Employee Dissatisfaction at Amazon
Amazon is one of the largest retail outlets in the United States of America. Headquartered at the business hub of the world, Seattle, the annual sale of Amazon for the year 2017 was $77, 024, 000 (Spicer, 2018). The CEO of Amazon is Jeff Bezos and he has immense contribution in escalating the company to greater heights. However, some serious issues shrouding the company are employment dissatisfaction regarding the high expectations they face from the management. This in return leads to the difficulty faced by the employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
According to Piazza & Castellucci, (2014), employees in Amazon have been found to be overstressed. A report published in Becker’s hospital review found that Amazon has set an obnoxious standard of performance for the employees. The company boasts of recruiting the best talent for its organization but the major challenge lies in the unrealistic expectations from the management. Bo Olson who has worked with Amazon as a book marketer for a period of two years shared his traumatic experience about his colleagues. He said that throughout his tenure he found the employees being frustrated and agitated due to the onerous nature of work. Amazon has also been criticized for not understanding the ordeals of its employees. Susan Harker, the person responsible for recruiting the employees feel that Amazon is an ambitious and pathbreaking brand and it aims to change the retail game (9 key issues with Amazon’s corporate culture, 2018). Therefore, setting high expectations and pushing the limits of its employees is justified. This aspiration of the brand comes at a great cost of its employees. The constant pressure to meet the expectations causes severe mental health problem for the employees. This kind of toxic work culture is interfering with work-life balance. According to Van der Voet, (2014), work-from home is common in Amazon that there is no distinction between leisure and work. Even during public holidays, the employees are expected to attend calls from the managers and attend virtual conferences. Employees are also expected to work during nights, thus interfering with their sleep cycle. In case fluctuating internet connections the employees have to bear the brunt of the mangers. From all these it can be summarized that employee dissatisfaction in relation lack of work-life balance and unrealistic standards of expectations is a recurring issue in Amazon.
Amazon’s style of management led by Jeff Bezos has been quite controversial despite the fact that Amazon has a higher valuation compared to the biggest retailer in USA, Walmart. It has a data-driven approach that is considered to be the future of management. It has been understood as purposeful Darwinism (O’Connor, 2013). This concept underline on the notion that if there is a struggle for survival among the employees, it will enhance their performance. The metrics used by Amazon to evaluate its employees are segmented into three categories- The first group comprises of people who are high performers and adequately rewarded. The second is the group of average performers who hold on to their job and there is the third group that largely consists of the under-achievers in the organization that legitimizes the expelling of employees. This rank and yank system the current metric needs to be changed.
Who does this step? There needs to be a change in the aggressive management style and the superiors need to listen to the problems faced by the employees. This needs to be done by the board of directors, HR mangers and the Operations team of Amazon.
Proposed Changes for Improving Work Culture at Amazon
What technology is used? The technology to be used for this process would be emails, video conferencing and communication through the company website.
What policies and rules are involved in determining how, when, why, or where the step is executed? The various strategies that would be used to usher in change can be achieved through the Kotter’s change management model (Hayes, 2014). The feature of this model is that it focuses more on the people rather the pattern of change to be implemented. It creates a sense of urgency and strives to maintain that momentum. The first step would be to create a sense of urgency, this will provide a template of the action that the managers will be required to look into and inspire the transformation. There will be a core team that will involve the board of directors, HR managers and the operations team who will discuss and examine employee dissatisfaction. Since employee dissatisfaction due to work pressure can lead to high attrition rate, the goal would be to create a compatible working environment and ease the pressure on the employees. After the formation of the core coalition team, the next step would be to form a strategic vision (McCleskey, 2014). It is important to be clear about the changes we are seeking. There needs to be a transformation of values in the work culture. The toxic work culture needs to be changed. Employees should not feel overburdened to perform but feel inspired to deliver their best performance. There can be continuous discussions with the employees and the higher authorities, so that the power dynamics can be neutralized. The higher authority should ensure that the employees are not disturbed during their leisure hour. They should be given incentives, performance pay or even a word of encouragement during the times of underperformance has the potential to make the employees happy. It has been noted that the aggressive leadership style of the CEO demoralizes the employees and exerts undue pressure. Therefore, the CEO needs to be more thoughtful about the problems of the employees. The CEO needs to organize video conference and appreciate the efforts of the employees. The next step in compliance with the Kotter’s theory would be to eliminate the barriers. This can be done proper training of the employees who are unable to give their best and at the same time inspiring about the goals of the company. Instead of high and unrealistic goals, short-term goals would provide a sense of accomplishment to the workers. The last step would be sustaining the acceleration; this indicates maintaining the change and constantly evaluating it.
Areas of Improvement
The information that is needed for the execution of this step is to identify the previous management model. According to Kantor & Streitfeld (2015), the rank and yank metric used as a mode of measurement for the performance of the employees pushes them to the brink. It creates intense competition among the employees and culminates to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Labeling employees as poor performers makes them believe in their inability.
The metric that I will use is balance scorecard. According to Braun, (2013), the purpose of balance scorecard is to look at the organization and focus on the bigger picture for setting the strategic goals. The emphasis of balance scorecard is not just to delve into the financial outcome of the company but also to look at other short-term goals that would survive the test of time. Strategic measures in addition to the financial gains are important in case of Amazon considering the high attrition rate among the employees due to their inability to live upto the pressure. The feature of low-level measures and high-level strategy will be effective in creating a compatible corporate culture for the employees.
As has been identified, the company needs to bring a transformation its toxic work culture and the management otherwise. The attitude of the CEO of Amazon regarding escalate any problem within the work environment to the HR leads to oversimplification of the issue and not understanding the problems of the employee (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The high-handedness shown by the CEO on different occasions needs to be checked through a more transformational leadership style. The working environment of the company should be such that it inspires the workers to deliver their best performance rather than pushing them to the brink of frustration. The top-down approach of the company needs to be changed and there should be more amiable interaction between the superiors and the subordinate employees.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that the attitude of the CEO induces a toxic work culture in Amazon where the employees feel pressurized rather feeling motivated for their performance. The employees are unable to find a work-life balance and this adds to their anxiety. The management needs to improvise on its top-down approach and listen to the problems faced by the employees. The employees should be motivated through encouragement and incentives. They should not be made to feel incompetent during moments of underperformance. Kotter’s change management, transformational leadership and balance scorecard will be helpful in ushering and evaluating the change respectively. Short-term goals need to be set and there needs to be a larger goal for the sustainability of the proposed changes and recommendations.
References
9 key issues with Amazon’s corporate culture. (2018). Beckershospitalreview.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/9-key-issues-with-amazon-s-corporate-culture.html
Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S., & Frey, D. (2013). Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 270-283.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising workplace. New York Times, 15, 74-80.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
O’Connor, S. (2013). Amazon unpacked. Financial Times, 8.
Piazza, A., & Castellucci, F. (2014). Status in organization and management theory. Journal of Management, 40(1), 287-315.
Spicer, A. (2018). The tragedy behind Amazon’s toxic management fad | Andre Spicer. the Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/17/amazon-management-fad-rank-yank-jeff-bezos.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.
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