Managing Change in an organisation is a critical part of today's business world. Traditional change management approaches are not enough concerning sustainable behavioural changes, characterised by formulaic and procedural changes. People react to changes rationally or cognitively, but social and emotional aspects need to be considered in this respect. Hence, considering behavioural science and neuroscience is necessary. As per behavioural economics theories, positive drivers of change can motivate the employees positively, for which employee recognition and integration of behavioural change modelled by others are a prerequisite. Leadership strategies and qualities, being a part of the human dimension of change management, can influence the behaviour of the workers. Leaders need to manage change to ensure efficiency, sustainability and fulfil the expectations of the stakeholders, staff and partners. A leader can utilise Kotter's 8 step model to manage change and perform their strategic leadership roles. Jeff Bezos has been leading change in the company because of his leadership style, which focuses on a customer-oriented environment (Gradinaru et al., 2020). Jeff Bezos has created a sense of urgency by providing an almost aggressive leadership style characterised by agility. He needs to convince at least 75 % of the leaders and managers that change in leadership styles are necessary for improving the overall brand reputation of the firm. However, Bezos need to understand the difficulty of driving people (leaders) from their comfort zones. The formation of a powerful guiding coalition was done by Bezos, where he had formed small teams to focus on individual concerns and a way to identify problems individually (Gradinaru et al., 2020). Bezos has created a vision to motivate the employees, which is reflected in the motto "Work Hard. Have Fun Make History", and Bezos can motivate his employees without getting attached to them (Gradinaru et al., 2020, p. 98). Bezos could also create a compelling yet simple vision for the employees who can act as a perception and motivation nudge to influence them to work and decrease dissatisfaction. This can also be used to satisfy the changes desired by the employees like transparency, job security and motivation.
Communication is as essential as creating a compelling vision. Any employee will not shed anything out of their pocket if they feel unsatisfied while working in a company. Bezos writes annuals newsletters to his employees, communicating his ideas need to develop work ethics. In one of his letters, he stated that failure and invention are connected and taking risks and conducting experiments is a part of innovation (Alqassimi, 2019, p.31). He also conducts formal quarterly management meetings related to the transformation, which increases the engagement of the leaders and managers. Moreover, educating the managers about the factors that affect employee motivation positively can help communicate the vision and inflict positive change and modelled behaviour. The leaders who consciously attempt to become a living symbol of the new corporate culture become a live example of motivation nudge. Bezos is one of the few who have lived up to this expectation with this transformational leadership style. However, this is often not easy as Amazon has been performing business in a certain way before the emergence of COVID-19. However, the sudden emergence of the pandemic has altered the way business is done. The sudden Work-from-home culture, the panic of contracting the disease and the complications during and after contracting COVID-19 cannot be understood and managed by an ambitious leader in such little time.
Communication is related to both deeds and words. Though Amazon had announced unpaid leaves for unlimited time off, the company decisions taken in the past year has created a fear of being fired on the part of employees on leaves (Kantor et al., 2021).
Successful transformations involve a considerable number of employees as the process progresses. Jeff Bezos has continued to encourage employees to innovate, and he did this by empowering his employees with the "Type 2 decisions" (p.31). This pushes power down and provided scope for innovation as engaged employees are 44% more productive (Alqassimi, 2019, p.31). Amazon needs to encourage its leaders to try out new approaches and ideas as a guiding coalition can make others take necessary and desired action simply by communicating suggestions. Bezos, in this regard, has always valued his employees and is known as a global leader because of his understandings of the human dimensions, which is also a part of the change leadership behaviour that goes beyond employee mechanisation. Amazon had developed the “Alexa Assistant&rdqu
Struggling with statistics? Let our experts guide you to success—get personalized assistance for your project today!