Introduction
Culture and leadership are two critical elements of any organization in the modern business world. The success of any company depends on how well all employees and leaders define their cultural aspects and follow the established principles in developing their strategies. This paper aims to discuss and compare the peculiarities of organizational cultures and leadership in Amazon and Starbucks and define if these companies comply with the characteristics of transformational leadership defined by Kouzes and Posner. Amazon’s and Starbucks’ practices should prove to be effective in terms of defining their cultures and leadership approaches.
Organizational Culture Components
When people create a company, one of the first things to consider is its culture. According to Warrick (2017), organizational culture significantly impacts the company’s performance as it defines its morale, employee productivity, motivational factors, and overall values. Unfortunately, not all leaders understand the worth of applying cultural issues in their work, which results in misunderstandings and organizational failures. Culture should describe the environment in which people need to work, think, and act (Warrick, 2017). Thus, each detail matters to employees, and leaders are responsible for giving enough explanations and recommendations. The components of organizational culture may be classified into visible (dress, design, leadership style, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships) and invisible (beliefs, values, assumptions, and ethics) (Warrick, 2017). Leaders play a primary role in shaping healthy culture by determining appropriate strategies, following particular styles, and becoming examples for others. If a leader fails to apply strong and clear values, there is a threat of promoting weak and toxic cultures because it is hard for employees to cooperate and follow the same goals (Warrick, 2017). Such dysfunctionality affects organizational performance and challenges productivity.
Amazon’s Culture
The main idea of Amazon’s culture is a burning desire to provide customers with the bests services and create favorable working conditions for employees. This company has one of the strongest cultures, and the contribution of its leader, Jeff Bezos, is impressive. For example, when Amazon was able to form a union, most employees rejected the opportunity as they were satisfied with the current conditions (Weise & Scheiber, 2021). The team admitted they were not perfect but proud of what they offered and wanted to continue working and improving the world (Weise & Scheiber, 2021). Bezos defines the beliefs of each employee by applying his best and worst qualities like meeting deadlines, desire to innovate, or “informal cruelty” to scarify personal needs for corporate ones (Smith, 2021). It is impossible to create a successful organization without choosing some negative or devastating options, and Amazon was ready to take such steps and cooperate in dealing with the consequences. Thus, the components of Amazon’s culture are performance pressure, customer centricity, operational excellence, and continuous improvement. Employees are aware of harsh requirements but want to ensure their customers get the best with Amazon.
Starbucks’ Culture
Compared to Amazon, where most services are offered online, Starbucks is known for creating a warm and friendly environment directly for people in its cafés. Leinwand and Davidson (2016) admit that Starbucks possesses a powerful culture that is closely related to a capability of introducing a “third place” beyond the workplace and home for all people. The company works hard to promote its employee-first approach and encourage close bonds between people. The former leader believed that if workers cared for themselves, they would be eager to care about their customers (Leinwand & Davidson, 2016). Collaboration and communication are the elements of its organizational culture, which leads to openness and trust. The core of Starbucks’ strategy is to address the emotional energy that affects company-customer relationships (Leinwand & Davidson, 2016). When people visit Starbucks, they feel respect and care not always offered elsewhere. They do not want to go to another café when they are served high-quality food that lacks emotions and creativity. Therefore, this unique Starbucks’ culture allows leaders and employees to understand what their customers expect and meet their corporate goals, not at the expense of their personal needs.
Differences Between Amazon and Starbucks
The primary difference between the cultures of Amazon and Starbucks is the chosen centricity. At Amazon, attention is paid to customers, the quality of services, and the innovation that attracts new people. Amazon leadership focuses on showing how employees should work, including fast speed, few or no mistakes, and high-level performance (Smith, 2021). Starbucks has nothing to do with this approach because the leaders underline the importance of each employee in the company. The relationship-driven strategy is used to support employees and make them believe that this place is the best for work and development (Leinwand & Davidson, 2016). These differences should not mean that one company is better than another. These two examples prove that either customer-oriented or employee-oriented strategies could be effective under professional leadership and management. However, in both cases, such components of organizational culture as well-defined values, beliefs, trust, and cooperation are well-recognized and followed. Amazon and Starbucks do their best to become the leading organizations in their fields and use their competitive advantage for further growth and improvement.
Culture and Transformational Leadership
The connection between the effectiveness of organizational culture and leadership is evident. Today, people prefer different leadership styles, affecting the company’s vision and mission. According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), there are five practices of exemplary transformational leadership: modeling the way, defining a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. In Amazon’s culture, a leader seems to incorporate all these ideas from some point. Bezos has already become a good model for his followers and inspired a common vision of innovation and excellence. He is not afraid to challenge his employees because this practice helped him motivate and control the team. If someone thinks he fails to encourage the heart, it is better to remember the case with union creation and employee satisfaction with the current environment. Starbucks’ leaders demonstrate a strong model for employees and inspiration with a shared vision. Although there is not much challenge in the company, workers understand that their desire to act defines their success (Leinwand & Davidson, 2016). If people can complete their functions with low control and increased support, they are welcome not to follow some practices.
Conclusion
In general, Amazon’s and Starbucks’ leaders demonstrate high-level professionalism in defining their organizational cultures. Despite certain differences in working approaches, both companies become good examples of how people should cooperate and promote their services in various directions. The customer-centered strategy makes Amazon a dangerous competitor due to the possibility of meeting the most unexpected population needs. The employee-centered approach chosen by Starbucks proves that caring for employees is not a leader’s weakness but a unique step to motivating and supporting the workforce. Transformational leadership is based on five major principles, and Amazon and Starbucks show how to apply them and contribute to creating the most effective organizational cultures in the world.
References
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Leinwand, P., & Davidson, V. (2016). How Starbucks’s culture brings its strategy to life. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Smith, B. (2021). To understand Amazon, we must understand Jeff Bezos. The New York Times. Web.
Warrick, D. D. (2017). What leaders need to know about organization culture. Business Horizons, 60(3), 395-404. Web.
Weise, K., & Scheiber, N. (2021). Why Amazon workers sided with the company over a union. The New York Times. Web.