adapt
to the employees. These can sometimes led to unproductive operations, as the leader feels
exhausted and unable to handle the situations.
 The limitations to the Contingency theory are that it can sometimes become very
complicated and the productive system becomes very reactive other than being perceptive
and productive.
 In case of the systems, approach the leader can deal with indecisiveness. The theory can
further may be appalled to very high organisations but cannot be effective in other small-
scale organisations.
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Conclusion
The whole report has given a detailed explanation n the working processes of the operations
management. The explanation of the various operational management processes the example of
Amazon as therefore it has explained the various functional operations and theories they have
used to be one of the most wanted and influential Technological and Online Retailing system,
where the products can be booked and accessed by one click through their personalised
application. The explanation of various theories like the Situational, Contingency and the system
leadership is used to understand the role and responsibility of the leaders and the managers to
make the organisation processes refined, free flowing and high yielding.
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