BUS 520 Strayer University Power Politics and Culture Position Paper Using the same organization from the first two assignments (attached) , imagine the CE

BUS 520 Strayer University Power Politics and Culture Position Paper Using the same organization from the first two assignments (attached) , imagine the CEO has now requested your task force investigate the influence of power and politics on the corporate culture. You have been asked to prepare a position paper that presents and supports your recommendations to improve the culture. Prepare for this assignment by delving into the organization’s culture and identifying the resources you, the task force leader, will use to create your research-supported position paper. Use at least two quality resources such as the course textbook, company website, business websites (CNBC, Bloomberg, etc.), resources from the Strayer Library, and/or outside sources.

Prepare for this assignment by delving into the organization’s culture and identifying the resources you, the task force leader, will use to create your research-supported position paper. Use at least two quality resources such as the course textbook, company website, business websites (CNBC, Bloomberg, etc.), resources from the Strayer Library, and/or outside sources. Note: Wikipedia and web-based blogs do not qualify as credible resources.

Develop your position paper, addressing the following components:

1. Influence of Politics and Power Explain how politics and power-play may have influenced the organization’s culture.

2. Sources of Power Explore the sources of power and describe how management could use this influence to benefit your department and improve organizational performance.

3. Leadership Behavior and Culture Make recommendations that support how the study of power and politics could influence leadership behavior and improve the organization’s culture.

4. Leadership Influence Discuss the importance and complexity of leadership behavior. How does it influence organizational structure and performance?

5. Executive Summary Prepare an executive summary that presents your recommendations for ways in which the organization could build a stronger culture. Note: An executive summary is a condensed version of your full report. It should summarize briefly all the main points in concise paragraphs. It should be written clearly and should use language appropriate for the audience. 1
Running Head: AMAZON
Task Force Committee Report: Issues and Solutions
Strayer University
Michael Horton
Leadership and Organizational / BUS 520
Dr. Russell E. Fail
February 5, 2020
2
Issues and Solutions
Amazon
Organization Background
Amazon is a retail company that is widely used by many people globally due to its
reliability and fast services towards its customers. However, Amazon needs to resolve issues
such as corporate culture, managing diversity, team leadership and motivation strategies.
Moreover, Amazon has catered on the above issues; it will even more efficiently and continues
its competitive edge over the rest of the companies leading with a huge market share in the
industry.
Corporate Culture
Amazon is a multi-billion organization that changes its corporate culture, which in turn
affects its business model in the future. Again, Amazon is known to deliberately lose profit
margins in an aim to acquire market share which in the long run ensures the have a competitive
edge over the rest of the company’s in the same niche such as eBay (Bausch, 2003). Moreover,
such a business model has been Amazon culture were their also able to buy competitors
companies ensuring they have large customer care market share which in the future pays off by
increasing an influx of traffic into their online retail site.
Areas of weakness
The major area of weakness for Amazon is trying to reach a bigger customer audience
internationally, which is an issue of diversity they are trying to resolve through implementing
cloud-based technology (Weber, 2008). Moreover, the continuous growth of Amazon has led to
the company hiring more employees which in turn requires them to be trained through team-
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Issues and Solutions
building exercises which is difficult because the company continuously has an influx of customer
demand in their website. Lastly, the change of trends in the market forces Amazon to changes its
business model; hence, in turn, affects’ its corporate culture, thus employee dissatisfaction
towards the change in the workplace.
Proposed solutions
Amazon manages the issue of diversity through integrating its system serves to cloud
computing technologies which enable the company to track its user’s spending habits according
to the location they come from and offer services catering to their needs. Moreover, through the
implementation of cloud computing technology, Amazon has been able to reach a number of
diverse retails internationally through e-commerce in their website (Mueller, 2006). Also, the
company implements work retreats and team-building exercises for their employees which
exposes the employees to other workers in the organization to interact with them and creatively
come up with ideas that would help the company.
Resolving the issue of leading teamwork
Amazon organizes team building and works retreats for its employees to ensure they can
creatively come up with ideas to help the company grow in the future. Moreover, such teambuilding exercises organized by Amazon enables the employees to feel valued hence increase the
performance, which in the future increase the profit margins of the company.
Resolving the issue of motivation strategies
Amazon is resolving this issue by implementing reward systems such as intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards in the organization to boost the motivation of the employees. Moreover,
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Issues and Solutions
intrinsic reward systems are offered to employees who have performed well in the various
organization projects are acknowledged on their performance. At the same time, extrinsic is also
offered in terms of prizes or increased bonuses for the employees to boost their motivation in
working for the organization.
Executive Summary
Amazon has been a multi-billion company I recommend the implementation of structured
departments in the organization, which will ensure the company can solve its core issue of
diversity in the company. Moreover, the management should offer more transparency towards its
employees to foster good team performance in different departments. It will also ensure the
employees can be able to come up with better ideas to solve the issues the company is facing in
the changing markets. Again, Amazon’s corporate culture which is now to lose money in an aim
to acquire market share I highly recommend it because it has enabled the organization to
maintain its competitive edge over the rest of the companies.
Amazon which faces issues such as demotivated employees in warehouses has led to the
management offering reward systems by increasing employee salaries and providing gifts
through employee competitions where they could stand a chance to win prizes such as Cars etc.
Amazon has implemented cloud computing technology in its services has enabled the company
to diversify its services in streaming services while at the same time offering its web-based
servers to other corporations enabling them to acquire increased revenue ensuring they maintain
their dominant market share in the industry.
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Issues and Solutions
References
Bausch, P. (2003). Amazon Hacks. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
Mueller, J. P. (2006). Mining Amazon Web Services: Building Applications with the Amazon
API. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Weber, S. (2008). Sell on Amazon: A Guide to Amazon’s Marketplace, Seller Central, and
Fulfillment by Amazon Programs. Stephen Weber.
Running Head: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Professional Development Program Proposal
Strayer University
Michael Horton
Leadership and Organizational / BUS 520
Dr. Russell E. Fail
February 28, 2020
1
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
2
Professional Development Program Proposal
At the request of Amazon’s CEO, I will be taking the lead of a task force to propose a
professional development program. This proposal will detail how a new incentive program
based on an Emotional Intelligence Management approach will foster teamwork, strengthen
interpersonal relationships, increase overall performance, and also enhance communication.
Well, emotional intelligence, or EI, is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s
emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships with empathy. EI is thought to be the key
to both personal and professional success. Therefore, applying EI framework to develop a
professional development program based on the aspects of emotional intelligence and
motivation, emotional intelligence and social skills and decision making, effective teams, and
reward systems at Amazon will contribute to the company’s success.
Emotional Intelligence and Motivation
There are four building blocks of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, and relationship management (Goleman, Boyatsiz, Davidson,
& Druskat, 1). Emotional Self-Awareness entails being able to understand one’s own
emotions and how they affect performance. Self-management is the ability to manage
emotions. Social awareness demonstrates the ability to recognize emotions in others.
Relationship management, on the other hand, entails incorporating competencies such as
coach and mentor, influence, organizational awareness, empathy, conflict management, and
teamwork.
What are the loving behaviours that managers need to have to enhance their ability to
improve employee performance and job satisfaction? They must show teamwork, inspiration,
organizational awareness, empathy, and interest in developing others. The proposed
professional development program acknowledges social awareness and relationship
management as the two building blocks of emotional intelligence that show the competencies
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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mentioned above. Well, managers with social awareness have critical attributes of empathy
and organizational awareness. Empathy represents the foundation skills of understanding
employees and developing them, which enhances their performance and job satisfaction.
Lack of empathy is a root cause of interpersonal difficulties that result in an executive
derailment, poor performance, and problems with employee relationships. Possessing it is
thus the secret motivating and compelling employees to get on board with the vision.
Organizational awareness and empathy will result in the fulfilment of goals. Organizational
knowledge, on the other hand, entails reading employees’ currents and power relationships
(Boyatzis, Rochford & Taylor, 2, p. 142). This skill makes it possible for managers to
strategize on how to form powerful bonds with employees, thus knowing what to tap in
employees.
On the other hand, managers with relationship management have critical attributes of
influence, coach and mentor, teamwork, inspirational leadership, and conflict management.
These attributes are crucial to enhancing employee performance and job satisfaction. This is
because managers who have conflict management skills and who are inclined to influence,
provide challenging feedback to employees in a way to lead the manager’s direct reports, thus
helping employees grow (Goleman & Boyatzis, 3). Similarly, leaders who have developed
their inspirational leadership competence are more successful at driving change. Such leaders
can articulate Amazon’s mission or vision that resonates emotionally with themselves and
their employees, which is a crucial element in marshalling the motivation essential for going
in a new direction. Teamwork competency also implies that the managers can work with the
employees towards a shared goal by creating group synergy in pursuing Amazon’s collective
goals, thus improving employee performance.
My task force will use both positive and negative reinforcement to get the best results
in the company. Positive reinforcement will be used to reward the employees who are
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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outstanding at the place of work. The management team will use it to acknowledge excellent
behaviour at the place of work. For example, the management team will issue a token to the
best employee of the month. This is a feature that the professional development program will
include in the company. Encouraging the desired behaviour will be part of the team duties. A
meeting will be held every week, and the standout employee will be congratulated in front of
the other employees. This method will not only boost the morale of the standout employee
but also the other employees who will feel motivated to do their best. This can directly be
linked to the manager-employee relationship where an employee will work extra harder to
impress the boss.
EI and Social Skills and Decision Making
The proposed professional development program also recognizes how the core
concepts of emotional intelligence – self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, motivation,
and social skills – will enhance the management’s team decision-making efficacy and social
skills. According to Goleman, these skills allow superb managers to understand their personal
emotional makeup and those of their employees, thus moving them to accomplish
institutional objectives. Self-awareness helps the management team in decision making. Selfaware managers are of their feelings and how they act when they are overwhelmed with
emotions, thus making the right decisions for the company. Yet, with self-management,
managers can manage their behaviours and feelings when making decisions. This way, they
can make constructive ethical decisions while also developing social skills.
Managers who practice the value of empathy can also foresee the impact of their
decisions before implementation. In the decision-making process, the acknowledgment of
individual feelings and emotions is not only vital in developing social skills and determining
the motivations behind decisions but also how these decisions impact others. Motivation, on
the other hand, is a passion for working with persistence and energy for reasons beyond status
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
5
and money. It means being optimistic, goal-oriented, driven, and committed to the
organization. Motivation skills thus enable managers to make decisions that are best for the
organization. Social skills, on the other hand, are developing networks, managing
relationships, proficiency, and finding common ground. It makes managers make decisions
based on a common ground thus
Effective Teams
The proposed professional development program also recognizes some of the core
attributes of effective teams. The program asserts that to function well as a team, team
members should together show the competency of goal setting and performance management.
Team members should be able to develop and execute specific, challenging team objectives
and ways to monitor and evaluate performance towards meeting objectives (Daft & Marcic,
4, p. 451). Another core attribute of effective teams is the ability to plan and coordinate.
Amazon’s team members should tightly synchronize and organize information, activities, and
resources to realize Amazon’s set goals.
This professional development program also emphasizes collaborative problemsolving as a core attribute of effective teams. Team members should have the ability to
identify situations that require group participation and then appropriately involve themselves
to devise solutions and look for alternatives. These team members should also have excellent
communication skills. Employees working on individual tasks can sometimes get away with
poor communication skills (Daft & Marcic, 2013). However, the wheels of teamwork at
Amazon can keep rolling with excellent communication. Team members should thus express
themselves, ask questions, provide and seek feedback, and also present skilfully.
Effective teams should also know how to resolve and manage conflicts effectively.
Conflicts always arise even in the most cohesive teams. Team members should thus have
practical conflict resolution skills that will keep the group going in achieving goals. Effective
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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teams should also be organized. The organization is the art of doing duties systematically.
Every team member should carry out each assigned task in an organized way. For example, if
a task is given, one should sit with team members and decide which duties to carry out first.
The organization eventually leads to productivity at the place of work.
The professional development program will also implement some strategies to
develop team dynamics to benefit Amazon. The program will focus on communication, as
this will ensure the team dynamics are strong. Focussing on communication will improve the
psychological forces that drive the team forward. The program will also focus on breaking
down barriers that weaken the team dynamics. Any barrier that does not motivate the team
will have to be dropped. As their many barriers, such as language barriers that will be hard to
control, the other manageable barriers will have to be removed. Paying attention to
employees will play a significant role in team dynamics. I will focus on the employees that I
feel have low motivation and try and solve their issues to a personal level. The more closely I
get to the team members, the more I can understand there day to day struggles. Focussing on
individuals is a strategy I want to focus on.
Reward System
The proposed professional development program incorporates an effective
reward system for Amazon that taps compensation, benefits, recognition, and appreciation.
The reward system combines stretch assignments, performance feedback, and financial
incentives to retain talented employees. To begin with, the most talented and hardest-working
employees will receive the highest amount of recognition by their peers and supervisors as
well. These recognitions will come in the form of appreciation and gestures of
encouragement. Additionally, the proposed reward system requires Amazon to organize
events for the celebration of employees’ achievements. Top talent will also be praised, given
financial incentives, and frequent feedback about their performance. In addition to this,
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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financial incentives will be given to employees in the form of wages and salaries, retirement
benefits, bonuses, and medical reimbursements. Amazon will make wages and salaries
competitive between employees to attract and hold force. Improving the workplace and also
developing better employee-management relationships is also essential in motivating
employees (Banfield, Kay, & Royles, 5, p. 415).
Stretch assignments will also accompany performance feedback and financial
incentives. Stretch assignments are a way to engage and motivate all employees at every
level of the organization, helping them see that they are valued. They are virtually short-term
assignments or projects that provide challenging and unique experiences to develop employee
abilities. Given that most development occurs through experience, stretch assignments can
offer an excellent vehicle for driving employee learning. They also create excellent job
fulfilment for employees. This is because the challenging and autonomous nature of a stretch
provides an ideal to reach a state where an employee is completely absorbed in the task at
hand, achieving an enjoyable and energizing state (Davis, 6, p. 26).
Executive Summary
The proposal above is designed to apply Emotional Intelligence to Amazon’s
Professional Development Program. The proposal aims to stimulate employee performance,
enhance teamwork, strengthen interpersonal relationships, and enhance collaboration by
building on aspects of emotional intelligence and motivation, emotional intelligence and
social skills and decision making, effective teams, and reward systems. Employees are among
the significant contributors to Amazon’s success. Managers should thus enhance their
performance and job satisfaction through two buildings blocks of emotional intelligence social awareness and relationship management – which show competencies of teamwork,
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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inspiration, organizational awareness and empathy, that improve employee performance and
job satisfaction
Additionally, the core concepts of emotional intelligence – self-regulation, selfawareness, empathy, motivation, and social skills – will enhance the management’s team
decision-making efficacy and social skills. These skills allow superb managers to understand
their emotional makeup and those of their employees, thus moving them to accomplish
institutional objectives. Tapping these skills enable managers to manage emotions and logic,
thus leading to better decision-making while also developing skills in understanding and
managing people.
The proposed professional development program also recognizes some of the core
attributes of effective teams. These attributes are goal setting and performance management,
planning and coordination, collaborative problem solving, communication, conflict
resolution, and organization. The program will then develop team dynamics by fostering
communication and breaking down barriers that weaken team dynamics. Finally, the
proposed professional development program incorporates an effective reward system for
Amazon that taps compensation, benefits, recognition, and appreciation. The reward system
combines stretch assignments, performance feedback, and financial incentives to retain
talented employees.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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References
1. Daniel Goleman, Richard, Boyatzis, Richard J. Davidson, & Vanessa Druskat. 2017.
Positive Outlook: Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: a Primer. More Than
Sound Productions.
2. Richard Boyatzis, & Kylie Rochford, & Scott N. Taylor (Eds.). 2015. The Impact of
Shared Vision on Leadership, Engagement, and Organizational Citizenship. Frontiers
Media SA.
3. Daniel Goleman, & Richard Boyatzis. 2017. Emotional intelligence has 12 elements.
Which do you need to work on? Harvard Business Review, 84(2), 1-5.
4. Richard L. Daft, & Dorothy Marcic. 2013. Building Management Skills: An ActionFirst Approach. Cengage L…
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