Leaders influence a company’s culture and strategic objectives in various ways. The effect may be positive or negative depending on implementation and the uptake by the organization and its members. Most organizations are implementing changes that are aimed at improving their efficiency and effectiveness. In doing so, they adapt to the changing times occasioned by factors such as pandemics, financial crises, and others. Zappos is among the organizations whose leadership has implemented changes aimed at altering how they conduct their operations. One of the most recent leaders at Zappos to implement change is Tony Hsieh.
As the CEO of Zappos, a leading online shoe retailer, Tony Hsieh embraced the concept of Holacracy. This was aimed at changing how organizations function in terms of seniority and hierarchy. In most organizations, there are leaders who make decisions and design policies (Eva et al., 2019). They delegate their juniors to run the implementation program and ensure company policies are put to good use. In 2014, Hsieh decided to flatten the company hierarchy and implement the policies and principles that run holacracy. Some members of staff, especially ones in senior management decisions, though it was a social experiment (Velinov et al., 2018). However, Tony was hopeful and focused on delivering the implementation.
Hsieh believed that the holacracy system would benefit the company by ensuring he gets involved in the organization’s day-to-day running. He would also be involved in training fellow employees on the principles of holacracy (Heinitz et al., 2018). This meant that he was very much immersed in the success of the program and did have a genuine desire for the success of the company. Zappos was also known to ensure customers got the best experience. According to various research studies into his leadership style, Tony Hsieh allowed the support staff the liberty to please the customers and ensure no customer was unhappy. He, therefore, valued employee engagement as a critical contributor to customer satisfaction. Among the other factors that influence employee engagement are relationships with co-workers, leadership, and meaningful work (Velinov et al., 2018). These are factors that Tony embraced and implemented effectively.
Tony Hsieh is an ethical leader in that he offered employees who did not agree with the holocracy model a chance to choose. He offered them severance pay for those who decided to leave, an indication that he had their interests at heart (Dur & Schmittdiel, 2019). He did not impose his belief on others as he gave a chance for everyone to choose whether they would embrace the principles or not. Tony also implemented theory Y of leadership, where he believed that motivated employees would become more productive than unmotivated. He applied well theory Y in his management at Zappos by ensuring he focuses on both employees and customers (Kumar & Mukherjee, 2018). This is an area where most organizations fail and eventually become unable to compete effectively.
In conclusion, a visionary and innovative leader can change a company for the better. Tony Hsieh was a leader who ensured a company he helped build would become the leader in shoe retail shopping. His involvement in hiring and training fellow employees on holacracy ensured he had the best team to drive his vision forwards. The implementation of the holacracy principles was also hailed by many researchers, scholars, and stakeholders in the retail industry. Some companies, for instance, copied the concept but failed at implementation because their leadership lacked skills like Hsieh’s. Ensuring organizational behavior models and theory are also implemented is vital in ensuring the success of a firm.
References
Dur, R., & Schmittdiel, H. (2019). Paid to quit. De Economist, 167(4), 387-406. Web.
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., Van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111-132. Web.
Heinitz, K., Lorenz, T., Schulze, D., & Schorlemmer, J. (2018). Positive organizational behavior: Longitudinal effects on subjective well-being. PLoS ONE, 13(6), 18-24. Web.
Kumar S., V., & Mukherjee, S. (2018). Holacracy – the future of organizing? The case of Zappos. Human Resource Management International Digest, 26(7), 12-15. Web.
Velinov, E., Vassilev, V., & Denisov, I. (2018). Holacracy and obliquity: Contingency management approaches in organizing companies. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 16(1), 330-335. Web.