In an effort to reduce bureaucracy, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in mid-September a plan to raise the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the close of Q1 2025, as noted in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider.
The focus is largely on minimizing inefficiencies and limiting the number of decision-making stakeholders at Amazon.
“The truth is, the [senior leadership] team and I despise bureaucracy,” Jassy shared during an internal meeting this week, where he also addressed employee concerns regarding Amazon’s strict return-to-office policy, a spokesperson confirmed to Fortune. “One of the reasons I’m still with Amazon is because it isn’t a political or bureaucratic environment.”
A spokesperson clarified to Fortune that the initiative is not intended to directly reduce manager numbers but to decrease the layers between employees and leadership. This shift follows Amazon's hiring surge during the pandemic.
To boost the contributor-to-manager ratio, Amazon is considering expanding team sizes and having managers take on additional roles, the spokesperson said.
Jassy and his leadership team have been working to cut down bureaucracy significantly. They even introduced a “bureaucracy mailbox” where employees can flag excessive processes or rules. Jassy has received over 500 submissions, with about 150 issues already addressed, according to Business Insider.
Is increasing Amazon’s contributor-to-manager ratio a good idea? Experts weigh in
Reducing manager levels, especially at Amazon’s scale, could be risky, say management experts.
“Large companies require some bureaucracy to control and coordinate operations,” Moshe Cohen, senior lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, told Fortune. “Without enough management, organizations can face chaos, poor coordination, poor decisions, and neglect of team members.”
Cohen agreed, though, that too much bureaucracy can slow down decision-making and disconnect people from the company’s mission. “The challenge is finding the right balance and structuring management to maximize the positives without burdening the organization or its people,” he added.
Loren Margolis, founder and CEO of TLS Leaders and leadership professor at Stony Brook University, suggested that Amazon should reduce management only in two cases. The first is if managers are underperforming—such as by micromanaging, not coaching, or failing to empower employees. The second is if Amazon needs to cut costs and streamline layers to boost agility.
