The New York Times article in this week’s readings discusses culture and leadership at Amazon.
Applying leadership concepts that we have covered so far in this course, what is your perspective on how culture drives results at Amazon?
The article was published in 2015. What evidence do we have of the impact that this kind of press has had on Amazon? Locate and post a more recent news article addressing either:
Steps Amazon has taken to make changes, or
Whether there were unfair biases in the original reporting
DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION: RESPOND TO THESE TWO STUDENTS:
STUDENT 1:
Organizational culture is defined as the beliefs and behaviors that dictates how employees and management interact with each in addition to how the organization interacts with is consumers. The demands to meet the leadership principles at Amazon may have come at a high price but one that Bezos was clearly willing to pay. The shared values should drive innovation and results, it should be competitive and the details by which to achieve this goals should be clearly defined. It should also be stable, people oriented and team oriented; unfortunately the latter did not appear to be a priority over results and profits. The coercive and authoritative styles were clearly the cornerstones of the culture, according to Kantor and Streitfeld employees pushed themselves to unimaginable limits to be the best even if that meant sacrificing not only themselves but also their loved ones. (1) The cannibalistic manor in which the employees were encouraged to behave did not nurture harmony nor loyalty, which was odd because so many people were willing to participate in this toxic culture. I can only assume that the trade off for working on projects at the tech giant was worth the stress and frustration. Perhaps they fully embraced the Customer Obsession principle which made them feel that the torture was for the greater good.
I was horrified to read the case study on Microsoft and was really disappointed with the case study on Amazon. Bezos does not seem to think that he has a culture issue at Amazon, in fact he believes that the stories reported on the culture are somehow reserved to just the fulfillment centers. (2) He stated that there is some work to do but that conditions and pressure is not so nefarious just misunderstood but of course he does not see a problem with the churn and burn processes of employment that he created and fostered. Employees at Amazon are resources and not assets and are treated as renewable resources. A lot of companies have attrition rates but to have it as a measured goal seems sadistic. The Times reported that Amazon intentionally restricted the promotions of hourly employees. (3) I dont think the original article was biased but I do not believe that it went deep enough, it only scratched the surface. Amazon has some problematic practices within their culture and I do not believe that changes are eminent.
1. Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld. August 15, 2015. Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace.
2. Phil Wahba. April 15, 2021. Bezos defends Amazon worker treatment but acknowledges ‘need to do better’
. HTTPS://FORTUNE.COM/2021/04/15/JEFF-BEZOS-AMAZON-WORKERS-UNION-ELECTION-BESSEMER-ALABAMA/
STUDENT 2:
Hello Professor and classmates,
Culture can be the driving force behind innovation and growth for a company, or it can be its very demise. In the New York Times article we read this week, Amazon’s culture was described in one phrase as being akin to a form of “purposeful Darwinism” because of the way the culture was designed to push workers to new limits, meaning only the strongest survived. While this approach may seem too harsh to some and ex-employees can be quoted as having witnessed many grown men crying at their desks, this “survival of the fittest” mentality is what has allowed Amazon to thrive. (1) Some of Jack Welch’s 8 Rules of Leadership are evident within this culture such as continuously upgrading the team through appraisal and coaching and developing an environment that fosters candor, as described in the NYT article as relentless challenging of each other’s ideas in the Amazon office. Jack’s rule about ensuring employees not only see the vision but live and breathe it as well is also evident in Bezos’s leadership principles, or the fourteen rules he requires employees adhere to. (2) Another key driver I noticed while reading was the atmosphere of accountability. There are several different systems of checks and balances built into the workplace. As a manager myself, I can attest to the fact that most employees do their best work when they think someone is watching. Bezos encouraged team members to be the eyes and ears of the company, continuously pushing for better performance and results. (1)
Inc.com published an article by Sonja Thompson in June of 2018 that echoes the continued success of Amazon and credits Jeff Bezos’s relentless focus on company culture as the key driving factor. Thompson mentions operating with high standards and responding to change quickly is what enables Amazon to deliver customer focused results that meet everyday, practical needs. (3) Another article, one written for Linkedin by Bruno Ternon, attributes the 14 leadership principles at the core of Amazon’s culture to the power of forming good habits. By continuous reinforcement of the principles throughout every faucet of daily work, habits became behaviors and behaviors became results. (4) Using these two articles, I would assume perhaps an unfair bias was present in the original reporting.
Jessica Kelly
1. Kantor, Jody. Streitfeld, David. August 15, 2015. Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
2. Welch, Jack. Winning
3. Thompson, Sonja. July 25, 2018. Why Jeff Bezos Puts Relentless Focus on Amazon’s Company Culture | Inc.com
4. Ternon, Bruno. February 18, 2019. How Culture Drives Operational Excellence at Amazon.com (linkedin.com)
