Analysis of Organizational Diversity

History 

Amazon Inc. is an American Multinational technology corporation with its headquarters located at Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and begun as an online bookstore. Its initial name was Cadabara Inc. before Jeff Bezos decided to change it to Amazon in 1995 . 

Nonetheless , the company has diversified over the years, and it is involved in the selling of jewelry, toys, food, furniture, apparel, electronics, video games, software, audiobook downloads /streaming, mp3 streaming /downloads, and video streaming/downloads. Amazon has also ventured in the publishing, film, and television studio industry (Amazon, 2019a). Since its foundation. In 2017, Amazon purchased Whole Foods Markets for a whopping $13 billion and this aimed at rivaling Walmart (Antoine, 2017). Amazon is the largest e-commerce business in the world and the second largest regarding sales after Alibaba. In 2018, Amazon was listed as the most valuable public company ahead of Alphabet and Apple. As of 2017, Amazon’s revenue totaled $177.866 billion . T he company had 613,300 employees in 2018 (Amazon, 2019a)

Amazon Inc. senior leadership is divided into two; senior executives and the board of directors . The top officers include Jeff Bezos who serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice-president ( Brian T. Olsavsky), Senior Vice-president Business Development ( Jeffrey Blackburn), Chief Executive Officer Amazon Web Services ( Andre Jassy) and Vice president Worldwide Controller , Principal Accounting Officer ( Shelly Reynold), CEO Worldwide Consumer ( Jeffrey Wilke) and Senior Vice-president, General Counsel and Secretary ( David Zapolsky). Jeff Bezos serves as the Board of Directors Chairman, and it consists of eight other members. However, there are 18 departments at Amazon, and 18 executives represent them all. The departments are categorized according to Amazon’s business structure such as Amazon devices department that is responsible or Alexa and Echo (Eugene, 2017).

Assessment 

Amazon’s senior leadership is made up of 18 executives who are responsible for ensuring that the company’s mission and vision are achieved . Nonetheless, this is only made possible via ensuring that all the goals and objectives in its strategic plan are attained . Amazon’s strategic plan is made up of focusing on investing in technologies, research and development undertakings in logistics, M& A strategy, improvement of its web services and enhancing its logical applications. All these goals and objectives aim at attaining one core strategy, which is to enhance customer satisfaction. It is the duty of the executives to ensure that Amazon’s attains its core strategy. However, this is only possible by having the right talent at Amazon (Amazon, 2018a).

Nonetheless, this assessment segment aims to highlight the diversity and inclusion efforts at Amazon. This is mainly observed by the Human Resources Department that is responsible for the selection and recruitment of employees at Amazon. To achieve its strategic goals, Amazon has over the years begun to embrace the importance of diversity and inclusion in its workforce. Amazon’s overall diversity and inclusion statement “ At Amazon, it is always Day 1. This means we never stop building or finding ways to innovate on behalf of pour customers. The same is true when it comes to diversity. Using our Leadership Principles to help guide us we are innovating in diversity, inclusion, and equality as we do in all areas of our business …. We seek diverse builders from all walks of life to join our teams…” (Amazon, 2019b)

To further Amazon’s diversity and inclusion agenda, the firm has established a Global Diversity and Inclusion Organization department headed by Latasha Gillespie. The department’s statement states, “At Amazon, we pride ourselves on our peculiar culture. We honor and respect the differences inherent in each Amazonian, and we seek to include those perspectives as we develop new products and services to our customers around the world. Also , we strive to create an absence of community among employees of various backgrounds to foster engagement and innovation.” (Amazon, 2019b).

According to the two statements, they align with the overall company mission and vision statement that states, “Our vision is to be the earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy, ” (Amazon,2019a). Amazon believes that by pushing for diversity and inclusion at its workplace, it will aid the firm in fully meeting the customer needs and wants. Amazon believes that a diverse and all-inclusive workforce will foster innovation and creativity as people are presented with a platform that enables the exchange of various ideas thus improving its overall service and product provision.

Nonetheless, despite Amazon having a diversity and inclusion statement and even forming a diversity department, the firm has come under scrutiny over actually implementing hat it states. It is an indication that diversity and inclusion should be a top priority for not only the overall management but also the human resources department and global diversity department. The three arms should work in unison to ensure they enforce their diversity and inclusion goals and objectives as highlighted in the statement.

To highlight the actual diversity and inclusion efforts at Amazon, I interviewed three senior leaders at the company. The interview is located in Appendix 1-3. However, the table below highlights a summary of the interview in regards to Amazon’s leadership, culture, involvement, business, strategy and measures, staffing and development and ownership.

Leadership	At Amazon, the leadership is based on fourteen principles. The principles are observed from the top leadership until the lowest level of leadership. The leadership principles include; customer obsession, ownership, invest and simplify, are right a lot, learn and be curious, dire and develop the best, insight on the higher standards, think big bias or action, frugality, earn trust, dive deep, have a backbone and deliver results
Culture	The culture is distinctive in that it fosters on a performance-driven environment that fires up the workforce to innovate in pursuit of an outstanding and continuously improving customer experience.
Involvement	The top leadership monitors the progress at Amazon on a monthly basis; the departmental heads must have weekly reports from the frontline managers and supervisors. In the case of Amazon , it monitors its progress using four quartets on an annual basis (Qi, Q2, Q3, and Q4)
Business	Amazon adheres to the various laws that govern the e-commerce business operations form all its operations around the globe. Additionally, it adheres to various international trade treaties.
Strategy and Measures	Amazon is a highly secretive business enterprise regarding its future strategic goals.  Nonetheless, Amazon aims at making its Prime services the core loyalty program. Following the Whole Food market purchase, Amazon is planning to venture into other sectors of the economy such as cashless checkout services, warehouse robotics and financing small business with its Launchpad services. The company aims at infusing AI in all its operations as witnessed with the invention of Alexa and Siri. Currently, the company has focused its operations in the USA and European markets. Currently, the company would like to get into emerging markets such as the Middle East and Asia. Amazon’s business strategies are submitted to the board of directors before implementation. The board has first to approve the entire strategy before it is implemented . The company uses various measures such as customer numbers and revenues to determine the success of its various business strategies
Staffing and Development	Amazon hires employees who meet the respective job descriptions and specifications outlined.  Amazon allows individuals to apply via staffing agencies and on its career section on its official website. Amazon allows its staff to apply for higher positions once advertised. Amazon web recruiter’s services agents target minority groups and ask them to apply for various positions.
Ownership	The leaders at Amazon have been identified as being owners as per the 14 Leadership Principles. Their actions should involve acting on behalf of the company

Summary of Latasha Gillespie’s interview, Amazon Global Diversity and Inclusion Organization Director; 

Leadership	Diversity and inclusion is a key undertaking for leadership regarding promotional and hiring opportunities
Culture	63% of all Amazon employees are male while 37% are women. In its top executive, 75% are male and 25% female. Regarding ethnic diversity 60% of the domestic workforce is white, 18% black, 13% Asian and 13% Hispanic. Moreover, the whites occupy 71% of all leadership roles, and the rest is by minority groups and African Americans.
Involvement	Progress and monitoring by top management are done monthly while at the departmental levels it is done weekly.
Business	It adheres to all e-commerce las both domestic and international.
Strategy and Measures	Amazon has a strategic plan that is outlined and acts as the guiding framework for the company business.
Staffing and Development	Amazon uses various recruitment services such as an advertisement on professional social media websites such as LinkedIn, its website, and Amazon recruitment agents.  The Amazon recruitment agents mainly target to improve diversity. Amazon organizes Affinity Groups aimed at improving diversity during recruitment and hiring.
Ownership	The leaders at Amazon have been identified as being owners as per the 14 Leadership Principles. Their actions should involve acting on behalf of the company

Acceptance 

Following an increased call for Amazon to increase diversity and inclusion rates in its workforce. The company has laid out the following plans;

The formation of a Global Diversity and Inclusion department (Amazon, 2019b).

The hiring of a Diversity Program Manager who will oversee and steer various learning programs for leaders and employees. 

Collaborating with business leaders at all levels, Diversity Leads, HR Business Partners to manage and build an assortment of learning and development offerings and programs.

Creation of Affinity Groups that bring together employees across geographies and businesses to help in boosting career development and reaching out to the community (Amazon, 2019b). 

Hosting of various diversity conventions such as the Conversations on Race and Ethnic in 2018 to determine the impacts of race and ethnicity in our daily lives (Amazon, 2019b).

Formation of Glamazon, an LGBTQ network that allows the LGBTQ community at its workplace to feel safe, visible and fully supported. 

Nonetheless, Amazon has still not yet reached its diversity and inclusion goals. One of the major factors hindering its ability is culture. The company has improved its hiring practices, and women and minority group of members have seen increased educational attainment. However, the increased discrimination found in the technology industry is still affecting the company’s ability to meet its goals. The technology industry has for long suffered from racial and gender bias forcing the minority group and females to seek employment from others sectors (Hicks, 2018).

Additionally, there has been continuous internal wrangling between the directors in relation to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the management. The board voted a “No” towards adopting the “Rooney Rule” that is used in the NFL. It requires the NFL to have at least a member from the minority group as a head coach (Branson, 2018). In case Amazon implemented the rule, it would bring ethnic diversity in its Board that has all ten white members and other key senior executive positions.

Action 

For Amazon to witness an increased rate of diversity in the workforce, the Board of Directors must work in unison and sign the “Rooney Rule” as part of its rules and regulations regarding recruitment and hiring of employees especially those involved with the top management levels. According to the Rooney Rule, it requires the NFL to include a minority candidate for the head coach position (Branson, 2018). By implementing the Rooney Rule, Amazon will be liable to a $200,000 fine in case it does not include minority group members as part of its top senior management hiring process (Branson,2018) The Rooney Rule should be signed as part of company regulations in its first 2019 Board Meeting on March. Through this, it will make sure that Amazon increases the diversity rates in its workforce thus accomplishing its Diversity and Inclusion objectives.

The reason for increased inequalities in the technology industry is discrimination against women and minority group members. The technology industry has always been considered as being male-dominated and despite women taking up IT courses, they are seen as lacking the ability to match the industry requirements. Additionally, most minority group members lack the financial resources to take up IT related courses, and this has limited their inclusion as part of the sector’s workforce in 2017. Amazon in collaboration with the Department of Labor launched the Amazon Apprenticeship Program targeting the veterans and military members (Amazon, 2019b). The program offered them a 16-week technical training program and 12 months paid internship (Amazon, 2019b). Amazon Board of Directors should also introduce an apprenticeship program targeting the minority group members and women to provide them with technical skills. Instead of offering them a paid internships, Amazon should absorb them as part of its workforce after the training program. This will ensure that the diversity rates at Amazon improve considerably. The training program should be formulated by the end of June, as it will not be hard to implement. The dynamics and structure of the veterans’ apprenticeship can be used in forming the minority and women program.

In Washington, Amazon has been on the forefront pushing for the rights of the LGBTQ community. This has seven seen the formulation of the Glamazon network in 2015 aimed at supporting the community (Sexton-Brown, 2018). Nonetheless, the company has not focused much on pushing for the rights of LGBTQ employees in other states. States such as Georgia have started pushing for the signing into law of religious bills aimed a legalizing the discrimination of LGBTQ individuals. Amazon should fund the activism of the LGBTQ lobbyists and other groups to make sure that in such locations whereby it has operations, the LGBTQ community can have the ability to get employment. The financial support of such groups should be made after the Quarter 2 earnings report in July 2019 to ensure that rogue states do not legalize discrimination of LGBTQ.

Accountability 

For Amazon’s diversity and inclusion initiatives to become a reality, the human resource department must be involved. The HR department should empower and create an organizational culture that will foster an all-inclusive and respectful environment that enables every employee to contribute, grow and learn towards overall organizational success. Unlike gender diversity that can easily be gauged , other forms of diversity at times make it hard for their monitoring and evaluation. The human resource management teams should have the sole responsibility of carrying out annual diversity audits and monitoring not only for current employees but also during the recruitment process. This will enable an organization to have a racial profile of the company and progress made can be measured effectively .

The Board of Directors is the overall executive branch at Amazon. For the company to implement any strategy or policy, it must get approval from the Board of Directors. The Board should, therefore, formulate policies that will ensure diversity and inclusion become part of Amazon’s culture. This can begin with using the Equal Employment and Opportunities Act as its overall employee policy recruitment outline. Addition of the “Rooney Rule” in its internal policies on employment will ensure that the company becomes more diverse. Correspondingly, the Board of Directors should bear the responsibility of formulating and allocating resources towards the formulation of the diversity and inclusion apprenticeship program.

Employees are an organization’s most vital asset. Without the workforce, an organization will not have the ability to attain any goals and objectives it sets. Therefore, to boost diversity and Inclusion at Amazon, I will assist in the formation of diversity and inclusion training programs. This will aim at educating the employees on how they can work with people from other backgrounds. The training program will focus on two diversity training procedures; skills training and awareness training. Awareness training will assist in the rising of the employees’ awareness and helping them to view the world through the eyes of someone different abusing on gender, age, race, sexual orientation, etc . The second training procedure will help employees in developing and building skills such as communication that helps them eliminate any bias in their decision-making abilities. Diversity and inclusion training will enable the company to have firth and realization of the benefits of diversity such as increased innovation, creativity, and revenue and customer satisfaction. The training programs will help in showing Amazon’s commitment towards diversity and inclusion.

Achievement 

Following an increased backlash on improving its diversity and inclusion rates , Amazon introduced a part-time work program (Gaudiano & Hunt, 2016). This program aimed to add more flexibility to its employees particularly the women and millennials. By improving an employee’s work life balance, it fosters their jobs satisfaction rates making them more loyal to the company. The part-time programs have seen the formulation of teams including managers. Despite getting lesser wages as compared to full-time employees, the part-timers will have access to other benefits such as health insurance. This part-time will mostly favor women who have more roles in family-care. As a result of this, the Amazon women employee numbers increased by in 2016 with a shift from 63% male and 37% women in 2014 to 61% male and 39 % female.

Amazon Affinity groups have also begun collaborating with local communities with the aim of pushing for diversity and inclusion awareness. This has seen Amazon formulating programs such as the Black Employee Network that is committed to facilitating the employment of black Americans (Amazon, 2019c). This is through assisting them to enrich their lives, creation of networks and connections all aimed at contributing towards the business success of Amazon. Other Amazon Affinity groups include Amazon Women in Engineering, Asians@Amazon, and Latinos@Amazon. Amazon has collaborated with groups such as Anita Borg Institute in sponsoring events such as Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing. The aim of such events is to encourage women in taking up IT courses and education that is in line with Amazon’s business venture (Amazon, 2019c).

More Action 

Talking to the local community is one means through which a company can improve its workforce diversity. Amazon should involve itself with local community organizations such as colleges, cultural institutions, and churches that can help it to connect with potential candidates. Additionally, Amazon can enlist itself in not-for-profit organizations such as Urban League or the National Council of La Raza. Furthermore , there are websites dedicated to offering channels for Amazon to engage in minority job searches such as diversityworking.com. Such not for profit organizations and sites will ensure that the job hunting expedition is not only limited within particular locality but rather into other cities, states or countries.

Additionally, Amazon can have an employee referral program. This will see its current employees referring their friends from minority groups or women, yet they are qualified. The development and implementation of an equal employment opportunity policy that adheres to the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines will improve the diversity and inclusion procedures. It will ensure that the selection and hiring process is race, age, and gender neutral. The creation of such policies should not be left to the Boards of Directors or Human Resource department but rather a committee should be formed. This will ensure that there is no bias in formulating the new policies.

References  

Amazon (2019a). About Amazon. Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.aboutamazon.com/.

Amazon (2019b). Diversity at Amazon. Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.amzon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=10080092011.

Amazon (2019c). Diversity at Amazon . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https:www.amazon.com/working-at-amazon/diversity-at-amazon/.

Antoine, G. (2017, August 24). Amazon lays out its whole foods strategy and shakes up Wall Street a new. Forbes . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2017/08/24/amazon-lays-out-its-whole-foods-strategy-and-shakes-up-wall-street-anew/#2155b57456f1

Branson, D. M. (2018). The future of tech is female: How to achieve gender diversity . New York: New York University Press

Eugene, K. (2017, November 28). Here’s who really runs Amazon — and only 2 of the top 38 execs are women. CNBC . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/28/who-are-amazons-top-executives.html. Accessed on 1/28/19.

Gaudiano, P., & Hunt, E. (2016, September 20). How will Amazon’s part-time program impact workplace diversity and ROI? Forbes . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/gaudianohunt/2016/09/20/how-will-amazons-part-time-work-program-impact-workplace-diversity-and-roi/#4217063e3e32.

Hicks, M. (2018, October 12). Why tech’s gender problem is nothing new. The Guardian . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/11/tech-gender-problem-amazon-facebook-bias-women.

Sexton-Brown, E. (2018). Glamazon at Amazon. HRD Connect . Retrieved on 28 January 2019, from https:www.hrdconnect.com/2018/06/13/glamazon-at-amazon/. Accessed on 1/28/19.