Being one of the largest multinational corporations in the world, Amazon.com has an organizational structure that reflects the complexity of governing a business on that scale. First and foremost, it is important to note that Amazon’s structure is functional rather than divisional. The company creates departments, such as “worldwide Consumer,” Web Services,” or “Media & Entertainment” based on their function rather than geographical affinity (Amazon, 2021). The advantage of this model is that it offers greater centralization than the divisional structure, in which regional divisions may even begin conflicting with each other to the detriment of global value creation (Luo & Shenkar, 2017). At the same time, functional structure, especially in the business of Amazon’s size, often comes at the cost of restricted adaptability to the specific conditions of regional markets (Luo & Shenkar, 2017). In short, Amazon’s functional structure reflects the leadership’s preference for centralized control and global guidance as opposed to the greater autonomy of regional divisions.
This preference also manifests in the company’s dedication to ensuring stable long-term leadership. Amazon is known for very limited turnover when it comes to its principal executives, such as Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Jamie Gorelick, and others (Kim, 2019). Moreover, research indicates that the high level of trust and camaraderie built over the years among Amazon’s senior managers is one of the defining features of the company’s organizational structure (Kim, 2019). Maintaining a cohesive team with very little turnover signifies Amazon’s dedication to centralization and concentration of control on the top level at the expense of unit autonomy. With this in mind, one may conclude that Amazon maintains a functional organizational structure with a strong emphasis on centralization and top-down control.
References
Amazon. (2021). Org chart – The official board. Web.
Kim. E. (2019). Amazon’s executive org chart, revealed. CNBC. Web.
Luo, Y., & Shenkar, O. 92017). The multinational corporation as a multilingual community: Language and organization in a global context. In M. Y. Branen & T. Mughan (Eds.), Language in International Business (pp. 59-92). Springer.