In this unit, you will conclude your analysis of your Client Organization with one page introduction

Running Head: MODEL FOR DIAGNOSING INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP BEHAVIOR 0

Unit Five Assignment – “Team Assignment”.

Brightpath Consulting

Team B

Kaplan University

GM 504: Organizational Excellence and Change

Dr. Barbara- Leigh Tonelli

August 14, 2019

Introduction

Many stimuluses’ internally and externally impact the behavior and culture within Amazon organization. Brightpath Consulting will diagnose how Amazon is currently functioning by focusing on the group behavior, processes, and culture portion of the “Model for Diagnosing Individual and Group Behavior”, and provide collected data to design change initiatives. The “Model for Diagnosing Individual and Group Behavior” is a general way to dissect how an organization functions, and an apparatus employed to uncover organizational problems, organize the intricacy of organizational life, and develop strategies to build a successful organization.

The group level components consist of group composition, goal clarity, task structure, group norms and culture, and group functioning (Harrison, 2005). Group composition defines the makeup and concerns of the members of the group. Goal clarity defines the comprehension of the group’s objectives. Task structure defines the design of the group’s work. Group norms and culture define the beliefs and foundation on how to perform the group’s tasks. For the purpose of this analysis, we will focus on the group behavior, processes, and culture portion to design change initiatives.

Client group behavior

A manager’s primary function is to ensure operational efficiency among an organization. Understanding a group that's made up of different individuals and comprehending the many relationships among those individuals is complex but necessary for positive organizational outcomes (Nadler & Tushman, 1995). At Amazon, they practice natural selection through their “anytime feedback tool”, which allows employees to send feedback negative or positive to managers.

Using this tool, the company is able to “manage out” underperformers every year as their efficiency strategy (Kantor & Streitfield, 2015). This tool encourages employees to outperform one another in order to keep their job with the company. “Many forces in and around organizations shape patterns of organizational behavior” (Harrison, 2005, p. 55). The top management and decision makers are having a negative influence on the group behavior with this policy in place. Group and individual effectiveness, quality of work life and wellbeing help shape relationships among the organization.

The current performance outcomes exist as employees grow accustom to fighting their way to the top individually versus as a team. There is no cohesiveness among the employees because they are constantly in competition with one another. When new hires go through orientation they are informed of the Amazon Principles which outline the culture and behavior that is expected among the employees. Principle five says that Amazon hires and develop the best and they hold one another to towering expectations (Kantor & Streitfield, 2015). Another subject of orientation is that they encourage transparency about who is really achieving and who is not. The expectations are not encouraging any team work and are very intimidating. When employees have an innovative plan to share with their “team”, constituents are highly encouraged to disagree and commit to create something even better (Kantor & Streitfield, 2015).

According to Amazon, their competitive culture sustains their growth and ability to keep a competitive edge globally. It is made very clear from the early hiring process that the company is tough and offers little work life balance and quality for that matter. The “athletes” are known as the ideal employees who live, eat and breathe the competitive culture and grow from it. “By examining employees’ expectations and understanding of their work situation, consultants may discover explanations for suboptimal performance” (Harrison, 2005, p. 58). Amazon is known for the place over achievers go to feel bad about themselves. If this is not something employees are looking for then Amazon is not the right fit for them. You are working individual but as a group at the same time to debate and argue about ways to improve one’s idea. The competitiveness has primarily created a culture of independent values and motives.

Processes

The processes of individual and group behavior at Amazon are monitored by evaluating and diagnosing new and existing employees within the company linked to their social behavior. The processes evaluation of individual and group behavior can give management at Amazon an understanding of how employees react to the structure, policies, and procedures. The evaluation of processes can also assist with improving the interactions with management and the effectiveness thereof. The intention is for the factors to help get employees to work harder and contribute to engagement with other employees while maintaining the competitive atmosphere.

By having said processes, management at Amazon aspire to have employees more involved with tasks assigned while being critical to colleagues. The aim is to create a check and balance approach which forces employees to cut the rough edges off of one another. Management at Amazon knows that there are risks when evaluating employees, so they strategize and plan the approach carefully with evaluations.

Culture

Amazon has an organizational culture which enables the company’s business capacity to sustain the demands of its market. The company has a corporate culture that that sets the values and traditions which influence the behavior of its employees. For instance, the culture push workers to work beyond their traditional conventions and limits in order to create bright solutions and ideas. Amazon cultural aspect is known for its success in its ability to make use of data processes hence providing efficient retail services.

According to Datamonitor (2000), Amazon encourages boldness among its employees. This culture is evident from how the company specializes in selling a variety of items like books through data intensive systems. Consequently this culture encourages Amazon workers to take risks such and creation of new ideas in business in an effort to keep ahead of competition. The company’s emphasis in boldness initiates openness towards new technological ideas on diversification. This culture feature enables Amazon to come up with the best solutions for solving problems and therefore improving the company’ business.

From the company’s vision statement its centricity in customers is highlighted. This factor is an important aspect in the company’s culture. Amazon pushes its employees to concentrate on customers’ demands and needs. In addition, the company constantly struggles to establish and analyze changes in their customer’s preferences. It applies the preferences in the retail business through its products and services. Through this corporate culture, the company is able to maintain constant efficiency in customer satisfaction expanding its business more and more (Kelly et.al, 2010).

Available research shows that Amazon’s organizational culture includes peculiarity also. Generally, it has a culture that challenges ideas and conventions. For instance, the company encourages its workers to see their work and themselves as being different from the conventional ways of conducting business (Laudon et.al, 2013). Amazon believes that the conventions create limits for new ideas and hence limiting the company’s potential growth. Therefore, through this characteristic of culture, the company motivates its workers to think widely and bring the firm to its maximum ability.

The Problem with Amazon’s Culture

By any measures, Amazon is generally very successful. It’s among the top five profitable companies in the world. However, its culture sometimes distresses its employees due to the high competitive nature. The company ranks team members against each other. It has a highly competitive atmosphere. This creates a very uncomfortable environment for the employees. The company also strain its human resources by pushing its workers too hard to be bold and peculiar in their jobs. The company’s evaluation system is considered relentless. Some of Amazon employees experience family emergencies such as cancer, loss of parents and miscarriages but they aren’t provided with enough time to recover. Consequently, the employees complain that the company is so relentless that it cannot allow them to pause even for a moment (Rossman, 2014).

Recommendations

Pushing employees is necessary for the success of an organization however Amazon should make sure that the pushing doesn’t go so far to the point of making employees hit their breaking point. Next, Amazon should develop a connection subculture. This culture will make the company’s employees feel more connected with their clients, colleagues and leaders. As a result, they will become more energetic, creative, and enthusiastic and be better decision makers. Mathew Lieberman describes connection as a supervisor as it helps employees to be healthier, productive and happier (Films Media Group et.al, 2016). Lastly, Amazon’s leaders should be more intentional in influencing culture across the organization. Lack of intentions makes culture to shift towards indifferences amongst people. The shifting makes firms to become more machine like and forget to care for the employees and the community that made those employees.

Conclusion

To conclude, Amazon has an open communication culture which allow employees to share feedback and suggestions real time in a trustworthy manner. The manner in which issues are handled internally also lead to the success of the company along with the high employer rating because of this organizational citizenship approach. The employee engagement during conventions not only highlight the importance of information sharing internally amongst staff but also frequently highlight the importance of customer centricity. The internal competitive atmosphere however can create frictions. The internal competitive atmosphere assists with achieving the company results but hamper employee satisfaction and retention. The company strives for greatness but it is evident then not all personalities would meet their required dedication and passion to get the job done.

References

Ackoff, R. (1999). Re-creating the corporation: A design of organizations for the 21st century, Oxford University press. ISBN: 0195123875

Datamonitor (Firm). (2000). Amazon.com, Inc. New York, NY: Datamonitor.

Films Media Group, & Teletime Video, Inc. (2016). Building Corporate Culture.

Harrison, M.I. (2005). Diagnosing organizations: Methods, models, and processes (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.

Kantor, J. & Streitfield. (2015). Inside Amazon- Wrestling big ideas in a bruising workplace. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

Kelly, B., & London, M. (2010). Amazon. New York: An Owl Book, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2013). E-commerce: Business, technology, society.

Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (1995). A Model for Diagnosing Organizational Behavior. Organizational Dynamics, 9(2), 35-51.

Rossman, J. (2014). The Amazon way: 14 leadership principles behind the world's most disruptive company.

Sanders, M. A. (2002). Enterprise value enhancement system and method. Retrieved from http://www. US Patent 6,411,936, 2002 - Google Patents