Zappos: Leadership and Organizational Culture
Read the information regarding Zappos in your book. Does the leader impact organizational culture or does organizational culture impact the leader? Explain. If you were the leader of Zappos, what new elements would you add to the corporate culture? Explain. How does the corporate culture impact vision, mission, and strategy at Zappos? Respond substantively to two other students’ posts.
Does the leader impact organizational culture or does organizational culture impact the leader? That is a great question. I believe both are true to some extent. A leader that has strong core values of morality and integrity will be a positive influence on everyone who works for him/her. I had a supervisor that had the statement “attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?” on the bottom of all her emails. I knew that wasn’t just something she thought was cute to put on her emails, she believed it. She portrayed a great attitude each and every day. Even when things were tough, she always looked for brighter days. In turn, I would follow her in any endeavor that I was asked to. Culture has also been characterized as the personality and chemistry of an organization. You get a sense of an organization’s culture and how it feels when you walk into a building or facility. It may feel rigid and formal or casual and friendly. People may be approach- able or distant with each other. (Weiss, 2011)
On the other side of the question, does organizational culture impact the leader? I think so. For example, evidence suggests that soldiers generally commit to the U.S. Army because of its values—that is, loyalty, duty, and selfless service (Crandall, 2007). There are actually seven Army core values, Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. Every Soldier is taught these values in basic training. We learn the meaning of each value and how important it is that we not only know them, but we believe in the meaning of each and every one
Does the leader impact organizational culture or does organizational culture impact the leader? That is a great question. I believe both are true to some extent. A leader that has strong core values of morality and integrity will be a positive influence on everyone who works for him/her. I had a supervisor that had the statement “attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?” on the bottom of all her emails. I knew that wasn’t just something she thought was cute to put on her emails, she believed it. She portrayed a great attitude each and every day. Even when things were tough, she always looked for brighter days. In turn, I would follow her in any endeavor that I was asked to. Culture has also been characterized as the personality and chemistry of an organization. You get a sense of an organization’s culture and how it feels when you walk into a building or facility. It may feel rigid and formal or casual and friendly. People may be approach- able or distant with each other. (Weiss, 2011)
On the other side of the question, does organizational culture impact the leader? I think so. For example, evidence suggests that soldiers generally commit to the U.S. Army because of its values—that is, loyalty, duty, and selfless service (Crandall, 2007). There are actually seven Army core values, Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. Every Soldier is taught these values in basic training. We learn the meaning of each value and how important it is that we not only know them, but we believe in the meaning of each and every one
References: Weiss, J. W. (2011). An Introduction to Leadership. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education