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Organizational Change: Organizational Flexibility and Sustainability
Organizational Flexibility
In a rapidly-changing marketplace, organizations need to ensure that they are flexible enough to adapt to new and emerging changes (Halkos & Bousinakis, 2012). Multinational corporations ought to ensure that they can adjust their organizational cultures and structures to respond effectively to technological, legal, and cultural changes in their external environment (Hila & Tzafris, 2011). One of the organizations that has been able to do this effectively is Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, which currently operates over 11,000 stores in 28 different countries. These countries have different cultures, values, and ways of life, but still, the retailer has managed to thrive, adapting its internal systems effectively to respond to the needs of consumers.
From a cultural perspective, for instance, Wal-Mart has been successful in both China and the United States despite the two having substantially different cultures. It has been able to adapt by adjusting its internal systems and way of doing things to fit the needs of new markets. For instance, realizing that its 'Everyday Low Prices' label, which had worked effectively in America, would not align with the Chinese culture given that the Chinese associate low price with poor quality and are...
This policy had worked effectively in the U.S., but the retailer understood that the same would not be the case in China given that the Chinese culture encouraged 'freshness', where fresh meant that meat and sea-food was left exposed and undated as is the case in the open market (Gereffi & Ong, 2007). In response to this cultural effect, Wal-Mart stopped packing fresh foods in containers in its Chinese branches and introduced new indoor displays to allow Chinese customers pick out their own dinner (Gereffi & Ong, 2007). This has been Wal-Mart's drive for success, with over one-third of its revenues currently coming from its overseas stores (Gereffi & Ong, 2007).
Besides culture, another aspect of the external environment that Wal-Mart has managed to keep up with is technology (Gereffi & Ong, 2007). To maximize efficiency and maintain an edge over its competitors, Wal-Mart operates a private…
References
Gereffi, G. & Ong, R (2007). Wal-Mart in China: Can the World's Largest Retailer Succeed in the World's Most Populous Market? Harvard Asia Pacific Review, 9(1), 46-49
Halkos, G.E., & Bousinakis, D. (2012). Importance and Influence of Organizational Changes on Companies and their Employees. Journal of Advanced Research in Management, 3(2), 90-103.
Hila, C.B., & Tzafrir, S.S. (2011). Consultant-Client Relationship: One of the Secrets to Effective Organizational Change? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(5), 662-679.
Sull, D.L. (1999). Why Good Companies Go Bad. Harvard Business Review, 77(4), 42-50.
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