The Manner in Which Zappos’ Leadership Has Fostered a Culture of Ethicalness
The Zappos leadership has encouraged a culture of ethicalness in the organization by always being under the commitment to create a working environment whereby the employees can communicate openly with the management as regards their well-being and satisfaction. Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO believes that by attracting the talented individuals to become the employees and making them enjoy their work, they can always deliver excellent services to the organization and consequently improve its trademark supremacy. Moreover, the leadership of the Zappos Company has built a confident team of the workforce with a family spirit of mutual working to make the firm achieve its set goals and objectives. The other companies, to mimic the culture of Zappos Company, they can model the desired behavior mainly from the top management and also by providing the tools that people always require to act ethically (Plante, 2015).
The Significant Impacts That Zappos’ Leadership and Ethical Practices Philosophy Have Had on Its Stakeholders
The Zappos organization constructed its leadership and culture just about the satisfaction and happiness of the stakeholders. The company’s business model focuses on the customer service and always handles the issues that distinctively regard the clients from the rest of the industry. They are often free to call the organization at any time they have inquiries to make and such interactions have led to their increased personal association with the company and loyalty. Besides, the Zappos workforces always have the independent sovereignty when it comes to the decision making, and the expectation is that they spend enough time as possible to win over and attract customers. They can also assist the clients to shop, encourage them to purchase various sizes or colors of goods given that there is free return shipping and do whatever it takes to make the shopping occurrence an excellent one. Through that, the relationships between the customer service representatives and the patrons have improved, and both parties have become happy and satisfied.
As the company deems that happy employees assist in the creation of the satisfied clientele, the leadership always endeavors in coming up with a workforce that enjoys their work, and upon training, those not pleased are often given $2000 to leave. The practice has enabled the firm to build an affirmative team and family spirit to achieve the firm’s set goals and objectives.
Three Ethical Challenges That Zappos Faces and Three Actions That Its Leadership Should Take to Address the Issues
One of the ethical problems that Zappos faces is the layoff of the 8% of its employees in the year 2008. Upon realizing that the company was in an economic downturn following an elaborate discussion with the Sequoia Capital, the Zappos leadership decided to dismiss some of its workforces. The ethical challenge that the firm finds itself is the means of handling such a sensitive issue. Hsieh resolved the matter by sending emails to notify the staff as regards dismissal and the rationale behind the move in an honest way. The best way that the company should take care of the problem is by addressing the employees face to face and looking for the volunteers who are ready to quit before coming up with a layoff strategy and not surprising people through the emails or Twitter.
The technical difficulties are also another ethical challenge that Zappos confronts. For instance, in October, the year 2011, the organization underwent technological hardships that led to the interruptions and predicaments in making orders and shipments. As a result, there were incorrect shipment information and even goods directed to the wrong destinations, and the company acted by reassuring the clients that they would receive their merchandise as fast as possible. Also in the year 2010, there was a problem at one of the 6 pm.com’s websites and priced at $ 49.95 and resulted in a loss of $ 1.6 million; however, the management closed the site for a while to solve the problem. For the firm to resolve such issues, the firm should come out clean and address the clients and let them understand in such circumstances of technicalities so that the firm does not experience such loses and misunderstandings from the clients (Echevarria, Mariaquintana, & Najarro, 2014).
Zappos also faces the ethical challenge of coming up with the more than just shoe slogan in the year 2011 with the intention of attracting more clientele. In the adverts were individuals that appeared to be naked while on their daily activities like driving a motorbike and a box that said more than shoes covered some parts of the bodies. Zappos withdrew the adverts and apologized to the public due to their sexual nature. The company should address the issue by coming up with the modification of the commercial that is all about shoes and not nudeness to reassure the public of their previous intentions and clear their name from the mess.
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Core Values of Developing a Culture of Ethicalness/Determination of the Manner in Which the Core Values Support the Stakeholder’s Perspective
The Zappos core values have assisted in the creation of the culture of ethicalness by providing superior services and goods to the customers that eventually result in their engagement and realization of more profits by the company. For example, the delivery of wow through service by the employees has made the clients be loyal to the firm and improve the association that exists between the company and customers. Building an open and honest association through transparent communication has assisted in the distribution of information to both the employees and customers equally thus evading minor disputes and loss of reputation that might arise. Also, building an affirmative team and family spirit has led to the same efforts by all employees as regards customer service and eventually attraction of more clients as every staff intends to make the business achieve the set goals and objectives.
Analysis of the Significant Ethical Challenges That Zappos Has Faced and Whether Their Solution Was the Best
One of the main ethical challenges faced by Zappos is the acquisition by Amazon, a move that left the majority of the employees and clients stranded and confused. Upon the acquirement, the company management issued an explanation for making such progress and resolved the issue by letting Zappos operate independently through buying the board. Hsieh’s move was a perfect one given that the acquisition never tampered with the company vision of building the culture and client service like the Amazon’s commitment to just making profits would have resulted in the loss of customers (Triple Crown Leadership, 2012).
The organization has also confronted a major ethical challenge of the hacking of the customer records such as names, phone numbers, and delivery and billing addresses among others. The firm solved the situation by sending the email notifications to the customers immediately assuring them that there was no problem with the servers having their entire credit card details, before disconnecting the call center. The management should have taken care of the issue in a different way by not disengaging their call center but just to talk to the clients directly and offer them a substantial explanation and reassurance as regards the predicament. Through that means, the customers would have received the satisfactory explanation and would trust the company more for always caring about them even if in a difficult circumstance and their customer service record would still be flawless. Moreover, the company would continue to enjoy thoroughly or build the customer loyalty should they have behaved ethically as per the expectations (Hill, 2011).
References
Echevarria, A., Mariaquintana, & Najarro, Y. (2014, June 2). Zappos - We Dream Business. Retrieved from http://wedreambusiness.org/Zappos.html
Hill, B. (2011, August 31). The Advantages of Ethical Behavior in Business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-ethical-behavior-business-21067.html
Plante, T. G. (2015, July 1). Six Ways to Create a Culture of Ethics in Any Organization. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201507/six-ways-create-culture-ethics-in-any-organization
Triple Crown Leadership. (2012, November 26). Values and Culture Key to Success | Triple Crown Leadership. Retrieved from http://triplecrownleadership.com/values-and-culture-key-to-success/
