An Analysis of Leadership in Amazon: Value-Based Approaches and CSR

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership within Amazon, focusing on the application of value-based approaches and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It explores the core leadership principles, including self-reflection, balance and perspective, true self-confidence, and genuine humility, and how these principles contribute to the company's success. The report examines how Amazon prioritizes customer obsession, innovation, and ethical practices to build brand loyalty and trust. It also highlights the importance of open communication, employee training, and ethical behavior in fostering a positive and productive work environment. Furthermore, the report discusses the benefits of value-based leadership, such as improved brand image, employee loyalty, and enhanced emotional well-being, concluding that ethical practices and genuine leadership are essential for achieving organizational goals and objectives in the 21st century.

Leadership in 21st Century

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Leadership & CSR.......................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is a procedure of social group influence, which optimize the efforts of others
towards the accomplishment of a common goal of the organization. It is both an investigation
area and an applicable skill embracing the ability of a single, unit or an organization to lead,
impact and guide other members as an individual as well as entire organization. Leadership is an
important function of the management which helps to intensify the fecundity and to accomplish
organizational goals. It is a necessary part and a critical component of effectual management
which helps to increase effectiveness and to achieve organizational objectives. This project will
study about the leadership in the Amazon and how the leaders are doing the practices by using
value based approaches. In addition to value based approach, this project will also highlight the
concept of corporate social responsibility along with its evaluation of approaches of the leaders
in the Amazon.
MAIN BODY
Leadership & CSR
Leadership is not just about the leader, but it is also about the growth and positive change that a
leader can bring about while working with others in an organization or at workplace. Leaders are
identified by their ability to influence the peers, subordinates and stakeholders. Values-based
leaders take influence one step further (Daniëls, 2019). They use leadership to inspire and
motivate others in an effort to make positive changes in an organization and make the world a
better place to run a business. Leadership is a quality that is not only followed by decision
makers but also by every individual contributing to the organization's success. The main thing
that makes the Amazon unique is the leadership principles that lead to decision-making
regarding problem solving, productivity and quality (Rudolph, 2018).
There are four basic principles that form the foundation of value-based leadership philosophy
which describes how they should be applied to create a value-based organization. Four principles
includes Self-reflection, balance & perspective, true-self confidence and genuine humility. Self Reflection:It is essential to regulate one's value, as well as analysing choices and
decisions. Authentic leadership comes from self understanding. Its purpose is to focus on
right things to make choices clearly visible and easier. Without self-reflection, it is
difficult to know what matters the most and on what one have to stay its focused on
(Sengupta, 2019). One of the major benefit of self-reflection to Amazon is that it enables

the managers to take time out and evaluate situations from a comprehensible perspective.
With the help of this, the leaders are able to identify certain decision-making patterns.
Self-reflection helps leaders of the company to prioritize its tasks or decisions and focus
on areas where the organization is most likely to succeed. Amazon engages via different
ways in self-reflection such as keeping a journal. However, the most important practice is
to reserve a time in which the company management and marketing teams cannot share
opinions or additional information about the firm generally known as quiet period where
it is possible to focus on such activities. Balance and perspective:This is the second principle of value-based leadership. With the
help of this principle the individuals take a balanced viewpoint in the organization and
the employees are able to see issues from many perspectives. It helps the leaders of
Amazon to make decisions with better understanding and proper and broad impact. For
this the leaders have to gather inputs from the other team members before making any
decisions and this also creates an image in the mind of the employees that their leaders
are listening to their view points as well. Combination of self-reflection and balance
elevated the leadership on Amazon to higher level. On the other hand, sometimes leaders
hesitate to involve subordinates in decision-making because they feel that employees may
feel dissatisfied if their recommendations or suggestions are not adopted by their leaders.
But it is generally noticed that team members feel satisfied if they are given an
explanation for why a decision was taken by their leaders. In the company, the important
element of balance followed by their leaders is to gather input from team members while
making decisions with a sense of urgency as well. True self-confidence:With the help of true self-confidence leaders are able to recognize
their strengths and weaknesses. Poor decisions taken by the leaders is due to lack of self-
confidence and their hesitation to collect inputs from their team-mates for support.
Leaders self-confidence motivate teams to provide feedback and to challenge other
opinions even of the leader as well. With the help of confident leaders the Amazon leads
the team members of their organization to be the better part of the team and due to this
the leaders also feel that courage to speak up when they feel something wrong while
taking decisions for the organization which ultimately helps the firm to achieve its
objectives and goals in a better way. The advantage of self-confident leaders is that they

create an environment of self- confidence in individuals also which helps them to rely on
other team members with complementary abilities. With the help of self- reflection and
balance the level of comfort and greater understanding achieved by the leaders in
organization which somehow creates a level of self-confidence in the employees.
 Genuine humility:This is the fourth and the final principle of value-based leadership
approach. Leaders of Amazon have adopted this principle to value it's each and every
employee with respect regardless of their title. Generally, it is seen in organizations that
peoples in position of power caught up with their titles and develop inflated egos in
themselves. This particular situation separates them from team and become a target of
criticism in front of everyone. A leader with genuine humility connects well with their
subordinates at every level which ultimately motivates the team to help the leaders to
become successful. To maintain genuine humility within the organization, it is important
to surrounded with the peoples who will relate honestly with the leader and communicate
with them without any hesitation. This practice enables to gather valuable information
from front-line workers. Adoption of genuine humility in the Amazon enables their
leaders to highlight that every person adds some value, and they are not valued only on
the basis of their titles or proportion of their power.
Apart from value based leadership principles few other leadership principles followed by the
Amazon are:
 Customer Obsession: Amazon works on the customer obsession principle according to
which understanding clients and taking their feedbacks on the products are the major part.
This focuses more on the customers' retention by executing brand loyalty to them in order
to gain trust of the consumers. For the company, the customers' lifestyle really matters a
lot. With the help of their values the leaders work efficiently to earn and keep customer
trust.
 Invent and simplify:Leaders always expect innovations from there team members and
look for new ideas from large perspective. But it is also the fact that implementing new
ideas, there is always a threat if it would not connect with the target audience. The only
way to get over this is to introduce user-friendly innovations and an environment in
which the employees share their views without hesitation which creates the involvement
of value based leadership.

 Learn to be curious: This is most important principle for the leaders of Amazon as they
always want something new from their employees for their products. It is the curiosity
which helps the members to work on the achievement of organizational goals and
objectives in a better way.
 Hire and develop the best: Leaders always tries to hire the employees who are
beneficial for their firm and can move the company towards the success of the
organization. The CEO of the Amazon states that interviewing 50 peoples and did not
hire a single person is a better situation than hire a wrong person on the position in the
company (Arnett, 2018).
 Earn trust: Leaders in the Amazon are very much attentive and frank in nature with their
subordinates which creates an environment of not feeling hesitate and embarrassed due to
lack of knowledge. They set their goals and objectives for their team-mates according to
the achievement of the organization overall performance goals. In such way they are able
to gain trust of employees as well as consumers.
 Deep dive: In the Amazon, leaders operate at all levels, audit frequently and are doubtful
when benchmark and reminiscence differs.
 Deliver results: Leaders of the institution concentrate on the key stimulation for their
enterprise and deliver them with the correct quality in a timely manner.
Ethical practices are key to the leadership approach for creating vision in the organization and
making decisions for the accomplishment of objectives and goals of the Amazon. There is a
distinct variation between being just a leader and being a superior (Ciulla, 2020). Where a boss
orders and manages, a leader guides and inspires others. The divergence lies in between how one
make their employees feel and how to view kinship with them. Leaders in the Amazon sees it as
their duty to stimulate, guide and upbringing their employees to help them improve. Ethical
leadership is in one or another context similar to the value-based leadership approach. It is also a
management variety that works for the administration. Ethical practices with respect to value-
based leadership approach are:
 Positive culture: Employees team spirit improves when they work backside an ethical
leader. Leaders in the Amazon have capacity to inspire those working with them to
perform at their peak.

 Improved brand image: With the help of effective leadership in the organization, the
Amazon offers there best to build their brand image in market space.
 Loyalty: Both employees and consumers are more likely to remain faithful to company
that hire ethical and genuine leaders.
 Improved emotional well-being: Workplace space can hurt potency level at a company,
if leadership is noxious, then efficiency power of employees decreases.
Amazon beliefs to create an ethical and value-based environment for their employees
with the help of certain activities at the time of choosing the leaders for the organization and
maintaining them. Hiring people with similar values are most important for the institution (Pinto-
Garay, 2019). Establishment believes that every person is not fit for every company. The
managers need to do a better job, guarantee that they find people who are similar with their
values rather than just hiring them for experience. Another activity is to promote open
communication within the organization. The Amazon feels that open communication should be
pleased by the leaders of the organization to maintain a valuable and balanced environment for
the employees which improves the overall productivity. Providing appropriate training to their
subordinates also effects the environment within the organization as it also helps in sharing the
values among others. Moral behaviour always highlight through training possibilities (Agarwal,
2020).
The successful values based leaders will acknowledge individual and professional beliefs.
Value based leadership is not only about recognizing leaders personal needs for status and fame.
The importance of this leadership style has been identified but the unusual things about such
leaders is the consistency of that behaviour. If the leaders remain consistent with their behaviour
pattern then they come under the consideration of displaying a high degree of selflessness as they
do not impose their personal agendas on their followers. Value-based leaders find personal
satisfaction by providing the opportunity for others to realize their goals and potential. Leaders
who refer the philosophy of value based leadership approach are probably experienced certain
internal benefits such as leaders will be able to make better choices that are comfortable for them
to act upon. Second, the leaders are likely to build better, more trustable and less disagreeable
kinship with their subordinates or followers. Another one is that the leaders are more likely to
feel aligned with their 'authentic self' which means doing work showing authenticity, leading

with humbleness and keeping in mind that we all are human beings and doing the best according
to individual capabilities. Authentic leaders are always taken actions from their highest values.
Corporate Social Responsibility is the crucial concept of management whereby
companies like Amazon integrate environmental and social apprehensions in their operations of
business and their interaction with the various stakeholders (Advantage,2020). In simple words
this concept of CSR is basically understood a manner in which Amazon achieves balance
between the economic, social and environmental imperatives, at the same time conveying the
expectations of its shareholders and stakeholders. It is the type of approach of business to
increase its sustainable development by several benefits. It is the essence that with the help of
CSR, to look beyond the profits of company and pivot on providing the more profits to the
community. In the recent times, CSR the importance of doing something or contributing towards
the society is growing bigger, which means that reputation of the Amazon is based on the feeling
of public. Being one of the largest giant, CSR has become its obligation but contributing towards
its provide Amazon various benefits which are discussed below:
 Customers these days assess the Public image while buying from the company, so it helps
the company in enhancing there Public image. Amazon involves its staff in volunteering
for the charity programmes which reflects that the company is committed and involved in
helping others. This shows customers that it is favourable to consumers.
 It helps Amazon in increasing its brand awareness and recognition, company is
committed towards operating its business in ethical manner (Wang and Sarkis, 2017).
The news of its ethical practices spreads and make people more conscious about its
brand.
 It also uses the practice of recyclable packaging and less material in its packaging, this
ensures that the packaging cost is reduced, minimizing its production costs.
 Doing CSR helps Amazon in providing the competitive advantages over its rivals, this
also helps the company in having standing out in all the e-commerce business and
focusing more social and environmental factors can help company in going one step
further.
 Using CSR increases the customer engagement as consumers purchasing from the
company develops faith that company is taking so many initiatives and facilitate them
with the easiness, employee engagement (Bhardwaj and et.al., 2018). It is observed that

employees' engagement is increased they inclined towards performing better and turn out
to be asset for the company are also and more benefits to employees, using sustainable
systems, strategies and make the workplace environment positive also encourages the
growth of the employees and when the company is focused on the professional growth of
employee, they also put more of their efforts.
 Social good also helps in improving the innovation and collaboration, when the
employees of Amazon engage in the CSR activities of the company, they get to now
more about the potential clients and develop communication skills, enhance their
leadership qualities. Therefore, it can be concluded that these activities are proven to
make the company's management and employees more collaborative and is helpful for
bringing innovation in the company.
There 4 common approaches of CSR that is considered by Amazon in order to become socially
responsible like any other corporate that discussed in detail below:
Obstructive -
Obtrusive can be called as deceitful approach in CSR. Obstruct basically means to block, which
means that this approach is more concerned with the profits. Companies using this approach just
think about making profits, deceive consumers and exploit employees. Being obstructive nature,
this approach is not used by the company.
Accommodating –
This approach of CSR is related to the ethical issue, and in the ethical consideration people and
company can select or choose what is the right and wrong in the particular situation
(Aguinis,Villamor and Gabriel2020). Previously this approach was selected and implemented by
Amazon because it does all its business practices in ethical manner and contribute towards the
society and community willingly as per the (considering) guidance and laws of the different
government in distinct countries. Accommodating is one of the best approaches.
Defensive -
This approach of CSR is not as appalling as the previous obstructive one, corporates using this
approach certainly perform and contribute better in meeting their obligation towards the social
responsibility. Amazon is very concerned about its image and doe not want to involve in any
legal actions considering this factor it does not use this approach as well, its primary objective is
not only earning profit but also contribute towards the communities.

Proactive -
This approach focuses on such business practices that is adopted by some corporates, and they
decide voluntarily to go beyond the regulatory and legal requirements that contributes towards
the sustainable development and contribute broadly and emphatically towards the society. With
the growth of Amazon's business, it realises that it has gained everything from the people and
nature so it is there foremost responsibility towards them (Sánchez, Moránand and Pérez, 2020).
So company decided to go beyond its legal requirements and contribute in all aspects for this
company regularly plan and share their concept of fulfilling social responsibility with its
shareholders and stakeholders.
Being the largest e-commerce giant, Amazon was previously criticized for its lack of
commitment towards the CSR, with the growth of this concept company's executives started to
focus on its obligations towards the environment and communities. Here are few initiatives that
Amazon takes in order to fulfil its obligation towards CSR.
Times of pandemic
Recently, Amazon has developed the fund that is focused on contribution for supporting the
delivery partners and other related stakeholders, facilitate the gifts and donation with the
Amazon Device to the schools that are located towards Amazon's fulfilment centres, it has also
promoted training of coding to the girls by hosting online event and supports the local non-
profits institutions with donations and payments in the hard time of global pandemic of Corona
Virus.
Initiative towards education and empowerment of Workers
Amazon has its career choice programs for workers and employees for which company pays up
to 95% of fee on courses such as air-plane mechanic, nursing etc. and it can be seen this
programs are attended by more than 10k employees globally (Cherry, 2018). Company has
virtual contact centre, enables Amazon's employees who are provides the service to customers
can work from home. It also offered the warehouse workers who can quit to motivate them to
think about what they really want.
Healthy and Safety of all Employees
Amazon takes the complete care about its employees health and security by considering that it
provides the life insurance, health insurance to all and considering the need of an hour Amazon

has recommended all its employees to work from the safety of their homes at the time of Corona
virus for the certain time period.
Consumption of Energy -
The e-commerce and one of the prime cloud computing company Amazon, these days is
profoundly investing huge amount on solar and wind energy in order to reach up-to 80%
renewable energy across all its operations by the end of 2024 and it has the ultimate aim of using
complete 100% renewable energy in its all business activities.
Consumption of Water
In its fulfilment centre, its has the facility of storing and recycling water that is attained from
rainwater or recharge wells. Amazon utilizes the technology of direct evaporative for cooling its
data centres, remarkably minimizing the water consumption and energy protecting resources.
Water depletion and recycling
It has initiated the packaging-free programs in several cities, Amazon ships the products in their
original packaging eliminating any other packaging and taking care that it is delivered safety.
Three years back company also celebrated Frustration-free packaging on its 10th anniversary, it
eliminated tons of packaging substances which also saved its cost of production.
Carbon Emission
The Largest e-commerce retailer, has 44,40 million tons of total carbon footprint last year, it has
pledged to expand its technology and employees to make the company zero carbon till 2040
(Amazon Corporate Social Responsibility, 2020). This is an essential step in direction of to attain
zero-carbon 50% in all its shipments. E-commerce giant has arranged complete-electric vehicles
for delivery purpose and invested 100 million in reforestation project worldwide.
Sustainable Sourcing
Amazon Inc. is the representative of one of the largest cotton organization (BCI), which arrange
the major cotton sustainability program in the world. Company have signed the contract related
to responsive sourcing network's citizen undertaking with certain countries till the pervasive
utilization of government authorization forced labour is stopped.
CONCLUSION
In this report, the concept of leadership in explained in detail which gives the depth
understanding of the value based approach in Amazon that is based on the culture of shared
values with its alignment between the personal values and the company. Ethical practices helps

Amazon in the leadership approaches for creating vision and decision-making. The following
report also addresses the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, Amazon's approach
towards and practices towards achieving it and getting various benefits by contributing willingly
towards economic, social and environmental and making its business sustainable.