Posted: June 17th, 2015

Managing Organizations and Leading People

Introduction

Wal-Mart Company is a United States international retailer that owns huge department stores and warehouses. The company was founded in 1962, and was later incorporated in 1969. The company produces food, stationery, and clothing that it markets nationally and in the international markets. The company has its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, in America. Wal-Mart has been ranked as the largest grocery distributor in America. In the entire world, Wal-Mart is among the biggest companies that have employed over 2 million people. The company is the third biggest retailer company in the world. The company’s mission statement is helping individuals to save cash so that they can live a better life. Its vision is to be the best retailers in the minds of the customers and the employees. The company objectives are to establish multi-channel programs to accelerate its online goals, have more accessible stores and to ensure respect for its customers (Eugenie, 2011). The company has a strong financial position that allows it to spread out to other areas around the globe (Roberts & Berg, 2012). The company conducts its wholly owned businesses in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, United Kingdom China, and other parts of the world.

Three leadership practice

The primary leader in Wal-Mart is Greg Foran, and he is the president and the CEO of the company (Corporate.walmart.org, 2014). The leader has been able to ensure that there is extensive marketing and research to ensure the success of the company. The weakness of the primary leader is that he likes coaching his employees and this may take much time that may affect the organization performance. The leader believes in power of people working together but the lack of inspection may affect the organization performance. Wal-Mart leader or the CEO Greg Foran can be described as visionary, initiative, and good delegators. The Wal-Mart leaders are visionary as they search for new innovative ways and opportunities to improve the organization. In Wal-Mart, the leader creates unique and ideal images of how the organization is supposed to look like in future. According to the leadership challenge (2015), they use their innovative methods as a learning opportunity to ensure their success. The leaders also are passionate in delegating authority to their subordinates so that they can make a difference in the organization. Lastly, the leaders in Wal-Mart can be described as initiative as they come up with ideas, policies and programs to be followed. They have effective plan management teams that are used to evaluate the company’s progress. They create a collaborative leadership and builds up a visionary team. The Wal-Mart leaders allow others to strengthen their capabilities, and ensure that they achieve the organizational goals.

Wal-Mart has been one of the successful companies in the world due to its proper leadership styles employed by the company’s management. The company’s leaders have ensured that they treat their workers like business partners. From inception, Wal-Mart’s founder Sam Walton ensured that the employees should be treated as business partners. This has developed from one leader to the other helping the company to attain its competitive edge (Bergdahl, n.d). According to Bergdahl (n.d), Wal-Mart’s leaders have pushed the decision-making processes downwards to ensure that the employees are empowered to participate in giving their ideas to the company. This makes the workers feel like a part of the organization, and this also helps them to work hard in achieving the organizational goals. The leaders refer the employees as associates, and this helps them to work as entrepreneurs, taking the business ownership (Bergdahl, n.d).

In Wal-Mart, leaders are both servant leaders and coaches and the employees are treated like the golden rule. The companies are expected to interact with their employees and are expected to lead by example. The leaders in Wal-Mart are there to serve the needs of the employees and those people they lead. The leaders promote teamwork within the organizations, as they understand the power of many people working together in achieving a common goal.   Wal-Mart prides itself as the most excellent company with the best workers. As such, Wal-Mart leaders are always supportive to their workers, and this helps the employees to believe in themselves.

How the current leadership has affected organizational culture

The company’s vision and mission statement is important in the day-to-day operations of the company as it ensure that, the customers save money and ensure that the company remains the best retailer. Wal-Mart has a flat structure that has a wide span of control and the companies leaders ensure that they maintain their culture of offering products at low prices. Wal-Mart’s leaders ensure that there is a unique spirit of motivation that helps the employees to be responsible and be able to monitor their performances. The success of any business is dependent on the effective leadership. There is no way an organization can thrive well with poor leadership. Many businesses employ leaders who are competent for the company to have effective decision-making processes. The leaders are responsible for the company’s strategic goals that ensure the organization performs well in the market.

Wal-Mart current leadership ensures that the new employees are taken through a cultural orientation or cultural indoctrination (Bergdahl, n.d). The employees are also fully trained on the immersion cultural training that takes a week or so to complete. The company’s leader such as Sam Walton invested in creating a unique culture of the company and ensured that all his managers were taught on the cultural indoctrination (Bergdahl, n.d). This was a powerful and sustainable competitive advantage for Wal-Mart where the competitors would find it hard to imitate or replicate in their businesses (Bergdahl, n.d). The company values quality as it uses it as a competitive advantage to fight the rivals. The company is able to retain its employees, as it offers a good package to them and ensures that their grievances are dealt with. Wal-Mart in the rest past has become one of the valued companies due to its rules and customs. The better performance of the company is due to the better rules set by the founders such as Sam Walton. For example, Sam Walton set clear and simple objectives for the corporation that can be attained by following the organizational values and principles.

Wal-Mart has had a competitive culture since its inception. This is shown by the company’s conservative nature towards its costs. Since the company was formed, its aim was intended at reducing costs, and ensuring the quality of its products. This strategy has helped the company at realizing high profits than other competitors that were considered to be big in the market share. Wal-Mart’s leaders have worked for many years in the company, and this helped them to embrace the competitive culture. Wal-Mart’s low-cost culture has helped it to achieve high performance for many years. The company’s leaders have ensured that the company is conservative as far as expenditure and expenses are concerned. The company’s leaders have always ensured that the company’s costs are low to ensure a competitive advantage over the rivals. Wal-Mart ensures that it values its community by ensuring CSR as it understands that ensuring CSR is important in building the company’s reputation. Wal-Mart ensures that its employees are highly compensated to ensure that they are highly motivated to work. This has attracted many employees from different parts of the world, and this strategy has helped the company to retain the best employees. The company’s leaders also have a strategy of retaining its workers irrespective of destitution in the business environment. While other corporations lay off their workers in hard economic times, Wal-Mart does not do so as it values its culture.

Wal-Mart’s SWOT analysis

Wal-Mart symbolizes a powerful brand that is retailed around the world. Their customers are loyal and have an ability to expand to new and upcoming markets. The company, however, has some weaknesses to be addressed in future for it to remain successful.

Strengths

Wal-Mart has a powerful brand name that helps it to attract and retain more. This helps the company to gain customer loyalty as the customers are served with quality products and services. The company uses its great pricing strategy to attract more customers as it understands that customers are always price sensitive. The great pricing strategy helps the company to offer a variety of products at low prices. Over the years, the company has been able to use its expansion strategies to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. Lately, Wal-Mart has acquired ASDA in the United Kingdom where it has been able to market its products effectively. The locations of Wal-Mart stores make it convenience for consumers to get access to its merchandise easily. Wal-Mart’s pledge to serve the needs of its workforce has also allowed it to achieve good results worldwide. The company has also embraced the use of the information technology to help it in achieving its great performance worldwide (Roberts & Berg, 2012).

Weaknesses

Wal-Mart also has a variety of weaknesses that must be tackled for it to remain competitive in the international market. Wal-Mart Company supplies its products to different sectors, for example, food, stationery, and clothing sectors. This is an advantage to the company but also it is a weakness, as the competitors concentrate on one sector, making them concentrate effectively on ensuring quality products. Most of the Wal-Mart competitors dedicate their resources on one meticulous sector unlike the case of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart being an international company has not been able to penetrate in many nations, and this presents a weakness in the company. Another weakness that the company has experienced is the failure to pay its employees overtime bonuses. Wal-Mart has also blamed for entering nations with weak labor laws with an objective of exploiting the workforce (Mango, 2012).

Opportunities

The retailing industry offers the Wal-Mart with various chances that enable the company to improve and expand its operations. Wal-Mart Company needs to enter more nations in the international market for it to be successful. The company also requires advancing the local communities’ opinion towards its merchandise. The company needs to ensure that it improves its competitive advantage by defending its environment against pollution. Wal-Mart Company can also brighten its reputation in its market by ensuring that it adheres to labor laws and treat the employees in the right way possible (Mango, 2012).

Threats

            The company has been facing fierce competition from both international and local markets. This is a great treat to the company as it must come up with new ways to overcome this situation. Due to rapid change in technology, there have been a lot of competitors coming up with substitute products. Substitute products increase the company’s competition and, therefore, the company needs to tackle this threat for it to be more successful in future. The United States current economy poses a threat to the companies continued success. Wal-Mart Company mainly depends more on the United States market to increase its revenue and fuel its growth. This has a threat in that, if the American market is affected, the corporation may find it difficult to compete well.

 

 

Leadership evaluation

Strengths of the primary leader’s leadership practice.

The leadership theory that can be used to describe the Wal-Mart leader’s strength is the servant leadership theory. The leader is able to ensure integrity and fairness within the organization. This leadership theory ensures that a leader becomes unique, and it differentiates a leader from other types of leaders. Transactional Leadership Theory ensures mutual relationship within the organization as it values mutually beneficial and a positive relationship. Using this theory has helped the company’s leaders to be effective in motivating others. By being initiative, the leaders can diminish the un-pleasurable experiences within the organization and maximize pleasurable experiences. Being visionary leaders in Wal-Mart has been one of the primary leadership practices that have helped the company to achieve its organizational goals and objectives. The leaders align the employees in teams to ensure that they share their ideas and visions. The organizational leaders ensure that the employees work as a team in ensuring the company’s success. The leaders are good delegators as they ensure that they create an environment that has a better atmosphere where each and every employee can work with ease. Wal-Mart leaders have initiative ability to foster collaboration within the organization as they are visionary leaders. They have the strength to strengthen others by creating and facilitating an environment that creates a climate of change within the organization.

The transformation leadership enables leaders to see strength in others, and this encourages them to build teams that can achieve high performances (Winkler, 2010). The leaders can ensure thorough preparation and thoughtful planning for the organizational success. Also, it helps the leaders to ensure that there is shared discretion and powers that strengthen employees to work hard in ensuring the organization goals are met (Scouller, 2011). Equity theory ensures people are motivated when treated equally and demotivated if treated unequally. Aligning employees to share their visions enables them to feel motivated, and this helps them to boost their productivity.

Weaknesses of the primary leader’s leadership practice

The weakness of having a servant leadership is that it ignores the fundamental aggression of employees and accountability in the workplace (Smith, n.d). Servant leadership fails to identify the individual’s level of competence (Smith, n.d). Transformational leaders spend most of their time coaching their employees, and this may affect the company’s productivity (Marshall & Marshall, 2011). According to Kouzes & Posner (n.d), leaders who coach their staff can assist them to learn diverse skills and talents by learning from their leaders experiences. However, coaching may take much time, and the employees may not be willing to change. Initiative leaders usually inspires the employees to believe in themselves may build trust in them, but later they may feel as they are not answerable to anyone and thereby lower their productivity. According to the contingency leadership theory, the motivation of the employee is essence in ensuring the success of the company but giving them more power may lower the company’s productivity. The visionary leaders may reward their employees using money and this is not the solution to ensure better results, the best way to motivate them is through promotions and to create an environment that makes them feel like part of the organization. Leaders may influence the organization performance by delegating authority to the employees. Employees may take this opportunity to misuse the company’s resources as they have the power to do whatever they want. This may affect the company’s performance in the long-run.

Three theory-based practices to maximize future success of the leader

A leader requires being honest, good communicator and committed to ensure the organization is led in the appropriate way. There are wide and ever growing multiplicity theories that can be used to explain the practice and concept of leadership.  To ensure more success in Wal-Mart, the leaders can embrace different theories to ensure that they also remain competitive in the market. The leaders can use the path-goal theory, situational theory, and contingency theory. According to contingency theory, there is no one solitary leadership method that can be applicable in all situations. As such, it is essential for the Wal-Mart leaders to scrutinize various variables on the atmosphere to come up with the best leadership style that can help the organization in dealing with its challenges. Wal-Mart leaders should be to apply diverse styles in diverse situations to be able to realize the organization success. There is need a for the Wal-Mart leaders to apply a leadership style that can be useful in all situations and the style that is not doomed to fail if people do not manage it effectively. The variables that the Wal-Mart leaders need to consider include; the leadership style, qualities of his or her employees, and the features of the organization situation (Northouse, 2010).

Contingency leadership theory can be employed in Wal-Mart Company to ensure that the leaders are committed to their work. This can be used to guarantee proper management of the goals and ensure proper objective implementation. For example, Sam Walton as the leader of the company applied the theory when managing his employees. The leader ensured that he used the bureaucratic leadership style where the employees were involved in decision making. There are other times when he used autocratic leadership style when administrating his workers. Other times Sam Walton applied the participative style to operate and function properly with his employees. The current leaders need to embrace the contingency theory when managing people to ensure the success of the company. This will ensure that the company performs well in the market and ensure better profits in the long-run.

The effectiveness of the organization depends on the interaction between the leader’s and their employees. The employee’s motivation is essential in the organization as it ensures that the employees are well coordinated to ensure the company’s success. The organizational leaders need to employ strategies that can help the organization to move forward. If Wal-Mart Company adopts poor strategies, this will lead to poor motivation among the employees, and this will lead to will lead to unsuccessful organizations. To ensure better employee motivation, the leaders need to communicate duties and roles to workers in the desired manner. The employees should have a clear perceptive of what is expected from them by the management to be able to carry on their duties effectively.

The company should use the situational theories in ensuring the company’s success. This can ensure that the leaders are good communicators in enhancing the company’s relations. The leaders must ensure that there is a good relationship between the management and the employees. A good relationship with the workers is essential in ensuring that the organization achieves its set goals. The group members and their leader can hold one another accountable for different duties, and this will aid in determining the capability of the leader to control the teams under diverse conditions. Leaders need to act responsibly for them to be accepted by the teams they lead. They must ensure that employee jobs are highly and fairly prepared to ensure that the employees are familiar with what is required of them. When making an assessment to the situation, the leaders must consider the relationship of the members of the team and their team leader. A group that lacks productivity and efficiency may benefit from the styles that advocate on well-defined rules, and orders. A democratic style may work for the groups that are productive and highly skilled. Leaders need to consider the tasks, as they range from uncomplicated to complicated ones. This will ensure that the company realizes its objectives using this theory.

The company may also apply the path-goal theory to ensure its success in future. Honesty is one of the qualities that make a good leader. Employing the path-goal theory can help the leaders to encourage their employees to work as a team. Motivating the employees is paramount in ensuring the success of the organization. The path-goal theory clarifies the way leaders inspire and motivate their employees to ensure that they attain the organizational strategic goals and objectives. According to the path-goal theory, effective leaders can motivate their employees to engage in appropriate behaviors through expounding the path as well as eliminating any obstacle that may hinder their performances. The main supposition of the theory is that workers are aggravated to work hard if they strongly trust in their ability to get the job done. In organizations, great motivation can be achieved when people trust that their hard work can lead to the desired outcome. It is also necessary for employees to trust and believe in whatever they are undertaking to ensure successful completion of the task (Bertocci, 2009). Mostly the leader’s chooses the best type of Path-Goal Theory depending on what they want to achieve. In some circumstances, the leaders are forced to use only one style while at sometimes they are forced to use all the styles so as to achieve their goals (Oforchukwu, 2011).

Using Path-Goal Theory can help the organization in attaining its goals, as it ensures employee retention. This will help Wal-Mart company to cut costs and expenses relating to the employees recruitment and training. The employees develop an emotional attachment to the company that values them and treats them as part of the organization. Essentially, Path-Goal Theory is significant to the organization, as it has helped many leaders to achieve better organizational results (Zylla-Woellner, 2013).

The leaders in Wal-Mart Company need to employ the theory to guarantee that, its employees are motivated to deal with their duties in the best way possible. Employees at Wal-Mart are specialist and are well versed with what the company’s goals and objectives are. This has helped the company to be ahead of its competitors for many years. Leaders need to provide directions on the best way things should be done to guarantee the company success. This is a strategy that will help many people to believe that they are headed in the right way (Zylla-Woellner, 2013).

Conclusion

Wal-Mart is one of the companies that have been able to achieve great success over the years. Its leaders have been working hard to ensure that the organization attains its goals and objectives. The company’s leaders have been able to use different leadership practices to ensure the organizational success. The company SWOT analyzes show that the company has been able to enjoy many strengths as compared to the weaknesses, and the companies leaders need to embrace the theories discussed above to ensure its success. The three theories that the company can adopt are Path-Goal Theory, contingency theory, and situational theory. These theories can ensure reliability within the organization and boost the organizational performance. The theories can help the organization to develop successful leadership profile essential to the company success. The above theories are best suited to be applied by the leaders in Wal-Mart as they provide suitable guidelines to be followed by the employees.

 

 

References

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Scouller, J. (2011). The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow, and Skill. Cirencester: Management Books 2000.

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Winkler, I. (2010). Contemporary leadership theories: Enhancing the understanding of the complexity, subjectivity and dynamic of leadership. Berlin: Springer.

Zylla-Woellner, J. (2013). Business Analysis of Apple Inc. München: GRIN Verlag.