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Managing Change at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is among the unique success stories in the business world. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, the company has expanded to become the largest corporation in the world. The success of this company can be attributed to a range of strategies culminating to higher productivity and reduced costs than competitors. These strategies allowed Wal-Mart to earn a high turnover while charging low prices. Regardless of all the success, the company is experiencing problems. Even with the long-term held belief that workers must be treated well; the corporation has been a target of the workers, citing discrimination and working for long hours without overtime pay. All these warrant the need for change.
Understanding shared vision and organizational culture is a key determinant of success in introducing change. It is certain that in the organization, there will be resistance to change. Employees' basic way of life is likely to change, and their familiar work environment will be altered. Basic organizational aspects will be challenged so change will generate...
Communicating the vision for the change, thus is a crucial vehicle to help generate commitment and overcome resistance. Understanding why the change is beneficial and necessary will be the most vital move in obtaining employee commitment. According to research, employers have a tendency of explaining "why" to subordinates they hold in high esteem. Therefore, explaining "why" will communicate both esteem and caring for employees touched by the change process (Kezar & George Washington University, 2001).
The issue is that most Wal-Mart employees are part of the previous way of life as well as part of the future change. Previous criticisms diminish employee commitment because it is perceived as a criticism of the previous best efforts of Wal-Mart's employees. Wal-Mart's leadership must communicate a straight and clear vision about the future because change must have a clear picture of the future. Lack of organizational vision will make it difficult for Wal-Mart to achieve a successful change. According to Kotter (1995), it is very vital for…
References
Kezar, A.J. & George Washington University. (2001). Understanding and facilitating organizational change in the 21st century: Recent research and conceptualizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Mohan, M.L. (2013). Organizational communication and cultural vision: Approaches for analysis. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Yaeger, T.F., & Sorensen, P.F. (2009). Strategic organization development: Managing change for success. Charlotte: Information Age Pub.
Change model for Wal-Mart HR professionals are agents who initiate change and will help define the change. As they define the importance of the change, HR professionals must build an emotional and compelling case for change. The case for change usually stems from evidence that successful change will lead to positive organizational and personal outcomes. In order to achieve this at Wal-Mart, HR professionals must embrace the continuous change model.
16; Wilbert, 2006, p. 2) Strategic process, planning and decision making As confirmed by Lee Scot's words regarding the aggressive strategy followed by each Wal-Mart store (Mohideen, 2009, p. 9), even if general stream planning and decision making is still largely centralized, being undertaken at the Wal-Mart Headquarters in Arkansas (for elements such as type of products to be sold, stores to be opened or closed, financial results and objectives, etc.),
According to the authors, this can be done if employees are given a sense of importance in the organizations. Knowledge workers are already short in supplies and most competing rivals also compete to get the best human resource in terms of knowledge workers. It is therefore essential for any organization to retain this highly skilled part of their workforce and in order to do that organizations must eliminate the
Management Wal-Mart's challenges in the Global market Wal-Mart as the world's leading retailer has been spreading very fast extending its power across the world market. This began with the nine countries in South America, Asia, and Europe. This expansion is likely to extend even in the near future. As the company attempts at penetrating the hypermarket culture in different countries, it has encountered a battery of severe problems in the process of
The leadership is also defined in terms of its capacity to influence employees in achievement of organizational goals. The leader member theory efficiently defines the role of leaders and mechanism through which they influence employee's behaviors. The leaders are capable of forming a high quality exchange of social components based on the trust and likings with some employees result into a high performance. Similarly on the contrary the leaders also
Organizational Behaviour Organizational behavior -- globalization and diversity Diversity is becoming more present within the contemporaneous business climates and it is necessary that economic agents devise and implement the most adequate strategies in responding to the challenges of diversity. Diversity in itself is not only a constant presence, but also a generator of impacts and organizational change. A relevant example in this sense is offered by the fact that diversity forces changes