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MG328 Human Resource Management.
Amazon assignment.
Conor O'Dwyer.
13306811.
Word Count; 998
I hereby certify that this project is entirely of my own work and has not been taken
from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and
acknowledged within the text of the project.
Signed;
Introduction.
Upon analysing Amazons mission statement and conducting further research into
the company, I feel that a best fit model, Schulers Employee Behaviour Model, most
closely aligns with Amazon. I will show why I believe this is the case, creating a HR
mission statement and showing how Rewards, Recruitment and Selection, and
Performance Appraisal are integrated in to support the strategy.
Schulers Employee Behaviour Model.
Kantor (2015) tells us Amazon has never followed any popular management
bromides, designing its own intricate machine. This suggests it uses a best fit
strategy. Its mission is to be the most customer centric company in the world, they
must be able to adapt to customer needs and be innovative, making it evident that
Amazon possess an Innovation strategy “this is a company that strives to do really
big, innovative, ground-breaking things” (Kantor 2015). I believe Schulers Facilitation
strategy closely aligns with Amazons mission.
Schulers model has a set of employee behaviours, reinforced by a set of HR
practices as stated by Beardwell (2010). Millmore (2007) says that a longer term
focus is a big aspect of this strategy, this is evident in Amazons philosophy. Amazon
(no date) measures their success on long-term shareholder value, they make
decisions under long-term influence, and long-term leadership influences investment
decisions.
As part of this strategy, Millmore (2007) informs us that the company should provide
broad career paths for their employees, something which Amazon do, pushing
employees “past what they thought were their limits” (Kantor, 2015). Kantor has cited
no shortage of career options for Amazon employees and that brief stints in the firm
have helped employees careers take off.
Some of the employee behaviours required of this strategy are a high degree of
creativity, and an attention to quality and results, according to Torrington (2009).
Both behaviours are evident in Amazon, Kantor (2015) notes that major contributions
can be made from relatively junior employees provided they show the creative spark
required. Also stating that amazon extracts the very most from their employees, they
feel that their work is never done, or will never be good enough, emphasizing their
concern for quality and results.
As noted, amazon has a mission of “relentless striving to please customers” (Kantor
2015). It is clear that a best fit model is closely aligns with a mission like this as it is
tailored to suit the company. Schulers behaviour model can link up Amazons HR
policies and mission, evident from the above examples. Beardwell (2010) says the
strategy needs to be strategic in linking HR practices and policies to business goals.
Something I believe this strategy achieves.
Mission Statement.
Consolidate the company’s status as the most innovative and customer-centric
company in the world by mastering and implementing HR processes that are suited
to our unique company and create a competitive workplace with a creative
workforce, providing our employees with opportunities to grow and develop so they
will always strive to put the customer first in line with our philosophies.
Integrated HR Policies.
Three integrated HR policies which I feel best support Amazons mission are
Performance Appraisal, Rewards and Recruitment and Selection. I feel these
policies work best to reinforce the expected employee behaviours within the
company that align with their mission and the strategy.
In Amazon, where they are constantly trying to please customers, it is important
employees perform to their maximum potential. 360 degree feedback is the appraisal
tool which I feel best supports their strategy. Torrington (2009) describes this as
collecting feedback about an individual from a range of sources. Beardwell (2010)
says it has high employee involvement, evident in Amazon through Kantor (2015)
describing the anytime feedback widget where employees are encouraged to give
secret feedback to one another’s managers. Torrington (2009) notes how feedback
on the individuals is collected from every angle, noting that technology is also used,
with Kantor (2015) saying sophisticated electronic systems are used to collect “data
that allows individual performance to be measured continuously”. From this, Amazon
have business, and organisation level reviews, debating employees and eliminating
those who can’t cut it.
Rewards are an important aspect of any organisation, as part of Schulers Strategy,
Beardwell (2010) states that companies will have low pay rates but allow employees
to be stockholders. Stone (2015) argues that Amazon doesn’t offer benefits like
others, unlike Google and Facebook, they have no lavish perks. They offer a profit
sharing or share ownership scheme as reward incentive to employees. This policy,
according to Torrington (2009), encourages employees to work harder towards the
goals of the firm, developing a community of interest between stakeholders. Kantor
(2015) shows us that Amazon consider compensation competitive, they “weight their
compensation to significant stock ownership” and feel that to make their employees
customer driven, they must be an owner.
The recruitment and selection policy of Amazon is an important policy in finding
customer focused people, their person specification has to be good in supporting the
rest of their strategy. Beardwell (2010) says person spec should identify the
characteristics required to do the job, Amazon (no date) focus on hiring versatile and
talented employees, describing their employees as athletes with “endurance, speed,
performance that can be measured” (Kantor 2015). Millmore (2007) states that
mission statements should be translated into employee attributes that are critical and
necessary to service strategic goals. Something Amazon definitely do, as Kantor
suggests, with their legion of recruiters identifying thousands of prospects and only
picking the best in order to find the most customer orientated and driven employees
that match their mission and strategy.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, being as dynamic as the company is, it is easy to see how a best fit
policy is ideal for the company and I feel that I have sufficiently proven how Schuler
employee behaviour strategy closely aligns with, and works to achieve the goals set
out in the mission statement. The HR mission statement I created closely links to
Amazon’s mission and help to explain how, through their people, Amazon can
achieve its goals.
References.
Amazon. (no date). Corporate Governance. Available: http://phx.corporate-
ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-govHighlights. Last accessed 14th Oct 2015.
Beardwell,J Claydon,T (2010). Human Resource Management A Contemporary
Approach. 6th ed. Essex: Pearson. p40-61.
Kantor,J Streitfeld,D. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising
Workplace. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-
amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0. Last accessed 14th
Oct 2015.
Millmore,M Lewis,P Saunders,M Thornhill,A Morrow,T (2007). Strategic Human
Resource Management. Essex: Pearson. p40-62.
Stone,M D'Onfro,J. (2015). Employees Confess the Worst Parts about Working for
Amazon. Available: http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-worst-parts-about-working-at-
amazon-according-to-employees-2015-8?r=US&IR=T. Last accessed 14th Oct 2015.
Torrington,D Hall,L Taylor,S Atkinson,C (2009). Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management. Essex: Pearson. p247-260.

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amazon assignment 2015

  • 1. MG328 Human Resource Management. Amazon assignment. Conor O'Dwyer. 13306811. Word Count; 998 I hereby certify that this project is entirely of my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of the project. Signed;
  • 2. Introduction. Upon analysing Amazons mission statement and conducting further research into the company, I feel that a best fit model, Schulers Employee Behaviour Model, most closely aligns with Amazon. I will show why I believe this is the case, creating a HR mission statement and showing how Rewards, Recruitment and Selection, and Performance Appraisal are integrated in to support the strategy. Schulers Employee Behaviour Model. Kantor (2015) tells us Amazon has never followed any popular management bromides, designing its own intricate machine. This suggests it uses a best fit strategy. Its mission is to be the most customer centric company in the world, they must be able to adapt to customer needs and be innovative, making it evident that Amazon possess an Innovation strategy “this is a company that strives to do really big, innovative, ground-breaking things” (Kantor 2015). I believe Schulers Facilitation strategy closely aligns with Amazons mission. Schulers model has a set of employee behaviours, reinforced by a set of HR practices as stated by Beardwell (2010). Millmore (2007) says that a longer term focus is a big aspect of this strategy, this is evident in Amazons philosophy. Amazon (no date) measures their success on long-term shareholder value, they make decisions under long-term influence, and long-term leadership influences investment decisions. As part of this strategy, Millmore (2007) informs us that the company should provide broad career paths for their employees, something which Amazon do, pushing employees “past what they thought were their limits” (Kantor, 2015). Kantor has cited no shortage of career options for Amazon employees and that brief stints in the firm have helped employees careers take off. Some of the employee behaviours required of this strategy are a high degree of creativity, and an attention to quality and results, according to Torrington (2009). Both behaviours are evident in Amazon, Kantor (2015) notes that major contributions can be made from relatively junior employees provided they show the creative spark required. Also stating that amazon extracts the very most from their employees, they
  • 3. feel that their work is never done, or will never be good enough, emphasizing their concern for quality and results. As noted, amazon has a mission of “relentless striving to please customers” (Kantor 2015). It is clear that a best fit model is closely aligns with a mission like this as it is tailored to suit the company. Schulers behaviour model can link up Amazons HR policies and mission, evident from the above examples. Beardwell (2010) says the strategy needs to be strategic in linking HR practices and policies to business goals. Something I believe this strategy achieves. Mission Statement. Consolidate the company’s status as the most innovative and customer-centric company in the world by mastering and implementing HR processes that are suited to our unique company and create a competitive workplace with a creative workforce, providing our employees with opportunities to grow and develop so they will always strive to put the customer first in line with our philosophies. Integrated HR Policies. Three integrated HR policies which I feel best support Amazons mission are Performance Appraisal, Rewards and Recruitment and Selection. I feel these policies work best to reinforce the expected employee behaviours within the company that align with their mission and the strategy. In Amazon, where they are constantly trying to please customers, it is important employees perform to their maximum potential. 360 degree feedback is the appraisal tool which I feel best supports their strategy. Torrington (2009) describes this as collecting feedback about an individual from a range of sources. Beardwell (2010) says it has high employee involvement, evident in Amazon through Kantor (2015) describing the anytime feedback widget where employees are encouraged to give secret feedback to one another’s managers. Torrington (2009) notes how feedback on the individuals is collected from every angle, noting that technology is also used, with Kantor (2015) saying sophisticated electronic systems are used to collect “data that allows individual performance to be measured continuously”. From this, Amazon have business, and organisation level reviews, debating employees and eliminating those who can’t cut it.
  • 4. Rewards are an important aspect of any organisation, as part of Schulers Strategy, Beardwell (2010) states that companies will have low pay rates but allow employees to be stockholders. Stone (2015) argues that Amazon doesn’t offer benefits like others, unlike Google and Facebook, they have no lavish perks. They offer a profit sharing or share ownership scheme as reward incentive to employees. This policy, according to Torrington (2009), encourages employees to work harder towards the goals of the firm, developing a community of interest between stakeholders. Kantor (2015) shows us that Amazon consider compensation competitive, they “weight their compensation to significant stock ownership” and feel that to make their employees customer driven, they must be an owner. The recruitment and selection policy of Amazon is an important policy in finding customer focused people, their person specification has to be good in supporting the rest of their strategy. Beardwell (2010) says person spec should identify the characteristics required to do the job, Amazon (no date) focus on hiring versatile and talented employees, describing their employees as athletes with “endurance, speed, performance that can be measured” (Kantor 2015). Millmore (2007) states that mission statements should be translated into employee attributes that are critical and necessary to service strategic goals. Something Amazon definitely do, as Kantor suggests, with their legion of recruiters identifying thousands of prospects and only picking the best in order to find the most customer orientated and driven employees that match their mission and strategy. Conclusion. In conclusion, being as dynamic as the company is, it is easy to see how a best fit policy is ideal for the company and I feel that I have sufficiently proven how Schuler employee behaviour strategy closely aligns with, and works to achieve the goals set out in the mission statement. The HR mission statement I created closely links to Amazon’s mission and help to explain how, through their people, Amazon can achieve its goals.
  • 5.
  • 6. References. Amazon. (no date). Corporate Governance. Available: http://phx.corporate- ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-govHighlights. Last accessed 14th Oct 2015. Beardwell,J Claydon,T (2010). Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach. 6th ed. Essex: Pearson. p40-61. Kantor,J Streitfeld,D. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside- amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0. Last accessed 14th Oct 2015. Millmore,M Lewis,P Saunders,M Thornhill,A Morrow,T (2007). Strategic Human Resource Management. Essex: Pearson. p40-62. Stone,M D'Onfro,J. (2015). Employees Confess the Worst Parts about Working for Amazon. Available: http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-worst-parts-about-working-at- amazon-according-to-employees-2015-8?r=US&IR=T. Last accessed 14th Oct 2015. Torrington,D Hall,L Taylor,S Atkinson,C (2009). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. Essex: Pearson. p247-260.