1. In early August 2022, Amazon UK workers began staging walk outs in protest of receiving a 0.35-0.50 hourly pay raise, resulting in an increase of their minimum wage to ~10.50/hour instead of their requested minimum wage increase to 15/hour amidst 13% inflation. In management's attempt to get workers back into the warehouses, a general manager compared the protesting workers to "animals." In the wake of the successful unionization of an Amazon warehouse in New York, analyze the failures of Amazon to respond to worker demands using "The High Price of Efficiency" and one reading of your choice from Week 11's "Managing Change" topic. PLEASE ANSWER BASED ON THIS INFORMATION Corritore, M., Goldberg, A. & Srivastava, S.B. 2020. The New Analytics of Culture. Harvard Business Review, 98(1):76-83.

This article discusses the utilization of new methods in reviewing culture in a business. This is by assessing and measuring organizational culture through the use of big-data processing to mine the ubiquitous "digital traces" of culture in electronic communications. It looks into the focusing on cultural fit versus adaptability. Hiring processes many times only think about cultural fit, focusing exclusively on whether candidates reflect values, norms and behaviors of the team or organization as it currently exists. However, this fails to observe cultural adaptability. The article found that t a high level of cultural fit led to more promotions, more-favorable performance evaluations, higher bonuses, and fewer involuntary departures. However, cultural adaptability turned out to be even more important for success. Employees who could quickly adapt to cultural norms as they changed over time were more successful than employees who exhibited high cultural fit when first hired. This is because adaptability allowed for better maintaining of fit when cultural norms changed or evolved as is very common in dynamic environments.

The article moves forward to discuss that there are opportunities to hiring a cultural misfit as they may be individuals who see the world differently and bring forth diverse ideas/perspectives leading to innovation within the company. Cultural misfits can succeed by building trusting social bonds with colleagues, they were able to overcome their outsider status and leverage their distinctiveness.

Currently organizations are in favor of homogenous culture which tends to lead to efficiency and coordination because employees agree about norms and beliefs guiding their work. However, these benefits come at the expense of fewer novel ideas about how to accomplish tasks. In contrast, a heterogeneous culture sacrifices the benefits of consensus in favor of healthy disagreement among employees that can promote adaptability and innovation. Those with high intrapersonal cultural diversity had employees with a large number of cultural ideas and beliefs about how to accomplish tasks within the company.

So how can this be cultivated? Managers can increase retention by hiring candidates whose core values and beliefs about a desirable workplace align will with those of current employees. Hiring managers should look for candidates who demonstrate cultural adaptability, as these employees may be better able to adjust to the inevitable cultural changes that occur as organizations navigate increasingly dynamic markets and an evolving workforce. Hiring managers should also not overlook cultural misfits. They can be wellsprings of creativity and innovation. But to make sure they flourish inside the organization, managers should consider assigning them to roles in which they are likely to develop strong connections within particular social groups. That's because misfits need the trust and support of colleagues to be seen as quirky innovators rather than outlandish outsiders. Secondly, the article describes that leaders must be mindful that the expression of diverse perspectives in teams needs to be properly managed. Third, leaders should foster a culture that is diverse yet consensual in order to promote both innovation and efficiency. This means bringing on board a cultural composed of multicultural employees who each subscribe to a variety of norms and beliefs about how to do work.

Groysberg, B., Lee, J., Price, J. & Cheng, J.Y. 2018. The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture. Harvard Business Review, 96(1):44-52.

Founders and influential leaders often set new cultures in motion and imprint values and assumptions that persist for decades. Over time an organization's leaders can also shape culture, through both conscious and unconscious actions. The first and most important step leaders can take to maximize its value and minimize its risks is to become fully aware of how it works. Culture is the tacit social order of an organization: It shapes attitudes and behaviors in wide-ranging and durable ways. Cultural norms define what is encouraged, discouraged, accepted, or rejected within a group. Culture can also evolve flexibly and autonomously in response to changing opportunities and demands.

The article describes four key attributes to culture. Shared being the first, as culture is a group phenomenon. The culture needs to be cultivated and shared among the group for it to be truly impactful. Secondly is pervasive as culture may be apparent or not but must reside within ourselves. It is manifest in collective behaviors, physical environments, group rituals, visible symbols, stories, and legends. Third is enduring, people are drawn to organizations with characteristics similar to their own; organizations are more likely to select individuals who seem to "fit in"; and over time those who don't fit in tend to leave. This cycle creates reinforcement within the organization to have an enduring culture. Lastly is implicit attribute which notes that no matter what humans are hardwired in some fashion to recognize culture. This means that there's a need for culture within a group setting and must be guided/cultivated for greater results.

The article continues to discuss distinct culture styles for organizations. 1. People interactions, companies that focus on the interactions of individuals tend to collaborate and to see success through the lens of the group. 2. Response to change, some companies focus on stability; to follow rules, use control structures such as seniority-based staffing, reinforce hierarchy, and strive for efficiency, while others look more into adaptability; innovation, openness, diversity, and a longer-term orientation.

The article introduces us to the integrated culture framework. A section I want to note is the purpose part as exemplified by idealism and altruism. Work environments are tolerant, compassionate places where people try to do good for the long-term future of the world. Employees are united by a focus on sustainability and global communities; leaders emphasize shared ideals and contributing to a greater cause. While safety is another section which describes planning, caution, and preparedness. Work environments are predictable places where people are risk-conscious and think things through carefully. Employees are united by a desire to feel protected and anticipate change; leaders emphasize being realistic and planning ahead. The framework can be used to diagnose and describe highly complex and diverse behavioral patterns in a culture and to model how likely an individual leader is to align with and shape that culture.

Purpose's positives are improved appreciation for diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility. With downsides being overemphasis on a long-term purpose and ideals may get in the way of practical and immediate concerns. Safety's positives are improved risk management, stability, and business continuity. Negatives being overemphasis on standardization and formalization may lead to bureaucracy, inflexibility, and dehumanization of the work environment.

Much like defining a new strategy, creating a new culture should begin with an analysis of the current one, using a framework that can be openly discussed throughout the organization. Leaders must understand what outcomes the culture produces and how it does or doesn't align with current and anticipated market and business conditions.

Michels, D. & Murphy, K. 2021. How Good Is Your Company at Change? Harvard Business Review, 99(4):62-71.

From articles research it identified nine common traits and abilities that make companies excel at change: purpose, direction, and connection (necessary for leading change); capacity, choreography, and scaling (necessary for accelerating change); and development, action, and flexibility (necessary for organizing change).

Purpose - Creates a sense of belonging; guides decisions and inspires action

Direction - Translates your purpose into a plan; clarifies where you are going and how to get there

Connection - Taps into the social side of change; creates networks of influencers and fans

Capacity - Defines the limits of change; allows you to absorb more change

Choreography - Helps you be more dynamic; adjusts change priorities and sequences moves

Scaling - Creates a virtuous cycle; spreads innovation and amplifies impact

Development - Prepares you for growth; builds learning and change capability

Action - Builds momentum; fosters a can-do mindset and a bias for change

Flexibility - Helps you stay in front of change; redefines how you work and even what work is

Four common archetypes of change are search of focus, stuck and skeptical, aligned but constrained, and struggling to keep up. I wish to note stuck and skeptical as these are companies that have good ideas and a history of success but too much of their change gets stuck at the local level. They tend to underestimate the full scope of what they have taken on. They are commonly weak in connection, scaling and action. Innovations seem to stall and don't spread across the organization. No single leader can lift a whole company out of this state. Success will come only from reigniting the enthusiasm of your teammates, which starts with convincing them that they can in fact succeed.

So how can a company truly change? The article notes three distinct steps to take in an effort to enact changes. 1. Get the facts, determine your change power baseline and understand where you are relative to your competitors. Identify specifically what you can must improve. 2. Disrupt how you work, approach changes by thinking not in terms of distinct projects but, rather, in terms of an organizational shift. 3. Mobilize your leaders, if you want to disrupt old patterns, embrace a new approach, and improve critical change capabilities, you've got a lot to do: You'll need to orchestrate a team effort, develop a shared ambition, and map an action plan.

Weitzner, D. 2021. Connected Capitalism. Chapter 8. University of Toronto Press.

Professor introduces the concept of forgiveness in this chapter. The more forgiving leaders are towards others mistakes the better the overall performance of the team will be. Two categories are presented in the chapter for forgiveness as Selicha which is the inclination to seek forgiveness and make amend. This one is about apologizing and acknowledging wrongdoings and amending it to make up for their mistake. Mechila is the second one that is the inclination to forgive others rather than release our anger. Mechila is the removal of wrongdoing regardless of the level of harm presented. This is in favor of sustaining connection between the two individuals and continue the relationship. An important piece within this reading that I believe is important to note is forgiveness in professional environments can be impacted due to the direct level of emotional value there is between both stakeholders and how they can react to mistakes