...what leadership styles are effective in organizations, how these styles assist in creating and sustaining a healthy organizational culture, and compare and contrast the leadership styles. A look at how Wal-Mart’s leadership styles impact the fortune 100 company will also be looked at. What is leadership? When examining this question it is important to understand what it means to be a leader within an organization. “A leader is someone who holds a dominant or superior position within his or her field and is able to exercise a high degree of influence over others” (Business dictionary, 2009). Bateman & Snell (2009) states “An outstanding leader combines good strategic substance and effective interpersonal processes to formulate and implement strategies that produce results and sustainable competitive advantage.” Leaders serve people best when they help them develop their own initiative and good judgment, enable them to grow, and help them become better contributors (Bateman & Snell). A leader comes to the forefront when a crisis occurs and is able to think as well as act in creative way during difficult situations (Business dictionary, 2009). “Leadership is an organizational role involving establishing a clear vision, communicating the vision with others so that others will follow willingly, providing information, knowledge, and methods to realize that vision, and coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members or stakeholders” (Business dictionary, 2009)...
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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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...Wal-Mart: Global Market Strengths and Weaknesses Option C Donnitia Decembly Rodney Emery Lynne Johnson Central Michigan University MSA 601: Organizational Behavior Introduction According to CNN Money, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is a Fortune 500 and has topping the list for many years. It is the largest retail company Wal-Mart is a worldwide corporation with stores in all U.S. states and in 15 other countries (The New York Times, 2013). The company started with one small store in Arkansas and has since blown up into the biggest-earning corporation in the world. It has the most employees of any non-government company in the world. It has made its reputation and built its customer base on the basis of low prices (Business Insider, 2012). Wal-Mart is a huge, successful corporation that can serve as a useful case study for anyone who wants to build a successful business. There are a variety of factors that have impacted Wal-Mart’s international success. In order to properly understand this success, it is useful to perform a competitive analysis that looks at the firm's successes and weaknesses globally. Mexico Market Adapting to cultural differences in countries like Mexico has opened up a very prosperous international venture for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart hired locals to manage their stores, let manager’s control the merchandise strategy, made sure that the merchandise they carried reflected the local surroundings, and built smaller stores in local neighborhoods to accommodate...
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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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...bound to fail. The two selected companies for this analysis are; Target Company and Wal-Mart Company. These are the leading global retail stores that are known for their irresistible retail force in the business industry. Wal-Mart Company is known to serve more than 200 million times each week all the esteemed clients of the corporation. The organization endeavors to order the operations of the company to be in line with the legal requirements of the state. This is undertaken through the strategic set company goals that direct the operations of the company. The corporate statement registrations of the Wal-Mart company shares are constantly undertaken to safeguard the finances of the company in the market industry. Target Company which is an American retail company has placed its operations to be the second largest company in the retail industry in America. The operations of the company were licensed to Wesfarmers at the acceptance of the company bulls eye trademark. Wal-Mart Corporation has placed all its operations in diverse areas of the United States and the global realm. The company accounts for more than 700 discount stores that have increased the profit margin of the organization. The different stores are the reason behind the huge employee number that has reached a figure of close to 2.1 million personnel. There are more than 9,600 retail units undertaking the Wal-Mart company operations in more than 28 nations. The Target Company on...
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...Organizational Structure of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, can be seen as a successful model to examine the internal structure of the organization from the inside. Comparing the different types of organizational structures provides an overview of the structure type Wal-Mart is composed of. As we take a closer look at the structure of the company allows us to better understand the functions of the management and control and coordination in place to achieve the objectives of the strategic planning and implementation in those actions. We will also explore how this structure affects the relationship between the various departments. I will discuss three objectives in this paper. I will first describe the organizational structure of Wal-Mart and make a comparison with other organizational structures used today to clarify the differences and similarities. Second, I will evaluate how organizational functions influence and determine its structure. Third, I will explain how the organizational structure helps to determine the best structure. Wal-Mart operates in three divisions, which are United States Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart International. Its overall business spans several continents with many subsidiaries in several countries geographically. These subsidiaries operate under various trade names, they include ASDA, Sam's Club, Seiyu, Massmart, Wal-Mart U.S., Wal-Mart Canada Wal-Mart in China Wal-Mart Brazil, Wal-Mart Argentina, Mexico Wal-Mart...
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...Improving Wal-Mart’s Employee Relations GM591: Leadership and Organizational Behavior April 20, 2010 INTRODUCTION The Organization that we selected as our topic of discussion in our Project Paper is the Wal-Mart Corporation. Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart. He opened his first store called Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas in July of 1962. Their corporate office is currently located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. incorporated its stores on October 31, 1969. In 1972, they started selling stock on the New York Stock exchange. Although, though the company has had controversial operational business practices they have grown to be the largest Retail Corporations in the world. In 1997, Wal-Mart was able to become the largest private employer in the United States. In that same year, their annual sales totaled over $105 billion. In 2010, Wal-Mart has over 2.1 million employees worldwide. There 2010 fiscal year sales exceeded $400 billion dollars (Wal-Mart About Us, 2010). I have been a loyal customer of Wal-Mart for years. Therefore, I was shocked when I found out about some of Wal-Marts questionable unofficial policies through talks with friends and family members who worked for them in the past and some who currently employed by them. My mother in law worked for them from 2006 thru 2008. She was required to work 8-hour shifts without a lunch break on a regular basis. One of my cousins was required to clock out because...
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...has become a highly significant factor in determining the success in today's international business environment. In particular, organizations entering the foreign markets either by expansion or mergers and acquisitions (M&A’s) are known to suffer at a high failure rate due to not understanding and preparing for cultural differences. Studies suggest that failure is due to different and often controversial relationships between cultural differences, integration and performance. The purpose of this white paper is to examine the cultural concerns when American corporations/organizations enter foreign markets and the impact cultural understanding or the lack thereof has on their success or failure. II. Culture “Culture is not only all around us but within us as well”. Each individual within an organization comes with a unique background and culture. Culture can be defined as the blending of values, politics, beliefs, behaviors, customs and attitudes that distinguishes one society from another. Since culture is a learned behavior that encompasses life-long experiences, it is adaptive. When merging cultures, this is an important fact that organizations must understand. Forcing the parent organizational culture onto the acquired organizational culture without understanding the newly acquired culture is potentially a path to disaster. There are basic elements of organizational culture. These are social structure, language,...
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...Porter’s generic strategies, Wal-Mart is overall cost leadership strategy, because Wal-Mart’s mission is “Save money. Live better.” It always low prices, and using this strength to attract customers. Moreover, for the Miles and Snow’s strategy, Wal-Mart is the type of analyzer which incorporates elements of both the prospector and the defender, because Wal-Mart is not only defending its current market by lowering its cost, but it also seeks out the market opportunities that expand its scope of globalization. Wal-Mart has over 7100 stores worldwide and more than 4000 in America, so Wal-Mart is also a global strategy company. It views the world as a single marketplace and addresses the needs of the customers worldwide. Wal-Mart has proactive stance for the social responsibility. This company always does feedbacks to the society. In this article, Wal-Mart donates 4 million dollars to a city program that offers summer jobs to young people. This behavior helps finance 3400 jobs. CSR can also motivate employees and strengthen brands, while also providing benefits to society. References: “Always low prices”. The Economist, 29 Feb. 2008. http://www.economist.com/node/10727908 Javier, C. Hernandez. “As It Campaigns to Build in the City, Wal-Mart Donates $4 Million”. The New York Times, 05 July. 2011 http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/as-it-campaigns-to-build-in- the-city-wal-mart-donates-4-million/ Organizing: Walmart's business structure could be considered...
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...Organizational Profile: Wal-Mart Team ABC Ethics 316 June 11, 2012 Week Four Dr. Done It All Organizational Profile: Wal-Mart The following paper will examine the community organization of Wal-Mart. Specifically, insight into the organization’s involvement and responsibility to the community it serves will be shown. Additionally insight into factors influencing Wal-Mart’s social responsibility strategies and identifying the organization’s social initiative will give a better understanding of contributions to the local community. Finally the paper will present the potential ethical and moral effects of the organization’s social initiatives. “Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world” (Datamonitor, 2011, p. 5). The position Wal-Mart holds gives the company a large responsibility to contribute to the community that supports the stores. As an organization Wal-Mart owes its success to the stake holders of their business. Wal-Mart requires the community to continue business operations, Trevino and Nelson state that “a major stakeholder in business must be the communities of which corporations and other organizations are a part” (2007, p. 244). Wal-Mart must consider the community happiness with their business decisions to remain profitable. Wal-Mart gives back to the community in several ways including donations to charitable foundations...
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...The Key to Wal-Mart's Success The Key to Wal-Mart's Success The Key to Wal-Mart's Success In 1962, San Walton founded Wal-Mart in Roger, Arkansas. "As in all things, in our people practices, we take to heart our core belief to strive for excellence. That means constantly looking for ways to improve, whether it's connecting executive compensation to diversity goals or improving the supplier application process. Improving these vital relationships is key to a better Wal-Mart and a better world" (People, n.d., ¶2). The key to Wal-Marts success can be attributed by the way management evaluates performance through motivation, ethics, and conflict management. Applying Motivational Principles Sam Walton had a vision for building a business and four decades later Sam's vision became a successful reality. Wal-Mart's associates have enabled the organization to become the largest retailer in the world consisting of "2,700 Wal-Mart stores, 495 SAM's Clubs and 1,150 international stores currently in operation" (Divisions, n.d., ¶1). Sam's dream of a global retailer also became a reality by meeting the needs of customer's worldwide. The secret to the Sam Walton's success is attributed to the rules and principles that are used to run the organization. Sam Walton used 10 motivational principles or otherwise known as Sam's Rules for Building a Business. The rules have helped the organization focus on the principles used for four decades and are factors of the company's success...
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...Gender Discrimination – Wal-Mart Employment Practices! MBA 6241 Human Resource Management in 21st Century Knowledge Situational Analysis Final Action Plan Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….…..3 Executive summary………………………………………………………………………............3 Wal-Mart’s Profile……..………………..…………………………………………..….…3 Wal-Mart’s Vision…………………………………………………………………..…….4 Wal-Mart’s Mission………………………………………………………………….……4 Human Resource Profile…………………………………………………………………..5 Economic context…………………………………………………………………………5 Political and regulatory context…………………………………………………………...6 Competitor analysis……………………………………………………………………….6 Cultural Context…………………………………………………………………………………7 Measuring organizational Culture…………………………………………………………7 Action Plan/Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………...11 Surveying members to identify organizational cultures and norms……………………11 Install executive CTC HR professional as member of Board of Directors………………13 Develop long term HR strategies and policies for growth of CTC………………………15 References……………………………………………………………………………………….18 Introduction Gender discrimination has been widely debated everywhere from the boardroom to the courtroom. In spite of the laws and regulations that exist to prohibit gender discrimination, it continues to be a common practice within many organizations. Throughout history, women have been relegated to administrative positions, such as typists, secretaries, receptionists and the like. Although...
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...Internal and External Factors Paper Luis Molina MGT/230 November 13, 2013 University of Phoenix Internal and External Factors Paper There are several internal and external factors affecting the functions of logistics planning. These you must have all the factors in mind, as they can have a huge impact on the productivity of organizations. The common four functions of management involve organizing, planning, controlling, and leading; the evaluation process of the internal and external factors that the organization will face that can be a risk for the management of the company. As a company you have to determine a set of problems and limitations, list of the factors that affect the implementation of the management plan. Developing the environmental assessment helps the understanding of the internal and external processes that will influence the success rate of organizations. The main purpose for environmental assessment is for the company or organization to be able to identify and analyze the major trends, forces and phenomena that have a potential impact on the implementation of strategies. Indeed environmental assessment helps to prepare the organization to acclimate to environmental changes and take advantage of opportunities and minimize the adverse effects of hazards. Once the environmental assessment is completed, is analyzed to prioritize the problems, limitations and assumptions that could influence the planning function of management. The assessment of external...
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...ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WAL-MART SUCCESS Introduction The paper analyzes the corporate culture of Wal-Mart in the context of its establishment by its owners as well as its future changes due to operational needs (e.g. outsourcing marketing to external people). The structure can be somewhat futuristic that will serve as a guide for companies that have adopted or will change their corporate culture. The paper contains overview of Wal-Mart’s culture and related organizational culture theories while the latter part analyzes Enron scandal and Standard/ relating them to cultural issues related to Wal-Mart. There is a conclusion to elaborate on findings and implicate results to current issues confronting Wal-Mart. Overview of Wal-Mart Generally, the culture of Wal-Mart is engraved in treating other people as one wants to treat itself. This reflects how they create relationships with customers, associates and suppliers with an initiative to provide excellence to show their competence and upper hand from industry players. The company’s official website has a dedicated icon that explains their culture. Opening remarks before detailing them comes from the CEO who presents financial and operational performance of the firm. Such design is strategic in order for website visitors and people to know that they have an effective corporate culture which results in positive outcome for the company and its customers and business partners. There...
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...Wal-Mart leadership became successful due to the company’s effective leadership style, their organizational structure and its culture. Wal-Mart’s organization culture is recognized to be more of bonded organization between the employer and the employee. Sam Walton, the company’s owner, shared his vision for the company with his associates and made them partners in the success of his company, after Sam died, his legacy remained the same with new management and continued to grow successfully and still remain number one in retail today, because management recognized his vision and carried it out as Sam would have done. New management did not dismantle Sam’s vision but kept the success going unlike Times Picayune, this organization lacked a successful organizational structure and endured more of procedural issues. After Times Picayune owner, Ashton Phelps Jr. retired, his vision was not carried out as he intended. After 175 years, new owner Ricky Matthews, dismantled Phelps vision and emphasized his own vision that became more procedural and steep, which caused the culture of the business to miscommunicate. Workers in this environment are more focus on pleasing the boss, instead of their work performance due to the company’s rules and policies being procedural and controlled without any flexibility. This type of culture causes employee turnovers and a bad reputation for the business. Matthews not only changed the culture of Time Picayune, but he lay off all active employees without...
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