[jaawn]

Mr. Bezos' response strikes me as the all-too-familiar case of upper management not keeping tabs on middle and lower management. If he is truly sincere that he does not recognize the version of Amazon depicted in the article, and does not agree with that type of management, then he (like many high-level managers) needs to take an active approach in weeding out abusive managers at all levels (especially lower level managers).

I work at a large enterprise (5,000+ employees) and this is a huge problem for us. Upper management has a vision for the organization, but it gets lost on its way down the chain. A simple phrase is the main culprit: "...<any given policy> is up to manager discretion."

For example, upper management: "We are creating a flexible part-time teleworking agreement whereby employees can work from home up to 2 days per week. Usage of this arrangement is up to manager discretion." Lower management: "I know about the new teleworking option, but our department is not participating because how can anyone get work done at home?"

If upper management does not actively monitor and intervene with stifling lower-level managers, they can definitely create an organization that, in practice, differs greatly from the one they imagine, the one they wanted to create.