Reflective Analysis on Zappos

By

Andrew Jaco

LEAD – 6200: Organizational Communication

Dr. Nicole Runyon

Zappos.com is an organization that got established in 1999 to sell shoes exclusively on line

at first (Zapposinsights.com). Then Zappos expanded to sell other apparel items later on. This

paper will explore the management styles and approaches that Zappos falls under.

Zappos.com has a unique approach to human resource management. The CEO of the

company has an organizational management philosophy of making it attractive as much as

possible to get employees motivated to do work and get much better at their work. The

attractiveness is from earning rewards for higher achievements than what is required of the work.

Employees are encouraged to work extra and crossover into other work assignments done by

others to grow in the company to get awarded even further. Employee innovation and ideas to

make the work more efficient and easier for themselves get distributed to others and that is also

awarded and encouraged. Zappos also recognizes that workers are human beings as the most

important attribute. All of this falls under the Theory Y under the Douglas McGregor’s Theory X

and Theory Y that breaks down the model of work motivation (Mumby 2013). Theory Y has an

emphasis that management serves to employees as an intermediate to help employees do their

work more effectively thus respecting the human potential of the employees.

Zappos by no means falls under Theory X. Theory X, which disrespects the human potential

of employees, mainly states that employees will avoid work as much as possible during the work

day and will take very little responsibility as much as possible thus resulting in the preference to

be micromanaged and redirected constantly by management throughout the day. This will cause

a company to have more managers for the same number of employees. This will result in

inefficiency with those same employees in addition to them not being motivated which could

cause a high turnover.

Zappos falls under the Participative leadership style under the Rensis Likert’s Four Systems

Approach. The approach is broken down with the first leadership style as Exploitive-

Authoritative (similar to McGregor’s Theory X) in which fear and threats are very high.

Information comes from top down and is not trusted by the employees along with orders

followed with blind obedience. This can result in high employee turnover. This is the polar

opposite of Zappos. The second leadership style is Benevolent-Authoritative. Threats and

rewards are blended. Communication is mostly downward with some upward communication

including orders given with some clarification and input from the employees. Employee turnover

could be moderate. The third leadership style is Consultative which has more rewards with some

low level decision participation and consultation with leaders and the subordinates. This allows

for reasonably good productivity and lower employee turnover. The fourth leadership style is

Participative (Mumby 2013). Zappos falls under the Participative leadership style in which

motivation occurs through employee incentives and rewards with group participation along with

communication upward and downward in all decision making in a much less authoritarian style.

This can greatly cause high productivity with the lowest turnover. This still occurs successfully

even with a low annual base salary of about $23,000 per year in 2013 for hourly employees.

The “Zappos Family” has ten core values. The first is to deliver “WOW” service; then

embrace and drive change; create fun and a little weirdness; be creative adventurous, and open-

minded; pursue growth and learning; build open and honest relationships with communication;

build a positive team and family spirit; do more with less; be passionate and determined; and be

humble (http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book). From these core values, one may

perceive the organization as caring for their people and their customers. Also one could think

that the company is projecting that it will do anything to have the people have a desire to work

there and want to stay there for a long time to build friendships with each other including

management and the subordinates. The core values can also project more employee

empowerment and good spirit with more diversity in skill, thought and ideas for creativity and

innovation from any level in the organization instead of just from the top. It also seems to allow

experimentation which leads to innovation, change. Employees seem to have the freedom to ask

questions without feeling ignorant and that management is utilized as a tool for new employees

to get up to speed as well as for employees to get help in solving complex company and or

complex customer problems and requests. It also can lead employees to have and organize more

office parties themselves to make it a more fun and less of a boring place to work.

Zappos connects with their customers emotionally. Customers may carry “baggage” when

they call in for service. They may express what the item will be used for than can be for an

emotional occasion and the customer may vent this emotional information over the phone when

placing an order. The agent will have to get more human and say something with sincerity to

acknowledge what the customer is saying so the customer will not think that Zappos does not

care about each and all of their customers. There was also a situation on a call when a customer

had expressed the death of her husband the day after his boots were ordered by that customer.

The agent arranged to have flowers sent to her place as a condolence for her loss of her husband.

Many customer service agents may not express anything for a similar situation. Other agents

may express something sounding “canned” or mechanical. Other agents may say “please accept

our condolences” and the customer may not get anything mailed to them that reflects that. It is

just a saying. Sending flowers unexpectedly to the customer is an unexpected joy to the

customer. One may worry if this is to be expected every time a customer expresses a similar loss.

There could be mixed opinions on whether sending flowers for situations like this would be a

good idea or not. One would be for it because a business could get more brand loyal customers

for life with the customer telling others of that good experience. Another may argue against

sending flowers for that situation because of the extra cost to the company since it would not be

appropriate to send out the flowers and then bill the customer for it. For that type of situation, it

would be good to express empathy with sincerity and offer if they would like a small condolence

gift at no charge to them. This strategy could provide the best of both worlds: A great unexpected

customer call experience along with a mild spike in free gifts to those customers in that type of

situation. There could be a good probability that only half of those customers experiencing a loss

for a loved one to accept a gift from Zappos at no cost to them.

References:

The Zappos Way of Managing Retrieved from

Website: http://www.zapposinsights.com/beta?utm_expid=25630532-

2.d3Aoz2etQpCbys8fwiCQyA.1

The Zappos Culture Book Retrieved from

Website: http://www.zapposinsights.com/beta?utm_expid=25630532-

2.d3Aoz2etQpCbys8fwiCQyA.1

Mumby, D.K. (2013) Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach.

Los Angeles: Sage Publications