Question 3
Explain any three of the following in the context of operational management within your chosen organization:
Corporate Governance
Organizational Behavior
Organizational Culture
International Drivers (such as globalization)
Quality Systems
Question 3: Context of Operational Management
Organizational culture
When it comes to the organizational culture, Amazon has been described as one breakneck-paced and cost-conscious. Its organizational culture was fiercely criticized in The New York Times article Inside Amazon Wrestling Big Ideas in Bruising Workplace in the year 2015. The article presented various flaws in Amazon’s organizational culture which include unrealistic performance standards, and a work culture that was based on fear and lack of recognition from employee contribution. Therefore, the pushy, combative, and bruising organizational culture is considered to be outdated. On the other hand, many workplaces other than Amazon believe that the culture of the organization needs to be encouraging and nurturing and the managers are expected to treat their employees nicely and friendly. However, Amazon had a comparatively intense organizational culture with high emotional and physical pressure on the employees. With all this information, it cannot deny the fact that Amazon is still the best place to work in the US for 2021 as per the reports published by LinkedIn. Therefore, the organizational culture of Amazon is not made for everyone, only those candidates who can work under immense pressure and in a fast-paced environment can survive in the organization.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos is continuously working and adjusting the culture as a result it never loses its agility, nimbleness, and experimentation hunger. The company is constantly opposing a one-size-fits-all-has organizational culture for the decision-making model. On the other hand, the company also tends to use two pizza rules for its meetings where the participants of the meetings are limited so that they can be fed under two pizzas. The company’s organizational culture also values diversity among its employees as such the company had an employee affinity group for gay and lesbian, black employees, and women in the major technology group (Dudovskiy, 2022). As a result, the company’s organizational culture is very interesting and represents the paradox where on the one hand it is harsh, while on the other hand, this is one of the desired company where every candidate desire to work.
Organizational behavior
According to the researcher, Ryssdal, the culture and organizational behavior of any organization are linked with each other through the sense that effective and reliable organizational behavior guides the employees’ success. As a result, an organization like Amazon’s culture corresponds with organizational behavior. The founder or CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos might be reachable to senior employees, but not to junior employees. As a result, the managers at Amazon had full power over its employees including both junior and senior. The employees at Amazon do not participate directly in the decision-making process, however, they do so through the managers. Instead of having the power of hierarchies, the company has managed to provide autonomy to their employees in a way that they feel like they are the business owners. That’s why Amazon only retained the most talented and the most versatile employees (Hazlett, 2020). The company motivates loyalty from its employees by offering them the option of stock rather than compensating them with cash rewards. Hence, through ownership, the employees work harder to grow and achieve goals in the long run. Not only through the reports of LinkedIn but through Forbes, it has been revealed that in terms of organizational behavior, the company tends to be the most successful organization worldwide. Its organizational behavior identified how the company had pioneered selling a variety of items online including books, and other commodities via data-intensive information technology. Thus, it enables the company to identify the best possible ideas for solving the computer or boosting its overall business environment.
International drivers (Globalization)
Amazon, the biggest eCommerce giant has launched its international shopping wing which enables customers of Amazon to shop for around 45 million products from anywhere across the world and the products will be shipped to their doorsteps directly from the USA. This feature of Amazon is available for both Amazon users who run and shop the products via browser and mobile applications. This way, the company is encouraging the vendors to sell the products at the global level, and also buyers can be able to get all kinds of products at their doorsteps (Sameh, 2022). This is one of the international drivers of Amazon which is globalization. It allows customers to shop from the company in 25 major currencies. Moreover, the company is also planning to add more languages and currencies to its globalization strategy in the coming year. It is also a crucial part of Amazon’s expansion strategy. In the strategy of globalization, the company has transformed its functions a lot. Therefore, as a part of the globalization strategy, as technology across the world has changed, the company has also transformed its business operations and introduced Prime to be on top of its competitor’s globalization strategy.
Due to the globalization strategy, the company had around 50% of shares by 2021 and increased its operations in other countries including Africa, South America, North America, Asia, etc. As a result, in terms of globalization, the company has a very bright future ahead if it keeps on using various smart business tactics, competent leadership, and hired skills. Moreover, as globalization increases, it will arise more opportunities and options for the company to expand and operate in foreign marketplaces. The managers of the company are working to develop and adjust the internationalization plan for converting the company into an internationally competitive business.
References
Dudovskiy, J. (2022). Amazon Organizational Culture: harsh, but effectively contributing to the bottom line. Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://research-methodology.net/amazon-organizational-culture-harsh-effectively-contributing-bottom-line-2/
Hazlett, T. W. (2020). US antitrust policy in the age of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, and Facebook. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, and Facebook (April 17, 2020). Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3594934
Sameh, F. (2022). AMAZON’S GLOBAL STRATEGY ONCE AGAIN KNOCKS THE COMPETITION DOWN. Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://www.perzonalization.com/blog/amazons-global-strategy/
