Leading and Managing Change: VUCA Environment & Amazon Report

This report analyzes Amazon's approach to leading and managing change, particularly in response to the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) environment. The report begins with an introduction outlining the context of organizational change and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies like Amazon. It then provides an overview of Amazon, followed by an examination of the effects of the VUCA environment on corporate strategies and management practices, including the company's response to volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The report further explores how VUCA has influenced Amazon's business approaches to both planned and unplanned change. It includes an example of recent changes within Amazon, such as changes in employee scheduling and customer service. The report then investigates the ways Amazon's business policies and practices have evolved to support employees and minimize resistance to change. Finally, the report offers recommendations to support the business in navigating ongoing changes, followed by reflections from group members and a conclusion summarizing the key findings.

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LEADING AND MANAGING CHANGE

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Table of Contents
Part A.........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
About the Company...............................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Effect of VUCA environment on corporate strategies and management practices...............4
How this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned change.................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................6
An example of a recent or current change.............................................................................6
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................7
Ways that business policies and practices evolve to support employees and minimize
resistance to change................................................................................................................7
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations to support the business............................................................................8
Part B........................................................................................................................................10
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 1......................................................................10
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 2......................................................................11
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 3......................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................14

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Part A
Introduction
From past two years due to the pandemic situation companies are basically reconsidering
their items as well as amenities assortment to get better as well as rectify the racism from the
low level. Change in organization is not a new concept and many a times it has been seen that
change impacted the overall functioning of the company in a huge manner. Thus it can be
said that change is constant whether any sort of situations comes in. Due to the covid
situation a lot of big companies like Amazon is implementing various changes in order to
cope up with the pandemic situation. Change management in this case can be be illustrated as
the ways as well as manner within which a particular organization explains as well as
executes the alterations inside the company’s functioning.
So, it can be depicted from the above discussion that one of the main reason behind
conducting this study is to show how Amazon companies is dealing with the mentioned
situation and what sort of changes they have implemented to correct their present working
condition to deal with the covid situation. Based on the entire discussion few
recommendations will also be provided so as to better deal with the changes implemented in
the company.
About the Company
Amazon which is in general known as Amazon.com.Inc is America’s one of the biggest
multinational organization which is entirely e-based, cloud computing as well as also use
artificial intelligence in its business functioning. Amazon Company is denoted as one of the
most powerful financial as well as social forces across the globe. The owner of the company
Jeff Bezos established this company in the year 1994. At first the company was only dealing
with internet business sector for books. After few years it has included almost every segment
within its functioning. In the recent years it has also included entertainment segment namely
the Amazon Prime videos, Amazon music etc. Currently Amazon is issuing books by means
of using its Amazon publishing center (Inc.,Amazon.com, , 2022).

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Task 1
Effect of VUCA environment on corporate strategies and management
practices
The world of business has changed dramatically in the past few years as there is a
connected society of people where the change is considered to be the most fast as well as
unpredictable. VUCA mainly represents the tough or challenging situations that are faced by
the business within the marketplace. VUCA represents volatility, uncertainty, complexity,
and ambiguity. In the present situation, due to Covid, there is a massive increase in volatility
in the corporate strategies of Amazon as there is an increase in demand and the company
paying more attention to the process of advertising. It has a huge impact on the strategies of
business as well as management practices due to the changes in a marketplace where people
are changing their dynamics about purchasing very frequently (Millar, Groth, and Mahon,
2018). Further, the VUCA environment also includes uncertainty where the present is unclear
for Amazon and the future is uncertain as it can lead to work against the strategies of the
business. There is an increase in purchasing power of customers as the digital infrastructure
also becomes sophisticated where the consumer market helps Amazon to diversify the stream
of revenue which considers as a growth in the different marketplace. The different issues
affect the management practices of Amazon as it highly affects the performance level of
employees at the workplace.
In addition to this, another element of the VUCA environment is the complexity that
is one of the major elements for any business like Amazon and its practices. The effect of
complexity is excessive competition needs a change in business strategies and development
in the activities for managing the practices of business. However, the typical approach is also
followed by the business that mainly includes analyzing the low competition products as it is
extremely rare to find the products. It is important to make certain decisions on the
complexities as it highly impacts the corporate strategy of Amazon and plans according to the
negative aspects of the system. Further, ambiguity is another aspect of the VUCA
environment that there is a presence of ambiguity and it is considered a challenge for
decision-makers (Persis, and et.al., 2021). It mainly eliminates the ability to put certain
approaches of standardization in Amazon. However, the global economy has been influenced
by the emergence of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) economies. In the
era of VUCA, the traditional strategies of a handful of large corporations to expand their
market share and profits are no longer sufficient to succeed. The key to corporate survival

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and prosperity in the VUCA era is to adopt adaptable and flexible strategies that can respond
to changes in the market and business conditions. One such example is how Amazon, the
world’s largest online retailer, has reacted to the emergence of VUCA for dealing with the
situation. Thus, the VUCA environment highly affects the management practices and
corporate strategies of Amazon and needs to overcome issues by planning changes in the
organization (Chawla, and Lenka, 2018).
How this has influenced business approaches to planned and unplanned
change
In earlier decades, companies have been able to predict the impact of planned changes such
as new products or services, or changes in government regulations. Today, however,
companies face a new set of challenges, known as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and
ambiguous) environments. These environments are characterized by sudden and unexpected
changes such as geopolitical events, unplanned consumer behavior technological innovations.
As a result, companies today are unable to predict the impact of planned changes and must
adapt to a rapidly changing environment. The activities of VUCA affected the business
approaches of Amazon and its planned activities which lead to a negative aspect in the
business activities (Vuillermin, and Huck-Sandhu, 2022). The company is mainly considered
as the fastest decision making and it can make changes along with adopting the varied
circumstances. It highly affects the business approaches of Amazon by making changes in the
long term as well as a short-term planning. The elements directly or indirectly affect the
planned change of business as it takes more time to develop new strategies that can deal with
the processing.
The world is becoming a more volatile, complex, and ambiguous place. It is becoming
increasingly difficult to predict how future events will unfold and how they will impact the
way we live, work and do business. The pace of change has increased exponentially and
continues to accelerate. The result is that organizations are being forced to change the way
they approach change and cope with its many forms (Tuczek, and et.al., 2022). Traditional
business models have been challenged by the unique economic, social, and environmental
conditions of the past few years is called “VUCA” – which stands for volatility, uncertainty,
complexity, and ambiguity. In response to these conditions, many organizations have
redefined the way they do business. The ability to respond quickly to change has become a
competitive advantage. The pace and scale of transformation have required new ways of
thinking about and doing business. In a VUCA world, traditional approaches to planned

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change are no longer enough. Amazon has had to adapt its business to changing customer
needs and the ever-changing environment in which it operates. One example of this is
Amazon’s Prime Air delivery program. The program was first into deliverable of delivering
packages within 30 minutes of ordering (Kolga, 2021). Thus, it is important to deal with
changing environment and analyze the issues to manage the work pressure and create a
valuable impact on the business activities. The complex areas of Amazon need to be managed
according to the planning and make changes within the area of expertise to deal with the
changes. It helps to achieve growth and development with changes and situation can be better
for the future activities. One of the major challenges that Amazon faces today is the
uncertainty caused by the fast pace of business and technology changes, which are often
referred to as VUCA environments (Wannakrairoj, and Velu, 2021).
Task 2
An example of a recent or current change
The number of Amazon retail workers on fixed schedules has dropped by more than 50%,
according to a recent report. This is one of the changes to Amazon that have been a result of
the data collected from Covid. The reduction of fixed schedules is particularly noteworthy
since it has been shown that these schedules help to improve employee satisfaction and
retention. This is particularly important for employees who work in customer service
positions, where consistency is key. Amazon has recently changed how it ranks Covid's
customers in its search results, giving an unfair advantage to the company's existing
customers and leading to higher prices for new customers. This change hurt customer choice
and competition and is an example of how Amazon's constant favoritism for its products
harms consumers. The change occurred because Amazon was paying more for additional
customer data as the company has grown and has relied more on AI to recommend products.
This preference for data over human customer interactions is evident in other ways as well,
such as Amazon's apparent disregard for customer feedback.
Amazon was a pioneer when it came to the use of video in e-commerce. Today, Amazon is a
leader in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the customer
experience and increase conversion rates. Amazon's goal is to provide the best possible
experience to their customers, which requires constant iteration and improvement. In the past,
Amazon has changed the way customers search for products, the way they browse and search
for products, and the way they buy products (Amarantou, and et.al., 2018).

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Amazon has recently changed its corporate assembly so that it is now a parent
company, rather than a “Delaware-based holding company,” in the words of Amazon CEO
Jeff Bezos. The change is designed to reduce the company’s need for the U.S. monetary
system, which is conquered by banks that are frequently slow to fund or deliver loans to
small and medium-sized businesses. Jeff Bezos, who remains the company’s largest
shareholder, said that the alteration had the primary purpose of increasing the company’s
“ability to invest in customers and services.” The new structure will also remove Amazon
from the controlling oversight of the SEC, which is designed to protect investors but slows
down the aspects of investments. Further, another change includes that it seems in the past
few years they have been making a lot of major changes in their company. This activity is to
develop their consumer service and make their personnel happier. They have started using
more technologies in the company for tracking the shipments based in real-time
(Charoensukmongkol, and Phungsoonthorn, 20). They have also employed more people to
help with the increased customer service. The company’s culture has evolved to become
more inclusive. For example, Amazon recently announced that it would grant bonuses to
employees who work on the day after Thanksgiving. Thus, changes are considered a major
part of business in motivating employees as well as enhancing productivity.
Task 3
Ways that business policies and practices evolve to support employees and
minimize resistance to change
In the past, organizations have changed in ways that have been difficult for employees to
adapt to. The introduction of new business processes and technology at Amazon has required
employees to change their behavior and approach to work, often requiring them to adopt new
skills and find new ways to perform their duties as per changes in the market due to Covid.
This is often referred to as change resistance, or the reluctance of employees to adopt new
ways of doing things. For example, the automation of many business processes has required
employees to become more proficient and efficient at performing their duties, even if their
role has changed and the new process is less familiar.
The need to adapt organizational policies and practices to better support employees has
become increasingly apparent as Amazon has attempted to navigate the market and evolving
expectations about work-life balance. One of the most common ways that Amazon has
attempted to support employees is to better understand how their policies and practices might

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be viewed as limiting by employees. This has resulted in several modifications, from
increased flexibility in when and where employees work to the acceptance of new
technologies that permit workers to be more productive from remote locations. Traditional
business cultures have not been well suited to the needs of employees who experience
chronic stress. The demands of the modern workplace including constant change, tight
deadlines, and multiple priorities can be difficult to manage for anyone, but they are
especially challenging for those who experience chronic stress (Sadq, and et.al., 2018).
Unfortunately, resistance is often viewed as a negative and even a fatal part of the change
process.
The step of change in the workplace has increased dramatically in the past few years. New
business processes and practices are being introduced faster than ever, and employees are
being asked to adapt to these changes more quickly than ever before. This rapid pace of
change has not been easy for everyone to manage. In some cases, employees have found
themselves resisting change, even when they understand the benefits that it can offer the
company. In the past, businesses were often resistant to change. They were set up to succeed
the way they did decades ago and didn’t want to change with the times. Today, businesses are
under greater pressure to change and adapt than ever before. This is particularly true for large
organizations, which are often called on to provide new and better services to their customers.
Task 4
Recommendations to support the business
In this report, a company like Amazon wants to grow its business that requires strategic
decisions along with managing practices of business. The more use of technology within the
business has resulted in a more competitive marketplace. There is a need to be able to access
information quickly and on an ongoing basis. Technology is the key to gaining a competitive
advantage within the e-commerce market. Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce
platforms and it is recommended that the company need to expand the channels of
communication and it is a major challenge to overcome. Further, provide training different
people for the various platform for considering the changes in tasks for the business
(Kalenda, Hyna, and Rossi, 20).
In addition to this, another recommendation is to be better supported to enable it to be
more agile, receptive, and innovative. In this section, we recommend supporting the business
activities of Amazon to continue its current strategy and roadmap. This includes developing a

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roadmap that supports the e-commerce market with verticals and focuses on delivering based
on the needs of customers. It is recommended to focus on core strengths and capabilities that
enable the company to deliver on its promise. It is essential to provide a variety of products
with a more limited product line, to ensure maximum focus and investment on delivering on
the company’s potential that helps to build a potential team at the workplace.
Our recommendation is to support the business to enable it to invest further in its
international expansion, including in Ireland, where it will continue to focus on the dairy and
foodservice businesses. This will allow the business to continue to deliver targeted and
meaningful benefits to shareholders and provide the platform to further accelerate its
international expansion. In this section, we recommend that you consider the following topics
to help guide your decisions around the future of your business. We also provide links to
additional information that may be helpful to you. This is intended to be a starting point for
your discussions, not an exhaustive list. We recommend that you work with your marketing
and sales teams to determine the best path for your business moving forward. The recent
changes at Amazon help in identifying future expansions and the need to deal with
technologies and enhance knowledge with capabilities.
In this report, we discuss the key findings from our review of the business and operational
strategy, our recommendations to support the business, and our outlook for the business. We
also discuss our view of the factors that may affect the company’s financial results. Finally,
we offer our view of the factors that we believe could enhance the company’s financial
performance. Supporting the business, and community, through the COVID-19 pandemic has
been an important part of Amazon’s mission to evaluate the activities of the business.
Further, the faster changes in business need proper decision-making activities by the team
members as they lead to work experience (Liao, and Ai Lin Teo, 2018). The company should
empire the online shoppers as per the knowledge base with an online help center which helps
to solve the problems regarding customer’s services. It is also recommended to target first
contact resolution that has a direct impact on the capability of the team that manages the
customer base. However, it can be impactful for managing customer satisfaction as there are
many customers of Amazon who rely only on their business. Thus, all of the
recommendations are required to be considered for the welfare and growth of business and
crack new deals in the future with more technologies.

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Part B
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 1
In terms of own role in the submission, it is clear that group work always plays an important
role in completing the activities. The above done report has been done by three of our group
members where we have the main role is to analyze the different activities and corporate
strategies of Amazon and get more knowledge for completing the assignment. Further, being
the group leader I follow some scope of work that helps three of us to define the process
which creates a valuable impact on the activities of the report. We three were all active
participants in the discussions regarding the leading change that helps the company to grow
and we support each other to get ideas. I always share my opinion with the other team
members and after discussion; we implement it in the project. In addition to this, my
knowledge about leading and managing change within an organization helps to contribute
towards the report and identifying approaches for planning changes. It also includes
providing information about the current changes where I research Amazon and its business
policies for handling the changes. The preparations of the report include the involvement of
our group members that helps in taking appropriate decisions for the submission. The way of
working of people is different in a group of people as we have to respect each other’s ideas
that create a valuable impact on the process of the report. The report highly required a
learning process and it helps all people to contribute to the assignment which manages the
report in a well-behaved manner. Sometimes we have argued about managing the changes
and it creates a discussion about the issue which affects the environment of working. In
addition to this, my way of working as the main part of my work is on research and
development as I make all research reports for leading and managing change within Amazon.
I always make some reports regarding the discussion with team members to ensure the
process of work that helps to deal with the changing environment. The changes in the
environment affect my dealing ability which directly impacts the business process of the
project. Further, I put the effort into explaining the details of the information that enhance my
knowledge while considering another opinion. I was always ready to share my views related
to current changes in Amazon and I was highly concise about my detailed information which
is beneficial for handling challenging situations. My contribution also includes that I always
work on difficult tasks on priority and consider making changes as per the requirement.
Further, my main motive is always to include my full potential to deal with changing
environment. However, it highly affects my level of working positively and providing

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appropriate information to the team members. The team management is about to give
priorities to all members to share the details for encouraging the activities for leading change
and managing it with solutions. Thus, my role is to enhance the knowledge of each person
within the group so that all people get appropriate attention in the project.
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 2
There are different strengths and weaknesses of working in a team where we were working
on an assignment that includes many aspects of dealing with the situation. Further, my
strength while working in a team mainly includes the understanding of the role of my work
where I understand my role to work in a group by managing duties to the best of my
capabilities. However, weakness includes that sometimes our weakness like giving so much
information in the reports which can affect the quality of the assignment. When you
understand your role, it helps in understanding the solutions which respect the boundaries of
each person. However, multitasking within work is considered to be our major weakness as it
affects the quality of work and reduces balance between the people. In addition to this, the
personal strengths and weaknesses of the team members have bad impacts on the project.
Moreover, the personal strength also includes that we take responsibility for our own
mistakes about leading and managing the changes in Amazon. The report helps us to
understand the disadvantages of the group activities as everyone was keen to take credit for
each during the assignment. Further, our major strength was about the flexibility during the
project and we manage to take any tasks that help us to learn more about managing the work
with the team. Opportunities in the project help us to learn more about the changes made by
Amazon within the business. The strength is about accepting the mistakes within the
assignment and considering it as group work. It encourages my positive attitude towards
working in a group as the process helps to manage the growth of assignments. The strength
also includes increasing morale as well as productivity. However, the weakness of working in
a team involves that there is too much accountability on every person based on the level of
work. The duration of the assignment as long as sometimes team members argued on some
topic that affects our productivity and creates issues on the working level. In addition to this,
weakness also includes that our group discussion takes a long time due to differences of
opinions that affect our relationship and damages the development of work. There are some
positive as well as negative aspects of working in a team and this assignment gives us a
lesson about working together. We consider all of the things as a part of our report and there
is a requirement of an appropriate level of communication. Our teamwork helps us to solve

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the problem within the group by listening to the issues of each other. It is important to deal
with the issues to work in a group as that can affect our performance. Thus, some strengths
and weaknesses help us to manage the working of assignment and its growth for the leading
and managing change at Amazon. Both of the aspects are possible while working with a
group (Marcus, 2020).
Reflection 1: Perspective of group member 3
In this report, there are certain recommendations for self-improvement that help me to grow
in future projects. Personal development skills are significant as they will allow me to
develop some tactics as well as a strategic plan and its growth towards the objectives. I need
to work on communication skills where my ability to speak or anything to listen needs to be
improved for achieving the goals. However, my interpersonal skills affect my ability to build
my relationship with others and make a different impression on others. Further, the activity
also helps us to learn about different aspects of Amazon (Slepcevic-Zach, sand Stock, 2018).
Further, there are certain issues while working on a project as I need to improve on problem-
solving skills and need more courage to face challenging situations as there are many people
who create obstacles and assess them with more patience. In addition to this, an increase in
self-confidence is one of the most important recommendations for me as I believe in abilities,
actions along with decisions. If I have more confidence there are probably more chances of
getting success in any field of work. Further, I need to learn about adaptability which is one
of the most important things while working in a group as we need to accept the opinion and
ideas of each person. However, if I handle change with more confidence it will be easier for
me to accept the situation in a variety of environments and manage personalities for the
project. Further, learn to be more ethical at various practices regarding the actions of people
and assess them more precisely. Further, I need to learn from the feedback from other people
in a group as it will help me to make improvements for further processing. In this report,
leading change is one of the most important aspects for the business that requires a high level
of research, and sometimes it affects the achievement of the goal.
Moreover, I learn that we need to make detailed information about the project with proper
planning as if we move without planning there are many chances of issues. The
recommendations include that I need to make proper planning with priority for impactful
outcomes. We have to concentrate on each task acknowledging the strength and weaknesses
of each other. Further, we need to make appropriate use of the tools and techniques for
delivering the assignment where all of the members need to make full efforts. In addition to

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this, I need to organize, work, and complete tasks in challenging situations that come with
many problems that need to handle with proper collaborations. All of the recommendations
need to be considered as learning so that it helps in managing future situations and
assignments. It keeps motivating me to learn new things which are beneficial for the
enhancement in knowledge and activities. It has had a huge impact on my interpersonal skills
and enhanced my level of understanding for growth in performance. Thus, it is important to
stay a look on own skills which helps in the continuous development of activities.
Conclusion
So, it can be concluded from the study that change management in big companies many a
times brings lots of things to consider so as coping up with any sort of situation. In the case of
Amazon it has been seen that they have implemented few changes considering the VUCA
environment with an intention to deal with the ongoing pandemic situation. Also from the
study it has also been identified that big companies are also facing various complexities due
to covid situation and this creating a major concern. Based on the difficulties and other
challenges identified some of the recommendation has also been provided so as to deal with
the challenges.

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