Organizational Change the Failure of Many Institutional

Organizational Change

The failure of many institutional giants can be attributed to deadly complacency within the organization. When complacency becomes a comfortable part of the organizational culture, it may be doomed to failure. Urgency helps to reignite the organization, to allow it to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace and competitive environment.

As Bustillo (2011) points out, Wal*Mart recognizes the need for organizational change and understands how to create a sense of urgency. Wal*Mart is "is taking on competitive threats from Amazon.com Inc. And other big online retailers by testing out home delivery of groceries," (Bustillo, 2011). If the move towards home delivery is not aggressive enough because of its narrow focus, then Wal*Mart could start experiencing successive failures that might hurt the company. Resistances to Wal*Mart's new home delivery program could come from a variety of sources, including consumers who do not value Wal*Mart's brand equity and would prefer to stick with the smaller companies offering similar services.

According to Kotter (n.d.), the world is changing too rapidly for any company to be complacent. An information-based society makes the spread of ideas so rapid that consumer demands can be anticipated and met almost instantaneously. Companies that ignore trends in the market, as well as cues from competitors, risk sinking into oblivion. Wal*Mart's push to meet increasing consumer demand for home deliveries reveals an intelligent sense of urgency in the company: it "signaled Wal-Mart's urgency to grab a bigger piece of the online sales pie," (Bustillo, 2011). However, Wal*Mart needs to take specific action to overcome resistance on the part of consumers to using a social media site other than Facebook. Wal*Mart might be better off integrating its social media strategy with Facebook rather than fighting Facebook.

Urgency is a "combination of thoughts, feelings, and actions," according to Kotter (n.d.). Thoughts are the awareness of "great opportunities" as well as "great hazards." In the case of Wal*Mart, the company recognizes the "great opportunities" in investing in a direct to consumer online sales format like that of Amazon.com. Wal*Mart also understands the "great hazards" involved with competing with a behemoth like Amazon.com. The feelings involved with urgency refer to the "gut level determination that we're going to do something now, something to win," (Kottern, n.d.). Wal*Mart does seem determined to "do something now, something to win," evidenced by the company's willingness to drop $300 million on the social media start-up Kosmix "to create a new division called @Walmartlabs that aims to tap into the emerging world of using online social media to sell products," (Bustillo, 2011). Wal*Mart therefore ascribes to urgency behaviors: the "alertness to what's going on" in terms of how social media offers marketing opportunities. The behavior of urgency also leads to a "commitment" to the change (Kotter, n.d.). Commitment is quantified, with Wal*Mart's investment in the social media startup. If Wal*Mart executives can maintain a sense of urgency, then they are likely to withstand the grave threat that complacency creates.