Company Diversity Analysis: Amazon

Following the rapid expansion in the scale of business operations, the increase in trade volume has coincided with exceedingly high competitiveness. The opening up of foreign markets alongside technological advancement has facilitated international commerce. If business entities are constrained in a particular region or nation, the situation is not any different, given that societies are becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. While the dynamics relating to people from different backgrounds offer the ultimate potential for scaling up business operations, the phenomenon is also attributed to a novel challenge: ensuring diversity is not compromised. According to Tritt et al. (2019), diversity contemplates the broad array of things and aspects that distinguish people from others, thereby making them unique. It is a phenomenon that can best be understood from multiple dimensions, including but not limited to religious affiliation, political inclination, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, and gender. As a result of the multidimensional and multiculturalism nature of the modern-day business space, organizations have to observe greater caution in ensuring diversity is well managed. Amazon has put considerable effort into embracing diversity in its business operations in the quest to promote the welfare of its workers as well as the sustainability of the organization.

Amazon Profile

Amazon is an American-based organization that has managed to morph into the most successful international online retail services provider. The organization was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. It has developed from a humble beginning in a small garage within Bezos's rented house into a humongous body currently classified along with robust tech powers such as Apple and Google (Hahn et al., 2018). Even though the organization has attracted immense acclaim in different facets, Jeff Bezos, the chief executive officer, is revered for the organizational culture that he has adequately instilled at Amazon (Tritt et al., 2019). Studies have shown that Amazon expressly proclaims its customer-centric inclinations and complete commitment to fulfilling its customers ' needs. With this initiative, the entity has succeeded in galvanizing the entire workforce around a common goal, thereby making organizational pursuits easier. While Amazon is renowned for its undisputed dominance, most people tend to overlook its reputable success when it comes to promoting diversity in its operations.

Contextualizing Diversity

Given that Amazon is an American-based company, most of its policies are shaped by the state of affairs in the United States. In that regard, delving into America's legal and policy frameworks is critical in comprehending the climate within which business entities operate. The United States has developed a robust legal framework that features social and ethical considerations in order to safeguard people against discrimination in the workplace while at the same time promoting diversity. Both the state and federal governments have established a number of protected characteristics whose basis can hardly be discriminated against through different statutes, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, among other recent legislations. Tritt et al. (2019) claim that the discourse on unfair treatment, particularly at work, has taken root through a number of theories of unlawful discrimination, such as disparate treatment. Aside from providing employment opportunities to persons from all backgrounds, companies are expected to ensure they prevent different treatment of people based on aspects that are not essential for the job or even policies that affect employees based on their identity. These, among other provisions, created the lower threshold of behavior expected for workers and are fundamental in helping people gain a deeper understanding of how Amazon has strived to go beyond the minimal requirements to provide a more accommodating environment for all.

Amazon's Diversity Management Efforts

Employment Opportunities

At Amazon, the concepts of inclusion and diversity are not mere theories. According to Tritt et al. (2019), Amazon has undertaken affirmative actions to implement these ideological positions. The company has at its disposal a rigorous interviewing process that best helps in hiring the best talent without necessarily letting people's background or identity undermine their prospects of getting the job. In the quest to strengthen the organization's diverse profile, the firm has dedicated a section of its human resource operations to focus on recruitment from tribal colleges, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and women's colleges. As such, it has been one of Amazon's ultimate efforts to target women and minority groups who have attained a university or college education. In addition, the company prides itself on rolling out an ambitious K-12 education program aimed at training, inspiring, and educating children from minority groups to pursue careers in the tech industry. Other student-oriented programs financed by Amazon include the provision of online cloud computing training offered at no cost, particularly for female students and learners from minority communities (Sadq et al., 2018). Amazon has been at the forefront of empowering the academic institutions that serve marginalized populations by ensuring they have free access to educational resources. These measures are instrumental in addressing the digital workforce gap and developing a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

Organizational Values

Amazon has witnessed immense growth, with the organization scaling up its business operations in a bid to meet the increasing demand for its services. As the organization strives to broaden its scope and dimension of operation, it is doomed to encounter challenges emanating from dealing with more diverse people. In that regard, it has to take significant steps to ensure the composition of the workforce reflects the diversity that defines modern society. While recognizing its immense power in fostering diversity, Amazon expressly defines the comprehension of its duty on its websites through a commitment to infusing diversity and inclusion into its broader customer-oriented approach. In addition, the company appreciates the widespread positive impact of a diverse workforce in giving the company a competitive edge on multiple dimensions. The company identifies a few of these particular areas as crafting reflective services and products, developing sensitive content for marketing campaigns, as well as forging a robust partnership with people from different communities.

Gender Parity

Amazon has been at the center of discussion on matters that pertain to gender parity in the workforce. According to Sadq et al. (2018), Amazon has not always gotten it right in terms of diversity, and like most international entities, there has been a significant gap between women and men in the organization. The company has been battling criticism for operating in a sexist environment dominated by men. However, considering the women employees in the organization constitute about 40% of the global workforce, it is equally bewildering that the same parity is not evident in leadership positions (Sadq et al., 2018). Fortunately, new projects such as HQ2 offered a light at the end of the tunnel to allow the company to address its shortcomings in gender-based issues. For example, the company recently scrapped the use of an AI recruitment tool for reviewing applicants' resumes after showing bias against women. In addition, Amazon has reinforced its commitment to gender parity and reviewed the policies that might inadvertently perpetuate inequalities between men and women within the organization.

Organizational Politics and Power

Even though Amazon has strived to improve diversity in lower cadres, it would be equally counterproductive to overlook inclusive measures at the top of the echelons of the organization's structure. Discourse on the corporate scene is always permeated with the aim of setting the correct tone at the top. Therefore, an organization is expected to demonstrate diversity in its powerful offices in a bid to ensure the values of diversity trickle down to the lower levels. According to Florentine (2018), Amazon recently passed a vote to heighten diversity and inclusion in the organization's board, which comprised of white men and three white women. The decision is a powerful gesture of the firm's commitment to ensuring diversity is observed in all organizational segments.

Conclusion

In the modern-day world, diversity and inclusion in the workforce of corporate entities is no longer a debatable prospect. For this reason, multinational organizations such as Amazon have strived to improve inclusion in their operations by allowing people from diverse backgrounds to secure employment and career progression. Even though Amazon has a few shortcomings when it comes to promoting diversity at all cadres of work, it has implemented measures in recent years to make the organization more accommodating to everyone.