http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/hrspectrum/hr-profile-amazon.html

Amazon’s mission statement affirms that its organization will always strive to appeal to the needs of their consumers, while encouraging new ideas and reaching beyond what they already know. According to Cornell University’s HR Spectrum, Amazon’s mission statement states: “Our HR mission has been quite simple: to find, grow, and keep the Earth’s best talents. Rather than be bound by a set of organizational competencies--which might help an organization duplicate its current successes but can ultimately be self-limiting--at Amazon, we stay focused on customer need and develop the new competencies that we think are needed to adapt to changing needs, that has helped us stay innovative, reaching beyond what we already know” (Cornell University, 2012). Amazon.com’s CEO, Jeff Bezo wanted his employees to be invested in the company, that means being 100% committed to the company and wanting success for everyone, not just themselves. The President of Human Resources, Tony Galbato, along with Bezo has a lot of faith in the company and its employees stating, “We have lots of smart people with lots of positive energy, driven by the need to build and continually improve the customer experience” (Cornell University, 2012). That seems to be the trend with Amazon; taking care of its customers and offering the best possible quality without the additional cost. To promote innovation within the company, Bezo relies on a group of skilled HR professionals to find the right individuals for the job. They focus on finding those who will take pride in their job and will want to continue to improve themselves as well as the company. Galbato affirms, “People grow on the job, through long-term career paths, through formalized leadership and technical skills training, and through informal mentoring.” Bezo has always focuses on utilizing all resources, while also promoting innovative developments, like the Kindle.
Amazon’s Organizational Structure: In terms of the structure of the company, Jeff Bezo found that using a matrix design was extremely beneficial. As stated in Strategic Management, “Amazon is made up of multiple divisions each with a vice president that reports directly to the CEO. Some of the divisions within Amazon have an officer overseeing them, which are seller services, business development, Amazon’s web services, worldwide digital media, worldwide operations, international retail, and North American retail. Each of these officers is responsible for overseeing a specific division of the company and reporting back to the CEO” (Derek, 2010). Presently Amazon has roughly 51,000 employees around the world. As confirmed on the site, Hierarchy Structure, employees at Amazon.com are working at many sites including: “corporate offices, customer service centers, software development centers and the fulfillment centers” (Amazon Corporate, 2012). The class text, Fundamentals of Management also seems to confirm that Amazon uses a matrix organizational design. The book states that this type of organization relies on a “multi-command structure,” which means that Amazon is set up with functional departments. These departments include, “ product groups and temporary departments, which are then superimposed across the functional departments” (Giffin, 2010). A matrix organization has different project mangers that are in charge of different project groups, which are made up of representatives and workers. These groups, or teams, individually work on different projects to either make new products, or find new innovative ways to make their current products more profitable. http://www.slideshare.net/ttertel/borders-vs-amazon-comparative-analysis-of-organizational-design-influences
How Amazon implements change: It has become apparent through research that Amazon.com is a company that is constantly changing. The company follows a protocol that allows them to implement change. They develop teams that are small and organized around services. The services are the independent units delivering functionality within the organization. This is how Amazon is organized internally in terms of teams. 
If an employee has a new business idea or problem they want to solve, they form a team. The teams are limited to 8-10 people because communication can be difficult. The teams are called two pizza teams, which means the number of people you can feed off two pizzas. “The teams are small, and are assigned authority and empowered to solve a problem as a service in anyway they see fit” (Hoff, 2007). This type of collaborative teamwork is a good example of decentralization, which can really bring employees together, and perhaps give them a sense of ownership. http://highscalability.com/amazon-architecture
Controlling:
There are many types of organizational control in Fundamentals of Management, as I learned more about Amazon.com, I discovered that they practice the opposite of bureaucratic control. Amazon focuses more on group performance, rather than individual performance. They are more decentralized because their organizational approach is more informal. As confirmed by CEO, Jeffery Bezos, Amazon.com’s goal is employee commitment to the organization. He is interested in hearing about new ideas from employees and always encourages teams to work together. As stated in the text, Decentralization “gives employees the responsibility for controlling themselves, and when employee teams have done well, “they receive rewards at group performance, which favors widespread employee participation” (Giffin, 2010). Preliminarily control is another system that is used at Amazon.com. In Fundamentals of Management, preliminary control monitors employee quality and quantity. For example, those applying for management positions must have a college degree. In addition, preliminary control entails extensive management training, as well as several interviews before a prospective employee can hold a position in the company. According to a case study by Sarah Knight, Harry Kobrak, and Paul Lewis, “ [employee] training is vital to ensure Amazon.com can run a highly responsive customer service program” (Knight, Kobrak, Lewis, 1998). CEO Jeffery Bezos “emphasizes the importance of developing people with the term “people bandwidth.” Bezos describes people bandwidth as “smart people, working hard, passionately and smartly. Bezo’s comments provide some insight into the strategic importance the company places on training (Knight, Kobrak, Lewis, 1998). Postaction control is also practiced at Amazon.com. In Fundamentals of Management this is described as a system that “ focuses on the outputs of the organization after the transformation process is complete” (Giffin, 2010). Though postaction control cannot be used alone in an organization, it does provide management more ways to plan for the future. Postaction is also another way to monitor employee performance. When a product has done well and its sales have increased, management is able to recognize that the sales associate may be deserving of a bonus or raise. In an article titled, Amazon Architecture written by Todd Hoff, postaction control protocol at Amazon.com is briefly explained. It states that they “work from the customer backwards to verify that a new service is worth doing, this enables them to focus on value [they] want to deliver to the customer”(Hoff, 2010). Developers for Amazon.com focus on delivering products to the customer with a higher value instead of focusing on technology first, then figuring out how to use it (Hoff, 2007). Postaction control can be very important, it allows the organization to check products that have already been made by “comparing performance against standards,” then next time the same mistakes will not be made again.
Conclusion:
Jeff Bezo’s vision was to create an Internet based company that could deliver quality items at the best price. By obsessing over customer service he was able to satisfy customers around the world. Today his company is able to deliver an array of products to all walks of life in virtually no time at all. Though Amazon.com’s mission has never changed, they have still been able to maintain a steady increase in revenue since conception in 1994. Bezo’s organization will continue to be customer-centric, cost conscience, and innovative, which will continue to create success.

Work Cited

Flood, B., Hlaing, S., Qian, W., Schambeck, I., Tertel, T., Vang, L. (?). Borders vs Amazon: The Digital Divide. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/ttertel/borders-vs-amazon-comparative-analysis-of-organizational-design-influences
Hoff, T. (2007, September 18). Amazon Architecture. http://highscalability.com/amazon-architecture
CAHRS New Partner Profile: Amazon.com Hiring People Who Want to Build. (2012) In Cornell

University. Retrieved from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/hrspectrum/hr-profile-amazon.html