AMAZON ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Introduction

Amazon is one of the leading global retailers that sales a range of products. The

company’s success is attributable to its organisational culture. Organisational culture is the

collection of the values, beliefs, practices and expectations that guide and inform the actions

of all the members of an organisation. Therefore, a poor organisational culture would be

detrimental to the company as it interferes with communication and demotivates the staff

effectively reducing the company’s performance. While Amazon’s success is not in doubt,

there are issues regarding the manner in which it treats its employees that have prompted the

need to investigate its culture and how it influences organisational effectiveness and

employee motivation.

About Amazon

Amazon is one of the “Big Five” technology companies in the world, a status it shares

with Facebook, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft. The Company was founded in 1994 by Jeff

Bezos and had its IPO in 1997 after which it began a rapid expansion drive. However,

Amazon’s corporate culture has recently been described by the media as “killer company

culture, a “bruising workplace” and a “brutal work culture” effectively bringing to question

the company’s culture. This is despite it referred to itself as a company for the pioneers and

boasting of one of the best recruitment strategies in the world where individuals are hired in a

competitive manner.

Models of Organisational Culture

There are different models that can be used to explain organisational culture including

Schein’s culture triangle, Deal and Kennedy’s model of organisational culture, and the

Handy’s model of organisational culture. For this presentation, the focus is on the Handy’s
model of organisational culture that classifies organisational culture into four major types

including the person culture, the power culture, the role culture, and the task culture. Each of

these organisational cultures as popularised by Handy exhibit distinct characteristics with

regards to how power is exhibited and the relationships between the different people within

the organisation.

Models of Organisational Communication

Organisational communication can be verbal, non-verbal or textual in nature. There

are three most commonly used models of communication that can help explain the

communication process within an organisation. These include linear model, the transactional

model and the interactional model. The choice of any one or a combination of models

depends with the organisational culture prevalent within the organisation. For this

presentation, we shall focus on the linear model which is often used in bureaucratic

organisations and is usually categorised into either top-down communication or bottom-up

communication. Each of these methods of organisational communication have specific

advantages and disadvantages that organisations that use them seek to exploit.

Models of Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is considered to be a major factor in enhancing reduced

absenteeism, increased retention and profitability. The most common models of employee

motivation include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s 2-factor theory, McGregor’s

theory X and theory Y, McClelland’s need achievement theory, Human relations approach

and Vroom’s expectancy theory among others. For this presentation, we shall focus on the

human relations approach and the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s theory argues that

there are five categories of human needs that influence an individual’s behaviour including
physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and self-

actualisation needs.

Amazon Organisational Culture

Amazon exhibits the features of a company with a role and task culture. Power in a

role culture is determine by an individual’s position within the organisation. As the CEO, Jeff

Bezos controls everything at Amazon. His autocratic leadership style aided by the

hierarchical bureaucracy at the company ensures that he makes all the important decisions.

However, the company also has a task culture where individuals are grouped into functional

teams and expected to work on specific areas. The “Two Pizza Rule” and the “Bar Raiser

Programs” ensure effective recruitment of team members and the effectiveness of every team.

Amazon Organisational Communication

Since Amazon has a bureaucratic organisational structure, it makes use of a top-down

communication model where the CEO makes the decisions and communicates them down to

the managers who then communicates them to the junior employees. With this

communication model, Jeff Bezos ensures that he effectively communicates the expectations

of the company to the employees during the hiring process and follows up to ensure that these

instructions are followed. Furthermore, this communication model is supported by the

company’s managerial structure to prevent breakdown in the communication process.

Amazon Employee Motivation

While Amazon claims to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the manner in which it

treats its employees exemplifies the features of the human relations approach to employee

motivation. Bezos applies the Hawthorne effect where he pushes Amazon employees in order

to see them change their behaviour. However, this has had a negative effect on the

employees’ motivation as the working conditions at Amazon are not as ideal. Employees at
Amazon are monitored by sophisticated electronic systems to ensure they are working

throughout. As a result, employees are often treated as machines.

Impact of Amazon’s Organisational Culture on Organisational Effectiveness

The organisational culture at Amazon promotes organisational discipline, efficiencies

and ease of delegation. Furthermore, the use of the “Two pizza rule” ensures that teams are

effectively constituted to achieve the organisational goals. Furthermore, this culture ensures

that organisational effectiveness as there is a centralised decision-making process and

decisions are communicated vertically. However, this culture stifles innovation, and may

have interpretive challenges. Furthermore, the slow decision-making processes in role

cultures is another drawback that affects its effectiveness as the organisation is less likely to

take risks.

Impact of Amazon’s Organisational Culture on Employee Motivation

When the employee reviews of Amazon on Indeed are compared to other “Big Five”

companies, it is evident that the employees at Amazon are less satisfied. This is because the

company takes the employees to be machines and therefore has unrealistic expectations of the

employees. Furthermore, the company’s human resource management does not provide

employees with effective work-life balance and good working conditions. These factors have

negative impacted Amazon’s employees’ motivation. Most reviews by the company’s former

and current employees point towards the long working hours and the poor work conditions at

Amazon.

Recommendation for Amazon

In order to Amazon to ensure sustainable performance going forward, the company

needs to implement a number of recommendations. First, Amazon needs to consider

implementing a humanistic human resource management strategy that focuses on people.

employees as a strategy to attain improve effectiveness and performance. Secondly, the

company should consider to developing effective support networks to ensure employees

achieve effective work-life balance. This will enhance employee motivation as the company

will be able to improve working conditions and view employees as people and not machines.

Finally, Amazon should consider the use of a bottom-up communication approach in order to

incorporate its employees in the decision-making process. This will make employees feel

valued and therefore motivate them to better performance.

Conclusion

Amazon is one of the leading online retail companies in the world. The company has

a long history of providing customers with a wide range of retail products. Amazon’s success

can be traced back to its role and task cultures and the use of top-down linear communication

strategy. However, there are challenges that the organisation is currently facing and which are

associated with its organisational culture. Solving these challenges require the use of a

humanistic human resource management strategy, the applicable of a bottom-up

communication strategy and the development of effective support networks for its employees

to achieve work-life balance.