...Control Mehcanisms Bridjette Andrews, Glenda Griggs, Alejandro Ortiz, Angela Johnson MGT/330 May 18, 2011 Dr. Alex Karie Control Mehcanisms Wal-Mart is a increasingly large industry functioning to meet the needs of its consumers, employees and producers by using controls; the controls that Wal-mart feel are the most effective at achieving the goals of the company are market control, clan control, manager audits, and performance standards. These controls help make Wal-Mart the growing empire it is today. No business can thrive without some form of control. The way that each form control works effects all of the four functions of management; organizing, leading, controlling and planning. Each control chosen by Wal-Mart was chosen because they are important to thrive in the business world they help increase the confidence of customers, employees and suppliers. All controls involve managers making decisions that are for the betterment of the company. But there are differences between the many control mechanisms that are implemented within Wal-Mart. The following control mechanisms are used at Wal-Mart; market control, clan control, manager audits and performance standards. Market Control is maintained through certain aspects of the market including market share, price, and competition. This form of control is also called decentralized control. Market control is used when there is a reasonable level of competition within the market especially in the service area as well...
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...Control Mechanism’s Paper Learning Team C MGT 330 September 12th, 2010 Robert Bloomfield Control Mechanism’s Paper Control mechanisms are regularly used with successful organizations to maintain and adjust processes and practices. Wal-Mart is a company that applies control mechanisms to its business functions to remain a global leader in the industry. The four types of control mechanisms that Wal-Mart puts into action are market control, clan control, audit control, and performance standards. Market Control is “the ability of buyers or sellers to exert influence over the price or quantity of a good, service, or commodity exchanged in a market”. (Encarta.com). the next mechanism used is Clan control it “relies on values, beliefs, corporate culture, shared norms, and informal relationships to regulate employee behaviors and facilitate the reaching of organizational goals” (strategic business.com). Audit control is the process of self examination as it relates to accounts and products. Lastly, Performance standards are an organizational approved set of requirements, goals and expectations that employees must meet. These four mechanisms are paramount in today’s business world for effectively and efficiently doing business to meet organizational goals. Wal-Mart has a responsibility to its employees, vendors and the customers to make changes where needed. The economy has influenced the frequency of the changes and requires constant monitoring. The application of these...
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...Control Mechanisms University of Phoenix MGT/330 September 29, 2010 Introduction Wal-Mart is undoubtedly the number one seller globally and has accomplished it all in less than 50 years. When Wal-Mart opened in 1962 never did Sam Walton believe that in 2008, his company would be able to bring in sales profits that surpass $100 billion, and that says a great deal for a company to attain that when the country was dealing with a recession. The vision and goal of the company was to ensure that every customer would have the opportunity to find a place that would offer fair priced worth products to all consumers and equality shown to customers as well. That vision continues as of today while Wal-Mart guarantees that they will counterpart any competitor’s price. Not only does Wal-Mart have more than 650,000 people on staff they also manage more than 2,900 stores internationally as well. Besides the customary Wal-Mart, there is also the Super Wal-Mart that sells food and beverage goods as well as house commodities and automotive products and a section that includes a pharmacy inside too. All together that makes Wal-Mart a one stop shopping experience. The next branch of the Wal-Mart family is the Wal-Mart neighborhood grocery stores. These stores center their attention on food, beverage, and pharmacy goods period. These particular stores are smaller but they do include all the aspects of a customary grocery store. Last the Wal-Mart family also...
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...Cedrina Charbonnet M.A. Effectiveness Wal-Mart uses controls to effectively meet the needs of its customers, employees and supplies. They enable Wal-Mart to keep its edge in the business world as well as creating confidence among suppliers, employees and their customers. Effective management audits enable Wal-Mart to reduce prices and keep an edge over their competition. The effectiveness of this mechanism results in a decrease in audit risks. Internal and external audits are used to maintain audit compliance. Internal audits evaluate performance in the organization by using all functions of management. External audits involve external vendors performing an evaluation. (Bateman & Snell 2007) The creation of an internal auditing system using quality assurance methods helps to lessen the risk for each store. Market control involves pricing mechanisms that regulate activities in an organization: similar to economic transactions. (Bateman & Snell 2007). Market control involves pricing mechanisms that regulate activities in an organization. The use of this mechanism helps organizations establish market controls on a corporate and business level. Wal-Mart uses markets controls in its organization in order for their managers to set prices. Wal-Mart also uses market control as a way to show they can effectively show positive and negative effects in the marketplace... Performance standards are the first steps in creating controls. Wal-Mart is an expert at creating and implementing...
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...Wal-Mart Control Mechanisms Pricing, Marketing Image, and Technological Control Mechanisms Negative and Positives Control mechanisms are ways “to seek compliance with established plans, standards, quality criteria, and in conformance with organizational goals and values. Control mechanisms are both enabling…and constraining.” (Malhotra, 1997). http://www.cheathouse.com/essay/essay_view.php?p_essay_id=121675#ixzz0fh0sE03w People have become accustomed to stores where you can find everything and anything on its premises. Now in days we can almost say good bye to smaller retail stores for the exception of maybe a few. In todays fast pace era time is precious and the evolution of big stores is what is on the rise. In today’s world you will find super center structures e.g. Mall’s, and superstores Like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, and K-Mart just to give an idea. Every customer loves finding a store full of bargains, low prices, and good deals. That being said Wal-Mart believes that having someone greets you and making you feel welcome when you walk through one of their stores isn’t a bad idea. Having information of missing children on their bulletin boards creates a powerful image for the company, and to the community it looks great. Many ask the question, whether or not Wal-Mart is a bad thing or a good thing. Despite all of this, Wal-Mart keeps bringing in billions in revenues. Adopting local standards of whatever community they build their stores in lies part of Wal-Mart’s...
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...A Research Paper on Wal-Mart Management, Leadership and Organizational Culture I. Differentiate Between Management and Leadership At Wal-Mart, management is a mixture of controls and standards with a certain degree of freedom for everyone to be able to test on new things and continue to innovate for improvement. The company has excellent controls and they make the company good. Management strategy is built on teams and the leaders go through the process of working with their team members. Leaders go with the group and after every major operation, they all sit down together to analyze the strengths and improve on the weaknesses of the endeavor. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, introduced some of the basic concepts of management which were popular with employees until the present. He offered stock options and store discounts to his employees. Walton believed that teams will always do better than individuals hence; he has always tried his best to make his employees happy since happy employees make happy customers and more sales. Another reason is that he believes that the employees would care about the company more when they are a part of it and their success is dependent on the company's success. At Wal-Mart, management encourages their employees to be open to talk and air out their concerns and problems. This is what they call the "open door policy" management style. "Leadership is an organizational role involving establishing a clear vision, communicating...
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...A Research Paper on Wal-Mart Management, Leadership and Organizational Culture I. Differentiate Between Management and Leadership At Wal-Mart, management is a mixture of controls and standards with a certain degree of freedom for everyone to be able to test on new things and continue to innovate for improvement. The company has excellent controls and they make the company good. Management strategy is built on teams and the leaders go through the process of working with their team members. Leaders go with the group and after every major operation, they all sit down together to analyze the strengths and improve on the weaknesses of the endeavor. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, introduced some of the basic concepts of management which were popular with employees until the present. He offered stock options and store discounts to his employees. Walton believed that teams will always do better than individuals hence; he has always tried his best to make his employees happy since happy employees make happy customers and more sales. Another reason is that he believes that the employees would care about the company more when they are a part of it and their success is dependent on the company's success. At Wal-Mart, management encourages their employees to be open to talk and air out their concerns and problems. This is what they call the "open door policy" management style. "Leadership is an organizational role involving establishing a clear vision, communicating...
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...Understanding that there was not much differentiation of product in the retail industry, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton aimed to achieve a competitive advantage by reducing costs at all levels, leading to lower prices for the consumer. Wal-Mart’s culture driven cost policy was and continues to be a valuable, inimitable and scarce resource that is embedded in the retailer’s routine activity. However, it is only through Wal-Mart’s technological innovations that the company is able to take full advantage of this unique resource. To be sure, Wal-Mart has “gained competitive advantages – despite the unattractive, high threat, low opportunity environments within which [it] operate[s]” (Barney, pg. 50). A closer look at the SWOT analysis, along with a rigorous breakdown of its internal value chain will help us understand how Wal-Mart, in only 40 years, has become the premier shop in its industry. Initially, Wal-Mart focused extensively on reducing costs, keeping wages and operating expenses down to bare minimums. Knowing these cost cutting efforts would follow Schumpeterian ideals and that competitors would eventually catch on, Wal-Mart strove for long-lived competitive advantages (Ricardian profits) and began to invest heavily in technology to help keep its costs below the industry average. To enhance operations, Wal-Mart developed “Retail Link” to provide its suppliers real-time computer access to point-of-sale data, helping to manage and coordinate the quantity and assortment of...
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... and Controlling In Wal-Mart This article is about Wal-Mart and how its controls their management and accounting issues. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, and with that the company has a lot of areas that need controlled. Wal-Mart has been battling issues with their financial division since the Mexican bribery scandal in 2012. The scandal was found that eight of Wal-Mart’s CEO’s of the international division were paying off politicians to speed up the process of building permits for their stores. Controlling is a function of management that really brings the whole company together. Controlling is defined as any mechanical (or others) system used to keep one or more variable parameters constant, or within specified bounds. The process of controlling is very important aspect of Wal-Mart’s goal of maintaining ethical accounting practices. The most important part of the control mechanism is Wal-Mart accounting and the way it’s practiced every day at the store level and also at the corporate level. It is set forth that documents in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, or court orders and in compliance with all internal retention policies and directives, as well as all complaints received regarding accounting, internal audits controls or auditing matters shall be controlled. Just as important, all employees, officers, directors, etc. are instructed not to withhold or suppress any information relevant to financial accounting matters. Wal-Mart’s main objective...
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...Wal-Mart Organization Jamie Weller MGT/330 July 11, 2011 Ronald Stirpe Wal-Mart Organization Wal-Mart was founded by a gentleman by the name of Sam Walton in 1962. This was done by him and his wife who were from Rodgers, Arkansas. Sam Walton’s purpose and mission was “ if we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we will give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life”.(Walton, Sam) Sam’s secret was to give the customers what they want. This purpose and mission worked for him even after he passed in 1992. In 1972 Sam Walton had made the decision for Wal-Mart to go public therefore there were 276 stores in 11 states. In 1980 there were 1,402 stores and 123 Sams clubs. Sales for Wal-Mart then went from $1 billion to $26 billion. By the 21st century Wal-Mart had grown immensely to 9,230 stores and 2.1 million associates. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States and has assets that are worldwide which include such as distribution sources, their inventory, the amount of stores and the millions of employees. How Wal-Mart’s managers use these resources depends on when and how the company grows and succeeds in the industry. Making decisions is not an easy task for any manager. Decisions may be simple but with a company of this nature and size some decisions may be complicated. The way the company organizes their resources is what we consider the organizing function of the business management. Their organizing...
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...MAKALAH KELOMPOK MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEM CASE #1-2 WAL-MART STORES, INC. BAB I PENDAHULUAN A. Latar Belakang : Sejarah Perusahaan Wal-Mart Inc. Sejarah bisnis Wal-Mart Inc tidak lepas dari kejeniusan Sam Walton. Alumnus Universitas Missouri, Columbia, ini mendirikan toko pertamanya berada di Roger, Arkansas tahun 1962, dan penjualan mencapai $1 Miliar pada 17 tahun kemudian. Di akhir bulan Januari 2002, Toko Wal-Mart menjadi toko retail terbesar dengan penjualan $218 Miliar (Achtmeyer, 2002). Bermula dari pengalamannya bekerja di perusahaan ritel Sears Robuck dan JC Penney, Walton memulai langkah bisnisnya dengan membeli sebuah waralaba dan penyewaan di kawasan Pelabuhan Ben Franklin, Arkansas, yakni jaringan penjualan dari peritel lokal Butler Brother. Dalam kurun waktu 3 tahun, Walton mampu meningkatkan penjualan tahunan dari USD80.000 menjadi USD225.000. 5 tahun kemudian (1950) Walton mengembangkan bisnisnya dengan membeli pusat perbelanjaan milik peritel Luther E Harrison di kawasan Bentonville, Arkansas. Sejak itulah, Walton mulai menamai jaringan pusat perbelanjaannya dengan sebutan Walton’s 5&10. Pada 1962, Walton berhasil mendirikan 11 jejaring bisnis ritelnya dengan pembukaan toko diskon Walmart pertama di Rogers, Arkansas. Jumlah jejaring bisnisnya semakin bertambah pada 1967, yakni menjadi 24 pusat perbelanjaan di seluruh negara bagian Arkansas. Perluasan ini menyumbangkan tingkat penjualan tahunan Walton’s 5&10 menjadi USD12,6 juta...
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...on each of these controls mechanisms. The negative characteristics are ( Bateman, & Snell, 2009, Ch.16.) : In the Bureaucratic form, the opposites argue that it would be great if people were robots, because this control does not take the human elements of behavior, and emotions into consideration. People usually put up strong resistance to control systems in any organization. They like to engage in trying to beat the system. This is negative behavior. Sometimes control systems can be viewed as an invasion of privacy and could lead to negative behavior, and roadblock bonding and socialization process among employees. This could also lead to a lawsuit. Financially speaking in terms of the control mechanism, it is argued that letting numbers run your business is bad sometimes because the other important functions and aspects of management go on the proverbial back burner. Human Resources, Research and Design, and other departments fade into the shadows. On the other side, there are some good reasons for the control mechanisms in a business. They are ( Bateman, & Snell, 2009, Ch.16.): Bureaucratic control can work well provided that the managers in charge, have been trained, and know their job, and have been selected to be in management because of their skills, not who they know. A company that has strong reporting in earnings and numbers are good, can lead to bigger budgets, and more quality training, the purchasing of new equipment, and more salary. Clan control helps employees meet...
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...Supply Chain Management – Assignment (Wal-Mart & IKEA) Are they involved in strategic alliances with major trading partners? If so, how and for what purpose? Strategic Alliances Definition of Strategic Alliance: Strategic alliances are inter-firm collaborative business models that allow firms to create value by sharing resources, obtaining market influence or access novel markets. Simply put, strategic alliance allows for projects where companies can share their resources and risks for an agreed period or project. Resources such as distribution chains, development of products, technologies or services become communal amongst alliances. In recent times, the potential positive effects of alliances are highly regarded by firms, thus, leading to an increasing trend in entering into strategic alliances with the aim of constructing stable collaborations. While the successes of alliances are plentiful, there is also evidence of many undesirable business outcomes. This section of the research paper will discuss and analyze the applications of strategic alliance for global giants in the retail business: IKEA and Wal-Mart. IKEA’s Strategic Alliances: IKEA aims to provide consumers with low-price products through fostering long-lasting business relationships and networks with its main suppliers. These relationships are a pivotal part of the development of IKEA’s products and technologies. IKEA tends to push interactions with their suppliers as far upstream as...
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...Capstone Wal-Mart Introduction Wal-Mart Corporation is one of the largest retail stores in the world. They serve customers in meeting their needs with low cost saving items. On October 31, 1962, Wal-Mart was founded and incorporated by Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. Mr. Walton went into business because he felt that items sold were too high for the average customer to afford. His focus was to sell products at low prices to get higher volume sales at a lower profit margin. He bought bulk products from different suppliers so he could incorporate savings into his pricing to lower cost for customers. Under the savings cost concept, Wal-Mart grew rapidly and surpassed its competitors in sales and generating profits. By 1987 there were 1,198 stores in the United States with sales of $15.9 billion dollars and 200,000 associates (Wal-Mart Corporations, n.d.). In 1988, under the direction of David Glass, (the CEO who proceeded Sam Walton) the first Wal-Mart Supercenter was created. It combined general merchandise with a full-scale supermarket to provide a one-stop shopping convenience for customers. By 1991, Wal-Mart Corps had outperformed its competitors in the market. Surpassing both K-Mart and Sears; Wal-Mart was labeled as the leading retailer in the United States. Currently, Wal-Mart has 10,700 stores in 27 different countries and they are operating globally around the world (Wal-Mart Corporations, n.d.). Vision, Mission and Stakeholder Influences...
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...solving skills. The Four Functions of Management include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The primary functions of management have been broken down into four different areas. Each function of management helps the managers and employees to stay focused on getting the task done correctly. Planning In October 2005, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott committed the company to three ambitious goals: To be supplied 100% by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain Wal-Mart's resources and the environment (Plambeck, 2007). The managerial staff decided to assign a marketing team to perform a strategic study in an attempt to resolve the decrease in market sales. This analysis will give Wal-Mart a forecast of what the organization needs to do in efforts to become the most competitive and innovative company in the world. Wal-Mart’s goal is to; “save people money so they can live better” (Wal-Mart, purpose, 2008). An example of the way this company save consumers money is to purchase products in large quantities. Having a good relationship with other organizations is another way this company can keep the cost at a minimum. Wal-Mart's main objective is to be aggressive and creative to increase continually capital gain. Organizing Organizing is the process of dividing employees into teams in which they will work towards a common goal. "In organizing, managers establish a structure of work relationships that determines how members of an organization will...
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