Due 8/9 by 11PM (EST) ***READ CAREFULLY****

WEEK 1

Amazon Organizational Overview

Amazon has established itself in the e-commerce industry as it provides global operations and service to its vast clients. The company’s mission is “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience (Gregory, 2019). Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Gregory, 2019). The vision and mission statements generate a direct understanding on the company’s activities as it is possible to understand the connection with its clients and the types of products sold. The company involves an effective organizational culture that creates proper actions by all employees.

The company’s market is always expanding its market as provides effective online businesses and the ability to increase its market share. Business diversity is common in the company as it connects to persons with expertise in sales and marketing, and technology. Establishment of the online business was the company’s most tactical technique of create a niche for itself. A technological foundation is the company’s backbone that allows it to connect with clients in the entire globe. There are competitors including Alibaba and Walmart, but none have established an effective organization like Amazon. The company ensures its employees realize the seriousness of the company’s activities. In this way, the entire organization involves persons performing robust activities to promote profitability.

Structure

The use of an organizational chart is imperative for any company to promote better management of all employees (Cantu, 2009). A study of Amazon’s activities reveals that its organizational structure is based on a functional organizational structure that promotes responsibility sharing by all employees. Each employee is aware of the company’s strategic management and the ability to implement control of the entire operations. The functional organizational structure ensures the company’s business functions allow it to involve all the organization’s components. These can be employees, clients, and third-party companies. It is possible for the company to promote all required activities for its workforce and clients.

Amazon’s organizational culture involves function-based based settings for global connections, global hierarchy, and geographical divisions for its operations. The company ensures the function-based groups provide the company with insight concerning the market where they operate. Leadership is involved since the company uses senior managers to lead the function-based groups. The use of teams is involved in managing the company since it is possible to promote e-commerce activities in the entire organization. The function-based groups involved with Amazon are the CEO, business development, finance, accounting, consumer connections, legal office, and the Amazon Web Services. Management of all these teams is an imperative activity that increases the organization’s market share.

Amazon’s global hierarchy involves traditional business management. This allows it to create vertical management of all operations that promote the company’s command of all offices. It is possible to implement a reliable organizational culture at the company as all the directives get communicated from a high officer and the information reaches all subordinate offices. Amazon is a wide organizational that involves diverse employees, the management of all employees is possible through the vertical communication technique to promote connection with the company’s main mandate.

Amazon involves geographic divisions that ensure it performs unique management of the locations to suit the immediate clients. There are diverse economic conditions in the world and Amazon ensures it performs unique management of all areas. Regional markets involve diverse operations that require all the employees to understand the immediate market to promote collaboration with environmental activities. The main geographic locations managed are international and North America. These involve a large market for Amazon’s produces and thus required focus by leadership capable of handling the critical activities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an effective organizational culture is one that involves departmental activities and creation of relationships that promote effective operations in the entire organization (Kirkhaug, 2009). The procedure of promoting reliability of the company’s output is possible using its ability to connect clients with important products. It is possible to generate profitable activities once all departments involved are provided with employees conversant with the company’s information. Diversity is a focus in eh company as it ensures it understands the international geographics. The company employs thousands of employees from diverse backgrounds that get provided with a racially sensitive environment. It is possible for the company to improve on its organizational culture as all employees feel valued.

The organizational structure displayed by Amazon allows it to improve in the customer outreach programs since all employees are selected regardless of race, religion, finance, or education background. It is possible for the company to establish social responsibility since it already involves diverse employees that are knowledgeable about different markets. African Americans, Caucasian, and all other races are involved in the company to promote corporate and social responsibility (Milanesi, 2021). Inclusion of both female and male employees without discrimination is another activity the company performs to promote social improvement. These activities ensure the company can increase the outreach of its organizational statements. It is simple for Amazon to continue growing their clientele, with its customer-centric approach.

References

Cantu, J. L. (2009, June 02). Management cybernetics: Science of effective organization [Video file]. Retrieved from  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tMokYFaZMQ&feature=related .

Gregory, L. (2019). Amazon.com Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis). Retrieved 6 July 2021 from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis.

 Kirkhaug, R. (2009). The management of meaning: Conditions for perception of values in a hierarchical organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(3), 317-324. (ProQuest Document ID: 1776913471). 

Milanesi, C. (2021). The Role of Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Making Amazon the Best Employer on Earth. Retrieved 6 July 2021 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinamilanesi/2021/04/20/the-role-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-making-amazon-the-best-employer-on-earth/?sh=1c7a09fb70cd.

WEEK 2

Amazon’s Operational Strategy

Amazon is a firm that has grows tremendously over the years in terms of technological adoption and implementation and this has been impressive since they are currently more competitive as compared to the Alibaba and Walmart. There is a huge reason that contributed to the organization succeeding in their operation and this includes having the best workforce and putting the interest of the customers first. The main internal stakeholders of the company include the employees, managers, and the investors. The management of the Amazon Company has demonstrated the best management styles that should be emulated in other firms, and this started from the organization structure that was adopted. Amazon.com Inc. is organized in a functional manner (Meyer, 2019). This structure and strategy of Amazon focuses on business functions as the foundation for identifying the connections between organizational components (Prajogo & McDermott, 2008). The strongest feature of Amazon's organizational structure is its diverse function-based groups. A dedicated group or team, as well as a senior management, exists for each significant business function. The strategic goal of having this structural attribute is for Amazon.com to be able to manage effective e-commerce operations across the entire company. Finance, human resource, legal, and secretariat, among other significant parts, have evolved separate positions and divisions inside the business.

Operations and Quality Management

The human resource is one of the component under the management stakeholder that ensure that makes sure that Amazon has the best and talented staff that contribute to the high production experienced in the company (Marchand & Hykes, 2009). The multi-talented staff that is in Amazon that successfully introduced the e-commerce and made the company one of the leading online store and this is considered the work of the human resource by managing the human resource well (Meyer, 2019). In addition, we have the management especially top executive that listens to the other stakeholders including the investors and ensure that the resources needed to implement change and hire qualified staff is provided. An impressive progress in the Amazon organization and the good work done by the accounting and finance department has given confidence to the investors to invest in the company.

Cross-functional team that exists in the Amazon Inc today is the one that handles the marketing, product development, sales, and customer success (Sankar, 2020). The cross functional team ensure that the Amazon company understand the needs of the customers, develops products and services that meets the needs of the customer and ensure that the customers are aware of the products and services offered. The cross-functional team ensured that the online shop is working significantly increasing the response to customer orders and respond in case complaints are raised.

Collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration is a terrific way to get a sip of fresh ideas. Creativity is a collaborative effort. When project managers bring together people who are specialists in many fields, each with their own set of abilities, new views emerge. This type of collaboration will provide the team with new perspectives, allowing them to come up with unique solutions and improve their development (Kashyap, 2021). The work will progress and thrive as each team member brings their talents and knowledge to the table, resulting in faster solutions. The cross-functional collaborative team at Amazon has helped the company establish the best online business operation. The cross-functional team makes also possible for Amazon employees to work together towards a common goal and that is to make sure that the company become competitive and generate more income and customer satisfaction (Sankar, 2020).

The process of cross-functional collaboration will allow you to assemble a group of high performers capable of producing something significant, becoming more self-reliant, and taking on significant challenges (Millard, 2021). They can learn more about patience and establish a sense of oneness by working together. It is difficult for large firms to establish cross-functional collaboration, but Amazon has attempted to retain a team and has capitalized on cross-functional teams to produce the best, giving the company a competitive advantage (Kashyap, 2021). Cross-functional teams also foster diversity, which is a huge plus. Employees are given enough relevance based on their work in the team, as we know, cross-functional teams do not survive on hierarchical structures like other teams. People began to appreciate and embrace diversity as a result of the cross-functional team.

Challenges

There are challenges that might be experienced in having a cross-functional team and this include the lack of trust from the team members that might generate disagreement since there specialty differ making it difficult to deliver (Millard, 2021). In Amazon’s case, the challenge is encountered and has been solved through training and creating awareness to the employees to embrace diversity. Misaligned goals also might be encountered when implementing cross-functional team because different professionals have their skills that target on meeting certain goals and some employees might feel that their expertise is not explored and developed.

Amazon has demonstrated a unique and strong leadership that has led to the success of their cross-functional team leading to being a competitive online shop globally and this was contributed by the alignment of the operation activities that are handled by the team. The team has made it possible to be creative and innovative in meeting customer needs by putting the issue of quality through research and adopting the best technology that made it possible to attend to customer orders in a short time (Millard, 2021). The functional diversity that is experienced in the cross-functional team has been promoted by the teamwork culture imposed in the organization in the management promoting innovation and creativity.

References

Kashyap, S. (2021). 8 Key Benefits of Cross-functional Team Collaboration (and how to improve). ProofHub. Retrieved from https://www.proofhub.com/articles/benefits-of-cross-functional-team-collaboration

Marchand, D., & Hykes, A. (2009). Using Information to create value efficiently. Perspectives for Managers, (179), 1-4. (ProQuest Document ID: 1907422051).

Meyer, P. (2019). Amazon.com Inc.’s Organizational Structure Characteristics (An Analysis) - Panmore Institute. Panmore Institute. Retrieved 13 July 2021, from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-organizational-structure-characteristics-analysis.

Millard, M. (2021). How Cross-functional Training Maximizes Employee Value. Blog.kainexus.com. Retrieved from https://blog.kainexus.com/employee-engagement/cross-functional-collaboration/top-5-challenges-faced-by-cross-functional-teams

Prajogo, D. I., & McDermott, C. M. (2008). The relationships between operations strategies and operations activities in service context. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 19(4), 506-520. (ProQuest Document ID: 1534577861)

Sankar, K. (2020). Customer Driven and Cross-Functional Teams with Amazon Sr PM. Product School. Retrieved from https://productschool.com/blog/product-management-2/customer-crossfunctional-pm/.

WEEK 3

Amazon’s Diversity Issues

Amazon is an extremely prominent company that has made numerous advancements in the world. For all the developments that it has made, it still cannot seem to effectively figure out the aspect of diversity. The company has been in deep issues due to the aspect of diversity. There are numerous issues associated with diversity that the company has faced. First and foremost, there is the issue of discrimination of the blacks as well as females when it comes to the hiring as well as recruitment process for the various corporate offices that the company has (Woods et al., 2021). Amazon is alleged to hire individuals of color in very rare occasions and rarely promotes them as us compared to the white workers that have the same kind of qualifications. These types of practices possess an especially severe impact on the people of color.

Another diversity issue is associated with the racial as well as gender diversity discrimination as well as harassment in the company corporate ranks. This is highly common in the entire technology industry. Most of these issues happen to the people of color in the company as well as women who are given lower ranks and less paying jobs in the company as compared to the white counterparts that possess the same level of qualifications. Another diversity issue is realized in pay and compensation benefits in the company. There is a consistent practice regarding the payment of type black employees who are paid less as compared to the similarly situated types of white employees. In overall the Black as well as Hispanic managers in the company are also underrepresented and the Asian workers are overrepresented (Yadav et al., 2021).

Recommendations

There are various aspects that can be put into consideration to ensure that the issue of diversity in the Amazon company are resolved in the most appropriate way possible. First and foremost, there is the need to adjust on the manner in which to screen as well as search for candidates. When most of the jobs are not posted online but usually filled via referral or even internal hires, the current employees usually play a key role in the determination of who gets hired or recruited next. If most of the identified staff on the company is considered to belong to one demographic, increment of diversity via a referral-based type of hiring usually becomes highly challenging as well as culturally skewed. By posting more jobs online, this issue can be effectively eradicated (Woods et al., 2021).

There is also the need to put into consideration the establishment of mentorship programs to help in the growth of diversity in the company. This is associated with weaving inclusion into the various basics regarding the recruitment type of process from the identified recruitment fairs at the institutes to the internship programs. This will help in the collection of a diverse pool of candidates for the recruitment purposes for the company openings (Kleasen, 2007). There is also the need to create the most suitable time of the identified valuable mentorship which is associated with the creation of the most appropriate and effective leaders for the identified future.

The leaders are usually perceived as being the reflection of the company and they act as the most suitable guide to the company in terms of success and efficiency and how they operate the company. For this same reason, it is vital to ensure that leaders are highly educated on the same so that they can know how to lead the rest in the company to be highly diverse and for success and increased feasibility in the company. This is vital in enhancing diversity since the employees and staff in the company have a good example that they can follow in their daily activities and operations (Kleasen, 2007).

Another key thing and recommendation that the company needs to do is to effectively acknowledge the identified lack of diversity in the company. When an issue is present, and the company management does not acknowledge that it is present then it becomes hard to handle such an issue since they assume that it is not present. By acknowledging a situation or an issue it becomes easy to handle it. In any kind of situation or event when things are not working in the most appropriate way, whether it be an addiction issue or even a damaged kind of relationship or even a cultural struggle such as the issue of diversity in the company, the first essential step to take is to effectively acknowledge that the issue is existent in the initial place. Taking the identified cultural blindness type of approach as well as making a decision on not to notice the identified distinctions is not considered to be of assistance to anyone.

For most of the people, it may appear like walking on the eggshells as well as being unsure of what they need to say or the manner in which to effectively react, but it is vital to note that the way regarding the future is considered to acknowledge an alteration that needs to take place in the first step. When the identified employees feel that they are respected as well as comprehended, then they are highly likely to be effectively engaged in their identified work. Improvement of the cultural respect as well as racial and gender respect may help in higher level of engagement and even Increment in job satisfaction (Kleasen, 2007).

Another key strategy is to make diversity training to be an available type of option for the identified managers without doing it in a forceful way. People usually do not like being told or demanded on what they need to do as well as in being in possession of opinions that are forced upon them which often backfire. Forcing choice upon the staff will cause the creation of followers, offering them a free type of choice based on the given recommendation will eventually create leaders. When participants are pressured into agreeing with something, they are highly likely to become rebellious.

There is also the need to alter the identified grievance as well as the complaint system. Once individuals notice that an identified grievance system is not operating in the most efficient way to ward off bad behavior in their company, they usually be less likely to speak up in the most appropriate way. The identified advantage is usually no longer effective in outweighing the identified struggle of coming forward as well as possibly rustling some key corporate associated feathers. While there are many individuals that support the need for diversity, it can be overshadowed by the identified leaders (Pomeranz, 2009).

References

In Yadav, R., In Panday, P., & In Sharma, N. (2021). Critical issues on changing dynamics in employee relations and workforce diversity.

Kleasen, K. (2007 Summer). Building human resources strategic planning, process, and measurement capability: Using Six Sigma as a foundation. Organization Development Journal, Chesterland, 25(2), P37-P41. (ProQuest Document ID: 1266206771). 

 Pomeranz, R. (2009). The evolution of human resources directors' responsibilities. The CPA Journal, 79(7), 12-13. (ProQuest Document ID: 1796592741). 

Woods, A., Tharakan, S., & John Wiley & Sons. (2021). Hiring for diversity: The guide to building an inclusive and equitable organization.

. WEEK 4

Amazon: Corporate Citizenship

Organization success globally is contributed by the various factors and strategies that are implemented by the management in order to increase the customer loyalty and increased sales. Organization growth occurs in a scenario where the management considers factors that include the corporate social responsibility and other marketing strategies in order to convince the customers to become loyal to the organization products. Organization adopts different marketing and corporate social responsibility to develop a competitive advantage against other firms in the industry (Kleasen, 2007). Amazon is a giant firm in the field of online stores and is more competitive and the strategies that contributed to the growth and success of the firm is contributed by the marketing strategies and the corporate social responsibility.

Corporate Citizenship

In fact, Amazon's unmatched trajectory has been excellent from a growth and profit perspective. However, as the annual revenue of the firm continues to overcome several countries' GDP, the scale of its operations has not been disputed. Amazon's policy on environmental sustainability, supply chain transparency, employee rights and community outreach activities in its headquarters have been the focus of much of the critique to date. In response, Amazon has steadily broadened its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and made it a priority for its business model to provide a good social and environmental impact (Kleasen, 2007) In 2019, in partnership with Global Optimism, Amazon launched one of its key CSR programs, Climate Pledge, urging companies to reach net null annual carbon emissions by 2040 (Dean, 2019). In 2020, Amazon committed $2 billion to help companies develop products and innovations supporting and maintaining a lower carbon economy in order to foster this initiative further. Amazon continues to work to build the transparent and fair global supply chain by reaffirming its commitment to the public and the environment. Amazon expanded its supply chain policies and standards policy in 2020 to include more comprehensive and more rigorous requirements.

Amazon reaffirms its commitment first to the people in the community and the environment and continues to work towards a transparent and fair world supply chain. Amazon expanded its supply chain procedures and standards company policy in 2020 to cover more comprehensive and rigorous requirements (Dean, 2019). These changes reflect clear and decisive guidelines to protect pay equity, seller openness, and safety for workers, equality between women and men, and environmental sustainability. Amazon continues to regularly conduct independent third-party assessments and in-house evaluations in order to ensure that supply chain partners are in line with global standards and practices to further protect against labor and environmental breaches (Dean, 2019). In response to public pressure for greater transparency, Amazon took preliminary actions by 2020 to reveal key supply chain partners and stakeholders and committed itself publicly to investigate and resolve any possible abuse.

Marketing

Amazon focuses constantly on customer experience by giving affordable costs, convenience, and a wide range of products to our clients. The vision remains how the primary value proposition of Amazon's marketing strategy is presented both on-site and through offline communications. However, it was important for Amazon to achieve customer loyalty and repeat purchases and this was done by their consistency in emphasizing about their brand and the determination in meeting the customer needs (Kleasen, 2007). Many companies collapsed because they only managed to gain recognition, but not loyalty, Amazon accomplished both. The contributing factor that gave Amazon the opportunity to win the recognition and loyalty of the customers is their focus on collecting the customer data through continuous and consistent research where the customer tastes and preferences are upgraded in a continuous manner leading to success. Successful Amazon marketing criteria are becoming increasingly complex.

Amazon constantly expands the functions of Amazon Advertising, its advertising business. With sponsored product, sponsored fire and sponsored display ads, Amazon itself and other websites can post advertisements via Amazon DSP in numerous ways. Amazon has invested much in multiple marketing strategies as mentioned above and this is what gives them the competitive advantage against the competitors. The financial strength that Amazon has built for years have strengthened and made it possible for the company to consider adopting the trends in marketing that makes it easier to reach to different customers based on the marketing technique resulting to more sales. Amazon has a strong worldwide impact on whatever new market it enters. Amazon has managed to gain global recognition of its brand, making it so dangerous for new markets. Amazon now holds 31% of German market shares and 47% of UK market shares and its brand is continually enhanced.

Amazon has a considerably superior logistics infrastructure to other worldwide retailers, one of the primary ways that Amazon is able to achieve its aim of being the customer-centered corporation of the world. Amazon spends extensively in its logistic systems from distribution sites in large cities to an advanced robotics system for improving efficiency. Amazon is always changing: the guidelines are often amended, for example, by specifying the standard size of apparel or by applying rigorous policy for returning hygiene items (Pomeranz, 2009). If standards are not adhered to, an account may be blocked in specific situations. Amazon depends more and more on merchants' own services, but it is also crucial for daily companies to be informed. It's not only the Amazon clients who are getting harder: it's now the e-commerce standard that things are sometimes delivered in few hours or even minutes, that no delivery charges are paid, and product purchases are as simple as possible to reimburse. Amazon has always been particularly focused on customers and does all it can to assure the delight of customers. Consequently, all vendors on Amazon platforms must match their high customer service criteria. A well-designed CSR campaign by Amazon provided a brand that conveys important brand messaging with a positive platform. As a devoted and engaged partner, CSR also places Amazon, which boosts its brand image with the target audience.

Public Relations

Amazon has about 500 public relations personnel worldwide and, unlike many corporations, its public relations employees are not involved in marketing. Indeed, PR and marketing at Amazon are generally independent. This allows PR teams of Amazon to connect directly to internal corporate leaders. Amazon has considered hiring qualified staff that is qualified in the public relations team where they are well-trained to offer quality services to the organization (James, 2020). Amazon values the public relations department and the separation of the department from marketing made it possible to make more of a professional department where job value and expertise is well considered. Amazon values their customers and refers them as the main stakeholders in the organization and has focused on putting in place strategies that work towards meeting the needs of the customers like listening to their complaints and address them.

In public relations, Amazon makes sure that it has the talented staff that communicates with the customers through the online platform and their interactions helps in marketing the business and assist the customers access their orders and explain to them in a more respectable way especially when an order delays. In addition, Amazon makes sure that the public relations expertise understands better about the organization processes, and this would help in coming up with a solution to the problem that is encountered in the workplace. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a source of good news and favorable public relations (PR) that Amazon have employed (James, 2020). Take advantage of your CSR actions by publishing them gives Amazon an opportunity to reach out to new customers that develops a positive perception about the organization. Make sure customers, suppliers and the local community knows the good you do.

Suggestions and Recommendation

Companies like Amazon should consider developing working strategies that would enable the community trust them as their source of their daily products. The company should consider participating in empowerment activities as the CSR like supporting the community through funding education for some needy students especially for their branches that are in poor communities, and this will transform the community and built customer loyalty (Pomeranz, 2009). In addition, the company should take the advantage of the popular social media platforms especially during the pandemic period where everyone is at home and requires ordering of their products and this is a good marketing strategy that Amazon needs to use to expand its customer base. Compliance to all the laws that are there guiding the business operation is another way of building customer confidence and avoiding engaging in unethical acts that might put the company in bad situation like lawsuit. Personal relations are enhanced by training the employees about the changes and trends in the market.

References

Dean, M. (2019). Amazon Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability. Thomasnet.com. Retrieved from https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/other/amazon-csr-sustainability/

James, C. (2020). PR Roles at Amazon: How to get in and succeed at one of the world’s most successful companies. Linkedin.com. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pr-roles-amazon-how-get-succeed-one-worlds-most-successful-james.

Kleasen, K. (2007 Summer). Building human resources strategic planning, process, and measurement capability: Using Six Sigma as a foundation. Organization Development Journal, Chesterland, 25(2), P37-P41. (ProQuest Document ID: 1266206771).

Pomeranz, R. (2009). The evolution of human resources directors' responsibilities. The CPA Journal, 79(7), 12-13. (ProQuest Document ID: 1796592741).

WEEK 5

Amazon: Legal and Ethical Issues

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that allows websites to access online services. Amazon has software development and customer service centers located all around the world. Workers at Amazon are encouraged to dissect one another's ideas in meetings, to work long and late, and to be held to unreasonable standards. Amazon was founded in 1995 and is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon began as a book seller but has since expanded its offerings to include a wide range of products (Mazerov, 2021). The Amazon Company has multiple stakeholders that contribute to making the company lead in the competitive market. The other features of the external stakeholders include the legal landscape and ethical issues, government intervention, independent contractors, and the industrial associations. The suppliers and customers also are among the external stakeholders that the Amazon Company is working with in order to meet their desired goals.

Legal Landscape

Amazon is a company considers following all the legal requirements when it comes to signing contracts but there are some challenges that emerges when discussing the product liability. Amazon has long claimed that it is merely a conduit between buyers and sellers on its marketplace, and that it is not engaged in the procurement or distribution of products offered by third-party vendors, therefore absolving it of any responsibility (Mazerov, 2021). It's been an effective argument for Amazon in the past, such as when a faulty hoverboard was purchased and detonated, burning down an Amazon shopper's home in Tennessee. Amazon has the responsibility of being liable to the products they deliver to their customers and a practical example is when the California Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled out that Amazon can be held liable for a damage caused by a defective replacement of a laptop battery that caught fire and caused huge burns to a client. The marketplace has also demonstrated

Amazon as a company that records huge revenue but there are complaints on the aspect of delivery of counterfeit, unsafe and expired goods. The company has claimed that it has invested many resources of millions of dollars to ensure that their products are safe and compliant to the legal requirements. The court held Amazon liable for counterfeit and unsafe products and cannot be shielded since their platform is huge and has many influences that puts the customers at high risks and must be held liable in order to choose their products with much keenness (Karnes, 2009). Amazon has been forced to put strong and strict terms of service from their suppliers in order to ensure that they take the responsibility and liability of the products they sell through their online platform.

Government Agencies

Amazon Company is known as a global form that has a huge following, large number of customers and high revenue generation and they have the responsibility of complying to government regulation in terms of taxation and regulations. The government regulatory bodies put in place policies and standards that require all the companies to adhere to and based on the assessment of the Amazon Company is that they comply to the requirements. Amazon has demonstrated a good gesture when it comes to the compliance to government regulations but there are some complaints that are highlighted on the aspect taxation where the Amazon management claims that collecting the sales tax would be a burdensome approach when it comes to taxation (Mazerov, 2021). The company states that it is not meaningful for a state to charge sales tax at a point where Amazon had no infrastructure of facilities. Amazon is raising the issue because the online selling is what gives the company competitive advantage and the moment, they are taxed when their benefits of doing business online because almost similar as compared to the physical stores. The approach by Amazon in declining paying the sales tax hurts the states and local government’s ability to finance education, healthcare, and other basic services (Mazerov, 2021). The diverse sales tax makes it difficult for the Amazon Company and other physical stores to adhere to.

Competition

Competitors are another external stakeholders that Amazon has and has an impact on the success or the failure of Amazon in the market. There are multiple competitors in the market that Amazon is in, and this includes the Walmart. There is an assessment report that indicates that Amazon has surpassed Walmart when it comes being the World largest retailer. In the United States Amazon is commanding a huge market share of about 45% and is not showing any signs of slowing down on its growth that is impressive (Kestenbaum, 2020). Amazon has demonstrated uniqueness in its operations by adapting to different products and services that makes the company more competitive in the market. The diversity that is experienced is what makes a company look unique and attractive to its customers. However, Amazon being referred to a huge firm still encounter the competition from other firms like the Netflix that challenges the company in terms of video streaming service since Amazon has the Prime video. Google also is another competitor in terms of home products where Amazon tries to outsmart them with the Amazon’s virtual assistant. In addition, Amazon also ventured into the cloud computing services where the Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud and both compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Kestenbaum, 2020). In e-commerce Amazon is competing with a firm like e-Bay and this is an indication that Amazon is receiving multiple competitions in different sectors.

Suppliers

Amazon is enjoying multiple suppliers and sellers through their platform, and this ensure that they provide Amazon customers with what they need. Amazon ensure that the suppliers and sellers are within the company standards and policies including the regulation put in place by the government to make sure that the interests of the customers are put in place (Rahman & Shah, 2021). Amazon has developed a good relationship with the customers through engaging with reliable suppliers that ensure that customers are receiving the goods that they require on time.

Customers

Amazon takes their customers as the priority when it comes to stakeholders and makes sure that their interests are put into consideration. Customers are considered the important stakeholders since they are the ones that generate the revenue that drive operations in the organization. Amazon segments the needs of customers and addresses them independently and this is what has led to the introduction of different product sales that include cloud services in order to meet different needs of the customer.

Comparison and Contrast

The external stakeholders of Amazon play different roles when it comes to the success of the organization. Amazon is a company that ensures that it operates within the business laws and ethics in order to have seamless operations in different countries globally and this is what contributed to its success in the market. The similarity that is present in the different stakeholders of Amazon is that it plays a major role and that is to ensure that the interest of the customer is put into consideration in terms of health and also avoid overcharge on prices (Nelson et al., 2008). The government regulations and agencies ensure that all operations are conducted within the required standards. In addition, the differences that are there on different ways in which different stakeholders operate are what results to the diversity that is available in an organization. The government regulation and taxation at times impede diversity instead of promoting and this is well demonstrated in the claims that Amazon raised on the sales tax that is imposed in the online products by states that the company do not have facilities there (Nelson et al., 2008).

The imposed taxes bring the physical stores and the online business in a similar platform instead of appreciating the diversity that the business brings to the market in order to enjoy the competitive advantage. Amazon values its customers more and addresses their needs based on the customer needs through market segmentation and engaging in multiple products that meet the different needs of the customers and this is what translates to the diversity in the company and the market in general. However, there is the issue of business ethics that has subjected Amazon to court battles in the fight against the counterfeit products and this is the move to make sure that only original products are sold and respect the ownership of a given product in order to promote legitimate innovation of the sellers in the market and this is what promotes external diversity in terms of competition (Karnes, 2009).

References

Karnes, R. (2009). A change in business ethics: The impact on employer-employee relations. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(2), 189-197. (ProQuest Document ID: 174918601).

Kestenbaum, R. (2020). Amazon Could Be Vulnerable to Competition, And This Is How. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2020/02/05/amazon-could-be-vulnerable-to-competition-and-this-is-how/?sh=92ee3fc52a02

Mazerov, M. (2021). Amazon’s Arguments Against Collecting Sales Taxes Do Not Withstand Scrutiny. Center on Budget. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/amazons-arguments-against-collecting-sales-taxes-do-not-withstand-scrutiny

Nelson, W., Weeks, W., Campfield, J., & MacLeod, L. (2008). The organizational costs of ethical conflicts. Journal of Healthcare Management, 53(1), 41-53. (ProQuest Document ID: 1422398481).

Rahman, M., & Shah, F. (2021). Stakeholders of Amazon. how and what. Retrieved from https://howandwhat.net/stakeholders-amazon/