AMAZON

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Francesco Tedeschi
Regent’s University London | Oliver Sterland

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Student Name: Francesco Module Code and Name SKL402 Integrated
Tedeschi Business Skills
Student ID: S18003356 Type of Assessment Reserch Process
Report Individual
(CW2)
550 Date of submission 03/05/2021
Word Count:

Assessment Title:
Amazon_Organisational Structure

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Sommario
Executive Summary..........................................................................................................................................3
Documentary Evidences - HRM401 Individual Report.....................................................................................3
Primary Sources............................................................................................................................................4
Primary Source 1 - Embracing the “always on” customer.........................................................................4
Primary Source 2 – Business models and organizational forms: searching the edge of innovation in
Google and Amazon..................................................................................................................................4
Primary Source 3 – Amazon.com..............................................................................................................5
Primary Source 4 – How Amazon Became Agile......................................................................................6
Secondary Sources........................................................................................................................................7
RUL Secondary Sources................................................................................................................................7
Secondary Source 1 – Amazon : Managing Extraordinary Success in 5-D Value......................................7
Secondary Source 2 – Organizational agility’s role in the growth of Amazon: Some critical success
factors.......................................................................................................................................................8
Secondary Source 3 - Effects of Organisational Structure on Social Value: Mediating Role of Financial
Performance.............................................................................................................................................8
Secondary Source 4 - Using enterprise architecture to analyse how organisational structure impact
motivation and learning............................................................................................................................9
Secondary Source 5 - Amazon: A story of accumulation through intellectual rentiership and predation.
................................................................................................................................................................10
Secondary Source 6 - Leadership and local structures in the Amazon region.........................................11
Secondary Source 7 - AMAZON: A CASE STUDY OF GLOBAL BUSINESS EXPANSION INTO AUSTRALIA....11
Secondary Source 8 - AMAZON: A CASE STUDY OF GLOBAL BUSINESS EXPANSION INTO AUSTRALIA....12
Secondary Source 9 - Amazon and Whole Foods: Follow the Strategy (and the Money) Checking out the
recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods...........................................................................................13
Secondary Source 10 - The everything store : Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon...................................13
PART B- Research Journey – Narrative of research process............................................................................14
Company Choice.....................................................................................................................................14
RULDiscovery – Search terms and search strings....................................................................................14
RULDiscovery process and Folder System...............................................................................................14
Choice of source type.............................................................................................................................14
Folder System.................................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................................15

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Executive Summary

This report provides information regarding the process I have undertaken to answer the module questions,
and in particular shows evidences of the sources I have used. My analysis starts with the identification of
primary sources used, providing brief explanation of the content and notes/comments about the use I did.
The report continues with the analysis of secondary sources, specifically splitting between RULDiscovery
and not. The report continues with an explanation of the research journey.

Documentary Evidences - HRM401 Individual Report

At this stage, this report shows the evidences relating to Primary and Secondary data sources with a
summary of the content and personal commentary and string.

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Primary Sources

Primary Source 1 - Embracing the “always on” customer

Source Summary

Pwc UK (2013). “Embracing the “always on” customer”. String: “Amazon Organizational Structure”

Notes and Commentary

PwC’s Experience Radar helps businesses find the often hidden sources of value that drive exceptional,
differentiated customer experience.( Pwc UK). The reports provides the analysis of an interview with Jeff
Bezos (Amazon CEO) about Amazon organisational structure and the way it operates.

Primary Source 2 – Business models and organizational forms: searching the

edge of innovation in Google and Amazon

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Source Summary

Academia.eu – “Business models and organizational forms: searching the edge of innovation in Google and
Amazon.” String: “Amazon Organizational Structure”

Notes and Commentary

This report contains useful information about the details of Amazon organisational structure, showing how
each department work and their interaction. It was very useful to have a better idea of amazon detailed
structure.

Primary Source 3 – Amazon.com

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Source Summary

Amazon.com – “Amazon.com - facts” String: “Amazon.com”

Notes and Commentary

This section from Amazon.com website has been very useful to understand the key aspects of amazon
success, obtain a screenshot of Amazon Hierarchy and read about the company values.

Primary Source 4 – How Amazon Became Agile

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Source Summary

Frobes.com – “How Amazon Became Agile” String: “Amazon corporate strategy”

Notes and Commentary

This article from Forbes contains interviews to Jeff Bezos and other Amazon executives about the pros and
cons of their organisational structure. In addition the article contains an analysis of what they see Amazon
structure in the future.

Secondary Sources

This section provides information about the secondary sources used. The first part contains six sources
extracted from the RULDiscovery, it then continues with four additional sources taken from non
RULDiscovery databases.

RUL Secondary Sources

Secondary Source 1 – Amazon : Managing Extraordinary Success in 5-D Value

Source Summary

Amazon : Managing Extraordinary Success in 5-D Value. This book from Benjamin Wall provides a full
analysis of the factors behind amazon success. The Author gives information about Amazon historical
achievements and highlights the theoretical framework relating to Amazon Hierarchical structure. In
addition, the book provides an analysis of pros and cons relating to the current Amazon structure, as well
giving information about other possible structures and assess the impact they would have on Amazon.
(Benjamin Wall, 2019).

Notes and Commentary

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I found reading through key areas of this book very helpful. In fact, the author gave me a clear idea of what
to consider when I conducted the evaluation of Amazon’s structure. In particular, reading about other
different possible structure has been helpful to understand how other companies operates and compare
with Amazon.

Secondary Source 2 – Organizational agility’s role in the growth of Amazon:

Some critical success factors

Source Summary

Organizational agility’s role in the growth of Amazon: Some critical success factors. This book provides
useful information about how Amazon structure is flexible compared to the traditional hierarchical
structures in other companies. The author provides an analysis of the key factors determining amazon
success and the theories behind the management style of Amazon.

Notes and Commentary

I used this source to understand what is the role of each department, and understand what are the benefits
of hierarchical structure and most importantly how Amazon differs from the traditional structure. It was
very useful for me to learn how management takes decisions and the implication of certain structures on
employees.

Secondary Source 3 - Effects of Organisational Structure on Social Value:

Mediating Role of Financial Performance.

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Source Summary

Effects of Organisational Structure on Social Value: Mediating Role of Financial Performance. This article
provides details about the social impact on the employee performance, and evaluates the importance of
adapting each organizational structure to the social and behavioural changes.

Notes and Commentary

This article helped me to understand how management needs to always evaluate the social situation of
employees and highlighted how impact of employees need can directly generate changes in productivity.

Secondary Source 4 - Using enterprise architecture to analyse how

organisational structure impact motivation and learning.

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Source Summary

Using enterprise architecture to analyse how organisational structure impact motivation and learning. This
article provides information about the direct impact specific organisational structures have on employees
and therefore companies results. The article provides first a general understanding of this impact and
specifically explain the situation about amazon.

Notes and Commentary

I found this article important because it made me learn about what Jeff Bezos this during the years in terms
of organisational structure. This was very important for my objectives in terms of comparison with best
industry practice.

Secondary Source 5 - Amazon: A story of accumulation through intellectual

rentiership and predation.

Source Summary

Amazon: A story of accumulation through intellectual rentiership and predation. This article provides
information about the down sides of Amazon structure with a more objective view of its controversies. This
includes areas such as the management of employees and organisational structure.

Notes and Commentary

This article has been extremely useful in terms of understanding the negative aspects of Amazon
organisational structure.

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Secondary Source 6 - Leadership and local structures in the Amazon region

Source Summary

This article provides information about the different leadership centres within Amazon and how operates
internationally. This article includes information about each country organisational structure and shows
how even if at international level amazon maintains a direct reporting command chain.

Notes and Commentary

The importance of this article for me is to be found in the detailed analysis Capriles provides about the
detailed interaction of each country with Amazon head quarter. This is extremely important to consider the
benefits of the hierarchical structure.

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Secondary Source 7 - AMAZON: A CASE STUDY OF GLOBAL BUSINESS
EXPANSION INTO AUSTRALIA.

Source Summary

This case study provides a scenario where Amazon needs to expand in other countries. In particular this
case study highlights the managerial process necessary to expand abroad but with keeping the same
structure and mentality.

Notes and Commentary

From the analysis of this case study I could see the mechanism behind amazon expansion and in particular
the importance of hierarchical structure to have greater degree of control.

Secondary Source 8 - AMAZON: A CASE STUDY OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

EXPANSION INTO AUSTRALIA.

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Source Summary

This article provides information about the different strategy used in the e-commerce field. In particular this
article provides an overview of the Amazon competitors environment and the corporate structure of the
main ones.

Notes and Commentary

I found this article very important to identify best business practice and compare them with Amazon. I really
appreciate to learn about competitors interaction and how Amazon differentiates from them.

Secondary Source 9 - Amazon and Whole Foods: Follow the Strategy (and the
Money) Checking out the recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods.

Source Summary

This article, by talking about the acquisition of Whole Foods provides strategical insights about Amazon
strategic view.

Notes and Commentary

I really appreciated to learn how Amazon, when acquiring a company, always imposes the hierarchical
structure.

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Secondary Source 10 - The everything store : Jeff Bezos and the age of
Amazon.

Source Summary

This article provides information about Jeff Bezos journey from start to making one of the best companies in
the world.

Notes and Commentary

It was interesting for me to read about Bezos background and its mental journey in the creation of such a
company.

PART B- Research Journey – Narrative of research process

This section of the report provides information about my research journey, highlighting the detailed process
as needed for the purposes of this module.

Company Choice
I was required to choose a company that can provide me all the information in order to answer at the four
questions. At first I was thinking to pick up Tesla, however, after some researches I found it difficult to access
at their annual report so that I have decided to leave my work on this company. After a discussion I had with
my group members we have decided to focus on Amazon because it was more attractive for everyone. As
we split the questions, I have decided to have a look into Amazon organisational structure, thus, I have then
started to conduct different researches on the topic. Considering that the question chosen by me ask to find
the annual report, describe and evaluate their organisational structure, I thought I could use two different
searching engine such as RUL discovery and Google scholar.

RULDiscovery – Search terms and search strings

I have used RULDiscovery to find the most appropriate literature articles. I found this source very easy to
use and I appreciated how intuitive and meaningful is the assessment of the results. When considering the

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best string to use in order to have the best results for my objective, I have considered and wrote down a list
of key words linked to the areas needed. I have started by searching for “Amazon Organisational Structure”,
in this phase I wanted to gather a general overview of the literature related to this topic, and I have carefully
read the different abstracts of sources I believe where most appropriate for my research. I have considered
also the dates of publications this to make sure I could use the most updated information. The second string
I searched was “hierarchical structure” and “Amazon hierarchy”, this because I wanted to find information
about the theories behind hierarchical structures so I could understand in more details the strategy of
Amazon.

RULDiscovery process and Folder System

When searching for sources I had many occasions where even if the string was for me the most appropriate,
the results I was obtaining where either out of date or not relevant for my objectives. In those situations I
used a mixed approach where I first googled words that for me where closer to the key word needed for the
best results, and then I refined my research on the platform so I could obtain results most relevant for what
I needed. I found very useful to set a folder system which I could quickly refer, this in order to be more
organised with my work. In fact, at writing stage, thanks to the folder system I could quickly go back and
read the information I needed.

Choice of source type

When considering the choice of source, I focused first on Books and Journal articles which I could check the
reliability and importance on other sources. I read backgrounds of the authors and internet articles
reporting similar information. With regards of primary resources I focused on authors from most
authoritative background which I could accurately verify.

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Folder System

References

Panmore Institute. 2021. Amazon.com Inc.’s Organizational Structure Characteristics (An Analysis) -
Panmore Institute. [online] Available at: <http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-organizational-structure-
characteristics-analysis> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/getting-

organizational-redesign-right#> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

Hbr.org. 2021. Organizational structure. [online] Available at: <https://hbr.org/topic/organizational-structure>

[Accessed 2 May 2021].

Us.sagepub.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-

assets/114049_book_item_114049.pdf> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

ResearchGate. 2021. (PDF) Organization structure theories and open innovation paradigm. [online] Available
at:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273863701_Organization_structure_theories_and_open_innovatio
n_paradigm> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/257360?seq=1> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

Small Business - Chron.com. 2021. Theories About Organizational Structure. [online] Available at:
<https://smallbusiness.chron.com/theories-organizational-structure-2777.html> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

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Denning, S., 2021. How Amazon Became Agile. [online] Forbes. Available at:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2019/06/02/how-amazon-became-agile/?sh=5e1b68c031aa>
[Accessed 2 May 2021].

Penmypaper.com. 2021. A Complete Guide to Organizational Structure of Amazon. [online] Available at:
<https://penmypaper.com/knowledge-base/amazon-organisational-structure> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

Gazprom Energy. 2021. 5 different types of organisational structure explained. [online] Available at:
<https://www.gazprom-energy.co.uk/blog/5-different-types-of-organisational-structure-explained/> [Accessed
2 May 2021].

Pingboard. 2021. Hierarchical vs. Flat Organizational Structure & Benefits of Each. [online] Available at:
<https://pingboard.com/blog/hierarchical-vs-flat-organizational-structure-and-benefits-of-each/> [Accessed 2
May 2021].

Cuofano, V., 2021. Amazon Organizational Structure In A Nutshell - FourWeekMBA. [online] FourWeekMBA.
Available at: <https://fourweekmba.com/amazon-organizational-structure/> [Accessed 2 May 2021].

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