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Case Study 3: Zappos

Zappos’ leadership on culture and ethicalness in the company and actions other companies

can take to mimic such culture.

The Zappos leadership was to create an atmosphere in which workers could innovate and

interact openly with management. The culture has been built to build partnerships that are

important to workers’ participation at all organizational levels. Leadership has effectively

developed this kind of link through creative and largely untested organizational culture scenario

approaches, and leading service firms dominate their respective sectors with innovative

customization experience strategies (Michelli, 2011). The tips that other companies should

follow out of this tradition include:

Understanding the desires and concerns of workers is a critical aspect of the company.

Zappos has experienced a straightforward approach to addressing business demands, including

social support and team bonding through continuous contact.

Excellent training with action makes staff appreciate the tradition’s work through

continuous dialog with managers and CEOs and increased trust and inspiration. Every behavior

has been clarified, including stealing personal documents and price difficulties—orders that have

been honored by the technical clinch.

Creation of collaboration designs; a well-developed approach has been shown in the case

study, where cuts and difficult choices have also been sufficiently clarified using consumers’ and

employees’ networks. Transparency is a core aspect of the Zappos model. Transparency is an

ethical concept that requires the preservation of free and truthful communication. Employees

receive detailed feedback on the organization’s success and are empowered to exchange details
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on the business. Zappos urges staff to build a transparent and sincere relationship-ship for both

partners, hoping that this will help preserve the brand’s credibility.

Zappos’ leadership impacts and ethical practices on its stakeholders.

The leadership of Zippos claims that the satisfaction and commitment of consumers are

the significant advantages of the company. They achieved this by substantial research and hard

work, which knew leading their clients to purchase a product and understand their concerns.

They were not happy with many items that were not on their website; that was market sense and

commitment. Stakeholders were a little dubious about the approach, which encountered

individual correspondence. The behavior that zippo demanded social networking and blogging;

they expected an organization that would rely primarily on selling products active in social

media networks. Deficits sustained due to technological clinches and earnings policy are some of

the stakeholders’ significant concerns. They needed to see earnings rather than staff participation

and customer satisfaction; there was a conflict between the CEO and the table. Significant

customers were satisfied with the service and established a sense of faith. They boosted spending

on the numerous shipments, as the Zippos had a pleasant annual return policy. The other owners

are workers who have been one of the main assets of the company. Culture has experienced

growth, free communication, posting of problems, and clarifying its guidelines. This experience

has strengthened the optimistic outlook and commitment to the organization.

Ethical challenges at Zappos and actions that Zappos’ leadership should take to address

the challenges

Even though Zippo was sensitive to ethics in its production, it still experienced some

ethical issues.
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Layoffs: During 2008, Zippo experienced a significant percentage of the employees’

layoff and had shown the reason for doing so on the websites and social media networks; many

reasons were economic issues. The ethical issue was how to handle such a sensitive case, as this

can be seen as a breach of ethical values. The Zeppo leadership should address this challenge

through effective communication and adequate explanation, which is timely and organized

compensation for the laid-off workers.

Merger issues/ Acquisition by Amazon: when Zippo merged with Amazon, there were

dissatisfaction issues, which caused tension with the board. The challenge was that Amazon had

a different culture, which Zippo could no adapt quickly. The challenge would have been

challenged by keeping zippo in an independent identity while maintaining its culture.

Loss of sensitive information: the Zippo database got hacked. It lost many customers’

sensitive data alongside financial content, resulting in the outrage of one of the clients. Although

Zippo got informed the shoppers separately about the crack, this chose to detach the phone call

center as numerous clients inquired regarding the infringement. The problem might have been

managed simply by responding to the client’s particular queries worried about the crack. By

attending to individual concerns, the tension and confusion shall have reduced and will help

maintain customers’ trust.

The core values’ effectiveness concerning developing a culture of ethicalness and how they

support the stakeholder’s perspective

Ethics is an integral part of the general culture of an enterprise. The Design Ethical

organization includes a comprehensive review of all facets of values and alignment in such a

manner as to promote ethical activity and discourage unethical conduct. Ethics theory attempts to

categorize corporate ethics programs as either a compliance methodology that focuses on

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applying laws, legislation, and strategies to encourage adherence or a Principles of Morality

Policy. Such apply more generic criteria and aspirational statements structured to direct

decision-making as the foundation for better ethical results (Segon & Booth, 2013) (Segon &

Booth, 2013). The approach to enforcement stresses consistent behavioral expectations often

related to legal criteria. The Code of Conduct and its prescriptive requirements are, therefore,

aligned with the compliance approach. Simultaneously, the Code of Ethics can be viewed as an

aspirational document more consistent with the integrity approach. According to Segon & Booth

(2013, there are specific vital requirements to value-based ethics culture: Based training and

development programs such as orientation, Leadership programs at all stages of leadership

decision-making of organization that sets the tone and both model the way as well as build

Opportunities for structured and casual collaboration and reviews Values and practices.

Moreover, the support systems that serve to improve and retain Ethical business and corporate

decision-making and action to be taken. Such support mechanisms allow standards to be created

and shared efficiently, control systems to be defined, and assessment and evaluation to be carried

out. Such effects of the core values concerning developing a culture of ethicalness.

Such core values can support the stakeholder’s perspective through specific practices.

Stakeholder theory as a management theory presents us with various approaches to value

development based on their attitude towards stakeholders, emphasizing firm versus stakeholder

orientation and value creation (Tapaninahk & Kujala, 2017). The keys values to support

stakeholders’ perspectives is when Organizational managers pay a great deal of attention to

stakeholder interactions and cooperation and recognize the role of these stakeholders in

generating economic, social, and environmental meaning to the organization. Like values of

zippo, which include Pursue growth and learning, Create a supportive team and family spirit, and
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be adventurous, imaginative, and open-minded, among others are ideals that support

stakeholders’ viewpoints.

The significant ethical challenges at Zappos has faced and how I would have resolved them

better than Zappos’ management.

Laying off Employees: Zappos is recognized for its loyalty to its workers, but the

organization has faced challenging economic conditions demanding hard choices. I would have

resolved this by ensuring Communications relating to layoffs are detailed and accurate, help

modify work roles as appropriate, and help make the necessary adjustments to the pay and

benefits packages. Besides, I would be instrumental in retraining the remaining workers and

preserving their loyalty and work satisfaction: This will ease the employees understanding

behind such layoffs hence creating harmony in the organization even during economic standoffs.

Merger by Amazon: Zappos was acquired by Amazon.com, an e-commerce corporation,

about ten years ago. Most of the Zappos consumers were confused by the abrupt transition and

expressed questions about its culture and customer service sustainability. I would have overcome

this by giving Zippo an independent entity while preserving its culture and such an institution’s

ideals throughout the acquisition. The action will ease conflict of acquisition interest between the

two companies with disparities in culture.

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References

Michelli, J. (2011). Prescription for excellence. McGraw-Hill.

Segon, M., & Booth, C. (2013). Values-Based Approach to Ethical Culture: A Case

Study. Research In Ethical Issues In Organizations, 93-118.

https://doi.org/10.1108/s1529-2096(2013)0000009011

Tapaninahk, R., & Kujala, J. (2017). Perspectives on stakeholder value creation and

sustainability: A literature review. Academy Of Management Proceedings, 2017(1),

15278. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2017.15278abstract