A Critical Analysis of Jeff Bezos' Leadership & its Effectiveness

This case study critically evaluates the leadership of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, from the perspective of various leadership theories. It explores behavioral, situational, contingency, transformational, transactional, and distributed leadership styles, examining how Bezos' approach aligns with each theory. The analysis considers the effectiveness of his leadership qualities and their impact on Amazon's growth and performance. The study also touches upon ethical leadership and critical leadership perspectives, concluding that selecting the appropriate leadership style is crucial for enhancing organizational efficiency and employee performance. The report references academic works to support its analysis of Bezos' leadership.

Critical Evaluation the leadership
of Jeff Bezos Founder and CEO of
Amazon

INTRODUCTION
• Leadership is the process of influencing an individual and group of people with purpose of
achieving common goals and objectives of Organisation.
• There are different theories of leadership which includes trait and behavioural leadership,
situational and contingency leadership, distributive, ethical leadership and critical leadership
perspectives and transformational and transactional leadership.

Case Study
• The project is based on critical evaluation of leadership of Jeff Bezos founder and CEO of
Amazon. The case study is given in which Bezos has added £10bn in just one day at the time
of pandemic.
• The presentation covers the effectiveness of Jeff Bezos leadership qualities from perspective
of different leadership theory.

Theories of Leadership
Behaviour Theory
 Behaviour leadership theory is a concept of evaluating the performance of leaders
according to their action which they display while working in Organisation. Jeff Bezos
can implement behaviour theory in its leadership style for which the leaders have to
learn a certain set of behaviours.
 The theory determines that the success of leader is based on their behaviour rather than
the key attributes. By implementing this theory, Jeff Bezos can observe and evaluate
the action and behaviour when they take in particular situation.

Through implementing this theory Bezos become effective leader by learning and
implementing the behaviours through which he can able to understand employees.
According to this theory it is being consider that leaders are made rather than born.
The Behavioural theory promotes the idea that leaders of Amazon must learn and
develop their capabilities by adopting beneficial behaviours and performing well in the
Organisation. Through implementing this theory, Jeff Bezos can encourage leader to
be self aware of their behaviour and increase the morale of its staff. There are various
types of behavioural leadership such as people oriented, task oriented, participative,
staus-quo leaders, indifferent, dictatorial, country club, sound, opportunistic and
paternalistic leaders.
Continue..

Situational Theory
• Situational theory is another leadership style in which the company have to adjust one
management style to adapt in different situation. By implementing situational leadership
style, Bezos can work in changing situation.
• The leader of Amazon must able to adapt different style in diverse circumstances. In
situational leadership, the leaders take their employees too seriously so that they can
give productive outcomes to company.
• Hersey and Blanchard suggests four primary leadership style in situational leadership
they are telling, selling, participating and delegating. It is an easy leadership style to
understand and implement.

Contingency Theory
• Contingency Theory is a leadership style in which the leaders can analyse the existing
situation and motivate their staff accordingly. It is one of the effective leadership
theory which helps Bezos to adopt the best management style according to the
situation.
• By implementing contingency theory, Bezos gives importance to leaders
understanding, leadership style and their knowledge due to which they can take
different decision based on different situation.

Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership style depicts that the desire of leaders and followers are not same. The
leaders of Amazon must provide extrinsic motivation to their follower so that they can perform
well in Organisation.
There are four categories which can be used by transformational leadership in order to accomplish
their task they are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and
individualized consideration.

Transactional Leadership
• Transactional leadership style is another form of leadership which focuses on role of
organisation, group performance and supervision. Jeff Bezos can implement this style by
focusing on specific task and provide reward and punishment to motivate the staff.
• The few assumption of transactional leadership style is rewards and punishment motivate
employees, obeying the command of leader is primary goal, subordinates need to be monitor so
that they can met the target and employees perform their best when chain of command is clear.
• Through implementing transactional leadership style, Bezos can focus on maintenance of
structure of people. Jeff bezos can motivate their team members to increase their productivity
and performance is they apply transactional leadership style.

Distributed Leadership
Distributed leadership style is another form of leadership in which leaders have to give autonomy
to employees so that they can make decision. If Jeff Bezos implement distributive leadership
style he has to mobilise the leadership expertise at all levels in order to generate more
opportunities and increase the performance of Amazon. The distributive leadership style
includes few qualities and behaviours they are constructive dissatisfaction with current best
practices, intentional risk taking, failure inspired learning, outcome orientation and sharing
knowledge.

Ethical Leadership and Critical
Leadership Perspective
Ethical leadership can be defined as the type and theory of leadership which demonstrate and
promotes the personal actions and interpersonal relations with the employees. It is basically
directed by the characteristic of a leader who respect the ethics and beliefs of different
employees working with the leader along with the values and dignity which serves as a right
of the people. Therefore, it is related to the assorted conceptions such as trust and honesty
along with the consideration and charisma which is followed by the fairness and kindness. It
also includes the 4 V model such as values, vision, voice and virtue.

Conclusion
From the above information it is being concluded that there are various leadership style which can
helps in increasing the growth and productivity of business and employees. The Organisation
must choose the suitable leadership style that focuses on improving the efficiency and
performance of employees so that they can give productive outcomes.

References
Famakin, I. O. and Abisuga, A. O., 2016. Effect of path-goal leadership styles on the
commitment of employees on construction projects. International Journal of
Construction Management. 16(1). pp.67-76.
Al-Awlaqi, M. A and et. al., 2021. The interaction between leadership styles and their
followers' human capital: a correspondence analysis approach applied to micro-
sized businesses. Journal of Management Development.
Darawong, C., 2020. The influence of leadership styles on new product development
performance: the moderating effect of product innovativeness. Asia Pacific Journal
of Marketing and Logistics.