How Could Amazon Eliminate Concerns with Employees Using the Tool to Sabotage Otjer Employees?

14-15.  How could Amazon eliminate concerns with employees using the tool to sabotage otjer employees?

The main issue with the Anytime Feedback Tool appears to be that while people can report on an employee's behavior, the employees has no mechanism for defending his or her actions.  Adding some sort of feature to the tool whereby an employees receiving negative feedback is alerted and given a chance to make a defense could solve the problem.

(LO5: summarize communication issues in today's organizations, AACSB:Reflective thinking)

Communicating Ethically

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It's particularly

• important today that
• a company's communnication
• efforts to be ethical.  

Ethical communication

• "includes all relevant information,
• is true in every sense,
• and is not deceptive in any way."

 On the other hand,

• unethical communication

• often distorts the truth

• or manipulates audiences.  

Statement from case study:

Futhermore,

• Sometimes managers
• Deliver feedback
• To employees on
• Performance that
• They did not observe first-hand.

Managers often

• Receive reviews of
• Their employees' performance
• Via a controversial
• Online feedback tool.

Explanation:

Managers should encourage ethical communication in every company.  However, manager at Amazon only judge their employees performance based on the feedback they receive which mean manager at Amazon did not observe their emplyees work.  This shows that manager does not practice the ethical communication.

What are some

• ways that companies
• communicate unethically?

 It could be by

• omitting essential information.

 It's unetical

• to plagiarize,
• which is
• "presenting someone else's words
• or other creative product
• as your own."

Statement from case study:

The bosses

• Know who sends the feedback,
• But in practice
• They keep feedback anonymous
• When shared back to employees.

However,

• Some claim that
• The anonymous use
• Of this tool,
• Coupled with its ease of use,
• Creates problems.

Explanation:

Managers keep important information that should be exposed to employees when managers shared the feedback to employees. This can create problems easily between emloyees such as misunderstanding.

 It would also be

• unetical communication
• to selectively misquote,
• mispresent numbers,
• distort visuals,
• and fail to respect privacy
• or information security needs.  

Given the competitive nature

• Of the organization,
• Some Amazonians claim
• That the tool is
• Often used
• To sabotage others.

Employees can send

• False or misleading
• Feedback via the tool,
• And those getting
• The feedbacks are

• Unable to defend themselves

• From anonymous feedback.

Explanation:

Employees with bad intention can manipulate the feedback and give false or misleading feedback to other employees that lead to negative impression about those who getting the feedbacks.

So how can

• managers encourage
• ethical communications?

One way is

• to establish clear guidelines
• for ethical behavior,
• including ethical business communication.

 In a global survey by

• the International Association of Business Communicators,
• 70 percent of comunnication professionals said
• their companies clearly define
• what is considered ethical
• and unethical behavior.

Statement from case study:

Jeff Bezos

• Claims that while the
• Organization is competitive,
• Reports of such callous behavior
• Does not reflect the
• Amazon he knows.

He noted in a letter to

• Shareholders that
• Organizational culture evolves over time,
• And people self-select
• Into an organization.

Explanation:

Managers should ensure that their employees practice the ethical behavior like Jeff Bezos,he make sure that such callous behaviour is not part of Amazon.  

Remember that

• as a manager,
• you have a responsibility
• to think through
• your communication choices
• and the consequences of those choices.

 If you always operate

• with these two things in mind,
• you're likely to have ethical behaviour.