Additionally, the managerial team argues that the levels of employee empowerment are increased within the organization. And they do this not only because it is the right thing to do, but also as it benefits the organization. Tim Gebauer, manager at the Mason City Wal-Mart stores argues that the great ideas come from the employees who interact with products and customers on daily basis and that this represents a major competitive advantage as well as a strong reason in support of employee empowerment. In his own words: "They know their piece of this business better than I do. One of the most important keys to developing your business is to simply make use of the tremendous resources of experience and knowledge that are already within your organization" (Tim Gebauer, quoted by Biztrain).
Organizational Culture
The organizational culture is a pivotal element in the success of any entity, but even more so in cases of large corporations where there is a growing need for a unified system of thinking to integrate all corporatist elements. Unlike motivation and empowerment, in terms of culture, most sources indicate that Wal-Mart has successfully managed to create a strong organizational culture. The company's website argues that respect for all stakeholders sits at the basis of their fruitful relationships and helps them remain committed to excellence. Additionally, the corporate culture is based on the values first introduced by founder Sam Walton. "We're known around the world as the company that helps our customers save money so they can live better. We're also well-known for our unique corporate culture. Sam Walton built our business on values and morals. Those rules and customs have helped us become one of the world's most admired companies" (Wal-Mart Website, 2009). This approach has helped not only with the internal structures and operations, but has also extrapolated to materialize...
Conclusions
The main idea of this paper was that of revealing the successes and failures of Wal-Mart in implementing various concepts of organizational behavior. From the information presented however, a conclusion is difficult to be drawn for the simple fact that the data conflicts based on the source of provenience. In this line of thoughts, information from the company and its supporters argues that the retail monolith is extremely triumphant in implementing OB strategies, whilst its disclaimers argue the opposite. It would have been easy to offer a clear and cut answer by assessing only one side of the story, but the objectivity of such an endeavor would have been compromised. Nonetheless, from a business standpoint, Wal-Mart represents the ultimate epitome of corporate success, revealing as such numerous successes in terms of organizational behavior.
