Public Communication- Delivering a Persuasive Speech
Good afternoon everyone, thank you for inviting me to today’s upper-management meeting to discuss necessary organizational changes that will enhance positive performance. I am also grateful that you created time to attend the meeting, as you are busy professionals with immense responsibilities within the company. I will discuss the need to change the leadership model at Amazon Inc. as the current method is defective and is threatening the organization’s positive brand image to consumers and the public. Today, Amazon is ranked by the public as one of the worst places to work, from the negative testimonies given by the company’s former employees. Amazon’s leaders have been accused of being authoritarian, with sufficient proof from workers to solidify this argument. I intend to highlight the challenges experienced by employees at Amazon as a result of poor leadership, the corrective steps the company should take, and the expected positive outcomes my solution will provide. I look forward to having an interactive session with you.
As everyone is aware, Amazon employees have told media houses recently that they are mistreated by supervisors while on duty. Some employees have even claimed that the upper management is aware of the challenges they experience, and instead of reprimanding the authoritarian supervisors, it encourages their stern actions. Workers stationed in Amazon’s warehouses claim they are being subjected to impossible targets, such as packing more than 100 boxes an hour and walking for not less than 12 miles within the work premises (Organise, 2018). The workers say that if they do not meet these targets, they are threatened to terminate their employment contract. Many warehouse employees say they do not take bathroom breaks and prefer to use bottles to relieve themselves, a disheartening, inhumane account that Amazon should not condone.
Some Amazon workers also say that supervisors are uncaring. Instances of employees being denied necessary sick-offs have increased, and complaints prove there is a significant problem with Amazon’s leadership. For example, one employee said that they had a scheduled surgery, and when she requested permission to attend it, the on-shift supervisor refused as it was not her off day. In a separate instance, a pregnant employee said the supervisor punished her for attending clinics on workdays (Organise, 2018). Workers have also noted that Amazon managers reprimand doctors who treat their workers, yet access to healthcare services is a fundamental human right for employees. There are also reports that Amazon’s management is sexually harassing new employees and mistreating non-English speaking workers (Naizghi, 2015). From these complaints, it is evident that Amazon has an autocratic leadership model that promotes a toxic organizational environment. The company leaders are controlling and appear to demand unquestionable obedience from their followers, which is detrimental.
If Amazon does not remedy the worrying leadership trend, it practices soon, and consumers may react negatively. For instance, customers may boycott Amazon products as a show of solidarity with its employees and empathy. Internally, the company’s workers will lose morale for their jobs, which will be evident in their poor performance. Employees will have lower job commitment levels, passion, and loyalty towards the organization. Workers may begin to exhibit their anger by sabotaging projects, refusing to implement change, intentionally coming to work late, and performing their assigned tasks half-heartedly (Wang et al., 2019). Abused workers may also start a smear campaign against Amazon and ensure that the federal government investigates and fines it, a move that will hurt the organization significantly. Therefore, there is an urgent need to remedy the issues mentioned above.
I propose that leaders undergo training to help them change their supervisory and employee management approaches. Amazon should hire a professional team that will coach leaders to embody transformational qualities, such as respect for subordinates, listening to concerns and solving them promptly, and allowing creative ways of problem-solving. Leaders should learn how to communicate straightforwardly and remain open to honest feedback from followers. The leaders should also learn to embody positive personality traits, such as agreeableness and conscientiousness, which employees will emulate and apply in their performance for positive outcomes. Moreover, Amazon leaders should learn to manifest integrity, mutual trust, positive risk-taking, curiosity, knowledge-seeking, and information sharing (Steinmann et al., 2018). Lastly, Amazon leaders should be trained in creating visions for their teams and then influence the attainment of the same in workers. If Amazon leaders learn these transformational characteristics, they will embody them and influence job commitment and engagement in employees. Amazon will have a workforce that is passionate, trustworthy, loyal, open to handling challenging tasks, effective communicators, and innovative solution-focused.
As highlighted, Amazon is currently experiencing a threat to its operations from the ongoing complaints that employees have launched against it. The organization is accused of having authoritarian leaders, which demoralizes workers significantly. The leaders are said to mistreat workers excessively, and this practice affects employee job engagement and involvement. Therefore, I propose that leaders attend a mentoring session to learn how to embody transformational leadership qualities. Thank you for giving me the platform to share my views on the need for Amazon to change its leadership model. I am open to answering any questions you may have after the meeting is adjourned. I wish you a great afternoon.
References
Naizghi, B. (2015). Keeping Amazon Inc. Accountable. Brown University.
https://gps.ucsd.edu/_files/faculty/gourevitch/gourevitch_cs_naizghi.pdf
Organise. (2018). Amazon: What’s it like where you work? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a3af3e22aeba594ad56d8cb/t/5ad098b3562fa7b8c90d5e1b/1523620020369/Amazon+Warehouse+Staff+Survey+Results.pdf
Steinmann, B., Klug, H. J., & Maier, G. W. (2018). The path is the goal: How transformational leaders enhance followers’ job attitudes and proactive behaviour. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338
Wang, Z., Liu, Y., & Liu, S. (2019). Authoritarian leadership and task performance: The effects of leader-member exchange and dependence on leader. Frontiers of Business Research in China, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0066-x
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Question 
Is this an informative or persuasive speech?
Assignment 7 requires you to persuade your audience to agree with your viewpoint, not just provide information on a topic.
Public Communication- Delivering a Persuasive Speech
What is the purpose of the outline? Can I just turn in the filled-in outline as my completed assignment?
The outline will help you organize the material for your speech. It is NOT a replacement for the actual speech script, however. The script should be written in paragraph form, with well-developed transitions to lead the listener/reader through the speech.