Syifa Addini – 64 Int A – Key Individual differences and
the road to success
Zappos : Responsibility in Employees
For a company, having employees with high responsibility is such a blessing.
Productivity will significantly rise with high sense of responsibility. To build this, a good
self-concept could be a good foundation. By not limiting its employees by their workload,
Zappos’ culture able to help its employees to build a better self-esteem and also self-efficacy.
Branden’s six pillars of self-esteem are live consciously, be self-accepting, take
personal responsibility, be self-assertive, live purposedly, and have personal integrity. Then,
self-efficacy involves one’s belief about his or her ability to accomplish specific tasks.
Zappos’ employees are having a good self-concept by living 10 Core Values, that include
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness in it. In that 10 Core Values, there are also Be
Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded, Pursue Growth and Learning, and Be Passionate
and Determined.
The COE, Tony Hsieh said in order to live by those values, employees are free to be
themselves. No script for customer services, each department is allowed to held any costume
parties, parade, has a specific concept and decoration. One of the employees, Jamie
Naughton, a should-be a human resource staff even goes by job title Assistant Cruise Ship
Manager. She also often becomes an event planner which is not on her job list.
But Hsieh emphasizes that at the end of the day, it’s about alignment — everyone
moving the same direction and working toward the same goal. Hsieh may feel satisfied about
Zappos’ culture, because it’s been proven that Zappos can reach its two big goals. Those
goals are reach $1 billion in sales by the 12th year (which was actually reached on Christmas
Day in the company’s 10th) and get into Best Companies to Work list (No. 23 on Fortune
Best Companies List in 2009).
In Personality studies, there is a Big Five Personality Dimensions theory. Those
Dimensions are Extraversion (social and talkative), Agreeableness (trusting and cooperative),
Conscientiousness (responsible and persistent), Emotional Stability (relaxed and unworried),
and Openness to Experience (intellectual and curious). Looking at Zappos’ culture and
performace, it seems that Hsieh has succeed bringing the best from each dimensions out of
his employees while also shaping them up to keep their sense of responsibility toward their
job (conscientiousness).
Zappos’ employees are showing great proactive personality that Thomas S. Bateman
and J. Michael Crant developed. Someone with a proactive personality shows initiative, takes
action, and perseveres to bring about change. They are people with internal locus of control
who believe that they are masters of their own fate.
Sources :
1. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/26/zapposcom/
2. http://deliveringhappiness.com/book/zappos-core-values/
3. Organizational Behaviour by Kreitner / Kinicki
Syifa Addini – 64 Int A – Key Individual differences and
the road to success
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/26/zapposcom/
Workplace fun is the shoe that
fits at Zappos
Parades, costume parties and close-knit colleagues thrust
online shoe retailer to No. 23 on Fortune’s Best
Companies list
MONA SHIELD PAYNE / SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Taking an afternoon break, Zappos.com employee Noel Benoit pops his head over Terri Alexander’s
