Addressing Amazon's Challenges: A Leadership and Strategy Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Amazon, a multinational technology company. It begins with an introduction to Amazon's business, which includes e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, and then identifies key issues the company faces. The report highlights challenges related to worker's rights, including poor working conditions and employee dissatisfaction, and anti-competitive behavior. Theoretical concepts such as organizational culture theory and various leadership theories are applied to understand the issues. The report recommends improvements, including fostering a positive work environment, providing training and development, reviewing organizational culture, and adopting appropriate leadership styles. The conclusion summarizes the findings and emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to enhance Amazon's productivity and market position.

Research

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
Background of the company....................................................................................................................3
Issues faced by Amazon..........................................................................................................................3
Theoretical Concepts...............................................................................................................................4
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Amazon is a multinational technology company that is based in Washington and
primarily focuses on areas such as cloud computing, digital streaming, artificial intelligence and
e-commerce. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year 1994 and is now a market
leader in the industry. Amazon started off as an online marketplace that sold books but later on
expanded to sell a variety of other products. The respective organization has been facing issues
regarding its Worker’s Right and an Anti-Competitive behavior (Alimudin and Sukoco, 2017).
Due to this, its overall performance has been affected. The report includes recommendations and
suggestions for Amazon to deal with these issues in an effective manner. The different
theoretical concepts that are used in the report include an explanation of the different leadership
theories as well as the organizational culture framework. The theoretical concepts will help in
analyzing the issues in depth and make suggestions accordingly.
MAIN BODY
Background of the company
The respective company, Amazon, mainly focuses on cloud computing, e-commerce,
artificial intelligence and digital streaming. Initially, the company sold books but later on
expanded to various other types of products. In simple words, Amazon is a leading online retailer
and manufacturer (Teasley, 2017). Retail is the main business of the respective company and is
among companies that have the largest share in the market. The main of the company has always
been simplifying online transactions for the customers. By offering high quality products at
affordable rates to its customers, Amazon has been able to gain their trust as well as loyalty.
Although the company now operates across different branches, it still generates a majority of its
revenue by selling products online (Amazon.com, Inc. history, profile and history video, 2021).
The company sells its products to four primary sets of customers, namely sellers, enterprises,
content creators as well as consumers (Bowers, Hall and Srinivasan, 2017). Apart from this, the
company offers different programs that enable the sellers to sell their products as well as services
on the company’s website along with their own websites.

Issues faced by Amazon
While conducting its business operations, a company can come across different issues
which can not only affect its overall performance but profitability as well. In context to Amazon,
the company has been facing issues with its current working conditions. The employees are not
satisfied with the working environment at the workplace. Due to this, they are not able to work
productively (Driskill, 2018). As a result, the overall performance of the employees as well as
the company is getting affected. The employees feel that the company demands high productivity
despite not providing good working conditions. They feel like they are treated merely as a data
source and not like humans or even robots. The company needs to work on its organizational
culture and sometimes the highly demanding conditions can lead to a high rate of injuries at the
workplace. apart from this, another issue that the company is facing is an Anti-competitive
behavior (Warrick, 2017). This means that the company is charging high amounts of money from
small companies that are using the platform for selling their products and services to the
customers.
Also, the company demands its employees to be highly productive due to which, the
employees are not able to cope up with the same (Chatterjee, Pereira and Bates, 2018). The
employees do not feel safe about their jobs and also suffer from various injuries. For example,
there are different packages containing liquid burst on the conveyor belt, it has to stop the belt to
clean up the mess. The outbreak of the pandemic has affected the business operations of the
respective company to a great extent. The employees show an anti-union behavior. They are not
comfortable in working with employees across other departments. The other issue that the
company has been facing is that of anti-competitive behavior as the small companies that operate
on Amazon have to pay an increased amount of fees so as to use the platform to sell their
products as well as services. The company has been accused of anti-competitive practices. Also,
the company has decided to use 3rd party data in order to decide which amazon product has to be
made.
Theoretical Concepts
There are different theoretical concepts that can be used in order to analyze the issues that
are faced by the respective company. Since the company has been dealing with the issue of poor
working conditions. This means that the organizational culture is not positive and therefore, in

this case organizational culture theory can be implemented (Jardon and Martínez-Cobas, 2019).
The organizational culture theory focuses on the culture is a set of values that the company and
the employees working for it have in common. This theoretical framework has been used to
critically analyze the issue because it helps in identifying the issue and develop measures to
enhance productivity of the employees (Driskill, 2018). Besides this, there is an anti-union
behavior among the employees which means that there is an issue dealing with the ethics in the
workplace. there are different factors that contribute to the overall organizational culture
(Widodo, 2017). By focusing on improving the overall culture within the workplace, Amazon
will be able to overcome the issue that it has been facing.
Apart from this, there are different leadership theories that can be implemented for the
company to overcome the issue of anti-competitive behavior. Currently the leaders within the
company are not able to manage their team members (Longman and et.al., 2018). Leadership
theories have been used for critical analysis because it will help in understanding the different
leadership styles as well as their impact on the company. As a result, a better understanding
about the issue will be developed. Also, the company has increased the fees for small companies
that use the platform for selling their products as well as services (Gürlek and Tuna, 2018).
Situational theory can be implemented in this context because the leaders will implement the
leadership style that is most appropriate for the situation. Situational leadership theory suggests
that there is no leadership style is best. This depends on the type of strategies and leadership that
are best-suited for that particular theory. Therefore, the leaders within the respective company,
Amazon can overcome the situation of anti-competitive behavior.
Recommendations
From the above analysis, there are some suggestions that can be made for the respective
company, Amazon. The company is recommended to develop a sense of productivity in the
workplace. The employees should be provided with a positive and healthy workplace
atmosphere, wherein they will be happy to work (Meng and Berger, 2019). A productive
working environment will allow the employees to work productively and help the company in
achieving goals as well as objectives. This is because a productive working environment
encourages the employees to deliver their best results. Apart from this, the management of the
company should also focus on providing adequate training and development opportunities to the

employees. This will help them in developing a better understanding of the different processes of
the company (Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin and Kayode, 2017). As a result, they will be able to
carry out the tasks assigned to them in an effective manner. the overall organizational culture as
well as workplace environment should be reviewed. This will help in identifying the different
areas of improvement. Not only this, the managers of the company are recommended to talk to
their respective team members and develop an understanding of the different resources that they
need in order to carry out their jobs effectively.
Once this is done, the company will have adequate understanding of the different
resources that are required and thus, they can be made available. Also, in order to improve the
poor working conditions, new equipment should be provided. This will help in improving the
overall productivity as well as confidence levels of the employees. Apart from this, the managers
and leaders of the company are recommended to involve their team members in the process of
decision making, so that the employees get a chance to share their views and thoughts
(Naqshbandi and Tabche, 2018). It is known that Amazon is one of the leading online retail
platforms in the world that is widely recognized by people. Therefore, it is recommended that the
company should reduce the fees for the small companies that use the platform in order to sell
their products and services to the customers.
This will help the company in attracting a greater number of sellers to use its platform
and also, gain a competitive advantage in the market. This will help it in gaining a competitive
advantage in the market against competitors. The leaders should adopt the appropriate leadership
style in order to ensure that the employees work productively (Purwanto, Asbari and Santoso,
2019). Apart from this, another recommendation that can be made to the respective company is
that it should not set unrealistic productivity demands from the employees. Therefore, by
implementing these recommendations, the company will be able to overcome all the issues that it
has been dealing with and thus, enhance overall productivity. More number of sellers will be
interested in partnering up with Amazon which will further lead to an increase in its overall
profitability in the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that a company can come across various
issues and therefore, it is important to develop and implement various measures. There are

different theoretical concepts that can be implemented by the management of a company. The
issues that an organization can face can include poor working conditions, low morale and
productivity levels of the employees and issues with the 3rd party. Therefore, it is important for
the managers or leaders within the company to adopt appropriate leadership style as this will
help it in ensuring that the business operations are conducted in an effective manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Alimudin, A. and Sukoco, A., 2017. The Leadership Style Model That Builds Work Behavior
Through Organizational Culture. JURNAL LENTERA: Kajian Keagamaan, Keilmuan
Dan Teknologi, 16(1), pp.57-66.
Bowers, M. R., Hall, J.R. and Srinivasan, M.M., 2017. Organizational culture and leadership
style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis
management. Business Horizons, 60(4), pp.551-563.
Chatterjee, A., Pereira, A. and Bates, R., 2018. Impact of individual perception of organizational
culture on the learning transfer environment. International Journal of Training and
Development, 22(1), pp.15-33.
Driskill, G. W., 2018. Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook.
Routledge.
Driskill, G. W., 2018. Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook.
Routledge.
Gürlek, M. and Tuna, M., 2018. Reinforcing competitive advantage through green organizational
culture and green innovation. The service industries journal, 38(7-8), pp.467-491.
Ibrahim, R., Boerhannoeddin, A. and Kayode, B.K., 2017. Organizational culture and
development: Testing the structural path of factors affecting employees’ work
performance in an organization. Asia Pacific Management Review, 22(2), pp.104-111.
Jardon, C. M. and Martínez-Cobas, X., 2019. Leadership and organizational culture in the
sustainability of subsistence small businesses: an intellectual capital based view.
Sustainability, 11(12), p.3491.
Longman, K. and et.al., 2018. How organizational culture shapes women’s leadership
experiences. Administrative Sciences, 8(2), p.8.
Meng, J. and Berger, B. K., 2019. The impact of organizational culture and leadership
performance on PR professionals’ job satisfaction: Testing the joint mediating effects of
engagement and trust. Public Relations Review, 45(1), pp.64-75.
Naqshbandi, M.M. and Tabche, I., 2018. The interplay of leadership, absorptive capacity, and
organizational learning culture in open innovation: Testing a moderated mediation model.
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 133, pp.156-167.
Purwanto, A., Asbari, M. and Santoso, P.B., 2019. Does Culture, Motivation, Competence,
Leadership, Commitment Influence Quality Performance?. Inovbiz: Jurnal Inovasi
Bisnis, 7(2), pp.201-205.
Teasley, M. L., 2017. Organizational culture and schools: A call for leadership and collaboration.
Warrick, D. D., 2017. What leaders need to know about organizational culture. Business
Horizons, 60(3), pp.395-404.
Widodo, D. S., 2017. The effect of compensation, leadership and organizational culture through
work motivation on employee performance. Jurnal Manajemen Dan Kewirausahaan,
5(2), pp.1-7.
Online
Amazon.com, Inc. history, profile and history video. 2021. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.companieshistory.com/amazon-com/>.