Leading Corporate Reputation: Amazon

LEADING CORPORATE REPUTATION—AMAZON
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Introduction
In a world characterised by globalisation, organisations face new challenges and opportunities that they must navigate to succeed. The current business environment is defined by increased use of technology, more data, more audience, and most importantly, more stakeholders. As a result of technological advancements such as the internet and social media, there has been not only a rise of more stakeholders but also a shift in the power that different stakeholders hold. Given these changes in the modern business environment, the management of stakeholders and their interests has become an important part of organisations. One such organisation that has to manage its stakeholders effectively to succeed is Amazon.com. The American-based company operates in a global business environment, and as a result, its operations are affected by the interests of numerous stakeholders. This paper examines the internal and external stakeholders of Amazon.com, their relevance, and the potential challenges and opportunities they bring to the company.
Background of Amazon.com
Amazon is America’s biggest e-commerce company with the primary goal of meeting the exact needs of its customers. According to its 2019 annual report, the organisation seeks to be the planet’s most customer-centric company (Amazon.com 2019). Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, who is currently its CEO, Amazon has grown tremendously to be a multi-billion dollar company with operations in almost all regions of the world. The company has more than a million employees who help it fulfil its goals (Greene 2020). In 2019, Amazon managed a net sales of $280.5 billion, up from $232.9 billion a year before (Amazon.com 2019). The company deals with a wide of products and services, with the main categories being cloud services, digital content, electronics, cosmetic products, apps and games, and apparel.
Internal Stakeholders
A company’s internal stakeholders refer to the groups or individuals that are directly involved in its operations. There are three internal stakeholders of amazon: employees, managers, and owners.
Employees
Employees are vital for the achievement of a company’s goals. They not only interact directly with customers but also play an important role in the operations and development of strategies necessary for helping a company succeed. As determined earlier, Amazon currently has more than a million employees, with about a quarter of them being employed in 2020 due to the surge of online shopping (Greene 2020). The company’s employees are extremely valuable to the success of the company as they make the operations possible. At the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the company employed additional 250,000 employees because of pandemic-driven online shopping (Greene 2020). The company depends significantly on the productivity of its employees to attain its sales target and profitability.
Although the employees have low power primarily because they follow the directions of the leaders in an organisation, it is deducible that they’re highly interested in the affairs of the company. They expect the company to provide them with a good working environment, competitive compensation, and career development. A strategy for this type of stakeholder is to keep them informed. They need to be aware of the key operations of the company and its future direction. From the information on the website of the company, it is apparent that Amazon prioritises to a great extent the affairs of its employees. Not only does the company foster open communication and a two-way feedback system, but it is also committed to improving their health and safety, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic (Amazon 2021). This further underpins the relevance of employees to the operations of the company. In 2020, the company invested $10 billion in initiatives tailored towards keeping employees safe and getting products to customers.
Amazon has opportunities and challenges when it comes to the management of employees as one of its primary stakeholders. The company has the opportunity of hiring more customers to boost its reputation. As determined earlier, the company hired additional 250,000 employees at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate the delivery of products to customers. It is important to recognise that one of the unwelcome effects of the pandemic was the loss of jobs by many people around the world. Therefore, to hire people at a time when other companies are laying them off was a significant boost to its reputation. Given that it is still way behind in terms of the number of employees compared to its top competitor, Walmart, the company may consider hiring more workers if the business environment allows. This can contribute to boosting its reputation.
A challenge that the company has faced in the past and may face again in the future is the working condition of its warehouses. An article by Purkayastha and Tangirala (2019) points out that the company is prioritising the interests of other stakeholders such as customers and owners at the expense of workers in the warehouses. The author explains that the workers are given stringent targets while their wages are extremely low (Purkayastha and Tangirala 2019). Such practices can be damaging to the reputation of the company. As it increases the number of employees, the company has the opportunity to correct past mistakes and create for them a conducive working environment. This will help to a great extent in maintaining or improving its corporate reputation.
Managers
The managers of a company make another important category of internal stakeholders as they play a key role in the development of organisational strategies (Lumen Learning n.d.). Managers in an organisation also guide operations and are responsible for making key decisions regarding the daily activities and processes. As informed by Lumen Learning (n.d.), managers act as a link between the company’s shareholders and the organisation itself. Therefore, their role in the success of an organisation is immense. In the case of Amazon, the managers are expected to perform exemplary in the company’s primary goal of attending to customer needs (Rostan 2015). The managers have to take ownership of the future of the company, and they also have to practice Bezos’ commitment to the attainment of long-term goals. There is thus more focus on the long-term performance compared to short-term performance, a philosophy that has been with the company since its early days when it encountered losses to attain future prosperity. In regards to recruitment, the managers in the organisation are expected to bring in strong talents who will be developed to become leaders (Rostan 2015). The managers also have the freedom to take calculated risks to attain set goals.
Given the above description of the expectations of managers in the company, it is conclusive to say that their role in making the operations of Amazon is instrumental. They have high power and are highly interested in the organisation. They make important decisions that directly impact the performance of the organisation. Therefore, Amazon has the opportunity of managing them closely because they have the power to sabotage the direction the company is taking. Given their position in the stakeholder power-interest grid, managers make up the most important category of stakeholders for Amazon. It is of essence that they are managed closely and engaged regularly. The challenge the organisation may face relates to the ability of the managers to support or hinder company initiatives. Consulting...