When you hear someone say they want to buy something online, nowadays the first place many may think of is Amazon. Amazon.com is a website that is formulated to sell goods to the public. The founder of this e-commerce giant is named Jeff Bezos. After watching Bezos’s biography film, it’s safe to say Jeff Bezos is an avid leader for this phenomenon internet retailer known as Amazon. According to the situational approach, the right style of leadership can be determined by situational needs (Northouse, 2016, p.93). In 1982, Bezos studied electrical engineering and computer science (www.biography.com, 2017). He found the situational need in his twenties to use his knowledge and innovative ideas to create an online retail website through the internet. He knew that he needed to work fast and was fortunate to receive investment monies to create the new business website.
Leaders change their level of supportive and directive leadership styles based on their followers’ competence and commitment levels, as explained by the situational leadership approach (Northouse, 2016). An example of Bezos changing his leadership style based on his followers was to move his interview process to local bookstores such as Barnes and Nobles. He did this since the Amazon website was being run out of a garage. Bezos quickly understood that he needed to adapt to his followers in order for people to take his new website seriously and professionally.
Bezos evaluated what was needed in his particular situation by evaluation of his followers. He assessed how competent and committed they were to perform the goal of his company’s success (Northouse, 2016). As explained by the short film, Bezos was always committed to great customer service. His employees took Bezos customer first approach and continued to follow the mission to provide excellent customer service. This shows that the Bezos business model which focuses on customer loyalty originated from a situational approach perspective.
In closing, Jeff Bezos, a successful businessman to the Amazon empire, understood early on the importance of reviewing what his followers needs were in order to execute and achieve his business goals.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Biography.com Editors (2017). Jeff Bezos Biography, 2017. A & E Television Networks. www.biography.com Retrieved February 12,2017 from http://www.biography.com/people/jeff-bezos-9542209
Your decision to select Jeff Bezos and his leadership style for this blog was a great one! I love Amazon and I find it impressive how successful they have become. I would agree with you that Bezos uses situational leadership and requires the same leadership style from his supervisors and managers who work under him at Amazon.
I found an article published in the New York Times, reporting potential abusive management practices, and Bezos was quick to respond with the statement, “Amazon would not tolerate the shockingly callous management practices as described,” urging all employees who may have encountered any such abuse to contact him directly. Bezos further stated, “Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.”
It appears the same example you used of Bezos changing his leadership style to match that of potential follower’s needs by relocating the interviewing location for easier access, is consistent with the same method of leadership he uses today.
Streitfeld, D. and Kantoraug, J. (2015). New York Times. Jeff Bezos and Amazon Employees Join Debate Over Its Culture. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/technology/amazon-bezos-workplace-management-practices.html?_r=0
This was an interesting read Graciela. I didn’t know much about Mr. Bezos, but am quite familiar with Amazon. I agree with you, the Situational approach seems to be a reoccurring theme for Amazon. You pointed out that this is something that began from it’s very start, as Mr. Bezos chose to branch out into bookstores. According to our text, the approach stresses the adaptation to a businesses followers and this goes beyond a single occurrence, but throughout the relationship (Northouse, 2016). I have a colleague who recently quit in order to focus entirely on his Amazon account’s business. Apparently, the company operates in a large network of people much like eBay in order to get products to people in an efficient and convenient manner. This seems to me like Amazon continues to implement a situational approach as it’s customer base and their needs grow. Leaders using the situational approach, “must be willing to change their style to met the requirements of the situation” (Northouse, 2016. p.99). I think that these strengths have enabled Amazon to continue to be successful.
Interesting post!
Regards,
Daniel