Amazon vs. Worker Mistreatment: What are the effects and what do they mean for Amazon?

1. Amazon vs. Worker Mistreatment: What are the effects and what do they mean for Amazon? Anushkaa Jain, Jane L’Amoreaux, Jackie Shor, & Taylor Bolden

2. Company Background

3. Timeline of PR Issue • 2011 Lehigh Valley Warehouse workers passing out (Soper, 2015) • OSHA involved • 2013 • (Germany) Temporary worker complaints, workers mislead about job security, Amazon refused union petitions (Ewing & Eddy, 2018) • (UK) Poor working conditions in warehouses, injuries due to workers provided wrong size safety equipment, uncertain job status (O’Connor, 2013) • 2015 • New York Times article about corporate employees crying at desks daily (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015) • 2016 • Amazon employee attempts suicide after requesting a transfer but securing a place in the ‘employee improvement plan.’ (Farber, 2016) • 2018 • Warehouse injuries (Sainato, 2018) • Poor treatment of workers (Ghosh, 2018) • Short breaks • Video monitoring • Workers afraid to use restroom • L.A. Times: Low wages - median pay is $28,446 (Ovide, 2018)

4. Research Questions Quantitative • Does awareness of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees affect consumer perception of the brand and desire to buy from the company? • Does awareness of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees affect the desire to work there?

5. Research Questions Qualitative • What are the reasons students would want to work or not want to work for Amazon? • Does Amazon’s treatment of its employees affect a consumer’s demand for its products? Why or why not?

6. Gen Z as consumer Hypothesis 1: Knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees will negatively affect consumer opinion of the brand.

7. Gen Z as potential employee 83% Hypothesis 2: Knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees will negatively affect desire to work at the company.

8. Quantitative • Utilized qualtrics survey software to distribute experiment • Divided participants into three groups: • Control: neutral stimuli • Negative: negative stimuli • Positive: positive stimuli • Compared pre-stimuli and post-stimuli group means • Overall perception • Perception of ethics • Desire to work there • Purchase frequency • Assed Validity with T-test Methods: Quantitative

9. Methods: Qualitative Qualitative • Performed focus group with members of Gen-Z • Questioned why they would or would not work for Amazon • How important are company perceptions and culture in • Purchase decisions • Career decisions

10. Quantitative Results: Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 1: Knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees will negatively affect consumer opinion of the brand. • Statistically significant results suggesting correlation between knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of employees and negative brand perception • Significant correlation between knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of employees and negative perception of Ethics • Because Amazon holds dominant market space, these issues do not currently affect sales

11. Quantitative Findings: Hypothesis 2 Hypothesis 2: Knowledge of Amazon’s mistreatment of its employees will negatively affect desire to work at the company. • Statistically significant correlation between knowledge of Amazon’s worker mistreatment and unwillingness to work for Amazon • Confirms hypothesis

12. Categories • Jeff bezos • Theme: dislike • Theme: respect and jealousy • Work environment • Theme: company culture • Competition • Theme: would still buy from amazon because monopoly • Hiring • Theme: conflicted • Explains disconnect in Hypothesis 1 between negative brand perception of Amazon (lower overall perception of company & company’s ethics) Qualitative Findings

13. Limitations • Regional tendencies in local sample • T-test data analysis is sensitive to small samples • Social desirability bias in focus group • Was our stimuli in experiment truly “neutral, positive, or negative”?

14. SWOT analysis: media depictions of Amazon mistreating employees is a threat • Amazon’s new minimum wage of $15/hour can be used as opportunity to start highlighting company ethics and care of employees (Weise, 2018) Next Steps: Mediate threat to brand perception • Research content for PR campaign highlighting company culture • What messaging is most effective? Recommendations: Suggested Actions

15. Ewing, J., & Eddy, M. (2013, March 4). Germans Scrutinize Amazon’s Labor Practices. New York Times. P. B2 • Farber, M. (2016, November 29). Amazon Employee Attempts Suicide After Sending Email to Colleagues. Retrieved October 22, 2018, from http://fortune.com/2016/11/29/amazon-employee-suicide-attempt/ • Ghosh, S. (2018, May 05). Peeing in trash cans, constant surveillance, and asthma attacks on the job: Amazon workers tell us their warehouse horror stories. Retrieved September 3, 2018, from https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-share-their-horror-stories-2018-4 • Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015, August 15). Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. Retrieved October 11, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html • O’Connor, S. (2013). Amazon unpacked. Financial Times, 8. • Ovide, S. (2018, April 19). Amazon is defined by billions, but its workers' median pay is $28,446. Retrieved September 3, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-median-pay-20180419-story.html# • Sainato, M. (2018, July 30). Accidents at Amazon: Workers left to suffer after warehouse injuries. Retrieved September 3, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/accidents-at-amazon-workers-left-to-suffer-after-warehouse-injuries • Soper, S. (2015, August 19). Inside Amazon's Warehouse. Retrieved September 15, 2018, from https://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917-story.html • Weise, K. (2018, October 02). Amazon to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All U.S. Workers. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/business/amazon-minimum-wage.html References