The CEO and Organizational Culture: Zappos, Research Paper Example

Organizational culture plays an important role in determining its success. Through the culture developed in a company, it would be easier to detect whether it is in the path to success or on the decline. Zappos remains one of the companies, whose operations have been identified as unique. Unlike many organizations, which are only interested in achieving their profits targets, with less emphasis on the culture, Zappos has turned out to be a role model to many, which seek to develop cultures that would boost their strategic positioning within the markets. Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing shop based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company has grown in great leaps to rake in a total of $8.6 million by the end of the financial year 2013. This has been realized through selling of shoes online and other wears.

The organizational culture developed and sustained by Zappos seeks to facilitate growth and sustainability through employee empowerment. The management of the company has given greater emphasis to good working environment for its employees as part of the growth strategy. The company’s culture is developed from the 10 pillars, which are its core values. The 10-core value that defines the organizational culture of Zappos includes delivery of the WOW through service (Zappos.com. 2013). This implies that employees are encouraged and motivated to provide services beyond the ordinary. The management of the organization is also open to change, as employees are given some level of flexibility in delivery of the services. The company, through its operations, emphasizes on the pursuit of growth and learning.

One of the key elements that define the operations of Zappos is the existence of a positive team and family spirit. Right from the top management to junior staff, the employees are positive about the company and they have the skills and capabilities of handling various tasks. Employees are always passionate about the company as all operations are done in open and the decision-making is very inclusive. This has left many of the staff members of the organization motivated to work harder and smarter into achieving the missions of the company (Richards, 2010). The organization has well developed social groupings and it supports innovation. Employees feel appreciated and greatly affected by the intrinsic motivational aspects more than the extrinsic motivational factors. The human resource department also plays an important role in choosing of employees passionate about the company, and those that are deemed to be in good position to take up and propagate the existing culture at Zappos.

There are various elements, which could be used in determining the organizational culture of Zappos and how the operations of the company seek to defines its core values. In the first place, the level of commitment of Zappos gives a clear indication that staff members have a high level of motivation. On the other hand, the human resource management policies adopted by the organization are a clear indicator that staff motivation is a key growth strategy. The HRM policies developed by the organization seek to support innovation through open communication vertically and horizontally. On the other hand, employs are given some space from which they can create ideas and be innovative, in as long as they end up achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. The Zappos family initiative is yet another pointer of the culture of the organization. Zappos family seeks to spur growth through ensuring employees are well aware of the vision of the company and in all circumstances dedicate their efforts to working in unity to reach out to various targets of the company. The level of unity between staff members of the organization, and the humility demonstrated by staff members is a clear indication that strategic operations and the culture is a key strength.

The culture at Zappos can only be sustained by a charismatic leader. Unlike many organizations with well-outlined structures that are static, Zappos has a flexible organizational operational policy. The culture developed at the organization gives room for changes during and at the end of the financial or management planning period (Lysons, 2008). It is only through charismatic leadership that the core values of the organization can be upheld. A charismatic leader would give greater effort into team building and enthusiasm with the organization and these is all that drives Zappos.

Decline in the sales of Zappos, Inc. would call for a slight change in the culture and the operations of the company. In this respect, the company may be forced to be more stringent on the mode of operation or the innovativeness of employees at the company. In order to determine how customers are affected, and the cause of the reduction of sales, the company may have to restructure its innovation strategies to ensure that all decisions regarding service delivery are well deliberated by the top management before being allowed for implementation (Zenglo, 2009). This may end up reducing the speed with which innovative ideas would be implemented.

References

Beerel, A., (2009). Leadership and Change Management, New York City, NY: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2009. Print

Kavita, S., (2009). Organizational Behavior: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2009. Print

Lysons, K., (2008). Team Leadership, The British Journal of Administrative Management, 11/1998, p. 29

Richards, D., (2010). At Zappos, Culture Pays, Strategy and Business, no. 60, (2010): 16

Zappos.com. (2013). Zappos Family Core Values, http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values

Zenglo, C., (2009). Developing balanced leadership team: an ultimate challenge in global companies succeeding in a hyper-competitive global economy, Advances in global leadership, 2009, Volume 5, pp. 145 – 158