Amazon's Global HR: Reward Systems and Performance Management Issues

This report provides a detailed analysis of Amazon's reward system, examining its HR practices in both its home country (USA) and various host countries like the UK, India, and France. It explores the impact of local rules and regulations, trade union regulations, and the International Labour Organisation on Amazon's HR practices. A critical analysis of the reward system as part of performance management is presented, comparing practices in the home country versus a host country. The report identifies issues that arise in managing rewards, such as cultural differences and miscommunication, and offers evidence-based recommendations to tackle these challenges, including focusing on cultural aspects, training employees about cultural nuances, and building clear lines of communication within the organization. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and recommendations for improving Amazon's global reward system.

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Individual
Report about
Amazon

Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Give a brief introduction of your chosen organisation and list down the reasons why you
selected that organisation and where the organisation operates internationally. ........................1
Identify and discuss the impact of rules and regulations of the host country, trade unions
regulation and/or International Labour Organisation on HR practices of your chosen
organisation. ................................................................................................................................2
Critically analyse the existing reward system as part of performance management, used by the
organisation in one of the host countries and how it differs from the country of their origin. ...3
Identify and discuss the issues which may arise in managing rewards as part of performance
management system in the host country, providing specific and evidence-based
recommendations to tackle those issues. ....................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Globalisation refers to the process of expanding business to various different countries.
This process helps in building social and economic relations all around the globe (Perraton,
2019). It also helps business to build international influence and relations. Technology, Human
resource management and Transportation etc. plays an important role in growth and success of
an organisation while they operate internationally. This report is based on Amazon. It is a largest
multinational company which deals in diversified products and services in different markets
(Swedha and Dubey,2018). This file will include discussion on Amazon, impact of rules and
regulations of different countries, international labour organisation and reward system in
different countries.
MAIN BODY
Give a brief introduction of your chosen organisation and list down the reasons why you selected
that organisation and where the organisation operates internationally.
Amazon is a multinational technological company which was formed on 5 July 1994 by
Jeff Bezos. The headquarters of the company is located in Seattle Washington, United States.
The company is one of the largest online retailer and marketplace. The organisation offers
various products and services such as Entertainment, Web Services, Electronics, Cosmetics,
Groceries, Personal care etc. The reason behind choosing this organisation is that Amazon is the
successful and largest retailer all around the globe which provide wide range of products and
best shopping experience to the customer. The company focuses on customer- centric approach.
The vision of the company is to create a place for consumer where they can get everything they
wish to buy online The work atmosphere of the company is neutral and the organisation follows
democratic approach of decision making and any employee can reach top management regarding
any issues or queries. The organisation also encourages good relationships among the employees
for this they usually organise parties so that the employees can interact with each other and with
the management also. The company hires fresh talent on the basis of different parameters such as
telephonic interviews, assessment tests etc.. The organisation has explored many national and
international market and it operates on a wide scale. The company operates in around 20
countries such as France, Italy, India, Turkey, Brazil, Singapore, Saudi Arab, Mexico, Japan and
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many more. Apart from this the company also ship its products to more than 100 countries all
around the globe.
Identify and discuss the impact of rules and regulations of the host country, trade unions
regulation and/or International Labour Organisation on HR practices of your chosen
organisation.
The Home country of Amazon is United states whereas the Host country for Amazon is
United Kingdom, India, France, Germany, Singapore, Saudi Arabia etc. (Lagerström,Leite and
Pahlberg,2021). The company operates its businesses worldwide and in order to run a successful
and growing business the market size and market trends should be analysed. Some of the rules
and regulations has been discussed below-
 Wages - The companies wage rate differs from country to country. The company pays
average salary of $114,073 in USA, £18,518 in UK, $ 871455 in India, €54873 in France.
 Trade unions regulation – Amazon must comply with trade union legislation of different
countries to operate successfully in the country.
 Working Hours – The working hours of the company differs from country to country and
the working hour lies between 8 hours to 10 hours depending on the work load and
structure of the organisation.
Human resource management plays an important role in growth and success of an organisation.
Effective human resource management helps the organisation to gain competitive advantage over
others in the market. The main role of HR is to manage employees within the organisation and to
formulate policies and strategies that help the organisation in achievement of the desired goals.
The role of HR in Amazon is to manage the employee life cycle and to collect relevant data that
helps the company in formulation of effective decision.
 In USA powers are distributed unequally among the employees whereas in France power
are distributes equally among the employees. For smooth functioning of their business in
UK Amazon treat their employees equally with respect and gratitude.
 USA has individualistic culture. In USA employees give more priority to themselves
rather than group whereas in India collectivistic approach is followed and employees give
more priority to group objectives rather than individual agenda. To operate successfully
in India Amazon, give emphasis on collectivism by giving their employees more work
life balance.
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 USA is considered as masculine country. American society give more emphasis on
toughness, strength etc. whereas Germany is the feminist country. To operate smoothly
in Germany Amazon hires more female workforce as compared to man.
 USA is a country which has indulgent society. In USA, the desires of the employees are
not controlled and freedom is given to employees to enjoy their lives and fulfil their
dreams whereas India is a country with restrained society and societal norms influence
the behaviour of the employees. In India Amazon focuses on employees and tries to
formulate policies and decisions that benefit the society as well as the employee.
 USA is a country which is short term oriented. In USA employees focuses on present
rather than future whereas UK is a country which focuses on long term orientation and
give more importance to future rather than past or present and more emphasis is given on
long term success and growth. In UK Amazon also focuses on long term orientation and
maintain good and long lasting business relation with their employees.
 USA is considered as low uncertainty avoidance country. In USA the employees are least
dependent on structural rules and are ready to take risks whereas Mexico and Japan are
treated as high uncertainty avoidance country (Oxford,2022). IN order to operate
smoothly in Mexico and Japan Amazon use to train its employees to deal with
uncertainties.
Critically analyse the existing reward system as part of performance management, used by the
organisation in one of the host countries and how it differs from the country of their origin.
The company uses various different methods to provide reward to their employees in
both home country and host country. The company provide rewards to their employees for their
hard work which helps in boosting their morale and confidence and leads to enhancement in
productivity and efficiency of the employee. The organisation provides both monitory and non-
monetary benefits, assistance and resignation to their employees such as bonus, incentives,
parental leaves, training etc. The company provide good quality environment to their employees
in both host and home country.
Reward system in Home Country  United states are the home country for
Amazon and the company various
range of benefits including both
monetary and non-monetary rewards to
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their employees
 The company provide free upskilling
opportunities to their employees and it
invest more than $1.2 billion for this
purpose.
Reward system in Host Country India-
 In India the company offers special
recognition bonus to their employee i.e.
unto 78.88 USD.
France-
 The company takes care of health and
wellness of their employees and
provide the employees with regular
medical acre.
Identify and discuss the issues which may arise in managing rewards as part of performance
management system in the host country, providing specific and evidence-based
recommendations to tackle those issues.
Implementation of reward in a multinational company is a challenging task because every
country has their own cultural values and needs. The issues that may arise in management of
rewards as part of performance management systems are discussed below-
 Cultural differences – As Amazon is a company which provide it services to many
different countries all around the globe and every country has their own cultural practices
and beliefs. Say for example in USA the company provide non-monetary rewards for
achievement of targets or goals such as training, appreciation, recognition etc. but it is not
necessary that this reward system will work in all the host countries as the needs differ
from individual to individual and country to country.
 Reward not understood by employees – Every country has its own language and way of
greeting. Cross cultural miscommunication occurs when two person or employees cannot
understand each other language and thoughts. For multinational company like Amazon it
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is important to understand language of countries they operate in because if the language
is not understandable it can create confusion, conflict and miscommunication among the
employees, which can impact organisation growth and success (Perkins and Jones,2020).
 Cross cultural Miscommunication- It is known that different things might have
completely different meaning in diversified cultures. Sometimes lack of understanding of
cultural beliefs of different group can lead to miscommunication in the organisation and
can make the most effective reward baseless.
Recommendation-
Some of the recommendation to resolve above stated issues has been discussed below-
 Amazon must focus on cultural aspects of every country and must formulate their reward
scheme accordingly so that the employee ca be motivated effectively and efficiency of
the employee can be enhanced. The above stated recommendation will not cost huge
expenditure to the company. This proposed recommendation should be fulfilled within 6
Months.
 Amazon must try to teach their employees about different cultural aspects and the
organisation must also focus on training their employees about overlapping aspects that
has completely different meaning in the different cultures. This will help the organisation
in mitigation of any serious mistake while providing reward to their employees. The
above stated recommendation will cost huge expenditure to the company. This
recommendation should be fulfilled within 4 Months.
 Amazon must build clear line of communication among the management. Many
employees approach to top management through indirect channel which sometimes create
confusion and conflict in the organisation. To avoid this the company must develop
formal channel of communication. The above stated recommendation will cost negligible
expenditure to the company. This recommendation should be fulfilled within 2 Months.
CONCLUSION
In this report a brief discussion has been done on Amazon, reasons to select the
organisation and the international countries in which the business operates in. Several rules and
regulations has also been discussed that has affected the HR practices of the company.
Difference between reward system in home country and host country has also been discussed.
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Several issues have also been identified such as cross cultural miscommunication, cultural
differences etc. that has affected the organisation reward system. Some recommendation has also
been given in order to solve these issues and problems.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Lagerström, K., Leite, E. and Pahlberg, C., 2021. Cooperating while competing in multinational
corporations. Competition: What It Is and Why It Happens, pp.176-188.
Oxford Analytica, 2022. US lawmakers intensify pressure on Amazon. Emerald Expert
Briefings, (oxan-es).
Perkins, S.J. and Jones, S., 2020. Reward management: Alternatives, consequences and contexts.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Perraton, J., 2019. The scope and implications of globalisation. In The Handbook of
Globalisation, Third Edition. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Swedha, K. and Dubey, T., 2018, July. Analysis of web authentication methods using Amazon
web services. In 2018 9th International Conference on Computing, Communication and
Networking Technologies (ICCCNT) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
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