Founded in 1969, Wal-Mart remains one of the biggest retail entities in the United States and the world. The American organization operates a chain of hypermarkets and stores internationally with its headquarters in Arkansas. Similarly, Wal-Mart is one of the leading organizations that offer employment opportunities globally, especially in the United States. According to Scott & Davis (2015 ), Wal-Mart was the largest employer in the United States in 2005, as it employed 1.7 million people. This number was the highest in the country's employment sector such that, when all the firms in the United States combine their employees, they still fall short of Wal-Mart's record.
Despite starting as a small retail company, Wal-Mart grew and went public in 1970 with massive profit margins that facilitated its expansion. As such, the company's success has been attributed to effective management and the establishment and employment of relevant, appropriate, and realistic strategies. These strategies are reflected in the company's vision and mission and the management philosophy and culture. Wal-Mart's vision provides that it becomes the best retailer for both the customers and the workforces. It has ensured this vision by offering affordable prices to its target customers and, at the same time, ensuring that millions of its employees earn wages. The company also strives on its mission, "Save money, Live better," to ensure that customers can benefit from the reduced prices and save money for future use.
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Organizational culture is essential for achieving the goals and objectives of any business entity or organization globally. Wal-Mart recognizes this fact, and it has invested in a lot of resources, including the time to cultivate a culture that would ensure it lives by its vision and mission. Additionally, the culture would see the company achieve its ultimate goal or objective in the retail world. In Wal-Mart, the customers are very important, and they 'stand' above all the stakeholders. Consequently, the company's management actions aim to deliver superior and unique customer service, the primary goal. In ensuring customer satisfaction, the company values its employees and has cultivated a workplace culture that calls for respect for all persons, operation with integrity, and adherence to ethical codes, policies, and behavior.
Most of the problems in Wal-Mart are courtesy of organizational environments' issues such as operations and resources. Organizational environments involve all forces that tend to affect the workings of a company or business entity. These forces comprise external environment issues such as competition, government regulations and policies, and suppliers. As such, Wal-Mart suffers from stiff competition and bad customer-relations from an organizational environment problem to some extent. Additionally, the company has internal problems such as management failure to build desirable working conditions and good employee relations.
The situation of Wal-Mart is best described by the resource dependence theory and contingency theory. According to Scott & Davis (2015 ), resource dependence theory entails the natural behavior and politics within and outside the organization regarding management decisions, especially about resources. The reaction of an organization to its power or dominance in the market or dependence plays a massive role in determining a company's success. In Wal-Mart, this theory applies in various ways: establishing the company as one of the world's largest employers and the management's capacity to forge a good relationship with employees and customers.
On the other hand, the contingency theory dictates that there is no desirable method to manage and organize a company or entity. According to Scott & Davis (2015 ), there is only an optimal way to organize a firm that utilizes a course upon evaluating the organization's internal and external environment. According to this theory, there is no best way, and Wal-Mart must implement one to be successful. Instead, the company can employ strategies based on the current internal and external environment to achieve its objectives.
Keywords
Wal-Mart, Resource Dependence Theory, Contingency theory, organizational
References
Scott, W. R., & Davis, G. F. (2015). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural, and open systems perspectives . Routledge.
