Leadership and Governance: Theories, Practices, and Bezos' Analysis

This essay critically analyzes leadership and governance, focusing on the leadership style of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. It begins by introducing the significance of leadership in contemporary business organizations, highlighting how leaders like Bezos have shaped brand value and market opportunities. The essay explores key leadership concepts, including transformational and laissez-faire leadership styles, emphasizing the importance of teamwork, change management, and diversity in the modern workplace. The analysis delves into the positive and negative aspects of Bezos's leadership, evaluating his visionary skills, customer-centric approach, and impact on employee welfare. The essay integrates relevant theories and research, such as the impact of Amazon's workplace culture and criticisms regarding employee treatment. The conclusion summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of Bezos's leadership, recommending strategies for improvement, such as enhancing employee engagement and communication, to foster a more balanced and effective leadership approach within Amazon.

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Leadership and governance
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Introduction
Leadership plays an important role in gaining the competitive advantages for the
contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that quality of the leaders helps in
determining the future business effectiveness of the organizations. In the recent time there are
number of instances where it is seen that skills of the leaders helped the business organizations in
gaining brand value and opportunities in the global market. One of the major instances is the
founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. He is known for his visionary skills and leadership qualities,
which helped Amazon to become one of the leading brands in the world and Jeff Bezos became
the richest person in the world (Keeton 2018). However, on the other hand, Jeff Bezos also faced
a number of criticisms for his leadership approach. Thus, evaluating the leadership approach of
Jeff Bezos will help to identify the importance of leadership for the business. This essay will
discuss about the theories of leadership along with other elements such as diversity and change
management. The leadership qualities of Jeff Bezos will be critically analyzed against these
theories. In addition, positive and negative factors in the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos will
also be discussed.
Concept of leadership
According to Long et al. (2014), transformational style of leadership is one of the most
popular and widely used leadership approaches being followed in the current time. This denotes
the process of involving the employees in the decision making process of the company and the
welfare of the employees is being given the major concentration. In addition, as per the authors,
transformational leaders are visionary and they are having the capability to lead the innovation
process for further organizational effectiveness. On the other hand, Sharma and Singh (2013)

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stated that laissez-faire leadership style is another approach being followed in the recent time.
This refers to the process of initiating the style of leadership according to the organizational
situation. The authors have also stated that both the servant based and autocratic styles of
leadership are being followed in the laissez-faire leadership style.
Teamwork
Teamwork is one of the major considerations being followed in the current business
scenario. According to Fapohunda (2013), teamwork is important in the current business
scenario due to the reason that contemporary workforce is majorly diverse with having
employees from different social and cultural factors. Thus, with the help of the effective
teamwork, the connection between the employees and the managers will get enhanced and more
collective effort can be promoted. Thus, it is important for the leaders to have the capability of
initiating and promoting teamwork in the organization.
Change management process
Change management process is another important factor in the current business scenario.
This is due to the reason that current business environment is frequently changing and it is
important for the leaders to implement the internal change accordingly. According to Hechanova
and Cementina-Olpoc (2013), leadership and change management are interrelated due to the
reason that effective process of leadership will ensure low level of employee issues. There are
number of probable causes of emergence of resistances from the side of the employees, which
can be mitigated with the help of effective leadership approach.

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Diversity
As discussed in the earlier section, workforce in the organizations is diverse in nature.
This is mainly due to the reason that employees from different social and cultural backgrounds
are working in same workplace. In this case, it is important for the leaders to have the effective
management skills in maintaining the diversity in the organization. According to Martin Alcazar,
Miguel Romero Fernandez and Sanchez Gardey (2013), it is important for the leaders to have the
capability of managing the employees from different sets of social and cultural backgrounds and
leading them without any biasness. In addition, it is also being stated by the authors that the
leader should have the cross cultural skills in order to have effective communication process with
the employees irrespective of their social and cultural differences.
Leadership quality of Jeff Bezos
There are number of different positive and negative aspects being identified in terms of
the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos. According to Collinson and Tourish (2015), there are
different elements can be identified from the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos. One of the major
elements is the visionary skills of him. This is due to the reason that visionary skills of him
helped Amazon to change the existing trend of offline based retailing and initiate the e-
revolution. Thus, this can be concluded that that visionary skill of the transformational leadership
is well aligned with that of the approach of Jeff Bezos. On the other hand, it is stated by
Schoemaker and Krupp (2015) that the vision only approach of Jeff Bezos is also posing
challenges for the employees. This is due to the reason that the visionary skills of him are not
getting matched with some of the stakeholders and they are reluctant in adhering to him.

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It is being reported in the New York Times by Kantor and Streitfeld (2015) that
workplace culture being followed in Amazon is having positive impact on the performance of the
employees. This is due to the reason that Amazon’s workplace culture is providing healthy,
challenging and learning environment for the employees. This is helping in having motivated and
engaged employees in place. It is also beings stated by the authors that having the presence of the
motivated employees is also helping in offering the effective and high quality service to the
customers. However, on the other hand several criticisms are also being stated against this
approach of Jeff Bezos. It is stated by Matthews, Harbin and Daigle (2018) that report of
negative impact of the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos was first reported in the New York
Times. It was stated that the customer first attitude of him is posing issues for the employees due
to the reason that employee welfare is being given lower focus. Thus, it can be concluded that
even though the customer first approach of Jeff Bezos is helping in enhancing the customer
satisfaction level but it affecting the employee management mechanism.
It is also being identified that Jeff Bezos is effective in initiating the change process in the
organization without having any major issues. In addition, the diversity is being maintained
effectively in the organization. According to Taylor (2018), Amazon is having their operations in
good number of countries around the world with having employees from different regions.
However, there are few incidents where the issues related to diversity are being emerged. In
addition, it is also stated by the author that the business approach of Amazon got evolved with
time without facing any resistances from the side of the employees. Thus, it can be concluded
that Jeff Bezos is effective in maintaining the diversity in the workplace and it is denoting his
favorable qualities.

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Conclusion
This essay concludes that Jeff Bezos is having both positive and negative sides in his
leadership style. It is identified that he is good at initiating visionary ideas and determining the
needs of the customers. Thus, the level of customer satisfaction is high in Amazon. However, on
the other hand, it is also being identified that employees are being given less focus in the
workplace and thus it is creating issues among the internal stakeholders. It is also being
identified that Jeff Bezos is also effective in initiating change management and diversity
management in the workplace. It is recommended that Jeff Bezos should promote more
employee engagement in the workplace to overcome the identified gap areas in Amazon. This
will enable Jeff Bezos in becoming a complete leader without having any shortcomings. In
addition, it is also being recommended that Jeff Bezos should enhance the communication
process among the internal stakeholders to ensure that feedback of the employees is being
properly detected.

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Reference
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