Walmart HR Management: Subsystems, Change, and Workforce

Introduction

Walmart, the biggest global retail chain, ranks among the largest organizations worldwide with regard to its size, financial performance, and business value. This paper examines Walmart's organizational subsystems and HR management, with particular emphasis on personnel selection, development, performance, training, and compensation management (Thompson, 2016). It also addresses the key stakeholders of the organization.

Organization Subsystems and Stakeholders

Numerous factors contribute to a company's success, and a few that are critical to Walmart's success are personnel selection, development, and training (Thompson, 2016). The organization needs to ensure its HR department receives adequate support to maintain its reputation and satisfy its business expectations and needs. Its major subsystems include the Adaptive, Maintenance, and Management subsystems.

Investors: Investors' chief concern is profits. They desire greater revenue generation, which would increase their dividends. They also desire minimization of operational expenses, since profits increase with decreased expenditure. The company's strategies therefore prioritize investors by minimizing salaries and, in turn, minimizing expenditure (Meyer, 2017).

Customers: Shoppers are generally counted among a retail store's key stakeholders. Walmart's customers, particularly American customers, attach great value to affordable, quality products. American consumers typically gravitate toward retail stores offering low-priced products. Thus, the company must also focus on customers' interests. Walmart is, in fact, popular for its affordable prices and may be considered to be adequately addressing customers' interests (Meyer, 2017).

Employees: The Walmart workforce is a key consideration in management decisions. The two primary interests of the company's personnel are increased salaries and greater job security. The low salaries Walmart offers make the first concern understandable; the second relates to assurance that the company will retain its personnel over the long term (Meyer, 2017).

Subsystems in Detail

Walmart's corporate structure is both function-based and hierarchical in nature. The term "hierarchical" implies a vertical line of authority and command; "function-based" implies that the firm's structure groups personnel according to specific functions. For instance, sales, marketing, and HR management each have their own dedicated departments (Lombardo, 2017).

The following four key elements of Walmart's corporate culture drive personnel behavior:

1. Customer Service
2. Acting with Integrity
3. Respect for Individuals
4. Striving to Achieve Excellence (Lombardo, 2017)

The adaptive subsystem may be demonstrated through needs assessment. Various kinds of needs assessments in relation to personnel training exist, and their applicability depends on a company's HR management goals. The following are applicable in Walmart's case:

1. Benefit-cost analysis
2. Work/task analysis
3. Organizational analysis

Benefit-cost analysis facilitates optimization of HR management and training expenses by identifying the training technique that minimizes cost while simultaneously yielding the best outcomes. Task analysis is largely utilized when attempting to understand the requisite skills, abilities, and knowledge needed to fulfill job responsibilities. Organizational analysis facilitates the identification of emerging HR management concerns—such as the need to open more stores, alter store layouts, or add new products—which may then be incorporated into training programs (Thompson, 2017).

One clear example of the maintenance subsystem in action is the company's recruitment strategy. Walmart draws on diverse sources for recruitment and consequently boasts a diverse labor force. Its HR department operates with a decentralized structure, using local information as the basis for recruitment efforts. Employees are largely selected from the locality in which the Walmart store is situated (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Walmart's recruitment sources include direct recruitment from the local community, recruitment from college campuses, and e-recruitment. These approaches collectively ensure personnel diversity. For example, online recruiting draws candidates who may not reside near the Walmart store in question. Referrals also help acquire qualified candidates based on dependable recommendations (Thompson, 2017).

Conclusion

Numerous factors contribute to Walmart's success, and personnel selection, development, and training are among the most critical (Thompson, 2016). The organization must ensure its HR department receives adequate support to maintain its reputation and meet its business expectations. The key driver of meaningful change remains raising the company's lowest hourly wage — to no less than nine dollars initially, followed by further incremental increases — to produce improvements in scheduling flexibility, workforce transparency, and employee retention. This shift is partly motivated by management efforts to boost sales through an improved company image and partly by the tightening of the American labor market (Buss, 2015). Ultimately, this perspective has driven Walmart's management to reform widely criticized elements of its internal culture in order to strengthen its external reputation. This calls for an all-inclusive approach that is sustainable in the long run. Realignment of stores' operational structure would help associates enjoy a more constructive relationship with superiors and greater control over their work schedules (Buss, 2015).

References

Bouffard, J., Fiel, Z., Kizil, C., Pimental, K., Swihart, J., & Wal-Mart–Strategy, V. (2006).

Buss, D. (2015). A look at Walmart's HR strategy from the inside out: Would it work for your company? Retrieved from https://chiefexecutive.net/a-look-at-walmarts-hr-strategy-from-the-inside-out-would-it-work-for-your-company/

Lombardo, J. (2017). Walmart: Organizational structure & organizational culture. Panmore Institute.

Meyer, P. (2017). Walmart's stakeholders: Analysis & recommendations. Panmore Institute.

Schermerhorn, J. (2014). Exploring management (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN-13: 9781118620199

Schermerhorn, J., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2014). Organizational behavior (13th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN-13: 9781118517376

Thompson, A. (2017). Walmart's HRM: Recruitment, selection, employee retention. Panmore Institute.