Leadership and Management in Amazon: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of leadership and management practices within Amazon, examining the distinctions between the roles of leaders and managers. It explores the application of various leadership theories, such as situational leadership and system management theory, in the context of Amazon's operations. The report investigates the impact of different factors within the business environment, including productivity, employee turnover, and goal determination, on the effectiveness of leadership and management. It also highlights the key approaches to operational management, such as Six Sigma and Lean management, and assesses the importance of operational management in achieving business objectives. Furthermore, the report discusses the external and internal factors influencing operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers within Amazon. The report also includes the case study of "The Death of Supply Chain Management" by Allan Lyall, Pierre Mercier, Stefan Gstettner.

Management and Operation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1 .................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Difference between the role of leader and function of manager............................................1
LO2..................................................................................................................................................2
P2 The role of leader and function of manager in different situations........................................2
P3 Theories and models of approach ........................................................................................3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................4
P4 The key approaches to the operation management and the role that leaders and managers
play..............................................................................................................................................4
P5 Importance and value of operation management in achieving the business objectives.........4
LO4 .................................................................................................................................................5
P6 The factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management
and decision making by leaders and managers ..........................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is the management of the various functions of the company. It
includes the formation and managing of the employee the policies, procedures and the rules to be
followed by the company. On the other hand management of the company have to controls and
plans the formulated by the owners and directors of the company. This report contains study on
the operation management, role of leader and function of manager of the company named
Amazon. Given here is the case study of the Title: The Death of Supply Chain Management by
Allan Lyall, Pierre Mercier, Stefan Gstettner. In the light of this case we will study the theories and
the approaches relating leadership. Role of leader and manager in operation management.
Further the factors affecting business environment and there decision making by the leaders and
the managers.
LO1
P1 Difference between the role of leader and function of manager.
Leader is a person in any organisation who creates a team and guide them in achieving
the specified goals in the organisation to help with the smooth functioning of the organisation.
Leader makes sure that there should be proper involvement of the employee in the organisation
goals. Leaders are responsible for the effective outcome by the employees of the Amazon(Boyle,
Western Digital Technologies Inc, 2016).
Manager in Amazon is a authorised person by the organisation who is responsible for the
completion of the work by the employees in the organisation. Manager guides and set targets for
the employee and control the functioning of the company. Managers assigns the work to the
employees, checks the quality standards designed by the company. Managers are inter mediator
between the company and the workers of Amazon.
Basis Leaders Managers
Objective Leaders have the main
objective to guide the
employees in Amazon.
Managers are responsible for setting
the goals for the employee within
the Amazon.
Relation
with
employee
Leaders are the guides and
motivates the employee for
the work and accomplishing
Managers of Amazon control and
evaluate the performance of the
employees under them.
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goals of Amazon.
Goals Leaders have a prime goal of
achieving the overall goals of
the Amazon.
Managers have goals regarding the
completion of work by the
employees of Amazon.
Key role Leaders motivates and guides
the employees of Amazon.
Managers of the company plan and
control the work given to
employees and report to the
authorities.
M1
Situation leadership is the theory of leadership developed by Kenneth and Paul Heresy.
The theory defines that the managers and the leaders relating to the employees in the
organization must change their standards and rules to fit in the development process of their
respective employee(Flake,Western Digital Technologies Inc, 2017).
The system management theory determines that the management of Amazon make a
proper balance in the management system.
D1
Decisional role- This defines the role of the organization to make decisions on the
procedures and policies. Amazon can make the decision in regards to the actions of employees.
Interpersonal roles- These are the studies on the employee behaviour , family
values ,personalty and the lifestyle. Amazon can make decisions according the employees
standards.
LO2
P2 The role of leader and function of manager in different situations
The various factors which effect the company and roles of leader and manager in
managing them-
 Low productivity- The manager of Amazon can evaluate the problem areas in low
productivity by the employees and the leaders can motivate the employees by assisting
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training and improved technology(Jabbari-Sabet, Moghaddas-Tafreshi and Mirhoseini, S.
S., 2016).
 Employee turnover- In this case managers of Amazon can allot and divide the work so
that no burden on specific persons. And the leaders by talking to the employees give
moral support to the employee and know the reasons of the employee leaving the
company.
 Determining goals – The manager of Amazon can determine and direct the target to the
employee and leaders helps in achieving the same by motivating and making the goals
clear for the employee so that the work done by the employees are appropriate and there
will be timely completion of the works(Kanellos, Anvari- Moghaddam and Guerrero,
2016).
Thus the managers and the leaders plays a key roles in the functioning of the the
organizations and collectively achieving the organizational goals of Amazon . The directors or
the owners of the Amazon set goals for the managers and the leaders.
P3 Theories and models of approach
The task involves the various theories and approach to study the Amazon aspects of the
organization and there goals. These theories have been used to show there impact on the
functioning of the Amazon.
Situational leadership theory is a theory studied and derived by Paul Hersey and Ken
Blanchard which studies the organisation behaviour and plan accordingly for the employees of
the company. Amazon enable to relate with the theory and evaluate the organizational
characteristics. The theory suggest that the employees should be evaluated according to there
performance and given the work accordingly by there managers(Kishor and et.al., 2018).
System theory is a leading theory in the management which consist of an open or closed
system,where a closed system is affected by the surroundings while open system is not affected
by the environment. Amazon uses the theory to make decisions on the problems of the company.
It can concentrate on the customer behaviour and interest so that there will be increased supply
of services by the company.
Contingency theory denotes the purposes of decisions. Amazon make decisions
according to there goals. According to the contingency theory the employees can have a
transparent seeing of the policies, procedures and the rules so that employee act accordingly.
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Employee should know the companies goals thereby creating a clarity of work at personal as
well as company level of the Amazon(Liu, C.and et.al., 2017).
M2
Strengths Weakness
Increases productivity Evaluation techniques
Quality product Control operation
Maximize profit Competitors
More return High cost of management
LO3
P4 The key approaches to the operation management and the role that leaders and managers play
Operation management is the management process of controlling and designing the
operations of the company and determining the very cost effective and less costly method to
operate the business. It involves the adoption of various types of techniques by Amazon to
increase the productivity and profit . Operation management by keeping a control on the
productivity ensures that there is proper and effective utilization of the Amazon available
resource and there by helping the company in achieving the organizational goals
managers are the person who are prime responsible for the operations of he employee in
the company it ensures the production process is not hurdled any smooth running of the the
process . Managers assign the task and job to the employee and checks control on the functioning
of there work allotted (9 Differences Between Being A Leader And A Manager, 2016).
Leaders on the other hand are the motivators and helps employees to accomplish there
personal as well as organisational goal .Leaders help in amazon by evaluating the problems of
the company Amazon and assisting the guidelines to solve the respective problems. As there is
more employee turnover ratio the leaders can communicate with the employees and motivate
them to work for the company. Leaders ensures the healthy environment in the
organisation(Pavlineri, Skoulikidis and Tsihrintzis, 2017).
The various approaches are -
 Six Sigma- These are the statistical tools and techniques which detects and reduces the
error in the policies and procedures of the organization.
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 Lean management- This is a approach which focuses on the continuous improvement and
incremental changes in the organization.
 Total quality management- This approach focuses on customer satisfaction and improved
services.
P5 Importance and value of operation management in achieving the business objectives
Operation management plays a very important role in the success of business. Operation
management starts from the initial level of management and applies till the top of
management .It manages controls,evaluates and interpret the various functions of the companies
structure. It ensures that there should be high productivity and low cost of the product in
Amazon.
These are the importance of the operation management-
 Price- operation management help increase the price of the product and with effective
management lower the price of raw materials in Amazon.
 Quality- It helps in quality check of the product thus produced in the Amazon, the quality
is being evaluated time to time (Ruan, J. and et.al., 2019).
 Time- operation management along with the leadership helps creates punctuality in the
organization by the efficient use of time.
 Flexibility- it ensures the flexibility of the policies of the Amazon .
 Stock availability- As management process which increase the flow of productivity there
is more stock available in the organization.
 Environmental impact- operation management reduces the impact of business on the
environment which are adverse and harmful to the environment , it involves various
policies and procedures to be followed by the Amazon so that there will be no harm to
the environment(White, P.R., 2016).
M3
Managers and leaders of Amazon can effectively increase the operation management by
ensuring that there is proper use of the management and policies so that there can be more profit
and Amazon can reach the achievement by the proper planning and integration of that planning.
Managers set goals and objectives for the operation management while the leaders help them to
accomplish the goals set by them,leaders are the key role persons who act as the supports to the
employee and the management of the Amazon(Boyle, Western Digital Technologies Inc, 2016).
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D2
The various factors that effect that impact on business environment are the availability of
the raw materials , labour , the business environment , policies and procedures and the techniques
used in Amazon the external factors include the competitors, related business parties, socio-
economic factors of the country. Also there is impact of political factors on the operation
management of Amazon(Jabbari-Sabet, Moghaddas-Tafreshi and Mirhoseini, S. S., 2016).
LO4
P6 The factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision making by leaders and managers
There are certain reasons relating to the business which effect the management of the
Amazon. The factors can be external and internal. External factors are not related to the inner
surroundings of the organization and relates to the external environment like political factor,
social factor, economic factor and also includes competitors of the Amazon. The internal factors
include the decisions of the organization, workers, the availability of the raw material, product
market and the level of productivity.(Flake,Western Digital Technologies Inc, 2017)
The different factors that effect management and the decisions of leaders and managers-
 Culture: Culture influence the business environment to great extent, if culture is not
heathy then employees will not be able to perform their work effectively. That will
hamper efficiency of operations.
 Ethics and values: it is essential for business to follow ethics an maintain values. In the
absence of this, business will not be able to conduct operations smoothly.
 CSR: company is required to fulfil its corporate responsibility that will be beneficial in
order to manage its work effectively.
 Company objectives- management works in the outlines of the company objectives
thereby leaders help in guiding the employees of Amazon.
 Financial position- Financial position of Amazon effect the decisional making of
Amazon by the managers, they have to determine the cost and profit relation from their
operations.
 Workforce- If the workforce in Amazon is skilled and qualified there will be less hurdles
in the process of the company and leaders and managers can well explain them
6

 Economic environment- The economy of the country effects major on the functioning of
the Amazon(Liu, C.and et.al., 2017).
 Technical change- Managers by implementing the technical changes can increase the
profitability.
 Legal and environmental change- legacy of the organisation also have wider impact on
the management operations.
M4
These factors effect the decision making of the Amazon and the business. While taking
the decisions management have to be very careful and evaluates its pros and cons by them . The
major factor which effect the company is the customer base and timely delivery of the goods and
services which contains technical, financial and workforce changes(Ruan, J. and et.al., 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report based on the company Amazon we conclude that both managers
and the leaders of the company are the key persons of the company , we have studied the role of
managers and the functions of leaders. The difference between role of manager and functions of
leaders of Amazon. Further theories and approaches of system leadership, situational leadership
and the contingency leadership have been evaluated for the Amazon. Then the study of
operations management and the role that leaders and managers play in Amazon. The factors
within the business environment that impact upon operational management and decision-making
by leaders and managers. Thus with this report we conclude that mangers play an important role
by managing the employee and the operations whereas leaders guides and assists the employees
and the managers to accomplish collective goals by them. The decision-making of the Amazon ,
effects the operation management along with the leaders and managers of the company.
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