Download to read offline
More Related Content
Similar to Amazon Unethical Behavior.pptx
Amazon Unethical Behavior.pptx
- 1. UNETHICAL ISSUES ATAMAZON Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Date
- 2. INTRODUCTION Amazon incorporationis a multinational corporation that is based at Seattle Washington Its main business activities include cloud computing and e- commerce. It was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994. In terms of revenue, Amazon is the largest company in the world
- 3. Warehouse Abuses Amazoncompensate their employees 9% lower than the industry average. This instance of lower wage rate cut across various positions within the company. Although Amazon announced last year that trey will be increasing the salaries of their employees, there still exists various controversies. The employees are expected to produce and giver more within a short period of time.
- 4. Exploitation of temporary workers Amazon Incorporation has both permanent and temporary work force. The temporary workers are hired in peak seasons to help in the day to day activities at the firm. Amazon does not provide better wages or more security to these temporary workers. They are dismissed within a short period of time.
- 5. Delivery drivers &the gig economy Amazon employs its delivery drivers through a gig economy system known as Amazon Flex. It can be used as a source of supplemental income. Amazon’s algorithms don’t properly compensate flex drivers for their work. Flex drivers claim blocks of time to deliver certain packages.
- 6. A toxic environmentfor white collar workers In meetings, employees are expected to memorize print outs given to them a day or two before. Workers are encouraged to tear apart each others ideas in meetings and to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. Workers are also culled annually. Employees returning after serious surgeries and miscarriages are put on performance improvement plans.
- 7. Ethical standards Ethicalstandards refers to the mutually agreed principles in the course of work. In Amazon, the ethical standards of the employees were violated to a great extent. At first, the temporary employees require better working environment as well as adjustable working schedules. They are also given very short time limits and minimal days to relax.
- 8. Influence of leadershipin relation to behavior Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is widely recognized for his high expectations on his workers. The top officials of the company expects the employees to work more than usual. The leadership style at Amazon is very exploitive even though it has yielded the desired results. It is as a result of this behavior that most ethical issues are looked down upon.
- 9. Cultural, environmental andlegal implications related to the behavior The customers’ loyalty depends on how the firm operates in the society. Unfair working conditions of these workers can result to low sales on part of the company. The law demands that the workers should be treated like other human beings. The management demands the employees to commit their energy exclusively to the firm for more hours than the agreed time.
- 10. Impact of thebehavior on individuals, company and society The impact of unethical behavior to individuals is that they become less productive. The employees are the important part of the entire production process and they are the link between the company and its consumers. The professionals will shy away from applying employment positions in the firm.
- 11. The outcome ofthe event Looking down upon the welfare of its employees has led to decreased number of employee applicants. Most of the people fear to apply for positions with the notion that they will only be used to make profits for the company. The relationship between the consumers and the firm will also be ruined and thus their loyalty will decline.
- 12. Fairness of punishment This can be done through punishment to the firm The employees can boycott their duties and demand that their priorities to be upheld. Another form of punishment for this unethical behavior is by suing the company in the court of law. The grievances of the employees should be brought before a judge and the decision made.
- 13. How organizational policiesand procedures can be aligned to prevent future occurrences The policies in Amazon can be aligned in such a way that they involve their employees in decision making. The procedures in the firm should be flexible in order to accommodate future changes. Amazon should include every stakeholder in decision making.
- 14. References The EthicalIssues With Amazon. (2019). Retrieved 29 August 2019, from https://ethicalunicorn.com/2019/01/12/how-ethical-is-amazon/ National Ethics Association, I. (2019). High-Tech Cruelty: Inside Amazon’s Heartless (and Unethical) Workplace. Retrieved 29 August 2019, from https://www.ethics.net/a/high-tech-cruelty-inside-amazon- s-heartless-and-unethical-workplace The Horrible Unethical Practices Of Amazon. (2019). Retrieved 29 August 2019, from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/unethical- practices-of-amazon The Work Culture at Amazon: Does the Tin Man Have a Heart?. (2019). Retrieved 29 August 2019, from https://business- ethics.com/2015/11/13/1252-the-work-culture-at-amazon-does-the-tin- man-have-a-heart/ Five unethical companies | Ethical Consumer. (2019). Retrieved 29 August 2019, from https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/five- unethical-companies
Editor's Notes
- #3 Amazon incorporation is a multinational corporation that is based at Seattle Washington. Its main business activities include cloud computing, e- commerce, artificial intelligence as well as digital streaming. Among the top tech companies, Amazon ranks the fourth after Google, Apple and Facebook. In the business sector, Amazon is known to disrupt the existing industries through mass scale production and continues innovation. It was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994, in their garage at home. It is from this humble beginning that the firm has grown to the giant retail company it is today. In terms of revenue, Amazon is the largest company in the world. It is also the largest employer in the United States. . Amazon distributes downloads and streaming of video, music, audiobook through its Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Audible subsidiaries. Amazon also has a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, and a cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services. It produces consumer electronics including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices. In addition, Amazon subsidiaries also include Ring, Twitch.tv, Whole Foods Market, and IMDb. Among various controversies, the company has been criticized for technological surveillance overreach, a hyper-competitive and demanding work culture, tax avoidance and anti-competitive practices.
- #4 Amazon Incorporation has employed many people within and outside the United States. According to the research done on November 2016, it was identified that Amazon compensated their employees 9% lower than the industry average ("The Ethical Issues With Amazon", 2019). As compared to other e-commerce firms like Walmart, Amazon employees went home with lower wages as compared to their counterparts in these companies. This instance of lower wage rate cut across various positions within the company. Although Amazon announced last year that trey will be increasing the salaries of their employees, there still exists various controversies regarding salaries and compensation plan. The abuse at these warehouses extends to include strict breaks in the workplace and very high targets at work. The employees are expected to produce and giver more within a short period of time. People talk about peeing in bottles out of fear of being disciplined or terminated for ‘wasting time’ going to the toilet, to the point where employees deliberately decide not to drink water so they don’t have to pee while working. One employee became sick while pregnant and was given a warning, one was hospitalized after having an epileptic seizure at work and received a strike for not showing up the next day, another turned up for work with gastric bug, had to go home after two hours and was given a strike despite getting a sick note from their doctor. One woman tragically suffered a miscarriage while working, which she believed was partly as a result of continuous pressure to hit targets.
- #5 Just like other firms, Amazon Incorporation has both permanent and temporary work force. The temporary workers are hired in peak seasons to help in the day to day activities at the firm. A separate report talks about other warehouses where no one had been made permanent for 6 months and two years respectively, and past temps from Jeff’s warehouse emphasized that there was no guarantee he would ever have become a permanent employee ("The Ethical Issues With Amazon", 2019). It seems this is a common pattern of behavior for more than one Amazon warehouse, although not necessarily all of them. Amazon does not provide better wages or more security to these temporary workers. As a matter of fact, they are dismissed within a short period of time. Amazon warehouses are often staffed by numerous temps hired by external companies who Amazon outsource to. Some are kept on and some are brought in as temps outside of that season altogether. The idea is that eventually these temps should graduate to proper employee status, which will provide more security, better pay and benefits, however there seems to be no proper protocol for how this happens ("The Ethical Issues With Amazon", 2019).
- #6 Asides from the employees above, Amazon also employs its delivery drivers through a gig economy system known as Amazon Flex. Operating in a similar way to Uber, it can be used as a source of supplemental income, however it can’t be used to make a living. One of the reasons that Flex Drivers can’t earn a full living is because Amazon’s algorithms don’t properly compensate them for their work. Like Uber drivers claiming customers, Flex drivers claim blocks of time to deliver certain packages. While Amazon will pay you for the allotted block if you deliver in less time than estimated, these estimates don’t account for factors outside of driving, such as navigating large apartment buildings, leading to a 99% probability that you will exceed your block end time. If you go over that time, you aren’t paid for it. Drivers across the US have also claimed that hours are capped at 40 hours per week, defeating the notion of freelancers choosing how much and when they work, and an increasing inability to secure enough hours to even make it up to 40. The increased demand for blocks, and the increased difficulty of securing them, has led to cheating amongst Flex drivers just to get regular hours. Drivers use auto-tap applications (basically the equivalent of botting on Instagram) constantly just to secure work. A former driver who suffers from arthritis also created a mechanical device known as a Flexbot, just to give disabled drivers the chance to compete with able bodied drivers when it comes to tapping on the blocks.
- #7 In meetings, employees are expected to memorize print outs given to them a day or two before, sometimes up to sixty pages long, of data on which they are cold-called and pop-quizzed about. Answers like ‘I’ll get back to you’ are deemed unacceptable in these reviews, and workers are told they are stupid. Workers are encouraged to tear apart each others ideas in meetings and to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. The examples given include ‘I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks’, and interviews with other employees suggest this tactic is often used to sabotage others. Workers are also culled annually. The entire workforce is evaluated, ranked from best to worst, and the bottom performers lose their jobs. Some workers who suffered from personal crises felt they were evaluated unfairly or edged out instead of being allowed to recover. Multiple interviewees described returning from cancer treatment and subsequently receiving low performance ratings and being told their personal life was interfering with their work. Employees returning after serious surgeries and miscarriages were put on performance improvement plans and monitored to ensure their focus stayed on their job. One woman received low ratings after cutting back working nights and weekends to care for her dying father. Another who miscarried twins had to go on a business trip the day after her surgery because she was told the work still needed to be done.
- #8 Business ethics ,also known as corporate ethics, is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or from the legal system. These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business. They help those businesses maintain a better connection with their stakeholders. Ethical standards refers to the mutually agreed principles in the course of work. In every firm, there must be a way in which the day to day activities have to be done without interfering with the activities of others. In Amazon, the ethical standards of the employees were violated to a great extent. At first, the temporary employees require better working environment as well as adjustable working schedules. However, Amazon demands more outputs from these workers that at times exceed their ability to deliver. They are also given very short time limits and minimal days to relax. As human beings, working in a flexible environment and having enough time to prepare for the next job is very crucial. Therefore, this firm has violated the ethical standards that are required for every worker (National Ethics Association, 2019).
- #9 The advent of 21st century has introduced significant changes within the workplace environment. The organizational leaders are dealing with many pressures created by the globalization, technology advancement and social changes. In today’s turbulent and chaotic environment, the real power to act comes from recognizing the pattern of change and seizing the windows of opportunity. Consequently, leaders’ jobs have changed from mainly supervising and giving orders to subordinates to forming and leading cross-functional teams, providing services to subordinates, and developing sustainable relationships with the clients in the field. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is widely recognized for his high expectations on his workers. When the business was starting, they worked endlessly with minimal to no breaks in order to achieve the set objectives. Although he has succeeded in many of his endeavors, the employees are not only underpaid, but they are also overworked (National Ethics Association, 2019). Most of the workers work for long hours and within a short time limit. Moreover, the top officials of the company expects the employees to work more than usual failure to which most of them lose their jobs in the company. The leadership style at Amazon is very exploitive even though it has yielded the desired results. It is as a result of this behavior that most ethical issues are looked down upon.
- #10 The buyers of Amazon products are the residents of United States and other countries in the world. The customers’ loyalty depends on how the firm operates in the society. For instance, there may arise rivalry between Amazon and its consumers as a result of how this company treats its temporary employees. Unfair working conditions of these workers can result to low sales on part of the company ("The Horrible Unethical Practices Of Amazon", 2019). On the other hand, the law demands that the workers should be treated like othe4r human beings. Their rights should not be infringed in the workplace at whatever costs. Amazon may face legal charges following underpayment of their workers and long working hours. The management demands the employees to commit their energy exclusively to the firm for more hours than the agreed time. This may cause health problems to the employees in the long run. Since the earliest times, humans have needed to be sensitive to their surroundings to survive, which means that we have an innate awareness of our environment and seek out environments with certain qualities. First of all, humans have a strong need for safety and security and look for those attributes in their environment. We also look for physical comfort, such as an environment with the right temperature. In addition, we seek an environment that is psychologically comfortable: for example, environments that are familiar, but offer the right amount of stimulus.
- #11 The impact of unethical behavior to individuals is that they become less productive. The employees feel that their efforts are not recognized and as a result they give low quality outputs. The employees are the important part of the entire production process and they are the link between the company and its consumers. In the event these individuals are taken for granted, they shy away from using their skills ultimately for the success of the company. On the other hand, the company will also suffer from this behavior. At first, the professionals will shy away from applying employment positions in the firm. The company thus lacks skilled personnel. The customers may also not purchase from the firm and thus low sales may be recorded. The society on the other hand purchase low quality goods from the firm. The long term effect is poor living standards. Employees naturally behave differently at work than they do in social settings, largely due to the structured organizational environment of business. A variety of factors influence organizational behavior, including the company's structure, policies and procedures, management effectiveness and interactions between colleagues. All of these elements can inspire employees to work harder or contribute to disengagement. By understanding how to get the best out of your employees, your company can become more productive and competitive.
- #12 In most cases, unethical behaviors in a firm results in negative effects. In Amazon Incorporation, looking down upon the welfare of its employees has led to decreased number of employee applicants. Most of the people fear to apply for positions with the notion that they will only be used to make profits for the company ("The Horrible Unethical Practices Of Amazon", 2019). On the other hand, the consumers of the products will reduce their consumption pattern and the number of products consumed will lower over time. The implications is that the company will record a low sales turnover. The relationship between the consumers and the firm will also be ruined and thus their loyalty will decline. The effects of unethical behavior on business begin to tell with time – as the line between right and wrong begins to blur. People within the organization that conduct themselves with high standards feel helpless and annoyed with the dishonest behavior of their co-workers and or leaders. This frustration is compounded further by the fact that the company does not take action given that there may not be any legal implications or great financial damage. The honest employees then either look for alternative employment or if they are unable to find another suitable opportunity often end up with high stress and health related problems – thereby affecting the overall productivity of the company.
- #13 Unethical behaviors in then firm need to be done away with soonest possible. This can be done through punishment to the firm. At first, the employees can boycott their duties and demand that their priorities to be upheld. The firm has to understand that the workers are also very important to the firm and that they should also be incorporated in the process of making decisions. Another form of punishment for this unethical behavior is by suing the company in the court of law. The grievances of the employees should be brought before a judge and the decision made. This will ensure that the rights and priorities of both the workers and consumers are upheld. Ethical Consumer is running a Boycott Amazon campaign, which encourages you to take your spending elsewhere, and to also let Amazon know why you are boycotting them. They have a really handy shopping without Amazon guide that contains alternatives options for products regularly bought on Amazon. Better working conditions for Amazon employees needs to be enforced through public policy, such as laws on minimum wage, labour standards, and ensuring the gig economy and temporary workers aren’t exploited, as well as making sure those who enforce and monitor these things are properly funded and carry real power. Talk to policy makers and support the ones willing to take on these fights.
- #14 The policies in Amazon can be aligned in such a way that they involve their employees in decision making. The employees are in a better position to express themselves and suggest what they need to be improved in order to ensure that their working conditions are optimum. The procedures in the firm should be flexible in order to accommodate future changes. For instance, a decade ago, the workers had to appear in the workplace in order to work for the company. Today, they can work online from the comfort of their homes without necessarily appearing in the workplace. It is therefore recommended that they include every stakeholder in decision making ("The Horrible Unethical Practices Of Amazon", 2019). Business owners must hold their employees accountable when they act unethically. Start by informing new employees of the rules during their orientation sessions. Make sure all new workers know the consequences of policy violations. If an employee acts unethically, refer to the code of conduct and take the necessary measures to warn or terminate. A written code of conduct provides employees and managers with an overview of the type of conduct and behaviors the company expects. It outlines what behaviors are unacceptable and what measures are taken if an employee violates the code of conduct. For example, a company with a social media policy in place prohibiting company discussion may need to discipline or fire an employee who violates the policy by ranting about a new workplace initiative.