Background of the company
Amazon Inc. is a Seattle, Washington-based American multinational corporation that specializes in providing web services and online shopping (Ives et al., 2019). Cloud computing, e-commerce, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence services are the company’s main areas of interest. It offers a broad variety of goods via its services, including games, electronics, music, fashion, industrial and auto equipment, health and beauty items, and more. Jeff Bezos established this enormous business in 1994. It began as an online bookshop before growing to become the biggest online retailer on the planet (Ives et al., 2019). This business has quickly expanded, now employing more than a million people worldwide. Thanks to Bezos, who is now the company’s Chairman, and Andy Jassy, the current CEO, it is currently among the businesses with the greatest market shares in the world.
Discussion
According to Jatmiko et al. (2021) a manager is a person who organizes and oversees the activities of the employees to ensure that the company’s objectives are met. The management positions suggested by Henry Mintzberg, especially the ones for interpersonal and decision-making skills, are applicable to Amazon Company. Since they immediately aid in the accomplishment of objectives, such managerial responsibilities are useful and efficient for the administration of this organization. A leader must be concerned with matters concerning people as well as other symbolic roles like figurehead and liaison in order to fulfill the interpersonal role (Mathew and Kiran, 2019). The decision-making function, in contrast, necessitates that a leader be an entrepreneur, disruption handler, resource allocator, and negotiator (Wulandari et al., 2020). These two positions are used by Amazon managers to accomplish the planning, organizing, leading, and regulating tasks. In the case of Amazon Inc., the figurehead position regarding this company’s symbolic image is seen as the interpersonal role. The managers serve as the firm’s liaisons and representatives at the same time. For instance, Jeff Bezos has served as the company’s public face and has represented it at conferences and other gatherings (Stone, 2022). As the company’s public face, Bezos has been successful in establishing the company’s image and brand while serving as a point of contact for all of its constituents, including customers, workers, and investors.
The decision-making position, on the other hand, views Bezos as an entrepreneur because he participates in the execution of new ideas inside the organization, allotting resources as needed and taking on the risks associated with the projects. This organization has an innovative culture, and its leadership consistently use their expertise to create new chances. Amazon Inc. has introduced a variety of goods and services under Bezos’ direction, including Amazon Web Services (Stone, 2022). In order to spur innovation, he has also promoted experimentation, enabling staff members to use fresh concepts and technologies by taking calculated risks.
Evaluation
The effectiveness of interpersonal and decisional roles might change depending on how they are used by Amazon Inc. When it comes to interpersonal roles, the figurehead position is an essential component of management since it boosts employee engagement, encourages people to work more for Amazon, and helps with decision-making (Nikolova et al., 2019). This job does this by perhaps delivering timely and clear communication to stakeholders including customers, workers, and other stakeholders. This organization gains efficiency from having such an interpersonal function since the managers will be able to reflect the company’s ideals and utilize them to coordinate the actions of all stakeholders and establish a feeling of common purpose. Interpersonal roles may undoubtedly limit productivity inside Amazon since, if overemphasized, they may lead to a top-down management style that stifles creativity and skill because the whole Amazon workforce won’t be able to improve at something they aren’t permitted to perform.
The entrepreneur job may boost efficiency in the decision-making function by encouraging innovation and seeing new prospects for growth. By encouraging experimentation and taking chances, Amazon can remain ahead of its competitors and evolve with the market. On the other side, if the entrepreneur’s position is overemphasized, it could cause a lack of focus and direction as well as a competition for resources between too many ideas and endeavors (Riar et al., 2021). Prioritizing and carrying out team goals may be necessary, which might lead to inefficiencies.
Importance of managerial skills
To maintain efficiency inside the organization, Amazon Inc. uses management abilities such technical, interpersonal, and conceptual capabilities (Thomas and Chopra, 2020). In order for Amazon to accomplish its objectives and keep up its competitiveness in the worldwide market for retailing services, effective management abilities are essential. Managers at Amazon create difficult solutions using their creativity and intellectual talents, which is a component of the decision-making position. A definite connection exists between interpersonal responsibilities, and the figurehead position in particular, and the technical and management abilities that have enabled good communication, developed strong stakeholder connections, and offered a clear direction for the overall success of this organization. The interpersonal function is related to the company’s strong people abilities, which have helped the teams work successfully together. The success of the Amazon Company may be linked to Jeff Bezos’ strong management abilities, which have secured the advancement of this company’s purpose and vision, both of which normally work to achieve the ultimate aim of the stakeholders and the business.
How the company’s abilities and capabilities contribute to its success and effectiveness
At the Amazon Company, both management duties and abilities contribute to success and efficiency because they, among other things, foster staff engagement, technological improvements, customer pleasure, and sustainability. The Amazon Company has maintained a competitive edge as an online retailer in the complex global market via creativity and innovation enabled by the conceptual talents of the management. This firm is now a customer obsession center rather than a competitor-focused business thanks to its abilities and strengths. Both the interpersonal and decisional roles contribute to creating employee engagement, which facilitates seamless customer service since workers display a pleasant attitude and behavior. Overall, these traits contribute to Amazon’s success and efficiency since they enable the achievement of SDG 8, which calls for assuring increased levels of economic production via technical breakthroughs, innovation, and diversity.
Conclusion
This essay shows how the interpersonal and decisional roles, as put out by Henry Mintzberg, pertain to the position of managers at the Amazon Company. These management functions are criticized, and it is suggested that this corporation employ them in a restricted way. Additionally, we have talked about the importance of managerial skills based on the roles of Amazon managers and have shown how such skills and strengths contribute to the success of Amazon Inc. by ensuring that they are incorporated into a cogent management strategy that is in line with the company’s objectives, which are crucial to striking a balance between various managerial functions.
References
Ives, B., Cossick, K. and Adams, D., 2019. Amazon Go: disrupting retail? Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 9(1), pp.2-12. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2043886918819092
Jatmiko, B., Udin, U.D.I.N., Raharti, R., Laras, T. and Ardhi, K.F., 2021. Strategies for MSMEs to achieve sustainable competitive advantage: The SWOT analysis method. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 8(3), pp.505-515. https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202106438543417.page
Mathew, J. and Kiran, G.N., 2019. Effective managerial leadership and challenges in sport organization. http://www.kheljournal.com/archives/2019/vol6issue6/PartA/6-5-29-572.pdf
Wulandari, R.D., Supriyanto, S., Qomaruddin, M.B., Damayanti, N.A. and Laksono, A.D., 2020. Role of leaders in building organizational Readiness to change-Case study at public health centres in Indonesia. Probl Perspect Manag, 18(3), pp.1-10. https://www.businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/13827/PPM_2020_03_Wulandari.pdf
Stone, B., 2022. Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a global empire. Simon and Schuster.
Nikolova, I., Schaufeli, W. and Notelaers, G., 2019. Engaging leader–Engaged employees? A cross-lagged study on employee engagement. European Management Journal, 37(6), pp.772-783. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237319300283
Riar, F.J., Bican, P.M. and Fischer, J., 2021. It wasn’t me: Entrepreneurial failure attribution and learning from failure. International journal of entrepreneurial venturing, 13(2), pp.113-136. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJEV.2021.114385
Thomas, A. and Chopra, M., 2020. On how big data revolutionizes knowledge management. Digital transformation in business and society: Theory and cases, pp.39-60. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-08277-2_3
write