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  • 1.  Working for Amazon

    Posted 05-05-2016 07:37

    Colleagues, my apologies for asking about employment on an entrepreneurship site! Time is tight for an MBA student of mine, who has a job offer from Amazon in Seattle. As you likely know, and she does, the New York Times ran a critique of Amazon as a place to work. If you have any insights, that would be helpful. This is a person with a strong interest in social innovation, though not ready to launch a venture just now.

    Thanks much,

    Alex


    Alex Stewart, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
    Marquette University
    Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
    Office: 414 288-7188
    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!


  • 2.  Working for Amazon

    Posted 05-05-2016 11:34

    My son has a friend working there. Everyone has great benefits. IT and the innovation departments have great pay and resources, others not so great. Everyone faces great pressures.

    Jerry

    On May 5, 2016 10:22 AM, "Stewart, Alex" <alex.stewart@marquette.edu> wrote:

    Colleagues, my apologies for asking about employment on an entrepreneurship site! Time is tight for an MBA student of mine, who has a job offer from Amazon in Seattle. As you likely know, and she does, the New York Times ran a critique of Amazon as a place to work. If you have any insights, that would be helpful. This is a person with a strong interest in social innovation, though not ready to launch a venture just now.

    Thanks much,

    Alex


    Alex Stewart, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
    Marquette University
    Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
    Office: 414 288-7188
    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!
    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!


  • 3.  Working for Amazon

    Posted 05-05-2016 11:59
    Hi Alex
    We have written a case on amazon on nyt expose, published at Richard Ivey. 
    Reference as under:
    1. Bhatnagar Jyotsna and Jaiswal Shweta (2016) Amazon as an Employer.www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=77697 , Richard Ivey Business Publishing Product Number9B16C006
    Will share a complimentary copy tomorrow morning in case you need it.
    Case synopsis with objectives are here:

    SYNOPSIS 

     

    Amazon, the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States, has frequently figured among the most admired companies. However, an article published in the New York Times highlighted Amazon's people management practice of "purposeful Darwinism".

    . According to the article, employees at Amazon were encouraged to be critical of each other's ideas and performance-both openly, during meetings, and covertly, by surreptitiously sending negative feedback to each other's bosses. Long hours were the norm, and employees with dependent care and medical issues were viewed as liabilities. Employee attrition was, as a result,very high. Most of the ex-employees interviewed for the New York Times' article described the culture as toxic and difficult to survive in. A few employees felt that Amazon was the best place to work for people who are passionate about their profession. Passionate people, they argued, embrace pressure and thrive on it. Nonetheless, both Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos,experienced a decline in their public ranking since the publication of the article. 

     

    Amazon continues to be well-known for its brand and its obsession with customer service, but the exposé raised questions about Amazon's employer brand. At the time of the article's publication, Amazon was in the midst of implementing massive growth plans,including the construction of new office installations. WereAmazon employees thriving, or were they just barely surviving? Are such human resource management (HRM) practices sustainable?

     

     

    CASE OBJECTIVES

     

    In studying and analyzing this case, students will:

     

    • Evaluate the significance of care and compassion in the workplace.
    • Understand the pros and cons of putting employees on the edge toencourage innovation.
    • Appreciate the importance of sustainable employer branding,leading to talent engagement.


     Regards

    Jyotsna Bhatnagar



    -- 


    *Dr. Jyotsna Bhatnagar , (PhD, IIT Delhi)*
    Professor, HRM, Chairperson Alumni Relations
    Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India*
    http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3SuEhYgAAAAJ&hl=en 
    <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3SuEhYgAAAAJ&hl=en>
    http://www.jyotsnabhatnagar.in/ <http://www.jyotsnabhatnagar.in/>*
    *skype:**jyotsnabhatnagar12
    http://www.mdi.ac.in/faculty/detail/19-jyotsna-bhatnagar/

    Sent from my iPhone

    On 05-May-2016, at 5:07 PM, Stewart, Alex <alex.stewart@MARQUETTE.EDU> wrote:

    Colleagues, my apologies for asking about employment on an entrepreneurship site! Time is tight for an MBA student of mine, who has a job offer from Amazon in Seattle. As you likely know, and she does, the New York Times ran a critique of Amazon as a place to work. If you have any insights, that would be helpful. This is a person with a strong interest in social innovation, though not ready to launch a venture just now.

    Thanks much,

    Alex


    Alex Stewart, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
    Marquette University
    Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
    Office: 414 288-7188
    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!
    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!


  • 4.  Working for Amazon

    Posted 05-05-2016 12:34

    Hi Alex,

     

    It's nice to catch up here! Our recent Journal of Corporate Finance paper "Family firms, employee satisfaction and corporate performance" provides some insights. The paper link is here http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119915000929  Actually it was covered by the WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/25/amazons-worklife-balance-lags-other-tech-companies-study-says/ The point here is that if you work for Amazon, you may need to reduce your expectation for work-life balance.

     

    Hope this helps!

     

    Best, Ping

     

    Pingshu Li
    PhD Candidate | Organizational Behavior & Human Resources
    University of Kansas | School of Business
    pingshu.li@ku.edu |(785) 864-7508

     

     

    发件人: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:ENTREP@aomlists.pace.edu] 代表 Stewart, Alex
    发送时间: 2016年5月5日 6:37
    收件人: ENTREP@aomlists.pace.edu
    主题: [ENTREP] Working for Amazon

     

    Colleagues, my apologies for asking about employment on an entrepreneurship site! Time is tight for an MBA student of mine, who has a job offer from Amazon in Seattle. As you likely know, and she does, the New York Times ran a critique of Amazon as a place to work. If you have any insights, that would be helpful. This is a person with a strong interest in social innovation, though not ready to launch a venture just now.

    Thanks much,

    Alex

     

    Alex Stewart, Ph.D.
    Professor of Management
    Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
    Marquette University
    Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
    Office: 414 288-7188

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!

    ************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Jeff Pollack (jeff_pollack@ncsu.edu) or Kevin Cox (kcox24@my.fau.edu). Ventures HO!