Study of Management at Walmart Essay

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Management: Management at Walmart

Background of Walmart

Mission, Vision and Values of Walmart

Managers at Walmart

Manager's Role in Decision Making and Strategy

Managers Managing Diversity

Managers as Motivators

Background of Walmart

For this study we would dwell into the role of a manager at Walmart -- the largest retailer in the U.S. Walmart has been in business for more than 50 years and at present has a footfall every week of more than 260 million customers in the 11,500 stores under 65 banners in 28 countries and the e-commerce sites in 11 countries. The net sale of the company in 2014 was $476.29 billion. The company has 2.2 million associated across the world. The group recorded a net sale increase of 1.9% in the fiscal year ended January 30, 2015 and it returned $7.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases (Corporate.walmart.com).

The company has been credited with being the leader in application of technology in tits business operations with the inclusion of digitally sharing sales data among the major suppliers that has allowed the company to offer a wide range of products to the consumers at the lowest cost and be able to supply the products at the shortest delivery times (Corporate.walmart.com).

Mission, Vision and Values of Walmart

The vision of the company is not clearly written down as is evident from the website of the company. However some idea about the vision of the company can be assessed from the various deliberations at the annual general meeting and annual reports of the company. The vision is based on the values of the company which states that the company intends to value integrity and provide opportunity for everyone, with special emphasis on the family and te community the company functions in through its offering of products. The company wants ot be responsible to the customers and community as well as everyone associated with it.

The mission of the company, according to documents available on the website, is: "We design small neighborhood stores and the company embraces substance and simplicity." "

The company is a leader in its industry and has maintained a constant profitability and high return on investments which has been driven by its employees apart from its business strategy of low priced products.

Managers at Walmart

The role of the manager in the company is critical in driving the employees to work harder and deliver optimum output. For this reason it is also necessary for the managers to understand the core values of the company. The company has been a customer oriented management policy and it is expected that the employees do everything to ensure satisfaction of customers. This is guided and driven by the managers. The company also values storng employee management leaderships where the voices of the employees are given importance the manager serve as intermediaries in this process (Gupta).

The company has been driven by leadership over the years. the company has strong leadership based attributed. All the managers in the company are expected to exhibit leadership qualities where they guide and motivate the employees to offer the best output. The managers are also expected to effectively manage a diverse working force. With a very large employee base, it is critical that no r minimum discord exists between the employees. Walmart's management system expects the managers to play the role of an integrator and manage the diversity in the company in terms of its employees.

The company offers perhaps the largest range of products to customers. Hence there are numerous business process within the company that helps the company to run effectively. These processes have to be managed by the line and store managers. There needs to be effective coordination between the various processes from order placing to supply to procurement to warehousing and store deployment. Therefore managing the diverse functionalities and business processes of the company is also among the role of the managers at Walmart. .

The company is committed to equitable development of the employees and enhancement of career opportunities. The managers have the role of identifying the employee needs and communicating the same to the higher management. The manager also has the role of ensuring the every employee under him/her gets equal opportunities (Farrington).

Communication is also an important aspect of the management of the numerous processes in the company. The company has installed state of the art information services and managers are key to proper use of these IT systems that have been adopted to ensure smooth running of the business (Bateman).

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To better understand the role of manager at Walmart, let us view a job advertisement for manager by the company that details the roles and responsibilities of the manager. The advertisement says: "Walmart management assumes responsibility for ensuring customer service, supervising employees, enforcing company regulations, and taking care of various administrative tasks. Individuals in managerial careers process payroll, schedule employees, delegate daily assignments, implement promotional campaigns, track inventories, analyze and report sales data, and coordinate merchandise shipments. Managers also carry out disciplinary actions when necessary and serve as primary enforcers of loss prevention tactics." (Job-Applications.com)

The above description of the manager's role is sufficient to assess what Walmart expects from its managers.

Manager's Role in Decision Making and Strategy

The advertisement states that a manage needs to ensure customer service, supervise employees, enforce company regulation, and take care of various administrative tasks. These tasks are varied and bear a lot of responsibility and accountability. Being a customer centric company, Walmart pay the greatest importance to the satisfaction of customers. This includes both in the store satisfaction and online satisfaction. In the store satisfaction can be improved by hard working employees and strategy that effectively drives employees to cater to customers to the greatest extent. This has to be ensured by the managers who take critical decisions that relate to employee engagement in customers satisfaction (Stankevi-i't?, Grunda and Bartkus).

The managers also have to take critical roles in supervising and managing of employees. The mangers are expected to effectively deal with employees in terms of their performance and enforce company regulations. These entail the managers taking critical decisions about the performance of employees and sometimes taking tough decisions against the employees and strictly enforce the company regulations.

The managers are also expected to take care of a varied range of administrative tasks that are generally related to the regular functioning of the company. For store managers, there is responsibility of the managers to review and order stocks, ensure smooth working of the store gadgets, supervise and pan product placement in the stores according to the company regulations and policies. These require fast and accurate on the spot decision making abilities that managers need to take on a daily basis.

Walmart has also included modern communication technology to enhance the integration between the stores and the various other departments of the company such as procurement, warehousing, finance and suppliers among others. For example, the managers have the role of ordering merchandise that is out of stock at the stores. Such order is generally placed through the communication systems in pace in the company. This requires the manager to be adequately trained in the use of the IT systems in the company and be able to use the systems effectively to ensure that stocks are never out and customers get whatever they want at the stores and even online. This is one of the means of ensuring the customer satisfaction -- the primary goal of objective of the company.

The company also allows the managers to organize in store campaigns within the policies of the company. This is often a strategic decision as well as a creative one that managers at Walmart have to take.

Managers Managing Diversity

As already mentioned, Walmart is a very large company and there are hundreds of operations and business processes. Though there are managers for most of the processes, every manager has to perform and manage a number of processes within their ambit of their work. Often the roles and responsibilities of the line and store manager at Walmart are varied and diverse. Hence the manager has to possess the quality of managing diverse roles.

Walmart has a very diverse workforce, the 2012 data of the company shows that about 57% of the U.S. of the company comprises of women and 27% of the officers at Walmart's are women. The workforce of the company also has people of African, American Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander American, Indian and Alaska native origins. This is a very diverse workforce who come from varied background with varied values. Manager have the role of integrating this varied workforce and ensure optimum output. A manager at Walmart is expected to understand the dynamics of a workforce that has multicultural origins and values. The managers need to effectively tackle the cultural diversities that emerge from the diverse background of the workforce. Hence the work of the manager is quite diverse -- both in terms….....

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