Answer

Leading Organizational Change: Amazon Company

Organizational change happen when an organization shifts from its present state to another desired state in the future. Will (2015) reasons that today’s commercial atmosphere needs firms to undergo transformations nearly constantly if they desire to remain relevant and competitive. In this paper, I will select and describe the kind of organizational change that is happening in Amazon. I will begin the paper by describing the organizational change process steps I would take, and prioritize the order in which I will take the steps, then proceed to evaluate both organizational and individual leadership actions, finish by describing how politics within Amazon might affect the implementation process of the change plan.

There are various organizational changes. Nonetheless, the organizational change taking place in Amazon is transformational change. Transformation change connotes a shift in the manner in which a given organization functions and characteristically involves translational and developmental changes (Yang et al., 2018). According to van Staden et al. (2014), organizations that are best suited to tolerate faster organizational change in their sectors are adaptable, nimble, and prepared to change their approaches when need emerge. Studies have shown that Amazon, a globally maturing digital business is focused on integrating its digital know-hows, like mobile, analytics, social, and cloud into their transformation approaches (Waeger & Weber, 2019). The company is equally focused on resolving its discrete business challenges with individual know-hows. Nonetheless, with the faster speed at which digital knowhow and general technology is evolving, firms like Amazon, will better be placed to compete fairly and effectively and to succeed if it employs adaptable and scalable technology into its transformation approaches.

Organizational Change Process Steps that I would take

Supposing I was assigned the duty of implementing the transformational change described above, there are six steps that I would have considered. First is developing a communication strategy. To ensure that the transformational change in Amazon is successful, I would ensure that the company’s employees are taken on the process of change, and I would achieve this by ensuring that I communicate effectively and efficiently with Amazon’s employees. I would determine the most efficient and effective ways of communicating to Amazon’s employees at individual and group levels that would bring all of them on board.

Second would be to provide effective training to Amazon. With the message about change already in the public domain of Amazon, it would be crucial that Amazon’s employees fully receive training, informal or structure, to train the knowledge and skills needed to efficiently run the transformational change. Third is to vividly define the change and align the change to Amazon’s business goals. I would ensure that I sufficiently and correctly articulate the required change desired for Amazon and conduct a critical assessment against Amazon’s organizational goals to make sure the change would carry Amazon in the correct direction ethically, strategically, and financially (Yang et al., 2018). This step would assist in determining the worth of the planned change, which would substantiate the inputs and effort I should invest.

Third would be to determine the impacts of the change and the people affected. After knowing exactly the change desired for Amazon, I would proceed to determine the impacts of the organizational change at Amazon’s various levels. To realize this, I would review the impacts of the change upon each Amazon’s business unit and how the change would cascade across the company’s structure.

Next, I would gauge the change process. All through the transformation management process, a structure ought to be placed to gauge the commercial effect of the organizational change and make sure that continued support opportunities exist to build proficiencies. I would also evaluate Amazon’s management plan with the aim of determining the change’s effectiveness and record any lesson(s) learnt. Lastly, I would implement a backup structure for the change process. Instituting a backup structure is important to help an organization’s employees to practically and emotionally adjust to the desired change and institute proficiency of technical skills and behaviours required to realize a desired business outcomes.

However, to realize the organizational change, I would prioritize the abovementioned steps in the following order. I would start by clearly defining the change and aligning the change with Amazon’s goals, then proceed to determine the effects and the people affected by the change. I would then develop a communication approach and then provide an effective training, then follow it by implementing a backup structure, and finally measuring the change process.

Organizational and Individual Leadership Actions

To successfully implement the transformational change described above in Amazon, there are several organizational and individual leadership actions that are needful. This is because successful organization changes rely upon leaders who direct power and people during the process of a change. Among the organizational and individual leadership actions that are involved in Amazon’s transformational change is sponsor. Leaders at Amazon act as promoters for the transformational change at the company’s levels since they serve as representatives. The second organizational and individual leadership action is role modelling. Leaders at Amazon are willing to go first, demonstrating the behaviours, conducts, and attitudes that are desired of every employee at the organization. Employees at Amazon watch their leaders for instruction and consistency between actions and words to see if there is a need to change the organization. 

The third action is making of decisions. As managers, Amazon’s leaders control resources like budgets, equipment, and people, and therefore have the power/authority to make decisions that impact the company’s initiatives.  During changes, Amazon’s leaders must be able to leverage their decision-making power and choose ideas that would back their initiatives up (Davis & Cates, 2018).

Another leadership action that should be done to ensure effective implementation of the transformational change is communication. Being the face and the voice of change, leaders should communicate more often to share messages and information, keep people informed, and encourage people (Yuha et al., 2018). When staff hears several messages within their organizations, the person they listen to more often is their boss. Lastly, another leadership action is engage. Amazon’s leaders should engage the company’s staff in every stage of a transformational change since by engaging them, staff become motivated since they feel part and parcel of their organization (Waeger & Weber, 2019).

Politics and its effects to Implementation of the Change Plan

Organizational politics might affect the implementation of a change plan in various ways. First, it might decrease Amazon’s employees’ overall productivity. Politics might lower employees’ output and this might ultimately affect Amazon’s productivity since individuals involved in organizational politics give less attention to their individual work (van Staden et al., 2014). Employees involved in politics are interested in back biting and leg pulling since they spend a fortune of their times criticizing their colleagues and this eventually result in employees failing to realize their individual and organizational targets within set times, making work to get delayed (Will, 2015). 

Additionally, organizational politics affects employees’ concentration. People find it challenging to concentrate on their jobs since they are extra keen on spoiling other individuals’ images. Thus, people involved in organizational politics are bound to make extra mistakes since their focus is often elsewhere (Paulikas, 2018). Organizational politics might also change Amazon’s employees’ attitudes, demotivate employees, and increase employees’ stress, and wrong information about a change plan process can be all over an organization. Cumulatively, these challenges can affect the realization of a planned change.

To conclude, organizational change is one challenging thing to realize in an organization. However, it is realizable with a strict observance of steps, having the right leader, and minimizing all possible hindrances towards realizing the goal of a change. One hindrance that must sufficiently be kept in check is organizational politics.