An Analysis of International Human Resource Management at Amazon

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of international human resource management practices at Amazon, addressing key aspects such as workforce diversity, staffing approaches, and organizational culture. The report examines Amazon's HR goals and objectives, including its commitment to customer centricity and employee flexibility, and how these align with its mission and vision. It explores specific HR activities related to employee commitment, flexibility, and quality, highlighting training and development programs, work-life balance initiatives, and knowledge management systems. The report also identifies major HR challenges faced by Amazon in diversifying its business, such as cultural differences, leadership styles, and staffing issues, and recommends solutions like situational leadership and geocentric staffing. Furthermore, the report outlines a multi-dimensional approach to reviewing Amazon's work culture, emphasizing employee and managerial feedback, and proposes HR initiatives like employee involvement and consensus-based decision-making. Finally, it analyzes Amazon's performance management system, focusing on employee appraisal, rewards, and training, and assesses its impact on organizational performance and employee motivation. The report draws on the provided case study, videos, and additional research to provide a detailed and critical evaluation of Amazon's HR strategies.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
International human resource management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Assignment task: 1
Question: 1
In terms of the working procedures related to the international human resource goals and
objectives, there are number of factors being considered by them. One of the major factors is the
diversity in the workforce. This is due to the reason that Amazon is having their operations
across the world and is having employees from different countries and regions. Hence, their
cultural and social approach in the workplace is also different and diverse. In this case, the
human resource working procedures followed in Amazon are also different and diverse. They are
following geocentric approach of staffing in order to have multinational dimensions across the
hierarchy levels (Greer, Carr & Hipp, 2016). Initiation of the geocentric approach to staffing is
also enabling Amazon to maintain their existing organizational culture and processes with the
market adaptable approach. The home country stakeholders are maintaining the uniformity in
organizational process while the host country stakeholders are aligning with the local cultural
factors. As per the human resource objectives of Amazon of having global inclusive workforce,
all the employees of Amazon across the world are being based on singular and uniform approach
or system of the human resource management (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). Hence, the
recruitment process, performance management process and working environment are being
followed in same manner in their global operations.
According to the mission statement of Amazon, they are fulfilling every need of the
customers in ethical way. This mission statement of Amazon is well aligned with that of their
vision statement because it states about becoming the most customer centric brand in the world.
Both their mission and vision statements are relevant with that of the human resource goals and

2INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
objectives because employees are being engaged in gaining the maximum customer centricity
from their side. In line to becoming the most customer centric brand, the human resource
objective of Amazon is to gain flexibility. This is due to the reason that the more will be the
flexibility of the human resource activities, the more will be their ability in coping up with the
changes in the market. Hence, the employees of Amazon will be compatible with the external
business factors at any point of time. They will be effective in meeting the changing demand and
preference pattern of the customers in the global scenario.
Question: 2
In terms of the human resource activities of Amazon, there are different activities being
followed. For instance, activities related to employee commitment, flexibility and quality are
being followed. In terms of the employee commitment related activities, it is identified that
Amazon is having training and developing programs and knowledge management systems. With
the help of the training and development activities, the employees across the global operations
are being trained according to the market requirements. Hence, the employees are effective and
efficient enough in the dealing with different challenges and barriers. It is also identified that
with the help of the training and development programs, the employees are also becoming more
effective in terms of performance and productivity (Schuler & Jackson, 2014). Their average
quality is getting increased. Amazon is having the mechanism of continuous process of training
and development programs that are equipping the employees to cope up with the external
business environments. With the extensive training and development activities in place,
employees are getting more committed with the increase in their organizational citizenships.
Hence, it can be concluded that training and development programs for the employees are one of
the major activities of Amazon in relation to the employee commitment. In terms of flexibility, it

3INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
is identified that Amazon is following work life balance, job rotation and job division (Vivian,
2014). Employees of Amazon are being concentrated over their work life balance based on
which, the employees are given required personal space. For example, the number of paid leaves
being offered to the employees is more in Amazon compared to some other leading companies.
This is also having positive impacts on the employee quality due to the reason that proper work
life balance will ensure the higher satisfaction level of the employees in the workplace and their
effectiveness will get increased. Work from home options are also being offered to the
employees that brings flexibility in the process.
Initiation of the job rotation and job division is also contributing in increasing the job
flexibility. This is due to the fact that with the help of the job rotation process, work timing can
be selected according to the conveniences of the employees. In addition, job rotation in Amazon
is also enabling the employees to select the particular job role in the same profile. Hence, the
issue of monotony is not relevant in the case of the employees of Amazon. Job division in
Amazon is helping the employees in getting expert and specialized in a particular job roles and
gaining the expertise in group based work (Kampkotter, Harbring & Sliwka, 2018). Hence, it can
be concluded that activities related to the employee flexibility are effective enough for Amazon.
In terms of employee quality management, knowledge management process and training
activities are followed. With the help of the knowledge management process, Amazon is having
effective process of knowledge sharing among the internal stakeholders. Thus, they are having
the access to higher sets of solutions against a particular solution.
Question: 3

4INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
In diversifying the business in newer locations, the major human resource related
problems for Amazon will be the cultural challenge, leadership challenge and staffing challenge.
In terms of the cultural challenge, the major problem will be the difference in the cultural and
social factors between the home country stakeholders and the stakeholders from the newer
location. For instance, the employees to be recruited from the newer location will have different
cultural values and trends compared to the existing stakeholders of Amazon. Hence, they will
find it difficult to get aligned with that of existing culture of Amazon and on the other hand,
Amazon will also have the issues in aligning new location based employees to induct in the core
system (Festing et al., 2013). The uniformity in the human resource management system of
Amazon will not be maintained due to the cultural and social differences with the host country
employees. In this case, it should also be noted that leadership challenge will also be faced by
Amazon. This is due to the reason that the existing leadership approach being followed in
Amazon might not be applicable for the new location. For instance, the charismatic leadership
style followed by the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos might not be effective in the new location if
the local stakeholders are not comfortable with it. Thus it is another human resource related
challenge to be faced by Amazon in diversifying their business.
In terms of the staffing, the major problem will be the inadequate availability of skilled
employees. This is due to the fact that different regions are having different level of availability
of skilled human resources. Thus, if the supply of skilled human resource is low in the new
location, then it will create challenge for Amazon to manage their internal management
effectiveness. In view to these identified challenges, it is recommended that Amazon should have
situational style of leadership in the new region (Drahokoupil, 2014). This is due to the reason
that with the help of the situational style of leadership, the local employees from the new

5INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
location can be managed in more adaptable manner. In addition, it is also recommended that
Amazon should initiate the geocentric style of staffing in recruiting and selecting new
employees. This is due to the reason that according to the geocentric style of staffing,
organizational structure will have both the host and home country employees that will ensure the
proper balance between the two cultures.
Question: 4
Reviewing the work culture at Amazon should have multi dimensional approach in order
to ensure the gathering feedbacks from different sources. The first step will be the determining
the feedback and opinion of the employees. This is due to the reason that employees are the
direct stakeholder in maintaining the organizational culture. Further evaluation on the feedback
of the employees will be beneficial in the determination of the issues and shortcomings of the
existing process. Major issues can be shortlisted from the employee feedback. The next step will
involve the gathering of feedback from the managerial levels (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015).
This is due to the reason that managers will also be able to share the major factors associated
with the work culture of Amazon. The next step will involve the identification of the relationship
between the feedback of the employees and the managers. This will help in identifying the most
common and major problems with the existing working culture at Amazon (Ali et al., 2015).
Employees and the managers are the key internal stakeholders for Amazon and thus reviewing
the feedback from each one of them will help to gain the extensive information.
Among the human resource management initiatives to be implemented, employee
involvement will be the major activity. This is due to the reason that with the help of the
employee involvement in the workplace, implementation of the new plans and changes will be

6INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
more effective. The involvement of the employees will be from the initial stage of the changes to
the final process. This will ensure that resistances from the side of the employees will be less and
less challenges will get emerged. On the other hand, consensus based decision making process
will be implemented in order to have the new work culture (Chiclana et al., 2013). In
determining the new work culture in the workplace, the feedback and opinion of the entire
involved stakeholder should be considered. In this case, consensus based decision making
process will be beneficial in implementing a new work culture that will be ideal for
organizational effectiveness.
Question: 5
The performance management system of Amazon is based on different steps and factors.
One of the major factors of their performance management system is the employee appraisal.
This is due to the reason that feedback generated from the employee appraisal process, the
performance of them is being evaluated. It is identified that the performance appraisal process in
Amazon is being based on the past 1 year performance of the employees along with the
feedbacks from their supervisors. On the basis of the feedback generated, the remuneration scale
of the employees is designed. Hence, the employees with positive performance are being
rewarded with financial benefits (Mone & London, 2018). On the other hand, training and
development activities are being designed on the basis of the shortcoming of the employees. This
will mitigate the issues with them and improve the overall performance and productivity. Hence,
in terms of the performance management systems, employees are rewarded and trained for better
and improved performance.

7INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
This should be noted that the performance management system of Amazon is having
positive impacts on the overall performance of the organization. This is due to the reason that
their performance management system is effectively mitigating the challenges and shortcomings
being faced by the employees. Moreover, with the performance management system in place, the
level of motivation and engagement for the employees is also getting increased. This is due to
the reason that employees are well satisfied with the performance management system. For
example, the employees whose remuneration got increased due to their better performance will
be more motivated to perform further in the coming time (Cappelli & Tavis, 2016). On the other
hand, other employees will also be motivated to perform and meet the organizational targets to
achieve the increased remuneration. Hence, the overall performance of Amazon is getting
improved with their performance management system. However, on the other hand, it should
also be noted that Amazon is having diverse sets of employees across the world and each of the
employee groups is having different expectations that might not get fulfilled with the uniform
approach of the performance management system.
Question: 6
One of the major management theories is the human relations theory that focuses more on
the human relations over anything. In the case of Amazon, implementation of the human
relations theory will be effective because it will effectively align the needs of the employees with
that of the organization. The organizational strategy of Amazon thus will not become detrimental
to any one of the above factors. Amazon is already being considered as a leading innovative
company in the world. Thus, in order to maintain the innovation and further enhances the
process, initiation of the human relations theory will be beneficial (Alfes et al., 2013). This will
enable the managers at Amazon to meet the mutual benefits of both their employees and the

8INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
business. Furthermore, another major management theory is the bureaucratic management
theory. This theory states that organized and hierarchy should be properly designed in the
workplace in order to have the streamlined authority (Albrecht et al., 2015). This will help the
internal stakeholders in having the clear understanding about the job responsibilities. With the
help of this theory, Amazon can have well organized hierarchy level that will further be
beneficial in proper organization of the resources.
In terms of the leadership theory, transformational leadership will have positive impact
on the organizational strategy of Amazon due to the reason that it will help in creating positive
influence among the employees. According to the transformational style of leadership,
employees are being guided and motivated in their job profiles and they are well involved and
engaged in the organizational process. Hence, the level of employee engagement is more in this
case and Amazon will be beneficial from the maximum utility of the employees. On other hand,
autocratic or directive style of leadership will have mixed impacts on the organizational strategy
of Amazon (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016). This is due to the reason that initiation of the directive
style of leadership will help Amazon to direct the employees during the challenging situation and
making decision in minimal time. However, this will affect the motivation level of the employees
because they will not be involved in the organizational process.
It is recommended that situational theory of leadership will be the most effective for the
business process of Amazon. This is due to the reason that they are operating across the world
and is facing different challenges. These challenges cannot be managed by involving uniform
style of leadership. In this case, Amazon is having the need for leadership strategy that will be
flexible and can be coped up with change in the external situation (Saeed et al., 2014). With the
help of the situational style of leadership, Amazon will be able to manage their employees

9INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
according to the situational demand. Hence, the organizational strategy of Amazon will be more
aligned with that of the external business factors.
Question: 7
In developing the leadership skills at Amazon, a particular planning process is important.
This is due to the reason that certain planning process will be beneficial in developing and
improving the leadership approach according to the time and situation. One of the major methods
that should be followed is the feedback generation from the side of the employees. This process
will be more effective because feedback from the employees will be beneficial to gauge the
efficiency of the leaders. For example, the leadership quality of Jeff Bezos can be determined by
the feedback from his subordinates (Komives, 2016). In this case, a few indicators can also be
implemented. The level of satisfaction among the employees will denote the efficiency of the
leadership. The more will be the satisfaction level of the employees, the more will be the
effective leadership in place. Furthermore, the rate of employee turnover will also denote the
effectiveness of the leadership skills. Hence, according to this method, shortcomings should be
identified from the employee feedbacks and mitigating steps should be taken.
Another method for determining the leadership skills at Amazon is benchmarking others.
Even though Amazon is the leading brand in terms of innovation and employee management but
still there are firms that are doing well in terms of managing the employees. For example, the
leadership skills of Jeff Bezos should be flexible in accordance to the external business
situations. For example, the charismatic style of leadership being followed by Jeff Bezos might
not be effective in every situation. Hence, in this case, he should be flexible enough to change his
leadership style as the situation demands (Ebrahimi Mehrabani & Azmi Mohamad, 2015).

10INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Benchmarking will be effective in identifying the leadership effectiveness of different firm. For
example, if any of the competitors of Amazon is doing well in the market compared to the later,
then their leadership style can be adopted in Amazon as well. Lastly, two ways communication is
also effective for the development of the leadership. This is due to the reason that initiation of the
two ways communication will help Amazon in getting the ideas from the external sources about
the limitations in their current leadership style and how to improve them.
Among all the methods being discussed for development of the leadership skills,
managing based on the performance indicators is the most effective. This is due to the reason
that it helps in identifying the limitations and shortcomings of the existing leadership theory and
developing them accordingly. Moreover, managing on the basis of the indicators is having the
required flexibility because different business regions of Amazon will have different sets of
indicators and accordingly the leadership skills can be developed and improved.
Assignment task 2
Question: 1
Human resource management and organizational behavior is related to each other. This is
due to the reason that the more effective will be the human resource management strategies, the
more positive will be the organization behavior. On the other hand, it should also be noted that
inputs in terms of the human resource management will determine the outcome in the form of
employee behavior. In the case of Starbucks, the major reason behind the positive behavior of
their employees is the effective management by means of motivating and engaging them (Lin et
al., 2014). In the case of Starbucks, it is identified that employees are being considered as the
partners in the partners rather than just the salaried people, which is further creating the sense of

11INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
importance among them. The employees of Starbucks are having interests associated with their
job profiles. This is motivating them to perform better and contribute in the organizational
performance. From the perspective of Starbucks, considering the employees as partners is
ensuring higher organizational citizenship from the employees. They are having more alternative
solutions against any particular issues.
Considering the employees as partners in the business is also enhancing their
involvement in the decision making process. This is due to the reason that each of the partners is
considered in the consensus based decision making process. This is ensuring the higher
involvement and engagement of the employees in the organizational process of Starbucks. Thus,
it can be concluded that engaging the employees in the forms of considering them in the decision
making process is an element of the human resource management strategy and this is
contributing in the employee behavior of Starbucks. This fact is denoting that human resource
management and employee behavior is related (Ashkanasy, Ayoko, & Jehn, 2014). It is also
identified that employee performance is rewarded and recognized at Starbucks in terms of both
financial and non financial benefits. For example, employees are being rewarded with incentives,
promotion and increase in remuneration for their desired performance along with recognition and
appreciation. Hence, the employees are kept motivated in their workplace, which is reflecting in
their behavior. This should be noted that Starbucks is operating in the service sector and
employee behavior determines the customer service quality. Thus, the motivation and
engagement strategies being followed in Starbucks are ensuring the higher level of service
quality.
Organizational behavior also denotes the organizational culture in the workplace.
Organizational culture will be more improved and enhanced if the workplace environment can be