Letter to the CEO of Amazon

Company Background
A renowned company in e-commerce in the United States is Amazon. The company is
categorized among the top five entities dealing with information technology within the United
States. Over time it has been regarded as a valuable brand worldwide due to its comparable
market presence to leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook (Amazon (2021).
Currently, the company is the leading market player in selling merchandise online worldwide. It
prides itself on its ability to provide excellent customer relations and prompt service to a diverse
community of clients (Li, 2020). Due to the current need for globalization, the company is taking
advantage of the direction of the global economy (Aćimović, Mijušković, and Milošević,2020).
Consumers are now open to sourcing items anywhere globally since shipping is more
straightforward, and customers can track and pick their goods at their preferred destination.
Through a high level of technology, automation of service, and extensive software, Amazon can
reach a culturally diverse customer base (Wadhwa, Vashisht, and Phutela (2020).
The company has its headquarters in the United States, particularly in Seattle,
Washington. The United States is the manufacturing site especially for technical innovations and
mass scale of product distribution. However, it also has essential distribution sites in the UK,
UAE, and Malaysia. The current CEO is Andy Jassy as of July 2021, and he replaced Jeff
Bezos, who became the executive chairman of the company. The corporate culture of Amazon is
hierarchical with a highly centralized decision-making system. This is the culture that pushes
employees to generate ideas and take risks (Aćimović et al.,2020). This is a company of
“pioneers” who make inventions on behalf of their clients. As such, the exceptional core values
perpetuated by the company are ‘Boldness, customer-centricity and peculiarity,’ (Amazon (2021).

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Jassy recently mentioned that “it is our job to make bold bets, and we get our energy from
inventing on behalf of our customers. Success is measured against the possible, not the
probable” (Dreyfuss, 2020). 
Over the years, there have been several disagreements and contentious issues between the
staff and management of Amazon. This has raised concerns and has negatively affected the
revenue of the organization. As such, this is seen as detrimental to the future expansion model of
the company to other sites such as Turkey, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, and India due to present
complaints by employees. Therefore, Jassy decided to seek the services of an external consultant
to identify the current underlying problems and strategies that would increase consumer
satisfaction and lower the high turnover rates currently experienced by the company. Jassy
outrightly expressed that her organizational beliefs and core values are not replicated in the
subsidiaries hence failing to represent the interests of the USA’s Amazon incorporation within
the distribution sites. The purpose of this report is to document an extensive analysis of the core
problems faced by employees in various subsidiaries as a result of the existing organizational
culture at Amazon. Further, the report will document recommended strategies that the CEO can
put in place to align the culture of the company with the organizational objectives of inclusion
and diversity.
Emerging Issues from Existing Organizational Culture
An organization’s culture encompasses beliefs, values, and behavior that exist as the
identifiable features of the company. It also includes certain narratives that enhance
organizational values. Amazon is a multinational company with an expansive geographical
network, and the company has diverse employees who deal with various clients globally. As
such, the organization’s corporate culture needs to be replicated in foreign subsidiaries to

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enhance integration, as explained by Zander, Jonsen, and Mockaitis, 2016). Notably, the
organization’s expansion has led to cultural diversity as seen in various languages of interaction
and attitudes and beliefs that vary based on the locality (Grogaard and Colman, 2016).
Organizational culture has been best explained through various models such as Schein theory.
According to Schein (1965), an organization’s culture is divided into three distinct categories:
artifacts, values, and tactical assumptions.
Despite its linear approach, Schein’s model has been widely used in organizations to
enhance the effective management of employees. It will be used to dissect the present problems
in organizational culture within Amazon. Schein (2010) documents that the values and beliefs of
the pioneer branch may be taken for granted by the subsidiaries, and in some cases, it could get
diluted. At the same time, there are existing differentials in the value system of the company’s
headquarters and branches. Jassy clearly desires the existence of a cohesive working relationship
and dedication, which is currently displayed in the USA but has been missing in the lower levels
of the workforce in the United Kingdom branch. Such differences have resulted in deviation of
values between the espoused and lived values.
Eventually, this has created a misunderstanding of the existence of stringent work culture
among the subsidiary branches of the organization. According to Hofstede (2003), diverse
organizational cultures can utilize the aspect of individualism and collective facet. The United
States, just like the United Kingdom, is an individualistic nation, which emphasizes the
achievement of personal goals at the expense of the collaborative mindset that promotes
collective efforts in the realization of organizational goals and objectives. This focus on personal
growth has seen workers allocate time to their development at the company’s expense (Taylor.
and Wilson, 2012).

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The lack of constant interaction, coaching, and appraisal has led to the deviation between
the espoused and lived values. This has negatively affected the organization’s integrity and
lowered employees’ morale and, consequently, performance, which has seen most of them exit
(Greenbaum et al., 2015). Therefore, to deal with issues emanating from diverse cultural
backgrounds, Amazon has to build a new culture throughout the levels of the organization
(Alvesson and Sveningson, 2015). This can be done by incorporating Hofstede’s model that
allows the management to understand the existing cultural dimensions and then train the
members to work collectively. For example, this can be done by encouraging participative
decision-making or group assignment. Despite the existence of criticism against Hofstede’s work
due to its generalizability to various contexts, his work has been used to analyze the cultural
values in various organizations.
Further, the absence of cohesive work culture in the UK branch is attributed to the
presence of rivalry among the employees. Notably, the presence of social classes standard at the
workplace has created a culture of self-comparison to those of the upper social cadre. A thorough
analysis of this subsidiary revealed that the management contributed to the existence of this
group of employees. For example, when the top-level management only recognizes those
workers with exceptional performance, the other workers withdraw and give less business input.
Some even went ahead to sabotage their work. This clearly illustrates the adverse effects of
social comparisons and individualism, which leads to competition and breeding non-cooperative
teams of employees (Kirkman, Lowe, and Gibson (2017). The employees who have a
competitive mindset only work to achieve the goals set by the subsidiary manager.
Those who are not great achievers or slow learners may take a back seat and demonstrate
lower commitment to the company. Such employees look for exit strategies and will do so once

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a chance is present. Again the organizational culture of Amazon is weak because the employees
are forced to be innovative to develop online e-commerce models. In this case, there is a weak
value system because the stated values have not been fully comprehended and put into practice.
Furthermore, the country managers have failed to cultivate a culture of collective responsibility
where teamwork is valued, and all employees are celebrated for their immense contribution to
organizational success.
The management has to create a collaborative culture, eliminate internal comparisons
through team training and supervision, and engage all employees in decision-making. This will
enhance team engagement, productivity, cohesive and collective responsibilities paramount in
achieving organizational goals (Bandura and Lyons, 2017). Group training has been seen to
positively influence the culture and performance of an organization because the team members
share tasks and work together, which leads to collective recognition. This also promotes trusting
relations with the management and sharing of knowledge among the employees, as explained by
Maseko, VanWyk & Odendaal (2019).
Appropriate Leadership and Performance
The role of a leader in any organization cannot be overemphasized. Leaders develop a
shared vision and strategies that can be applied to foster the realization of company objectives.
At the moment, Amazon Malaysia has witnessed financial vulnerability, poor performance, and
poor operations coordination due to inefficient leadership. The then country manager, Lydia Si,
previously used the charismatic style of leadership, which was favorable for the workers since
their main work was to develop peculiar ideas on service delivery. The leader was seen to be
effective since the company was performing better previously than other subsidiaries.

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Notably, this manager became unwell and was diagnosed with a terminal illness and
hence was given early retirement. This news shook the branch completely because the
employees solely depended on him, and once he left for treatment, the workers lost direction.
The major problem that came up was none of the employees had been groomed to be a leader in
the future. The charismatic leadership style does not build any potential leader to take up the
mantle of the existing ones (McClean and Collins,2019). Therefore, the branch is witnessing a
long-term disruption since it mainly focused on immediate performance but did not have a
program for developing young leaders. Consequently, this style was inappropriate because it
failed to coach leaders who could step in as Lawrence recuperates.
As such, the most appropriate leadership model would be a transformative model. The
incoming branch manager should recognize potential leaders, train them, and delegate tasks (Sofi
and Devanadhen, 2015). This provides the highest level of support that encourages members to
achieve organizational goals. Further, this model promotes autonomy directly proportional to
employee productivity, as explained by Rahadiyan, Triatmanto, and Respati (2019). At the same
time, Amazon has a global presence; hence Jassy will need to develop a cross-cultural leadership
model that will be used to train a group of leaders who can serve in any subsidiary. Therefore, by
adopting a transformational leadership style, the manager will train the leaders to adapt to
various cultures and adopt a suitable type of leadership framework.
A leader’s ultimate goal is to ensure that the company reports a positive performance and
provide support and coaching to the subordinate. The leadership of Amazon needs to adjust the
company culture towards the collaborative mindset (Bandura and Lyons, 2017). This will
positively affect employee performance by embracing a shared vision and value system

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throughout the subsidiaries. Further, it will promote the highest level of autonomy that is
instrumental in meeting the peculiar needs of the clients globally.
Invention, imagination, and employee motivation
Inventions in a company require the employees to be vulnerable enough to take risks and
be able to develop unconventional thinking that is instrumental to the future competitive ability
of Amazon (Anderson, Potocnik, and Zhou, 2014). Notably, the employees in countries such as
Malaysia and United Arab Emirates subsidiaries view the existing culture of Amazon as being
limited in terms of the dissemination of innovative concepts. The employees reported that the
country management delegated limited tasks and did not give the workers a sense of autonomy
which led to a decline in creativity.
Similarly, the significant core values of the organization are innovation and the
development of peculiar ideas. Yet, the management does not allow the workers to improve on
existing models or even encourage a creative mindset. Their written values vary from what is
practiced in the subsidiary branches, which lowers the workers’ morale and leads to a decline in
performance. The lack of managerial support directly affects commitment and the desire for
success (Anderson et al., 2014). As such, the management should develop an efficient
psychological contract that is implemented to the latter (Soares and Mosquera, 2019). This will
result in productive outcomes, a high level of motivation, and increased creativity, as explained
by Gelbrich, Stedham, and Gäthke (2016).
According to Hofstede’s model, a greater distance between the management and
employees cultivates the notion of control which hinders innovation (Hofstede, 2011). Notably,
Malaysia and UAE subsidiaries have a collective culture and greater distances between the
management and subordinates. As such, the members do not enjoy autonomy because they are

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expected to comply with the guidelines laid down by their supervisors (Bialas, 2009). The
inability to divest from the established organizational and social norms makes it difficult for the
employees to embrace change models and embrace creativity. Conversely, the United Kingdom
and the USA have given their employees autonomy. They are free to use their creative mindsets
to generate models that can spearhead the company to the next level.
The management closely connects with the subordinates who offer guidance when
required; the cultural dimensions of the nation’s influence inventions and imaginations that
Amazon needs to consider to create a synergy between culture and innovation. For example,
areas with rigid leadership structures such as the UAE should develop internal policies that
factor in innovation as a significant aspect of the organization. Amazon Malaysia and UAE can
develop an innovative culture where leadership supports employee autonomy (Sofi and
Devanadhen, 2015). Consequently, this will lead to better ideas that will propel Amazon to
expand to new markets such as Brazil and India.
More so, organizational performance is directly influenced by the ability of the
management to motivate the employees. Following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the
workers can be motivated by meeting five categories of needs ranging from the most basic to
higher levels of self-actualization (Maslow 1970). According to this theory, an employee will
first fulfill lower-level needs such as psychological, safety, belonging, and esteem and then
progress to self-actualization. This theory can be used at Amazon to motivate workers; however,
Jassy needs to know that the employees have varied needs that must be met to stay at the
company. For example, in Malaysia, the employees value social aspects of belonging and love
instead of psychological needs.

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On the other hand, employees in the UK and USA have a lot of emphasis on self-
actualization. Comparatively, those in the UAE can be easily motivated by a permanent job than
self-actualization due to the inherent uncertainty in the country, as explained by Taylor &
Wilson (2012). The critics of Maslow’s theory argue that it is culturally biased hence the need to
adjust its use to various nations and what the employees regard as the highest level of
satisfaction Hofstede &Bond, 1988).
At the same time, positive behaviors from the employees can be realized through the
theory of reinforcement developed by Skinner in 1963. According to this theory, employees can
be motivated through appreciation when they invent a design that will benefit the company
(Manzoor et al., 2019). This model encourages employees’ autonomy, creativity, and
accountability since they see themselves as important stakeholders in decision-making. This will
ultimately increase their support and commitment to the organization.
The leadership and management of Amazon can progress positively by using the glue
technology model postulated by Evans, Pucki, and Bjorkman (20111). According to this model,
the company will develop a set of norms that promote subsidiary exchange programs through
collaborations, transfer of the best employees, leadership models, and socialization programs
based on the ability of an employee to adhere to the set rules and regulations (Makhlouf, 2017).
This will be instrumental in the upcoming subsidiaries because the country supervisors can be
deployed from existing organizations to cement the organization’s core values and beliefs during
the induction of the new personnel, as explained by Witt & Stahl (2015).
Conclusion
In Conclusion, global corporations incur a myriad of problems when their values are not
upheld in the subsidiary foreign branches. There is a difference in uptake between espoused

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values and adopted values in the branches, which tend to interfere with management and,
ultimately, the performance of these subsidiaries. This report has analyzed Amazon’s
organizational culture, inventions, inability to uphold the psychological contract, differential
motivation, and inappropriate leadership style. The report equally documents suggested
recommendations to mitigate the problems, enable the management to have a stable culture in all
the subsidiaries, and ultimately record successful organizational goals.

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