A Study of Motivation Management and its Impact on Amazon

This essay examines motivation management strategies employed by Amazon, focusing on the application of expectancy theory and social interdependence theory. It discusses how Amazon's approach, including its ranking system, impacts employee motivation and productivity. While the company's financial power allows for various incentives, the subjective nature of motivation, as highlighted by expectancy theory, presents challenges. The essay critiques Amazon's performance-based ranking system, suggesting it fosters competition rather than collaboration, leading to high labor turnover and potentially hindering overall productivity. The essay concludes by recommending a shift away from the ranking system towards a more collaborative environment where managers can better understand and address individual employee needs, ultimately improving productivity and profitability.

Running head: MOTIVATION MANAGEMENT IN AMAZON
MOTIVATION MANAGEMENT IN AMAZON
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1MOTIVATION MANAGEMENT IN AMAZON
Founded in the year 1994 as an online book retailer, Amazon.com quickly rose to
fame and, with its vast repertoire of products and other facilities, is currently one of the major
powers dominating the tech industry all around the globe. Its major competitors in the market
include Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple.
The theoretical frameworks that are knowingly or unknowingly integrated by the
managers within the business processes of Amazon, while on one hand, gives it a leading
edge over its competitors on several aspects, at the same time, they are not completely
without faults. The ‘expectancy theory’ popularised by Victor Vroom states that the
behaviour of an individual is shaped by the element of motivation that that the individual
feels would be provided by that work (Lloyd and Mertens 2018). This theory has a nuanced
application as it is based on the choice of behaviour which would motivate a particular
individual, and this motivational quotient varies across individuals. The theory consists of
three major elements – firstly, ‘expectancy’ which takes into consideration the effort given by
the employee to perform properly, the second element deals with the outcome of that
performance, whether it is good or bad for both the organization as well as the individual
employee, and thirdly, ‘valence’, that is the prospect of a reward (Miner 2015).
In Amazon, the rewards and incentives are often advantageous in motivating the
workers to participate in activities and perform well. But, for this, the management of the
company has to have a solid knowledge about the desires of all the employees, which is
extremely difficult to fathom for a company as big as Amazon (Grant 2016). With its huge
financial power, Amazon has the capability of offering any resource that would help to eke a
better productivity from the employees. However, since the ‘Expectancy Theory’ is an
extremely subjective phenomena, varying from person to person, there lies the disadvantage
of its applicability to the work culture of Amazon. The managers may neglect important
employee issues, making wrong decisions as motivational measures due to inaccurate

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understanding of the individual needs. This inaccuracy may also be a result of considering the
needs of all the employees taken together, rather than that of individuals. These wrong
decisions risk a subversive impact on the employees, which may lead to burnouts, thereby
severely affecting the company’s goodwill.
Amazon also makes use of ranking system based on the performativity of the
employees, whereby the employees are often numbered based on their performances, and
those with low productivity are sent to performance improvement programs, from which they
hardly ever return (Kantor and Streitfeld 2015). From the perspective of Social
Interdependence Theory, it can be seen that while this slack numbering system helps in
screening the talents, at the same time, it is highly demotivating for the employees in terms of
their trust with the company. There is an environment of competition rather than that of
collaboration within the company. Amazon experiences a high rate of annual labour intake. It
is ironical that these shifts are done only to improve the productivity of the company,
whereas, the rapidity of change takes a toll on the productivity itself.
Therefore, in conclusion, it is recommended for Amazon to give up the slack system
of ranking, and managers be taught to cooperate and help an employee develop over a
considerable period of time. This would help managers to judge and determine motivational
standards for individual employees by creating a collaborative working environment, thereby
increasing the rate of productivity and profitability of the company.

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Reference List
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley &
Sons.
Kantor, J. and Streitfeld, D., 2015. Inside Amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising
workplace. New York Times, 15, pp.74-80.
Lloyd, R. and Mertens, D., 2018. Expecting More Out of Expectancy Theory: History Urges
Inclusion of the Social Context. International Management Review, 14(1).
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and
leadership. Routledge.