Leadership Analysis: Jeff Bezos's Style, Impact, and Criticisms

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Jeff Bezos' leadership style, focusing on his role as the founder of Amazon. It delves into his transformational leadership approach, examining how he has built a business empire and influenced market dynamics. The report explores various leadership theories, such as trait, contingency, situational, and transformational leadership, to understand Bezos' characteristics and their alignment with these models. It analyzes the positive aspects of his leadership, including his focus on customer satisfaction and innovation, as well as the negative aspects, such as the treatment of employees and criticisms related to working conditions. The report also discusses the impact of Bezos' leadership characteristics on Amazon's success and offers insights into his decision-making processes. The report concludes with a summary of his leadership style and its impact on the company, along with a discussion of potential areas for improvement. The report is a result of the course assignment and is available on Desklib for students to study.

Running head: JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
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Introduction:
The aim of this paper is to discuss the leadership style of Jeff Bezos who is the founder
owner of the technology giant Amazon. This per will be discussing different types of leadership
styles based on the theories and models and find out the factors are matched with the
characteristics of Bezos and how he has developed his business empire to control the market of
different countries. This paper will also analyze the positive and negative factors preset in the
behaviors or attitudes of the leader, so that the scope of correction can be found.
Style of leadership Jeff Bezos:
Jeff Bezos is an American technology investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist who is
the founder, CEO, president and chairman of Amazon. In the early 1990s Bezos used to work in
different fields in Wall Street despite he had the degree of electrical engineering and computer
science. In 1994, Amazon was found by Bezos and introduced itself as an online bookstore along
with delivering variety of products and services from other companies. Amazon has become one
of the largest provider of cloud infrastructures services through Amazon Web Services. His net
worth currently is $112 billion with which he has surpassed Bill Gates to serve his customers in
most lucrative manner (Garner, 2018). There are some very important traits in Bezos which are
unique themselves and helped him to achieve this position. There is an empty chair tradition
which represents the position of the customer in the strategy making of the company. In addition
to this, the leadership traits of Jeff Bezos has led the employees to become empowered to have
the freedom to disagree and state their opinion as the part of the Amazon’s principles (McGurl,
2016). In addition to this, the leadership skills of Jeff Bezos has included the imaginative and
experiment abilities that has helped the company to transform itself through innovation,
renovation and sometimes elimination. Under the leadership of Jeff Bezos, the company has

2JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
developed a austere work culture where the performance of the employees are assessed regularly.
The employees are also encouraged to comment on one another’s performances. This constant
self-measurement as well as monitoring are important for the employees in the company of
Bezos. It is Bezos’ idea to deploy the method of purposeful Darwinism which is to create a
feeling of competition among the employees so that upliftment of the performance can be made
possible from the workforce (Irani, 2015). In order to understand the leadership style of Jeff
Bezos, the theories of leadership needs to be understood.
Concepts of leadership theories:
Leadership is an important research area and practical skill that encompasses the
capabilities of a person to lead and guide other people or teams or any organizations. There are
different viewpoints among the experts who contrast the eastern and western approaches of
leadership that are seen as the process of defining leadership as the process of social influence of
the others in accomplishing the common tasks. The interest of the leadership psychology has
developed for the last 100 years and a large number of theories have been develops in these years
matching with the demand of the organizations and the changes of the perceptions and demands
of the customers. According to the theorist Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube (2015), like
different types of the personality traits make the leaders effective better suited for the leadership
roles. The early leadership theories used to focus on the qualities of the leaders but the
subsequent theories look at the variables like skills and situational factors related to capabilities
of the leaders. Therefore, some of the very important leadership theories can be discussed here
like trait theories, contingency theories, situational theories, behavioral theories, participative
theories, management theories and relationship theories.

3JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
The trait theories assume that people who are leaders, inherent some of the inborn
qualities that present them better suited as leaders. The trait theories have identified a particular
personality and behavioral features shared by leaders. For instance the quality of being extrovert
or self-confident and courage can be effectively connected to the great leaders which cannot be
developed through learning or practicing.
Contingency theory of leadership mainly focuses on the definite variables relating to the
environment that needs to have definite style of leadership which is best suited for that particular
situation. According to this theory, there is no particular leadership theories best for every
situation. The leadership researchers have suggested that the truly efficient leadership is not the
qualities of the leaders but implementing the right balance of needed behaviors, contexts and
needs (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). The good leaders are able to understand the
needs of the followers perfectly and take the support of the situations to adjust their behaviors to
match the expectations.
The situation theory of leadership proposes that the leaders gain success when they select
the best course of actions with changing variable of the situation. In decision making process,
different leadership style can be appropriate. For instance in a situation in which the leader
palyes the role of the most knowledgeable persons and experienced one in the group and no
inclusion of the others’ advices is needed. The authoritarian style must be applied to get the best
outcome. On the contrary, in a technological projects, the members in the team are all experts in
different fields needed for the successful completion of the project, the leader of this team needs
democratic style of leadership.
Behavioral theory ascribes with the fact that the great leaders are prepared not born. This
theory contrasts the trait theory where the inborn talents of the persons make them leaders.

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Despite this behavioral theory is rooted in the behaviors of the persons, this theory does not
focus on the mental qualities of the leaders but on the actions (Bezos, 2015). According to this
particular theory, the people can effectively learn to be a great leaders through personal learning
and observation.
The participative theory of leadership suggests that the actual and perfect leaders are
those to take care of the input of the others. This type of leaders encourage the participation and
the contributions and of group members to feel the participation more relevant as well as
committed to the decision making process. According to his type of theories, the leader retains
the rights to allow the input of the others.
The management theory of leadership is popularly known as the transactional theory of
leadership that focuses on the roles of organization, group performance and leadership. These
theory assigns that the leaders must be motivating the employees or the followers by the means
of rewards or punishment. Therefore, transactional leadership ascribes that when the followers
are achieving goals they must be awarded and who are not must be punished.
The relationship theory is popularly known as the transformational leadership that
focuses upon the relations between the leaders and their followers (Miller, 2018). The
transformational leaders can inspire and motivate people through helping the group members to
find the higher good and essentiality of the tasks. These leaders are chiefly focused on
performance of the group members. In addition to this, the transformational leaders want the
followers to fulfil their potential also. The leaders following this style have a higher ethical as
well as moral standards.

5JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
Jeff Bezos is an example of transformational leadership who has created a new path of
attaining business success on the basis of more customer satisfaction. The chief aim of the
leadership style followed by Bezos relates to the superiority of the customers. Bezos has created
such a structure of his organization which is empowered to handle more than 164 million
customers worldwide. To this leader, it is not the method of perfectly utilizing 56000 employees
but meeting the targets laid by the customers themselves. Bezos places a great focus on the
demands or expectations of the customers and take the grievances of the customers very
seriously. Through customer satisfaction survey, so that issues are continuously addressed to
smallest detail (Bezos, 2015). Moreover, another method that has been used by Bezos for gaining
success in the industry is his expectation from the employees. This process has given him to
efficiency that the organization has an incredibly efficient machine that is famous for making
same day delivery in over dozens of cities in the US.
Impact of leadership characteristics of Bezos:
By understanding the theories and models related to leadership, it has be understood that
the characteristics of Jeff Bezos is more supportive of the transformational leadership style. This
is due to the fact that he conjures the vision of being powerful and charismatic leaders. Along
with this, this style of leadership reflects the connection between the leaders and followers where
the leaders can transform the whole ideology of the organization through his words. The features
o of the transformation leaders, Bezos possess the effectiveness of creating big shift in the
employees’ thinking process which creates big shifts in the behaviors that motivate them to
achieve extraordinary results. In case of Bezos, the transformational leadership features takes
turn in such a way that leads to constant experiment of the products and services for more
innovation (Matthews, Harbin & Daigle, 2018). The experiments continue to surprise and teach

6JEFF BEZOS LEADERSHIP
the organization. This is due to the fact that the ore the organostions experiences, the more it gets
the opportunity for innovation. It is the high effect of the research skill that has given the
employees an extra leverage to think diversely and gain more effectiveness of the company.
Bezos have pointed out that most of the technology driven companies actually wait for
their contestants to innovate new ideas ad then try to match themselves with those. Therefore, the
strategy is to listen to the clients and then bring changes in the products or introduce new ones.
In addition to this, the leader of Amazon pints out that when the organostions gets larger there is
a tendency that the power gets centrifuged (Jackowski, 2018). This means that the higher
authority tries to retain power but this is not in the case of Amazon. The decision making
procedures are incomplete without the contribution of the employees.
However the critics of Jeff Bezos have pointed out some of the issues in the leadership
characterizes of the president of this technology giant. Bezos think that the focus on the demand
of the customers will be only able to help the company to rise to the desired position. This
however has an ill effect where the employees are exploited at utmost level. The news regarding
the treatment of the employees reveal that the company pushes the workers in such a manner that
make them work harder until they leave or get terminated (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). The
employees are bound to work in worst conditions with the threat of termination. Some of the
stores lack air condition and the employees are falling sick. The staffs are engaged with the
issues of mistreatment which are not published or reveled publically. To critics all of these are
related to the authoritative leadership and pressing nature of Jeff Bezos. However, the future
consequence of this leadership style is effective to retain the position of the company in the
competitive market of the world but needs to be more supporting of the human resources based
on whom it has operated so far.

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Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that the leadership style of Jeff Bezos his transformation
which reflects his relationship with the employees in one hand and charismatic nature. This helps
him to overcome the issues internally through communication with the workforce. He has great
connection with the employees and indulges in the philanthropic actions which has enhanced the
popularity and reputation of this leaders along with his company. However, there are criticisms
regarding the style of leadership of Bezos which has revealed the authoritative nature of the
leader.

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References:
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
6-14.
Bezos, J. (2015). The Man Who Sells Everything: A Conversation With Jeff Bezos. Foreign
Affairs, 94(1), 2-6.
Garner, B. A. (2018). Amazon in the Global Market. Journal of Marketing & Management, 9(2).
Irani, L. (2015). Difference and dependence among digital workers: The case of Amazon
Mechanical Turk. South Atlantic Quarterly, 114(1), 225-234.
Jackowski, M. (2018). Entrepreneurship through the Centuries: A comparison of William the
Conqueror and Jeff Bezos.
Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising
workplace. New York Times, 15, 74-80.
Matthews, B. L., Harbin, J., & Daigle, J. (2018). The New York Times Versus Amazon: Is Jeff
Bezos' head still in the clouds?. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 18(3).
McGurl, M. (2016). Everything and less: fiction in the age of Amazon. Modern Language
Quarterly, 77(3), 447-471.
Miller, D. S. (2018). Advice for Jeff Bezos: Social Welfare Organizations as Grantmakers.