Leadership Assignment: Supporting Business Strategy of Amazon

Question

Task: Leadership AssignmentTask:
Scenario: You are a management consultant who has been commissioned by an organisation to produce a report that investigates management and leadership needs to support the organisation’s business strategy. The organisation has recently identified extensive changes in technology and business dynamics in the markets it serves. There is a need to plan for and manage this situation taking into account the current and emerging Economic, Political and Cultural factors.

The senior management team want you to assess its current and future leadership requirements and produce a realistic leadership strategy and development plan for future leaders of the organisation.

The strategy will be based on your review of the organisation’s management and leadership needs and must be supported by your findings from research of relevant theories and models.

1. Consider the differences between management and leadership in the selected organisation. Evaluate how management and leadership styles are adapted to different situations within the organisation and analyse the impact of these styles on the organisation’s strategic decision making. You must reference your findings to relevant management and leadership theories.

2. Create a leadership strategy, using selected theories and methods of management and leadership, to support the organisation’s future direction.

3. Create a leadership strategy, using selected theories and methods of management and leadership, to support the organisation’s future direction with consideration of the emerging Political Economic and Social Aspects.

4. Use appropriate methods to review the current leadership and management within the organisation in relation to the skills that they may require for future situations or challenges that the organisation could face consider how it supports motivation, innovation and change towards the success of the company.

5. Plan how to develop leadership skills and leadership styles and critically analyse its impact on the success of the company as well as how to deal with potential situations, challenges and changes and report on the likely usefulness of the development methods to be used.

Answer

Introduction to the context of leadership assignment
In today’s highly competitive business world, even the smallest mistake from a business leader can have a negative impact on a firm’s performance and profitability. Businesses, which have matched their leadership strategies with the aspirations of their stakeholders, have shown improved organisational performance.Leadership and management must work together as a cohesive unit. Even though they are not the same thing, they are closely related and complementing. The following report will analyse the various aspects of leadership and management, based on leadership in Amazon Inc., using theories and models.

2. Difference between Management and Leadership in Amazon
Wajdi(2017) has stated that leadership refers to giving motivation to others to understand and believe in the vision the leader has for the firm, and to work collaboratively to achieve those aims. When it comes to management, it is more about overseeing daily operations and ensuring that they are carried out, as they must be.

2.1 Amazon’s Approach to Visionary and Coaching Style of Leadership
In accordance with Leonard (2018), there are six basic leadership styles: directive, visionary, affiliative, coaching, pacesetting and participative. Jeff Bezos, the former CEOofAmazon, tends to switch between visionary and coaching styles of leadership, although all six are necessary depending on the circumstances. A change in leadership styles is necessary for Amazon to withstand volatility in the market and a possible workforce shortage that could affect fulfilment and warehouse labour. As per Kulach(2018), an alternate solution to the manpower issue could be increased robotics independence, pro-acting the shortage of manpower.

2.2 Amazon’s Approach to Contingency Theory of Modern Management
The second stage of the industrial revolution, around the turn of the 19th century, brought forth the modern management approach. In addition to re-engineering and contingency planning, knowledge management is another option among these management approaches. The theory of contingency management is most suited to assist Amazon in adapting to the Brexit situation. An approach to contingency management, according to (Rutakirwa, 2018), is founded on the idea that management performance depends on the interaction between management behaviours and particular situations or circumstances.An adaptation to the current circumstances is required, according to this theory of management. Due to the uncertainty of the Brexit decision and timeframe, this would make sense for Amazon both before and after Brexit. Currency movements, such as when the British pound lostvalue against the US dollar, can also be affected by unpredictable situations or settings.

2.1 Adoption of Management and Leadership Styles in Different Situations
If managers lead by dominance, as per Wajdi(2017), they influence others by being assertive and exploiting their power and formal authority. The concept of dominance is useful when the team needs to come together around a clear strategy, such as a new product launch. If leaders or managers want to empower those that report to them, this is the ideal strategy to use (Maner, 2016). In the case of a marketing team given a taskto come up with an innovative and inventive advertising strategy, a prominent leader might remove boundaries and encourage team members to think outside the circle. Growing as a leader entails recognising the sort of leadership that is required and implementing the plan that is most likely to succeed.

2.3 Impact of Amazon’s Leadership and Management Approach on Its Business
There is a need to switch between leadership styles and react to changing circumstances if Amazon is to endure volatility and the suspected manpower shortage which might influence fulfilment and warehouse employment. For example, during the pandemic caused by COVID-19 coronavirus, the leaders of the global e-commerce business have changed their management focus to align with the situation (I??k,?bi? and Gulseven, 2021). This pandemic has shaken the systems of every industry worldwide. No one was able to keep operations running smoothly, not even Amazon, which has a vast edge logistics network spanning planes, warehouses, trucks and vans. The company devoted all ofits time and attention to COVID-19, putting aside longer-term plans and experimental ventures including Blue Origin. To deal with inventory concerns and coronavirus upgrades, Bezos and numerous members of Amazon’s top leadership team met daily to discuss them.

3. Models and Theories of Management and Leadership
Leadership competencies are often outdated in businesses, or merely keep adding to their current ones endlessly (Andriukaitien?et al, 2017). Those that do not take into account their individual’s particular business strategy produce talent initiatives that are too broad. There are several schools of thought based on the attributes and behavioural patterns that effective leaders share, and the “Managerial Grid Theory of Leadership” is one of them. In their book, Blake and Mouton (1962)developed a “Managerial Grid Theory”, in which they explained two dimensions of leadership behaviour:

Behavioural Dimension Position in Grid Representation
Concern for people Vertical Axis A leader’s ability to consider the requirements and interests of team members, and their personal growth when selecting how to achieve a task is measured by this attribute. Concern for production/results Horizontal Axis When selecting how to best achieve a task, a leader places a high value on specific objectives, organisational efficiency, and high production.

Fig 1: Blake and MoutonManagerial Grid Model
(Source: Gallo,Tausova and Gonos, 2016)

It was observedbyGallo, Tausova and Gonos(2016) that there were five leadership styles based on different combinations of the two dimensions of leadership behaviour in the Blake-Bouton Managerial Model.

(Source: Gallo,Tausova and Gonos, 2016)

4. Supporting Amazon’s Future Direction through Leadership Strategy
Based on the Managerial Grid Model, explained above, a supportive leadership strategy can be developed for Jeff Bezos to lead Amazon towards the proper direction in future:

Identification of Managerial Style
The leadership style of Bezos is closer to the Team Leadership Style in the Grid Model since he prefers the workers in listening and agreeing with him while inspiring the employees on the other hand. However, Solanki (2019) stated that Bezos is autocratic in his work, as he does not prefer to be taught by other personnel of the company and listen to their opinions. On the other hand, he gives inspiration to all employees, motivating them for continued improvement in the standard performance through improvement of the consumer service and standard. Bezos acts as a role model, leading the teams of major tasks, as well as supervise the major teams of operations personally.

He has a charismatic personality with a positive effect on Amazon employees, and Palmer(2020) stated that this leads the company to rank amidst the list of top successful business entities in the world. For example. Bezos has provided Health Care Insurance to all his employees, which works as a motivator within the workforce of Amazon.

As another instance, fulfilment by Amazon means individual sellers can ship their goods to an Amazon warehouse, which then ships the products to the consumers for a percentage of each purchase (Palmer, 2020). The initiative helps Amazon to give Prime subscribers a consistent experience. It adopted more than 150 process modifications inside its warehouses to prevent virus transmission, from better cleanliness and social distancing measures to mask mandates. Coronavirus testing was also boosted up among its employees.Thus, while some claim Bezos’ leadership style to be autocratic, others disagree with this. However, this leadership style is still effective for Amazon, as do the charismatic and visionary styles of leadership and management, which are his supportive management styles.

Identify Areas for Development
Amazon’s choice to shift practically all of its fulfilment operations in-house was shown to be both a gain and a disaster by the pandemic outbreak.

• Members of Amazon Prime, who pay $119 a year for membership, are promised delivery within twodays (Palmer, 2020). Amazon was caught off guard by the sudden influx of orders.
• When nonessentials were made allowed, there was a congestion of inbound shipments after it was implemented, though the economy of the company took an upward path during this time because of the rising preference for e-commerce (Abdelrhim and Elsayed, 2020).
• Amidst the pandemic, Amazon’s treatment of warehouse workers has also been under heavy public criticism. While picking, packing and shipping goods at a breakneck pace, warehouse employees complained that Amazon did not do sufficient to keep them safe from the virus. Amazon was advised to take action by regulators, lawmakers, worker rights groups, and even some of its employees, thus engaging it in socio-political issues.

Situation-Based Contextualization
Successful leaderscan view situations from many angles. After assessing the situation and the team members’ behaviour, they select the style of leadership to apply for the achievement of the greatest outcome. In today’s complex corporate landscape, situational leadership is essential to business success. According to the situational approach explained by Cho, Yi and Choi(2018), the proper leadership style can be decided by situational needs.

5. Current Leadership and Management within Amazon
Adaptability and flexibility are key characteristics of a situational leader’s leadership, and they continuously review the circumstance to ensure they are leading the most effectively and efficiently possible. Bezos adapted his leadership approach in response to feedback from his followers by extending his interview process to bookshops like Barnes and Nobles (Pulido, 2017). For individuals to take his new website professionally and seriously, Bezos realised that he had to respond to his followers’ needs. As per the opinions of Thompson and Glasø(2018), Wuryaniet al (2021) and Walls(2019)common skills and characteristics of a situational leader in any workplace involve:

Direction: For some teams or organisations to be successful, they need a high level of direction. In addition to delivering instructions, Bezos also ran supervision of the entire business himself.

Flexibility: To adapt their leadership style to the present scenario, situational leaders must be flexible and adaptable frequently. Amazon leadership and management demonstrated such flexibility during the pandemic situation, as mentioned in the section of leadership strategy.

Encourage to participate: Participants in decision-making are often encouraged by situational leaders to become more self-dependent.Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon, needs to adopt this trait to motivate the employees.

Delegation: A situational leader who is successful should be able to assign responsibilities to team members, with the capability of functioning on their own, without supervision. In particular, this is evident because a leader’s team matures under his or her instruction, just as Amazon flourished under the leadership of Bezos.

Coaching regularly: They often need to coach their teams so that they can develop and become independent.As previously stated, Bezos usedthecoaching leadership style as a supportive mechanism for the management of the e-commerce business. Honest: Such leaders must be honest about a circumstance and change their style to suit it, instead of leading in a way that is most beneficial to themselves. Through the interviews and press releases, Bezos has been seenasvery outspoken and direct, which often proves his honesty.

Fig 2: Situational Leadership Style Model
(Source: Thompson and Glasø, 2018)

It is the ability to analyse the demands of the team in each situation that distinguishes a situational leader.Wuryaniet al (2021) inform that to boost productivity and performance, these leaders provide support when needed and motivate their people to grow and become independent.

6. Development Process of Leadership Styles and Its ImpactonAmazon’s Success
Development of crucial leadership skills and creating a diverse pipeline of leadership are the key goals for any organisation’s plan forleadership development (Northouse, 2021). Steps to creating a leadership development plan are:

1) Assessment and Identification of Talent
A formal process for identification and assessment can be adopted by Amazon, such as a simple “9 Box Grid” to measure prospects or performance capacity against and present performance (Kampf and Ližbetinová, 2015). Amazon must select high potentials, high performers and stars for their development plan for leadership.

Fig 3: 9 Box Grid Model
(Source: AIHR. 2020)

2) Obtaining Buy-in from Major Stakeholders
There ought to be buy-in from the senior leadership personnel, supervisors or managers or the targeted employees, and the employees themselves, for the development plan to be successful(Corner, 2014).
They must agreeonthe objectives of the plan, the process of achievement, time, participants etc.

3) Identification of Leadership Style
People with leadership potentiality within Amazon, participating in the development plan, must select one or more styles of leadership approach to follow, based on the culture and present needs of the company (Cacioppe, 1998).

4) Determination of Key Leadership Skills
Identification of key skills within leaders, needed for the current and future success of the company, is crucial for the development plan. As per Corner(2014), such skills enlist cultural intelligence (CQ), digital intelligence (DQ), agility etc., build the foundation of the plan, in which development means assuring the next generation leaders to be ready for ongoing challenges, like economic hit caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Fig 4: Leadership Skills
(Source: AIHR, 2020)

5) Assessment of Leadership Skills
Amazon can comprehend what the plan involves a thorough assessment of chosen employees against the skills recognised as critical leadership competencies. Both strength and gaps within the targeted employees can be identified this way, as opined by Cacioppe(1998).

6) Designing a Plan for Leadership Development
Experts on the Learning and Development of the company must be consulted to develop the proper opportunities to learn. According to Kanaslan and Iyem(2016), such learning solutions may include mentoring for complementary leadership, job rotation, self-paced micro-learning, professional development courses etc.

Fig 5: Leadership Development Plan Design
(Source: AIHR, 2020)

7) Conducting a 360-degree Leadership Assessment
Creating a monitoring process of improvement within the employees and determining readiness once the leadership development plan is complete through ways like a 360-degree assessment of leadership can assess if the programme has been effective enough to reach its aim (Kanaslan and Iyem, 2016).

Crises and competitive marketplaces make leadership development plans crucial to business continuity. Such a plan may keep Amazon’s most valued employees engaged with the firm and discourage them from seeking other employment possibilities with competitor firms, based on the opinion of Northouse(2021). Before 2020, keeping up with the pace of change was difficult, but the COVID-19 pandemic intensified this transformation at a rate fewer could have imagined. Leadership entities must keep an eye on employees and future leaders who wish to be prepared for the upcoming challenges. Although they may be terrified by the instability of the times, they are nevertheless intrigued by the opportunities that exist during times of crisis (Andriukaitien?et al, 2017).To tackle such challenges and potential situations, leaders and managers in Amazon must adapt proven planning methods, discard those that do not suit current needs, become more flexible and acquire digital and cultural intelligence.

Conclusion
Business personnel who tries to separate the two in a company is likely to produce more difficulties than they solve. A company’s leadership needs to inspire and motivate its employees for it to be prosperous. By applying this conception to the context of Amazon, this report has identified its areas of improvement through effective leadership, along with the development of a leadership strategy and planning process.

References
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