Question

1. What should be the elements of a healthy ethics policy?
   1. What, if any, of these elements are missing at Amazon?
   2. Provide a detailed evaluation that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.
2. Evaluate Amazon’s efforts to root out corruption.
   1. What other steps, if any, do you recommend the organization should take?
   2. Provide a detailed evaluation that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.
3. How can Amazon move beyond compliance to develop a healthy ethical climate? Provide a detailed evaluation that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.

Case Study 10.2: Life in the Combat Zone:
Working at Amazon
You can buy almost anything at Amazon.com. The online retailer, headquartered in Seattle,
carries everything from books, DVDs, and video games to cell phones, car parts, medical
supplies, and diapers. The company has grown along with its product line. In 2015, the company
took in over $100 billion in revenue and passed Wal-Mart in total market value ($250 billion).
Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos—who also has significant stake in Google—is now the fifth richest
person in the world.
Employees pay a high price for Amazon’s success. Blue-collar workers at the company’s
fulfillment centers are closely monitored. They are tagged with devices that tell them the routes
they must travel to pick up items, record how long it takes them to locate each product (and
whether they do so quickly enough), and even count their trips to the bathroom. If workers fall
behind or spend too much time in the toilet, they are texted warning messages and can be fired.
Managers frequently raise packing quotas without warning. All employees are scanned when
entering and leaving the centers in order to prevent theft.
In the most notorious case of mistreatment, a number of workers at Amazon’s Allentown,
Pennsylvania, facility toppled from heat stroke during a summer heat wave. The warehouse had
no air conditioning and managers, fearing theft, refused to open doors to increase air circulation.
Amazon then hired paramedics and ambulances to stand ready outside the center to tend to those
overcome by the heat. However, those sent home due to the high temperatures were given
disciplinary points. (The facility manager claims that she shut down the warehouse three times
during the heat wave. Amazon later installed air conditioning.)
Amazon’s white-collar workers apparently take their share of abuse as well. Life at headquarters
is intense. Bezos fears that Amazon will end up like neighboring Microsoft, which he considers a
“country club.” To fight off complacency, he pushes his employees hard. Managers put in 80–85
hours a week; working less is considered a weakness. Work–life balance is not a priority, with
employees expected to check in via e-mail while on vacation and to participate in extended
conference calls on holidays. Those dealing with health issues or caring for family members can
expect little sympathy and may be replaced. According to one former Amazon marketer, “Nearly
every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”1 Median employee tenure is one year, which
ranks the firm among the lowest in the Fortune 500. (Company officials claim that this figure is
misleading, since many employees have been hired within the past five years due to the firm’s
rapid growth.)
Amazon can resemble a combat zone. Bezos believes that conflict fosters innovation so he wants
executives to tear into the ideas of others. Employees can send praise or criticism about
coworkers to management, which encourages colleagues to scheme against those they are
competing against in annual performance reviews. In these “rank and yank” sessions, managers
debate the ratings of their subordinates. Those with the highest rankings stay; those with the
lowest ratings (even good employees) are let go in a process Amazon executives call “Purposeful
Darwinism.” In a letter to stakeholders, Bezos said, “When I interview people, I tell them, ‘You
can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon, you can’t choose two out of three.’”2
Encounters with Bezos can leave employees shaken. Volatile and intolerant of mistakes, Bezos
has been known to rebuke employees with such declarations as: “Does it surprise you that you
don’t know the answer to that question?” “Are you lazy or just incompetent?” and “Why are you
ruining my life?”3 He is also ruthless in his dealings with competitors. To become the leading
online marketer of diapers, Bezos undersold Diapers.com and then took over the company when
it failed. In the “Gazelle Project,” Bezos suggested that Amazon attack small publishing houses in
the same way that a cheetah attacks a sick gazelle. Technology writer Brad Stone concludes that
Bezos and other Amazon executives “have an absolute willingness to torch the landscape around
them to emerge the winner.”4
Some white-collar employees thrive in Amazon’s intense environment. They enjoy the challenge
and are given plenty of opportunity to innovate, no matter what their role in the company. The
drone delivery initiative was the idea of a low-level engineer, for example. Others like the fast
pace and pressure, which pushes them beyond what they thought they could achieve. Salaries are
competitive and managers receive stock grants. Other companies are often eager to hire those
who leave Amazon because of their work ethic. Facebook, for instance, opened a hiring office in
Seattle to capture the outflow of Amazon employees. However, some prospective employers are
cautious about hiring ex-Amazonians, knowing they can be combative and obsessed with work.
CEO Bezos developed a set of fourteen guidelines or rules, sometimes referred to as The Amazon
Way, to ensure that the company stays true to its culture. Some of the more notable principles
include obsess over the customer (No. 1); take ownership (No. 2); hire and develop the best (No.
5); think big (No. 7); and have a bias for action (No. 8). Employees frequently cite these
principles and use them in hiring decisions. Apparently, some Amazonians teach these rules to
their kids.
The future looks bright for Amazon. The company is building a series of new office towers that
can house 50,000 employees, over three times the number that worked for the company in 2013.
It may become the world’s first trillion-dollar retailer. However, the company is currently
struggling to hire fast enough to keep up with its growth. But Amazon seems in no hurry to
change its culture to attract more employees. According to one recruiting video: “You either fit
here or you don’t. You love it or you don’t. There is no middle ground.”5

Answer 1

Ethics is the success of a good company. The foundation of the company is the ethics. The elements of a healthy ethics that is pertinent for the success of an organization. Business ethics acts as guiding principle to drive the organization towards increased productivity and enhanced employee morale. When employees adopt the values of value and integrity, the whole organization benefits. At the same time, when organizations adopt ethical values such as honoring and respecting people, both the employees and other stakeholders benefit. The elements of a healthy ethics policy should include ensuring the organization moves towards the right direction.

                - Value diversity- The organization should value diversity. Diversity refers to having people from different backgrounds in the workplace. Diversity instigates innovation and creativity. The organization should not have any biased opinion towards any particular race or ethnicity.

                - Honor people- The organization should always honor its stakeholders (such as suppliers, employees, customers, etc) . There should not be any discrepancy in honoring people.

                - Integrity and honesty- The organization should ensure there is integrity and honesty as the culture so that the employees also adapt these in their walk of life.

                - Passion for people and success- the organization should have passion for people. They should be able to deliver reward employees and recognize their hard work.

                - Respect for everyone should be for everyone so that the organization provides safety workplaces.

The elements of ethics that is missing in Amazon are honoring and respecting people, Integrity and passion for people. If Amazon invests in the people, then it would be known for its goodwill and long term sustainability in the organization. Since these are missing, the employees are stressed and are made in work in hazardous environment. They are not being trusted by Amazon.

• Amazon is taking efforts to root out corruption though it is a long way to go. Amazon’s employees are selling confidential information to outsiders. Amazon has strict systems and policies in place now to avoid such corruption in the future.
• The other steps that Amazon should take are to take a list of inventory rather than tag the employees with devices.
• Amazon can move beyond compliance to develop a healthy ethical climate through investing in people, having appropriate ethical values and principles and implementing them in their daily life. The organizational culture should be adopting ethical values so that the employees too adopt these in the work life. Ethical culture is the foundation of success for an organization.