Executive summary of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Amazon e-retailing company is famous for its bookselling
service and grocery stores. Amazon started working in the e-commerce industry
about 25 years ago. Since the day of the introduction to now, success is
evident to the effective strategies based on performance outcomes and
strategies to deal with the workforce. Although challenges are critical for
organizational success from the last few years. Considering the impact of these
issues on current organization report is developed. Board of directors and managerial
staff are assisted with this research work to enable them to make the right
decision regarding organizational performance and employee inequalities
controlled. In this report, important issues related to the work-life of
Amazon’s employees are outlined with brief detail. Followed by this, analysis
and recommendations are also presented.
Background of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Business ethics and fair organizational cultures are the key
requirement for employee's productivity and better performance results.
Currently, competition is increasing in all industries, which contributes to
enhancing the requirement of outstanding and efficient employee performance in
an organization. Particularly, in e-retailing industry survival is inevitable without
employee’s productivity and outstanding performance. Amazon is working in the
e-retailing industry since 1994. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos as the
biggest e-store for books. However, later on, the dedicated performance of the
employee and effective strategies of the managerial staff made it possible for
Amazon to lead as an unbeatable e-commerce website.
Although, now the situation is changing rapidly. Employees
are no longer highly committed and motivated towards job responsibilities and
tasks. Recently, Amazon is facing criticism for its unfair and unethical
treatment with employees and another workforce. News articles and researches
are indicating the need for change in the organizational policies to secure the
reputation and business profitability of the company. Researchers have found
that an employee's motivation directly relates to employee satisfaction and
productivity. Satisfied and motivate employees with jobs to take an interest in
the business operations and routine based duties to bring improvement continuously.
Moreover, an
employee's productivity improvement is also needed in the organization (Dobre, 2013). Current market
analysis for amazon shows that employees can outpace, but they have not any
factor or reason for motivation for outstanding performance excluding survival
in the organization. Amazon will have threats for survival in the future in
case negative factors and unethical practices are not controlled. The present work
will involve market research to identify factors and reasons contributing in
enhance of unethical practices, work-life conflicts, and inequalities.
Some commonly discussed unethical practices and work-life
issues in Amazon are sexual harassment, gender inequality, unfair and unethical
workplace culture, social discrimination, rewards and incentives, and lack of
productivity in employees. In the presence of these issues, organizational
progress is really difficult. Furthermore, these issues are also against the corporate
social responsibilities of the company in society. The situation will hurt the
profit outcomes of the stockholders and interest of other stakeholders
therefore, immediate actions and research on these issues are essential for us
and all managerial staff. In this report, the discussed problem is the
unethical workplace culture of Amazon. The problem is studied with the use of
qualitative and secondary research data available on Amazon and its
workforce.
Situation of Amazon.com E-commerce company
In this section, we have described, in an appropriate order,
all relevant issues to the employee’s work-life, Amazon’s stakeholders and
their claims, points of decision, and all other parameters that we would want
to inform the board of Amazon. The identified issues in this section require
reports and recommendations to develop an action plan of control and
elimination. This section is about the information that will also support top
executives hired from another industry, or an outside director to understand
these critical issues.
The important issues are presented below:
Sexual Harassment of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Amazon's workplace is having issues related to sexual
harassment. The workplace is dominated by male employees who are involved in
sexual harassment-related issues. Sexist comments, pornography, and gestures
cause to make the work environment uncomfortable for female workers. Because of
this issue, employees, motivation and satisfaction rate is declining in female
workers, and overall organizational reputation is getting a negative impact.
The key stakeholders of this issue are employees, society, customers, and
stockholders. Employees claim that they are having trouble at the workplace
because of an increase in such unethical practices. Although, female employees
also claim that an uncontrollable increase in such issues will encourage them
to leave the organization and search for a safer place to work.
Social Discrimination of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Social discrimination is a practice common in Amazon, which
is causing problems for the workforce management system in the company. Social
discrimination relates to sustained inequalities in the company based on
disabilities and the illness of employees. Social discrimination is an issue in
Amazon and many other companies working in different industries. Social
discrimination is an issue because it causes conflicts, inequalities, and
employee's dissatisfaction with the job. Key stakeholders of this issue are employees,
managerial staff, customers, society, and law regulation authorities.
Employees' work performance relates to this issue as they claim that social
discrimination is an important issue to be resolved by the managerial staff.
Gender inequality of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Gender inequality in Amazon means male and female employees
working in a similar position in Amazon are not treated equally. Salaries,
wages, promotion, and recruitment processes are overtaken by gender-based
discriminative practices. Gender inequality is bringing down employees' loyalty
and motivation to perform better in the organization. Regarding this issue
identified, key stakeholders are employees, managerial staff, customers,
society, and law regulation authorities. In many countries, where Amazon is
operating fair employment laws are introduced. Thus, law and regulation
authorities are also interested in gender-based inequality and discrimination
in Amazon. Such issues are against the ethical values of our society and workplaces.
Ethical values include principles and beliefs that will seek an employee’s
well-being and betterment in an impartial way.
Lack of productivity of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Lack of productivity is an important issue to be discussed
for the improvement of business operations. Productivity level decline
indicates the need for more employees as well as the future inability of the
organization to meet goals based on the current workforce. Stakeholders for
lack of productivity issues are employees, managerial staff, customers,
society, and law regulation authorities. Customers claim that inefficiency and
poor productivity level will make it difficult for Amazon to meet demand in the
targeted market. Moreover, it will increase customer switch and customer churn
for Amazon. According to my learned material from course work, in moral
theories, positive duties is to actively help the organization deal with the
required work responsibilities (e.g., responsibilities that were included in
the job description) (Aguenza & Som, 2012).
Rewards and Incentives
of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Rewards and incentives are known as a motivational source
for employees working in any organization. Following market and research
analysis, Amazon is having an unfair system of incentives and rewards. The
employee at the workplace is assumed as a working machine who is supposed to do
unlimited work. In reward of this, employees are not given enough acceptable
rewards, monetary benefits, and other incentives. Key stakeholders for this
unfair reward and incentive system are employees and managerial staff. Managerial
staff and employees are both on the same side regarding this issue. Both are
not given enough rewards and compensations for their outpace performance and
hard-working (ABDULLAH & WAN, 2013).
Analysis of Amazon.com E-commerce company
In this section of the report, an analysis of issues is
discussed. The description from the previous section is used in this section to
elaborate on focal questions. Moreover, analysis of the issues also includes
analysis of stakeholders, their claims, etc. However, previously presented
focal questions are not solved but discussed with more detail to support board
understand these issues and produce an applicable solution. Considering
responsibility to educate and inform members of the board about the additional
value and resources information is presented, which will enable the board to decide
for each issue concerning the priority of shared issues. Although some tools
and strategies we learned from academics and courses are explicitly used.
Employment relations in Amazon
The lower profit scale of Amazon is due to employee grudge
that is against the organization. According to Eric Morehead, the more
important factor in the development of an organization is employee happiness as
compared to customer satisfaction. The transparency in the recruitment system
of Amazon can resolve the issues. According to the former employee, the bosses
lack empathy, and they do not support the employee's priorities in the
workplace. The narratives of the former employees of Amazon can play an
important role in understanding the issue and relations related problems of
Amazon and employees inside the company (Masso, McCarthy, &
Jackson, 2017).
Different types of issues are identified in Amazon, and these issues are listed
below,
The company and management of Amazon set unreasonably high
standards, and it seems impossible to achieve the goals of employees. The
workers in Amazon feel the pressure of unreachable expectations from them.
Sometimes the workers in Amazon are not able to meet the predefined standards,
and they suffer from significant distresses.
The style of management in Amazon is widely criticized by
the previous workers. The style of Amazon is dominating, and authority reacts
as bureaucratic (Managers. org. the UK,
2018).
Amazon has always been transparent about the efficiency and
working capabilities of the workers. The management keeps an analysis of high
achievers and those who are not working according to the standards. The workers
in Amazon are expected to work overtime after the working hours and sometimes
for a long period. In some reports, it is also mentioned that employees are
encouraged to work on different ideas, and sometimes it becomes an unhealthy
workplace atmosphere. In some surveys, the workers and employees told that the
feedback tool is used in Amazon. In several cases, the anonymous criticism is
copied directly in front of performance reviews of Amazon workers.
Insensitive management is another factor that is identified
by former employees in organizations. On behalf of Amazon, the spokesperson of
Amazon defended the situation by taking swift action to correct the charges
that are taken against the workers due to dissatisfaction in the working
outcomes (Masso, McCarthy, &
Jackson, 2017).
Contrary to many organizations, Amazon is not providing
special benefits to the employees of organizations, and they are not able to
cater to the basic needs of the workers and employees in Amazon. The basic
needs of employees are obsessed with customer demands.
The unfair system and lack of praise are causing issues to
the employees that have been pointed out. Amazon holds annual organization
level reviews, and managers decide and discuss the ranking of employees in the
presence of a higher level of managers. The fire valuable talents are just
required to meet the standardized quota in Amazon.
Managing diversity and work-life balance in Amazon
The main base of Amazon is the human resource of the
company. To manage the work-life balance and diversity, different human
resource theories are proposed, and these theories remained helpful when used
by the authorities of Amazon company. The improvement and development of
quality of human resources different recent problems are analyzed. The
motivational theory is the best selection to improve the work-life balance in
Amazon. The services of Amazon are large and widespread that can be accessed
from different regions of the world. The workers working in the company are
also diverse in nature, lifestyles, living standards and customs. It is
important to introduce strategies that can help manage diversity (Masso,
McCarthy, & Jackson, 2017). To manage the workplace diversity of
Amazon, the company is required to implement the theory of motivation.
In this theory, different exercises of teamwork are designed
to motivate the employees, and these strategies introduced by the company are
of different categories such as teamwork, monthly awarding system, diversity
management training programs, and use of technology in the workplace of Amazon.
Some of the workers in Amazon, find it difficult to manage life. The extra
workload introduces difficulties for the workers and makes the working
conditions hard for the workers. The management department of the company must
consider the improved method to motivate the workers and manage the extra
workload. Amazon is required to understand the importance of employees and
workers in the development of the company. Therefore, the strategies introduced
by the management department must generate the faith of workers in the company.
Amazon can achieve higher goals and targets by developing a
situation in which people work in the organization with faith. The impact of
organizational behavior theory is deep in the management of diversity and
work-life balance. The company considers human resources as the main capital of
the company. The focus of the company is toward many factors that change the
strategies of the company. The management of work-life balance is to understand
the diversity of employees, so the new strategic plan is developed under the
diverse human resource conditions (Masso, McCarthy, &
Jackson, 2017).
Ethical and legal context of Amazon.com E-commerce company
The main factors of Amazon are the ethical and legal context
that is related to the human resource of the company. The base of Amazon is
ethics, and ethical policies are different for each sector of the company. The
ethical context of Amazon provides employees with an opportunity to be
considered as individuals in the company. According to the New York Times
article, the legal and ethical context of Amazon provides employees with the
power of legal and ethical support. The free market principles can be used to
overcome the short-term goals of the company. Amazon is required to support and
maintain human resource requirements. The motivational theory includes the
legal and ethical context of human resource management. The legal regulations
are identified by the government that is being implemented by Amazon Company.
The main issues faced by Amazon are the ethical, legal, and annual basis of
work conditions. In Amazon, the employees understand the legal and ethical
values of the company, and it makes it easier to resolve the issues of the
company (Managers. org. the UK,
2018).
Sexual Harassment of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Employees are concerned and interested in this issue as the
solution to this issue will make the workplace safety and better for them.
While on the other hand, society is interested in this issue as social morale
is getting influence from the increase in unethical practices. Although
customers are concerned because they do not want to benefit a company that is
promoting unethical practices in society. However, because of this negative
reputation, chances, stockholders of amazon are interested in this issue. Such
issues are mainly because of flexible policies and poor implementation of
ethics-related strategies in the organization. Moreover, lack of interest in
the issue by corporate management is also a reason for this issue (COOPER,
2017).
Although, managerial staff at the corporate level and HR department are
developing strategies and policies to decide this matter properly.
Social Discrimination of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Social discrimination is an important factor that is
primarily discussed by many researchers. According to research findings, social
discrimination in workplaces is a negative factor for organizational
profitability. Employees cannot remain satisfied with an organization if they
are not treated fairly and ethically. The moral theory of rights represents
business ethics. Under this theory, employees working in an organization or
living in society have some specific right that can be positive or negative.
Although, morality is to give preference to the positive rights on negative
rights. Relating this theory to the issue, we can say that at a workplace, all
employees have the right to be promoted and have incentives. However, the
positive right is to given benefits and promotions to the employees who deserve
it on a merit basis.
Key stakeholder society is directly interested in the
application of right based moral theory at this workplace to promote ethics and
ensure fairness. While on the other hand, employees are concerned with this
issue as it relates to their wages and promotion. Moreover, the managerial
staff has an interest in this issue as it would generate their image in the
market negatively or positively as such actions are mainly supported by the
decisions of mangers (Channar, Abbassi, & Ujan, 2011). Redevelopment of
the organizational mission is also an effective possible step for Amazon
directors to meet with social discrimination-related issues.
Gender inequality of Amazon.com E-commerce company
According to the research studies conducted on gender
inequalities, many countries around the world have gender inequalities. Females
are not given equal employment opportunities. However, gender inequalities in
Amazon are the target of new articles and research students. Employees are
quitting amazon because of such unethical issues. Gender inequality issues are
also caused by the stereotyping culture and discriminative behavior toward
female employees. Research shows that in some countries it is commonly assumed
that female employees cannot manage the balance between families and work
therefore, they show poor performance at the workplace. Moreover, in some
countries even the intellectual capabilities of female employees are considered
lower than male employees; therefore, in these countries, males are given
preference on a female that recruiting or promoting a managerial job position (Hobbs & Rice, 2013; Mills, 2014). Gender inequality
issue is related to employees and society therefore both are the most important
stakeholders of the company.
Lack of productivity of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Lack of productivity is because of lower employee’s interest
in the work responsibilities. Currently, Amazon is not having quite a low
productivity level; however, it is on a declining trend. Therefore, studying
this issue is important to find out some gaps for improvement and proposed
solutions to eliminate such issues. For instance, the researcher claims that
current employees are overburdened in Amazon because of which employees'
creativity is reducing. Considering morality and business ethics, Amazon
managers should not put more load and pressure on employees to perform better
because it would be unethical if we put pressure on them as they are already
physically and mentally unable to handle more load and pressure. Key
stakeholders related to this issue are investors or stockholders. Lack of
productivity draws an impact on profitability and annual sales revenue.
Profitability influences stock market value therefore indirectly productivity
relates to return on investment for the stockholders. (Kamerman & Moss,
2011)
Rewards and Incentives
of Amazon.com E-commerce company
According to an article, the founder of Amazon is included
in the list of world richest person. While on the other hand, employee
discrimination and unfair rewards are projecting an issue that would have a negative
impact on business reputation in the market. Employees are working 80+ hours a
week in Amazon, but still rewards related policies are quite limited. The
company is exploiting employees for the purpose of earning profit and enlarging
business operations over the world. 80+ hours working and hellish workday at
warehouses of employees are not rewarded with proper monetary benefits, which
contribute to decrease stress and work-related majority issues.
A stakeholder (employees) working at the warehouse claim
that she needs to have four tablets as pain killers to work the whole day at
the workplace. Moreover, a stakeholder also claims that the organization needs
to have bonuses for extra efforts and hard work. Researchers claim that
employee engagement and loyalty towards a job can be increased if we pay
special attention to employee’s bonuses and appreciation (ABDULLAH
& WAN, 2013; Anderson, Grossmeier, Seaverson, & Snyder, 2008). The issue is mainly
caused by the lack of interest of managerial staff in the issues of employees
at the workplace. Another worker at Amazon warehouse claim that the current HR
strategy for rewards and incentives is highly challenging. An employee has to
fulfill at least 100 orders in an hour (60-minute duration only) to get a
reward of a “dollar coupon” (Spitznagel, 2019).
Recommendations of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Here some recommendations are presented for these issues.
Additionally, process-based strategies are also mentioned in this
recommendation section to overcome issues and ensure future betterment.
Sexual Harassment of Amazon.com E-commerce company
Regarding this issue, the managerial staff is required to
create an ethical organizational culture. Managerial staff and board are
capable of creating a highly ethical work environment to encourage employee's
positive behavior and control negative factors. Ethical organizational culture
can be developed in an organization by promoting ethical practices at the
workplace and controlling unethical practices. First of all belief and values
can be reviewed by the responsible entities. Then in the light of this, new
selection can be ensured. Moreover, after this guidance plan needs to be
accomplished for the managerial staff and board. The development of new
policies and strategies will bring change in the overall organizational
culture. Policies should also address the control of male and female dominance
in a different department. All employees working in the organization should
have equal status in-respect to their gender and sexual orientation. Although,
this a positive step towards control of sexual harassment in Amazon as well as
overall society.
Social Discrimination
of Amazon.com E-commerce company
As above discussed that social discrimination is a severe
issue in society related to the Amazon, there should be proper measures to
overcome social discrimination in the organization. This could be possible if
there is proper treatment with the employees as well as with the other
stakeholders in society. Management of amazon should work on the task, which is
based on morality as people could get benefits that are related to outside of
organization and could be treated with measures such as CSR and other social
welfare works. CSR is corporate social responsibility, which is related to the
works which are done by the organization for the welfare of the people. Key
stakeholder society is directly interested in the application of right based
moral theory at this workplace to promote ethics and ensure fairness. Therefore
it should be ensured that all the work is being done according to morality.
While on the other hand, employees are concerned with this issue as it relates
to their wages and promotion which should be increased time to time according
to their efforts. Moreover, the managerial staff should work strictly on issues
that generate their image in the market negatively or positively as such
actions are mainly supported by the decisions of managers.
Gender inequality of Amazon.com E-commerce company
As above discussed that there are many countries around the
world are having gender inequalities. Females are not given equal employment
opportunities. However, gender inequalities in Amazon are the target of new
articles and research students. Employees are quitting amazon because of such
unethical issues; therefore these issues should resolve by taking reasonable
steps in the Amazon. There must be equal and fair treatment to deal with the women
and men working the Amazon so no one could feel about the discrimination. There
should be rewards according to the efforts, not according to the genders. Male
staff should be paid according to their abilities and not for the reason as
they are the source of earning for their homes and women should also rewarded
according to their efforts not for some other purpose such as they are behaving
with soft attitude (Carr, Szalacha,
Barnett, Caswell, & Inui., 2003).
Unfair and unethical workplace culture of Amazon.com
E-commerce company There must be proper treatment related to enforcing the work
methodologies in the workplace so that it could be evaluated that all the work
is done in the limits of ethical and fair circle of work. If there is any
person who is using unfair means of working he should be penalized with
punishment so that no one repeats the mistake. There should be proper treatment
of monitoring task of all the workers, so if there is any mishappening is
conducted by anyone in the organization it must be treated by the authorities
in the organization (Treviño & Brown.,
2005).
Lack of productivity
It is important issue to find out some gaps for improvement
and proposed solutions to eliminate such issues in the amazon. Taking in the
consideration the morality and business ethics, Amazon managers should not put
more load and pressure on employees to perform better because it would be
unethical if we put pressure on them as they are already physically and
mentally unable to handle more load and pressure. Key stakeholders related to
this issue are investors or stockholders should be determinant to their work so
they could increase the productivity in the amazon. Lack of productivity draws
an impact on profitability and annual sales revenue therefore there should be
proper steps to increase the productivity in the organization. For this purpose
there should be quality assurance that all the task are done according to
quality control, which means that output is balanced w3ith the input and
company are earning reasonable productivity in the business.
Rewards and Incentives of Amazon.com E-commerce company
A stakeholder is working at the warehouse claim that she
needs to have four tablets as pain killers to work the whole day at the
workplace, and a stakeholder also claims that the organization needs to have
bonuses for extra efforts and hard work. Researchers claim that employee
engagement and loyalty towards a job can be increased if we pay special
attention to employee bonuses and appreciation; therefore, it is ensured by the
management that all the employees are getting enough payment for their reward
in the organization. There must be proper reward for the work which is being
done by the employees. Amazon should work on the project such as warehouse
claim that the current HR strategy for rewards and incentives is highly
challenging. An employee has to fulfill at least 100 orders in an hour
(60-minute duration only) to get a reward of a “dollar coupon” so that
employees or workers could get paid for overtime in a reasonable quantity (Jin &
Huang., 2014).
(f) Key Learnings of Amazon.com E-commerce company
After the assessment of all the report there are some key
learnings which are assessed by the researcher that amazon report was based on:
A brief overview of the work and products which are provided
by the amazon, it discussed the services provided by the Amazon and the history
of the company.
There is discussion
on the situation in which company is being worked on, such as there may have a situation
of gender biasness, social discrimination, harassment, reward, and incentives
as well as situation of inequalities, which could be a reason for negative
impact in the organization.
Analysis of amazon gives the situation that how all these
are affecting the productivity of the organization, there may be positive
impact, but mostly it depends on negative impact on the situation of the
company in the market.
The report is concluded with the recommendations which
should be taken to resolve these problems in the amazon.
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Aguenza, B. B., & Som, A. P. (2012). Motivational
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Anderson, D., Grossmeier, J., Seaverson, E., & Snyder,
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Spitznagel, E. (2019). Inside the hellish workday of an
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