Business & economics, Research, Opinion, Voices

Is Amazon’s workplace exploitative?

By Public Affairs

Amazon warehouse, England
Amazon fulfillment center in Fife, England (Chris Watt via Flickr)

Following a widely discussed New York Times story on Amazon’s hard-driving corporate culture, the Los Angeles Times asked Jennifer Chatman, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, for her reaction.

An expert in management, Chatman said the reporters’ findings are not surprising, as “since the beginning,” CEO Jeff Bezos “has been very deliberate about developing a culture at Amazon that supports their strategy.” But Amazon is also “doing all the right things in terms of leveraging its culture for strategic success,” she added.

Chapman called the company “among the most agile of the largest publicly traded high-technology firms,” so a reset is not out of the question, she believes.

Read the L.A. Times’ Q&A with Jennifer Chatman.