The growth of Amazon to a global retail company is basically due in part to the management practices by its Chief Executive Office and how such practices affect the planning, control, and management of a company. Most CEOs embrace unique Organizational structures towards the operations of their companies. The organizational structure of a company is important since it outlines how various activities such as supervision, work coordination, and allocation are handled by an organization to achieve the set aims and goals. A good organizational structure creates opportunities for business growth.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of a company has a huge influence on the successful operation of an organization. Most modern CEOs wield major influence in their organizations and have a hand in all the decision-making policies of an organization. One such CEO that has brought about the successful growth of a business is Jeff Bezos, the founder and Chief Executive officer of Amazon which is the world largest online shopping retailer. Different strategical approaches have in the past been implemented in an organization by the CEO and these approaches have at times led to the growth or collapse of the business (Veit, 2007). The management styles of various CEOs also differ while some embracing the spoke and wheel organizational structures while other use the function based organizational structure, hence the psychoanalytical impact of a CEO’s behavior towards factors such as management, planning and organization of an organization.
Amazon has traditionally been considered a hard place to workplace and this is due to the leadership style its CEO Jeff. Good leadership styles have a major role in the successful running of an organization and the leader’s ability to implement business changes has always had a hand in the success of an organization. Jeff is known for his task-oriented approach to leadership due to his high standards and brutal management techniques that have led to amazon being one of the hardest places to work at. His experimentation and innovative qualities and how he implemented such ideas into the business by having unique visions for the future led Amazon tapping the new niche market of online retail shop and this small but significant implementation led to Amazon being a major player in online retail market. This leadership style used by Jeff has had a large part in the planning, organization and controlling of Amazon.
The management style at amazon is different from those of other companies as they mainly reflect the demanding attitude of its CEO towards business growth. The CEO of amazon is greatly applauded for his role that turned amazon from an online book retailer to a global retail shop that sells all types of products. Amazon’s working environment has been regarded as a difficult place to work. This is due in part to the high demand of Bezos and how his style of management has led to employees complaining about their job satisfaction. Employees at amazon are required to work in small teams according to the “two pizzas” rules implemented by the CEO. These management techniques employed at Amazon leads to evaluation of an employee’s contribution to the organization and how well they can be rewarded for such efforts.
Bezos strategical planning is the major factor that has resulted in amazon attaining the significant growth. Initially an online store, Amazon identified all the possibilities offered by the rapid advancement in technology and transformed the company from an online store to a global retail store with huge influence over the masses. This was highly due to the commitment and foresightedness of Bezos’ and his team. Amazon employs an organizational structure that requires employees to be more experimenting and innovative in the creation of new products and services that result in a lot of financial revenues while also maintaining the loyalty of their customer.
The best strategical management practice to be implemented solely depends on how the organization is run and the visions and goals of the company. Various management theories have been formulated in the past to guide business on how to an effective increase service quality and company’s productivity. Such theories include the contingency theory, Systems theory, Chaos theory and McGregor Theory X and Theory Y. The management theory that greatly describes the management styles employed by Amazon’s CEO is the McGregor theory x which emphasizes on aspects such as proper management of the workforce and how to ensure the rules of management are followed by the use of strict supervision, imposing penalties and rewarding of employees and management alike for their best practices at work. Theory X acts as a great paradigm of the management practices at Amazon and this is validated by the CEOs attitude towards growth, his strict managerial style of his subordinates and finally the allocation of rewards and bonuses to employees to who work hard. (Hill & Jones, 2013)
It is sufficient to say that Jeff’s behavior with regards to the organizational structure and managerial styles at Amazon has had both positive and negative impacts. First and foremost, rigid control structure towards all policies has led to a stressful working environment where employees are afraid to counter argue the unfeasible business expectations of their CEO. Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is a demanding, innovative and brilliant leader and these skills have resulted in the growth and success of Amazon (McKinsey, 2016). However, the creation of a comfortable working environment is of great importance (Crane & Matten, 2010) to any business due to the fact of employees being primary stakeholders of the company and therefore the next brilliant strategical plan of Amazons CEO should be how to implement a good working relations with the employees so as to lead to increased business growth of Amazon.
References
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Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2010). Business ethics (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hill, C. & Jones, G. (2013). Strategic management Theory (1st ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning
Lin, D. H. (2012). Beyond CEO Tenure: The Effect of CEO Newness on Strategic Changes. Journal of Management, 25.
Tate, U. M. (2015). Behavioral CEOs: The Role of Managerial Overconfidence. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 37-60.
The Future of retail supply chains. London, UK: McKinsey Group. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/dotcom//Future_of_retail_supply_chains.ashx
Veit, D. (2007). Grid economics and business models. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media
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