1. Reflective Analysis on Zappos
By
Andrew Jaco
LEAD – 6200: Organizational Communication
Dr. Nicole Runyon
Zappos.com is an organization that got established in 1999 to sell shoes exclusively on line
at first (Zapposinsights.com). Then Zappos expanded to sell other apparel items later on. This
paper will explore the management styles and approaches that Zappos falls under.
Zappos.com has a unique approach to human resource management. The CEO of the
company has an organizational management philosophy of making it attractive as much as
possible to get employees motivated to do work and get much better at their work. The
attractiveness is from earning rewards for higher achievements than what is required of the work.
Employees are encouraged to work extra and crossover into other work assignments done by
others to grow in the company to get awarded even further. Employee innovation and ideas to
make the work more efficient and easier for themselves get distributed to others and that is also
awarded and encouraged. Zappos also recognizes that workers are human beings as the most
important attribute. All of this falls under the Theory Y under the Douglas McGregor’s Theory X
and Theory Y that breaks down the model of work motivation (Mumby 2013). Theory Y has an
emphasis that management serves to employees as an intermediate to help employees do their
work more effectively thus respecting the human potential of the employees.

2. Zappos by no means falls under Theory X. Theory X, which disrespects the human potential
of employees, mainly states that employees will avoid work as much as possible during the work
day and will take very little responsibility as much as possible thus resulting in the preference to
be micromanaged and redirected constantly by management throughout the day. This will cause
a company to have more managers for the same number of employees. This will result in
inefficiency with those same employees in addition to them not being motivated which could
cause a high turnover.
Zappos falls under the Participative leadership style under the Rensis Likert’s Four Systems
Approach. The approach is broken down with the first leadership style as Exploitive-
Authoritative (similar to McGregor’s Theory X) in which fear and threats are very high.
Information comes from top down and is not trusted by the employees along with orders
followed with blind obedience. This can result in high employee turnover. This is the polar
opposite of Zappos. The second leadership style is Benevolent-Authoritative. Threats and
rewards are blended. Communication is mostly downward with some upward communication
including orders given with some clarification and input from the employees. Employee turnover
could be moderate. The third leadership style is Consultative which has more rewards with some
low level decision participation and consultation with leaders and the subordinates. This allows
for reasonably good productivity and lower employee turnover. The fourth leadership style is
Participative (Mumby 2013). Zappos falls under the Participative leadership style in which
motivation occurs through employee incentives and rewards with group participation along with
communication upward and downward in all decision making in a much less authoritarian style.
This can greatly cause high productivity with the lowest turnover. This still occurs successfully
even with a low annual base salary of about $23,000 per year in 2013 for hourly employees.

3. The “Zappos Family” has ten core values. The first is to deliver “WOW” service; then
embrace and drive change; create fun and a little weirdness; be creative adventurous, and open-
minded; pursue growth and learning; build open and honest relationships with communication;
build a positive team and family spirit; do more with less; be passionate and determined; and be
humble (http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book). From these core values, one may
perceive the organization as caring for their people and their customers. Also one could think
that the company is projecting that it will do anything to have the people have a desire to work
there and want to stay there for a long time to build friendships with each other including
management and the subordinates. The core values can also project more employee
empowerment and good spirit with more diversity in skill, thought and ideas for creativity and
innovation from any level in the organization instead of just from the top. It also seems to allow
experimentation which leads to innovation, change. Employees seem to have the freedom to ask
questions without feeling ignorant and that management is utilized as a tool for new employees
to get up to speed as well as for employees to get help in solving complex company and or
complex customer problems and requests. It also can lead employees to have and organize more
office parties themselves to make it a more fun and less of a boring place to work.
Zappos connects with their customers emotionally. Customers may carry “baggage” when
they call in for service. They may express what the item will be used for than can be for an
emotional occasion and the customer may vent this emotional information over the phone when
placing an order. The agent will have to get more human and say something with sincerity to
acknowledge what the customer is saying so the customer will not think that Zappos does not
care about each and all of their customers. There was also a situation on a call when a customer
had expressed the death of her husband the day after his boots were ordered by that customer.

4. The agent arranged to have flowers sent to her place as a condolence for her loss of her husband.
Many customer service agents may not express anything for a similar situation. Other agents
may express something sounding “canned” or mechanical. Other agents may say “please accept
our condolences” and the customer may not get anything mailed to them that reflects that. It is
just a saying. Sending flowers unexpectedly to the customer is an unexpected joy to the
customer. One may worry if this is to be expected every time a customer expresses a similar loss.
There could be mixed opinions on whether sending flowers for situations like this would be a
good idea or not. One would be for it because a business could get more brand loyal customers
for life with the customer telling others of that good experience. Another may argue against
sending flowers for that situation because of the extra cost to the company since it would not be
appropriate to send out the flowers and then bill the customer for it. For that type of situation, it
would be good to express empathy with sincerity and offer if they would like a small condolence
gift at no charge to them. This strategy could provide the best of both worlds: A great unexpected
customer call experience along with a mild spike in free gifts to those customers in that type of
situation. There could be a good probability that only half of those customers experiencing a loss
for a loved one to accept a gift from Zappos at no cost to them.

5. References:
The Zappos Way of Managing Retrieved from
Website: http://www.zapposinsights.com/beta?utm_expid=25630532-
2.d3Aoz2etQpCbys8fwiCQyA.1
The Zappos Culture Book Retrieved from
Website: http://www.zapposinsights.com/beta?utm_expid=25630532-
2.d3Aoz2etQpCbys8fwiCQyA.1
Mumby, D.K. (2013) Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach.
Los Angeles: Sage Publications