Leadership Styles

Alexia Huesgen

Champlain College

MSEL-535-85

December 3rd 2021

Amazon as an organization could benefit from a different style of leadership. The best way to do this would be through self-management and distributed leadership. Distributed leadership as a concept refers to how people will be given responsibilities based on their management areas. Leaders in different regions can make decisions concerning their areas of responsibility independently. Amazon is an organization found in many countries and has various products and departments. It has a distributed leadership style instead of a bureaucratic style where all the decisions, whether major or minor, need to be made by the top management.

Having a distributed type of leadership means that there will be faster decision-making within the organization (2018). Some of the decisions made by the management in their various areas of responsibility could help the organization save a lot of money or prevent the organization from losses that could arise if the decision is not made immediately. Waiting for top management to make such a decision given the vast number of enterprises found under Amazon, the damage could already have been done. Also, the speed of making decisions by the respective managers will help reduce politics within the organization of the effects of the decision while it pends approval from top management.

Secondly, having distributed leadership is beneficial since employees will be more productive since they are assured of their issues being addressed as and when they arise (2018). When the organization is working under a bureaucratic type of leadership where all decisions are made at the top, employees grievances may make them less productive since they have to wait for top management to address them, which could take time. However, with distributed leadership, their managers and decision-makers are closer to them and will address their issues with the urgency it deserves, which would motivate them to work harder.

With distributed leadership, there is talent retention. Amazon is a big company with many employees working under various brands and products provided by the company. These people possess multiple talents, and with distributed leadership, it would be easier to monitor such individuals and ensure that they get the best treatment to encourage them to continue working with the organization (2018). Suppose these people have managers closer to them and have the power to make decisions in that area. In that case, such employees could get the facilities they would need to continue delivering quality to the organization, thus encouraging them to stay in the organization.

Self-management is a concept whereby an individual is responsible for their time management and ensuring that they deliver what is expected of them (Cultures, 2017). Individuals can also make decisions about how they perform specific tasks. This type of management is very autonomous and needs a high level of self-awareness to manage themselves, especially in a big organization such as Amazon.

Some of the benefits of self-management are that there will be better performance (Cultures, 2017). Employees who have self-management skills will plan out their tasks according to how they see the best fit for them. This will encourage them to do better at the jobs, thus better performing the tasks. Another benefit is adaptability through having employees who self-manage means that they can adapt to any changes that may take place in their department or the entire organization, whether they are major or minor changes. This is mainly because they make their own decisions and will only need to change their decision making to fit in the new changes.

In conclusion, these two leadership styles would be beneficial for all the employees of Amazon, from the top management down to the employees in the various departments. With self-management and distributed leadership, the organization could soar to much greater heights. These would be a far cry from the bureaucratic style of leadership where the employees feel insignificant to the management. It takes a long time before the administration can decide on various issues, despite being minor considering the size of a company like Amazon.

References

Cultures, G. W. (2017, December 7). Leading by Example: A Guide to Self-Management. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leading-by-example-a-guid_b_7270048#::text=wanttocall.-,Self-managementmeansthatanindi

F. (2018, September 4). 15 Advantages and Disadvantages of Distributed Leadership Styles. FutureofWorking.Com. https://futureofworking.com/15-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-distributed-leadership-styles/

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