This paper examines the external and internal factors shaping Walmart's management strategy through three lenses: technology and innovation, globalization, and diversity and ethics. It explores how Walmart's four-function management framework — planning, organizing, leading, and controlling — is supported by tools such as RFID technology, data analytics, and balanced scorecards. The paper also considers how Walmart's highly delegative culture interacts with global expansion challenges, particularly in Germany and South Korea, and how its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives address criticism related to diversity and ethical treatment of workers. Drawing on peer-reviewed sources, the analysis reveals both the strengths and limitations of Walmart's operational model.
The four strategic roles of management — planning, organizing, leading, and controlling — form the framework that Walmart Corporation uses to ensure agility and profitability in the turbulent global retailing industry. This paper assesses how external and internal factors, including technology, globalization, and diversity and ethics, interact with that framework, and examines how Walmart's culture of delegation supports its operational model.
Walmart engages in a continual cycle of planning, often using analytics and measures of supply chain partner performance (Blanchard, Comm, & Mathaisel, 2008) to gauge how well its entire operation is functioning. The use of advanced technologies — most notably Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (Krotov & Junglas, 2008) — first in piloted programs and now across all distribution centers and stores, gives Walmart exceptional organizing and control capability over its inventories. RFID is also used to manage the product mix on shelves and to direct merchandise to its SuperCenters. In effect, RFID has become a critical link in the continual planning, organizing, leading, and controlling cycle that runs throughout the company.
Walmart is a corporate culture that thrives on measurements, benchmarks, and balanced scorecards to determine how well each department and division is executing the four management functions (Appelbaum & Lichtenstein, 2006). The company relies on RFID not only to manage technological innovation but also to identify which areas of its supply chain, retailing, pricing, or service operations can be delegated further down the organizational structure, giving employees greater ownership of their roles.
Walmart has succeeded in countries whose cultures most closely resemble that of the United States, yet has struggled — and at times failed — in cultures that differ significantly (Pioch, Gerhard, Fernie, & Arnold, 2009). The planning, organizing, leading, and controlling framework on which Walmart depends assumes a highly transactional nature in supplier relationships and, at times, in customer relationships as well (Appelbaum & Lichtenstein, 2006). As a result, the leading and controlling dimensions of the management framework can clash with the cultural values of foreign nations, most notably in Germany and South Korea (Pioch, Gerhard, Fernie, & Arnold, 2009).
Walmart is a data-driven organization that strongly believes in analytics to support its entire management framework. The company used the lessons learned from its failures in those markets to invest in joint ventures and ultimately to succeed in the Chinese market (Pioch, Gerhard, Fernie, & Arnold, 2009). Walmart also operates as a highly delegative culture with respect to its subsidiaries: in-store managers across all regions are held responsible for performance. This delegative approach extends to in-store associates as well, who are expected to assist with unloading merchandise trailers at Supercenter locations. Walmart treats efficiency and delegation as closely linked values (Appelbaum & Lichtenstein, 2006).
"CSR initiatives addressing diversity and ethics criticism"
"Peer-reviewed sources cited in the paper"
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