Analyzing Jeff Bezos' Leadership Approach - A Critical Essay.

Write a report on the leadership.

Leadership plays an important role in gaining the competitive advantages for the contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that quality of the leaders helps in determining the future business effectiveness of the organizations. In the recent time there are number of instances where it is seen that skills of the leaders helped the business organizations in gaining brand value and opportunities in the global market. One of the major instances is the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. He is known for his visionary skills and leadership qualities, which helped Amazon to become one of the leading brands in the world and Jeff Bezos became the richest person in the world (Keeton 2018). However, on the other hand, Jeff Bezos also faced a number of criticisms for his leadership approach. Thus, evaluating the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos will help to identify the importance of leadership for the business. This essay will discuss about the theories of leadership along with other elements such as diversity and change management. The leadership qualities of Jeff Bezos will be critically analyzed against these theories. In addition, positive and negative factors in the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos will also be discussed.

According to Long et al. (2014), transformational style of leadership is one of the most popular and widely used leadership approaches being followed in the current time. This denotes the process of involving the employees in the decision making process of the company and the welfare of the employees is being given the major concentration. In addition, as per the authors, transformational leaders are visionary and they are having the capability to lead the innovation process for further organizational effectiveness. On the other hand, Sharma and Singh (2013) stated that laissez-faire leadership style is another approach being followed in the recent time. This refers to the process of initiating the style of leadership according to the organizational situation. The authors have also stated that both the servant based and autocratic styles of leadership are being followed in the laissez-faire leadership style.

Teamwork is one of the major considerations being followed in the current business scenario. According to Fapohunda (2013), teamwork is important in the current business scenario due to the reason that contemporary workforce is majorly diverse with having employees from different social and cultural factors. Thus, with the help of the effective teamwork, the connection between the employees and the managers will get enhanced and more collective effort can be promoted. Thus, it is important for the leaders to have the capability of initiating and promoting teamwork in the organization.

Teamwork

Change management process is another important factor in the current business scenario. This is due to the reason that current business environment is frequently changing and it is important for the leaders to implement the internal change accordingly. According to Hechanova and Cementina-Olpoc (2013), leadership and change management are interrelated due to the reason that effective process of leadership will ensure low level of employee issues. There are number of probable causes of emergence of resistances from the side of the employees, which can be mitigated with the help of effective leadership approach.

As discussed in the earlier section, workforce in the organizations is diverse in nature. This is mainly due to the reason that employees from different social and cultural backgrounds are working in same workplace. In this case, it is important for the leaders to have the effective management skills in maintaining the diversity in the organization. According to Martin Alcazar, Miguel Romero Fernandez and Sanchez Gardey (2013), it is important for the leaders to have the capability of managing the employees from different sets of social and cultural backgrounds and leading them without any biasness. In addition, it is also being stated by the authors that the leader should have the cross cultural skills in order to have effective communication process with the employees irrespective of their social and cultural differences.

There are number of different positive and negative aspects being identified in terms of the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos. According to Collinson and Tourish (2015), there are different elements can be identified from the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos. One of the major elements is the visionary skills of him. This is due to the reason that visionary skills of him helped Amazon to change the existing trend of offline based retailing and initiate the e-revolution. Thus, this can be concluded that that visionary skill of the transformational leadership is well aligned with that of the approach of Jeff Bezos. On the other hand, it is stated by Schoemaker and Krupp (2015) that the vision only approach of Jeff Bezos is also posing challenges for the employees. This is due to the reason that the visionary skills of him are not getting matched with some of the stakeholders and they are reluctant in adhering to him.

It is being reported in the New York Times by Kantor and Streitfeld (2015) that workplace culture being followed in Amazon is having positive impact on the performance of the employees. This is due to the reason that Amazon’s workplace culture is providing healthy, challenging and learning environment for the employees. This is helping in having motivated and engaged employees in place. It is also beings stated by the authors that having the presence of the motivated employees is also helping in offering the effective and high quality service to the customers. However, on the other hand several criticisms are also being stated against this approach of Jeff Bezos. It is stated by Matthews, Harbin and Daigle (2018) that report of negative impact of the leadership approach of Jeff Bezos was first reported in the New York Times. It was stated that the customer first attitude of him is posing issues for the employees due to the reason that employee welfare is being given lower focus. Thus, it can be concluded that even though the customer first approach of Jeff Bezos is helping in enhancing the customer satisfaction level but it affecting the employee management mechanism.

Change management process

It is also being identified that Jeff Bezos is effective in initiating the change process in the organization without having any major issues. In addition, the diversity is being maintained effectively in the organization. According to Taylor (2018), Amazon is having their operations in good number of countries around the world with having employees from different regions. However, there are few incidents where the issues related to diversity are being emerged. In addition, it is also stated by the author that the business approach of Amazon got evolved with time without facing any resistances from the side of the employees. Thus, it can be concluded that Jeff Bezos is effective in maintaining the diversity in the workplace and it is denoting his favorable qualities.

Conclusion

This essay concludes that Jeff Bezos is having both positive and negative sides in his leadership style. It is identified that he is good at initiating visionary ideas and determining the needs of the customers. Thus, the level of customer satisfaction is high in Amazon. However, on the other hand, it is also being identified that employees are being given less focus in the workplace and thus it is creating issues among the internal stakeholders. It is also being identified that Jeff Bezos is also effective in initiating change management and diversity management in the workplace. It is recommended that Jeff Bezos should promote more employee engagement in the workplace to overcome the identified gap areas in Amazon. This will enable Jeff Bezos in becoming a complete leader without having any shortcomings. In addition, it is also being recommended that Jeff Bezos should enhance the communication process among the internal stakeholders to ensure that feedback of the employees is being properly detected.

Reference

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