Scribd
Upload
797 views5 pages

Amazon's Toxic Work Culture Case Study

The document summarizes a case study about Amazon's workplace culture. It describes how an article in The New York Times criticized Amazon for promoting an unconventional and toxic work culture that put physical and mental stress on employees through long hours and harsh policies. This led to high employee turnover but increased productivity. The article created a negative perception of Amazon's work culture among recruiters and ex-employees. In response, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said the article did not reflect the caring culture he knew and encouraged employees to report any issues to HR.

Uploaded by

Suvhrajeet Chakraborty
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
797 views5 pages

Amazon's Toxic Work Culture Case Study

The document summarizes a case study about Amazon's workplace culture. It describes how an article in The New York Times criticized Amazon for promoting an unconventional and toxic work culture that put physical and mental stress on employees through long hours and harsh policies. This led to high employee turnover but increased productivity. The article created a negative perception of Amazon's work culture among recruiters and ex-employees. In response, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said the article did not reflect the caring culture he knew and encouraged employees to report any issues to HR.

Uploaded by

Suvhrajeet Chakraborty
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Case Study Overview
  • Case Summary
  • Case Hot Points
  • Problems and Strategies
  • Additional Challenges

Case study

Company Name: AMAZON


Sector: E-Commerce
Country: USA
Product & Services: Electronics,fashion,home decors, Furniture etc...
Organisational Structure: Functional Organisational Structure.

Number of Participants: * The New Times (Article)


* Jeff Bezos (Founder)
* Employees of Amazon
Case summary:
Amazon is an E-commerce website which was founded in the year
1994 by Jeff Bezos. It featured 2nd in the Elite List of World’s Most
Admired companies in 2014 and 4th in 2015. But due to an article in
The New York Times in 2015 it created a huge controversy.
It cited that Amazon is promoting a very toxic and unconventional
work culture. It was very ruthless in criticising each other’s ideas at
the meetings. The article also stressed hugely on the physical stress
that it was putting on its employees by making them working for long
hours and even harsh actions were taken if they were unable to
respond to mails even at midnight. According to their policy
employees were forced to do overtime which was hugely affecting
their mental health as because if anyone failed to do so they were
forced to quit or terminated.
This workplace policies worked in the favour of the company as the
turnover increased but it led to quitting of employees in just few
months.
The recruitment process was very aggressive as the star employees
of the company used to do the screening process to hire the best of
the best. The company used to follow the bell curve approach due to
which every employee was under scrutiny.
It was not a good place to work for female employees as they were
highly criticised by their boss even smallest of the things. They also
did not have any female in the top management levels.
This work culture created a very negative perception about the
amazon’s ex-employees and many recruiters were hesitant to hire
them as they were perceived that they trained to be aggressive.
In response to the article Jeff Bezos sent a message to amazon
employees:
‘The article doesn't describe the Amazon I know or the caring
Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like
those reported, I want you to escalate [them] to HR. You can also
email me directly at jeff@[Link]. Even if it's rare or isolated,
our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.’

Case Hot Points:


 Unconventional Office Culture.
 Physical Stress at Amazon Workplace.
 Long working hours.
 Employee work overtime.
 Mental stress.
 High in employee turnover.
 Talented employee attraction and retention.
 Top management- Leadership Skills.
 Employee perks and benefits.
 Employee aggressive behaviour.
 Workaholic.

Problems and Strategies:


 Talent Acquisition Process:
Problem- Amazon was rigorous in recruitment process.
Strategy –

Problem- Screening Process will be done by the star performer


in the company.
Strategy-

Problem- Part-time interviewers are used for recruitment


process.
Strategy-

Problem- Working contracts has been signed between new


joiners- 1year and relocation expenses with in 2years.
Strategy-

 Performance management process:


Problem- Amazon is using bell-curve method for evaluating
their employees.
Strategy-

Problem- Company level interviews will be done once in a year


managers discuss their subordinates ranking.
Strategy-

Problem- Employee criticism through feedback for under


performer.
Strategy-

Problem- Negative comments.


Strategy-

 Leadership style:
Problem- Work life balance.
Strategy-

Problem- Gender inequality.


Strategy-

Problem- Child rearing.


Strategy-
Problem- Boss criticism.
Strategy-

Problem- Working hours- 80 hours in a week.


Strategy-

Problem- Work pressure.


Strategy-

Problem- Replacement – Old to New.


Strategy-

Case study Company Name: AMAZON Sector: E-Commerce Country: USA Product & Services: Electronics,fashion,home decors, Furnitur
* Employees of Amazon Case summary: Amazon is an E-commerce website which was founded in the year 1994 by Jeff Bezos.
‘The article doesn't describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stori
Strategy- Problem- Working contracts has been signed between new joiners- 1year and relocation expenses with in 2years. Stra
Problem- Boss criticism. Strategy- Problem- Working hours- 80 hours in a week. Strategy- Problem- Work pressure. Strategy- Pr

You might also like