Overview of Wal-Mart

The aim of the report is to study the organisational behaviour issues. Organisational behaviour aids in getting deep insights into the human behaviour in an organisational setting. It is the study of the analysis of human behaviour as the individual or when working in the team or the analysis of the behaviour of a whole organisation. The rationale for studying the organisation behaviour is to support the organisation to achieve its goal by various organisational activities. These goals can be achieved by applying various organisational theories.  The management of the organisation and the employees in it is determined by the leadership skills adopted by the company. Employees facing ineffective leadership and mistreatment are demotivated. It hampers the work culture as well as the productivity (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Currently, various organisations are facing issues due to organisational behaviour. Therefore, this report aims to analyse the organisational behaviour issue of Wal-Mart, a USA based company. Relevant strategies will be recommended considering the current problem of the organisation.  

For identifying the organisational behaviour issues and critically analysis, Wal-Mart has been chosen. This section briefs the overview of the organisation and its background.  It is the multinational retailing corporation in the USA, with it’s headquarter at Bentonville. It operates through the chain of discount departmental stores, grocery stores and hypermarkets. In 1962, Sam Walton established the organisation.  By January 2017, the organisation has set up 11,695 stores in more than 20 countries. The international operations of the company include 6360 stores in 26 countries outside US.   in the It also operates with the same name in Canada and with different names in other countries. In 1972 the company was listed on the  New York Stock Exchange (Corporate.walmart.com, 2017).

 In terms of revenue, it is the largest company across the globe. It could capture a large market and strong customer base by its low pricing strategy.  In US and Mexico, the company is the largest private employer. The company has coded many technology  projects through its labs related to open source software and the big data analytics.  The company believes in “Save more. Live better” policy. The company has four values including the “service to the customer”, “respect to every individual”, “strive for excellence” and “act to maintain integrity”. The vision statement of the company is “to be the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees” (Ferguson, 2017).

Current Organisational Behaviour Problems in Wal-Mart

Presently Wal-Mart is facing various challenges due to its dynamic business environment. There is a change in the socioeconomic structure. The organisation is struggling to successfully implement the multi-cultural approach. Therefore, there is a changing need, and motivating factors encountered in the company. This section deals with the various current organisational behaviour problems in Wal-Mart.

Employees are dissatisfied due to low wage. There was no satisfactory raise in payment in recent times despite unofficial strikes and official actions by the workers (Lam, 2017). The company is scheduling the workers for unlimited hours without any overtime pay. There has been slight effort taken by the company recently this year to increase the payment. However, this is still less than the average mentioned by the labour department. Cost cutting for the profit maximisation is the popular way of every company. However, Wal-Mart has not applied this strategy effectively (Roberts, 2015). The workers at Wal-Mart work for 34 hours a week and their average salary for an hour $9. It was supposed to be increased to $10, where the advocates are fighting for $15 per hour. Currently, the employees are highly dissatisfied and unrest (Lam, 2017).

The other current problem is its outdated management style is leading to failing customers. Outdated management style is associated with poor quality of customer service. This can be attributed to the authoritarian leadership that has been questioned several times resulting in the employee demotivation. Outdated management can be attributed to lack of employee training. Power corruption is experienced at the middle manager level. The company reacts slowly to the change in the retail environment. The major challenge the company is facing due to outdated management style is satisfying its employees to improve the organisational performance (Mourdoukoutas, 2017).

The objectives of the assessment related to Wal-Mart’s organisational behaviour is to-

• Analyse the issue of low-wage in details
• Analyse the issue associated with outdated management style in details
• Review the evidence-based options that are appropriate to overcome the organisational behaviour challenges

The research paradigm chosen for this assignment is the qualitative method- structured literature review.  Due to time constraints, the qualitative method is chosen. There are various advantages to the qualitative research method. It is possible to get thick and detailed information on any topic. The availability of the description of the participant’s feelings, experiences, opinions, as well as interpretations makes the literature review process easy and timesaving. With the help of the literature review, it is easy to identify as to which researchers have contributed more to the topic and the research gaps about the area (Rahman, 2016). The other reason for selecting literature review is the deep learning encouraged by this method. It helps to build new research topics based on the existing studies (Booth et al., 2016).

Methodology

The search strategy for retrieving the article relevant to the Wal-Mart and organisational behaviour issues includes use of electronic databases. The database chosen for this purpose is Google scholar, and various news articles are taken from the websites. As the assignment is focused on the current organisational behaviour in Wal-Mart, it is not possible to retrieve all the information from the peer-reviewed journal articles. It was necessary to rely on the websites and news articles. For literature review on the strategies pertaining to organisational issues, journal articles have been retrieved. The search terms used for this purpose are “Wal-Mart”, “organisational behaviour”, “labour dissatisfaction in Wal-Mart, “Employee dissatisfaction, Wal-Mart”, “raise in labour wages Wal-Mart”, “management style Wal-Mart”, and “organisational issues Wal-Mart”. From the Google scholar, the only article that was published after 2013 and In the English language were considered.   

The report has identified the current organisational issues in Wal-Mart. The discussion implies that a positive working environment is lacking in the organisation. The worst criticism of Wal-Mart is related to wage system and is going to have the serious impact on the youth employment levels. The company is unable to balance the commitment to workers and customers. It fears that if the demand is satisfied the workers could demand a wage as high as $20 (Thomas, 2017). According to the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, motivation is the critical factor for an individual to move to subsequent ages of success (Lester, 2013). In WalMart, the use of the low wage to maintain profit is affecting the psychological needs and motivation of employees. The use of the leadership style is ineffective. The organisational policies are needed to be changed as they failed to motivate the employees. The company’s authoritarian leadership is creating the negative environment. This kind of leadership inhibits the innovation (Lichtenstein, 2017).  According to the negative reinforcement theory, when the bad behaviour is repeated the consequences are always bad (Burke, 2017).

Outdated management style leads to negative reinforcement of the employees.  Some workers in Walmart are trying to assist the customers in the matter in which they have themselves have little intelligence and knowledge. This leads to power corrupts. Theories of intelligence refer to the capability of the person to take on task and apply knowledge, skills, and information to accomplish the same. Lack of intelligence will lead to an unsuccessful event (Burke, 2017). Thus, it implies for organisational change as the buyer’s behaviour change and the business landscape changes rapidly. Factors working this year may not work the other year. Even big organisations must involve in best organisational change management, as there are innovative technologies that are placing the successful business models on the public chopping block.

Analysis

Since literature review was used in this report as research methodology; there are some limitations of the analysis. Some of the information was inaccessible and relevant information might have been missed. Some of the review reports are based on the author’s personal experience, understanding and feeling that limits the reliability and validity of the research data collected (Booth et al., 2016).  However, some of the information is taken from the quantitative research articles that may eliminate the bias, as these are primary research methods and involve large sample size (Creswell, 2013).  

The section deals with the recommendations to address the organisational behaviour issues in Wal-Mart. These recommendations may be effective in resolving the issues identified.

Firstly, the management must change its labour wage policy. The company must focus on providing the standard wages. It will not only satisfy the psychological needs of the employees but also motivate them to work better. The wages must be aligned with the minimum wage mentioned by the labour department. The enhancement of the salary must have parity with the nation’s economic status. Based on current condition, $12 is suggested for employee satisfaction (Reich et al., 2017).

Secondly, the organisation must come up with the “two-way communication system”. In any organisation, poor communication system leads to its downfall. Sometimes, what is unsaid is more imports the what is being said. Conveying messages effectively at all managerial levels and the employee’s level help each member to work together for organisational goals (Gungor et al., 2013).

Thirdly, the organisation needs to develop a culture that will promote equal growth opportunities for all the members. Eliminating the power corruption is important to for Wal-Mart as some managers tend to wield their absolute power without trying to understand the particular issue. Wal-Mart must provide training facilities for the employees at all levels. These will provide ample growth opportunities for the employees. The middle-level managers must be trained to enhance the communication with the workers. It will help the workers to share their opinions and views. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the organisation to motivate the staff. Further, career growth opportunities always attract the talented workforce. Therefore, training facilities are the effective mode of attracting and retaining the potential workforce (Dhar, 2015).

Fourthly, the company must adopt transformational leadership style instead of authoritarian leadership. Transformational leadership is people-centred approach. It has multiple benefits such as eliminating communication barrier, improving the overall productivity, enhance workers’  commitment to doing justice to their efforts (Mittal & Dhar, 2015).  

Recommendations

Fifthly, to retain staff and ensure their motivation reward and recognition policy must be adopted. The existing methods of incentives should be redesigned. It will stimulate the staff members to achieve excellence. It is based on the positive reinforcement theory  (Jain, 2014).

Sixthly, the company must respond quickly to the changes in the retail environment to address the pressure of the global competition. For this, it needs to quit its outdated management style. Modern management will eliminate the qualitative issues such as promotion and transfer policies in an organisation (Li-Jun et al., 2017).

Conclusion

The paper has provided a deep insight into the organisational behaviour issues in WalMart. The topic was useful in understanding the trouble faced by the large companies due to contemporary organizational behaviour issues. The company was paying low wages to its workers that were insufficient in meeting the psychological needs of the workers. Consequently, the workers are not motivated to achieve work excellence. There are many other issues faced by the manager’s such power corrupts, failing of customers, slow change of the company to the retail environment and poor quality of customer service. These issues were attributed to the outdated management style. Based on the literature evidence suitable interventions are recommended that will help WalMart to overcome these issues.  In conclusion, these issues can be resolved only if the organisation reorients the management structure and adopt the positive culture. The organisation must cater to the needs of the employees who add value to the company. Leadership and motivation are essential factors for the successful organisation.

References

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