Wal-Mart Human Resource Practices - Case Study Example

WAL-MART HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE ANALYSIS Prepared by (Student’s Name) Course Name Professor’s Name Date Words: (Body, 2,056) Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3 2.0 Walmart’s Organisation Culture Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………….4 3.0 Walmart’s Performance Management Analysis…………………………………………………………………………..6 4.0 Conclusion & Recommendation………………………………………………………………………………………………….8 References List……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9 1.0 Introduction Walmart is the one of the largest companies across the globe in regards to its underlying organisational size; business operations as well as financial prowess. According to Pope and Pope (2015, p.1), the company remains to be one the rapidly growing retailers, not only in the United States of America, but the world over. In fact, it is the single largest private employer across the world. In the US alone, the form operates more than 4400 retail chains that goes ahead to put more than 1.4M people, which is roughly 1% of the US overall workforce, into both permanent and contractual employment bases. Recent phone surveys conducted (Pope & Pope, 2015) indicate that the firm receives at least 84% of US household shoppers within any particular operational year. Despite its enormous workforce, the company ensures that its underlying human resources are always supported in order to satisfy business goals and objectives. The purpose of this paper is on examining the firm’s underlying human resources practices that relate to its organisational culture as well as its performance management aspect. The rationale behind the company’s successful business operations that has, in fact, resulted to accelerated international expansions, rest with the fact that it does value its employees base- the company refers to its employees as associates, while at the same makes sure to compensate them in commensurate with their levels skills; and experiences in retailing industry. In essence, the company makes sure to incorporate the employees as a priority stakeholder group in its overall business model. This is especially achieved by its ability to address the interests of the employees in fairly-regulated policies as well as formulation of initiatives that provide a considerable aspect of job security. 2.0 Walmart’s Organisational Culture Analysis Organisational culture is a concept that has been defined in a great number of ways by different researchers and authors as well. However, the most notable definition that has managed to remain relevant over time refers to it as a set of values, beliefs and behavioural patterns that constitutes the fundamental identity of organisations and would definitely assist in shaping the underlying employee’s behaviour as a whole (Abdul Rashid, Sambasivan, & Johari, 2003). Organisational culture would normally provide a cognitive guide that seeks to influence that manner for which the context is defined. This is especially since it avails a selection framework or norms and values that people impose on specific events. In essence, it is a pattern of beliefs, symbols, rituals and practices that have continued to evolve within an organisation. It encompasses a dominant set of values as well as set assumptions that tend to expound on the statement; ‘this is how we do things around here’ (Schein, 1992). In a lay man’s language, culture is to a company, what personality is to a specific individual human being. It is a unifying element that provides aspects related to meaning and the direction for which a company should assume. Schein (1992) indicates that culture is indeed the overall sum of the underlying shared and undertaken assumptions that an organisation’s personnel have managed to learn and adopt throughout its existence. In fact, recent research links organisational culture to economic performance. It has been successfully established that organisations with cultures that put much emphasis on fundamental stakeholders like customers; stockholders and employees performed better in comparison to such entities that lacked these culture attributes by an enormous margin. According to Martins and Terblanche (2003), an organisation that operated on a positive culture would result to immense levels of benefits to its operations and, as a result of this, enjoy a leading competitive edge over rival firms within the sector. On the contrary, a negative culture would definitely hinder an organisation from attaining high economic performances since it prevents them from implementing proper strategic and tactical changes. According to Deal and Kennedy (1982) some of the notable values in organisation culture remain alive and would mostly be explicitly incorporated within a company’s mission statement as the ‘dominant values of the organisation’. The immediate ways for which new employees learn the organisational culture is deemed to be an important factor. A process of cultural socialisation would always come up informally through the current employees and informally through induction training initiatives. Walmart understands that the aspect of culture is indeed the foundation of anything they engage in. The firm defines culture as being more of their values in action (Walmart, 2016). This is especially related to how they deliver superior customer services and develop a distinct and front-line work environment that is considered to be unique. In essence, the ‘Walmart Culture’ is formulated to attain a high level of performance. These values and behaviours are expounded as being; service to the customer where it is emphasised that the customer would always be given the first priority through listening to them and serving their immediate needs and wants at all times; it is frontline focused such that it will support and empower the employees in their day-to-day efforts of serving the customers; and, also it is innovative and agile in nature so that it incorporates aspects related to creativity; assuming of only smart risks and move with speed in executing their tasks. The values also relate to always show respect to other people by way of listening to them; leading by example and practicing inclusivity at all times. Consequently, the organisational culture calls for the striving for attaining excellence (Walmart, 2016). This is achieved by way of setting high performance frameworks that are used for setting and accomplishing day-to-day goals and objectives; being accountable at all times so that success amongst the employers should be solely owned individually and also; adopts a strategic strategy that entirely focuses on ensuring only efficient and effective decisions are made as a way of cementing future success of operations. Deal and Kennedy (1982) show that in the event that group pressures are deemed to be weak, an individual will likely have to accept the norms and practices being encouraged by the management at hand. In this regards, there is a guarantee that the servicing personnel will strive to interact with customers and adopt a communication platform that is deemed to be effective at all times. In the course of communicating with the customers, Walmart calls for its employees that are culturally referred as being associates as opposed to workers to always ‘act with integrity’. Acting with integrity calls for them to be honest by ensuring to tell the truth and be trustworthy in their dealings; exercise an element of fairness by way of doing right by their colleagues, conforming to transparency and, also be courageous (Walmart, 2016). 3.0 Walmart’s Performance Management Analysis There are quite a number of definitions available to the term performance management. The most relevant definition today is by the Australian HR Institute (2017), which describes it as being a practice that focuses on driving the decisions related to a company’s immediate performances, remuneration, promotions and career development needs. It seeks to measure the level of progress that has been achieved in the effort of achieving an organisation’s immediate business goals and objectives. Columbia University (2017) notes that there are three stages of performance management within any given organisation that include; planning; coaching and reviewing stages as shown in Figure 1 below. Figure 1: (Columbia University, 2017) Pulakos (2004) argue that a successful performance management system that would basically incorporate performance appraisals and employee development are the ‘Achilles heel’ of an overall human resource management. Maintaining a successful performance management system is never an easier task given that the entire process is considered to be highly personal and for most cases; a career-threatening process for both management team and the junior staff. It is highly possible for management to remain reluctant in providing rapid and robust feedback while still manage to have an honest discussion with the junior staff for fear that there might be reprisals or possible damage of relationships with the same people they count on to get work done. Similarly, the junior staff would feel that the management are thus unskilled at discussing their immediate performances and thus, perceived to be ineffective at providing efficient coaching on the best ways of developing their skills. In fact, research ascertains that there are an increasing number of complaints from different stakeholders terming performance management process as being cumbersome and bureaucratic in nature. As a result of this, both management and junior staff perceive performance management as a necessary evil of work that should be reduced as opposed to it being a crucial process that could lead to accomplishment of both individual and organisational-based goals. Despite of these possible issues, performance management remains to be a paramount tool for all highly-rated and performing companies while still it forms one of the management’s most crucial responsibilities. In the event that it is done correctly, Pulakos (2004) argues that it can foster a great deal of important results for a company; its management team and the employee-base at large. In regards to Walmart, the performance planning stage is solely based on three fundamental aspects that are interlinked with the needs of its immediate retail operations. These three aspects include; first, a robust customer service orientation that is used to address possible management concerns within its numerous stores located across the globe. Considering the fact that retailing is a service-based business, the firm focuses on conducting performance planning that seeks to satisfy the customer’s needs and expectation (Walmart, 2016). Secondly, the firm emphases on adoption of an effective decision-making and results oriented framework that touches on all positions held within the company. Orientation is used for the purpose of optimising the underlying level of organisational resilience through provision of a favourable environment for efficient decision-making process. Consequently, the performance management system of the company advocates for analysis and problem-solving capabilities, which allows management to solve issues within the workplace environment. Of particular interest to note, the firm adopts a distinctive measurement and standard practice for its overall performance management activities. Different job positions are measured differently. A perfect example can be seen when the company focuses on productivity standards that are mainly imposed solely for its warehouse personnel across its different stores (Walmart, 2016). Frontline sales employees are gauged in relation to their salesmanship as well as the level of deals they are able to seal within any particular financial period. Interestingly, Sam Walton had always indicated that the biggest risk that would rather destabilise the company’s overall performance success lies in an unsatisfied customer. Following this line perception, the company’s performance management mechanism is enshrined with its culture of ensuring to meet the customer’s needs and expectations as a way of guaranteeing future operations (Walmart, 2016). 4.0 Conclusion & Recommendation This paper has successfully argued the necessary theories and human resource practices that relates to Walmart’s organisational culture and performance management. It has been ascertained that the organisation understands that the aspect of culture is indeed the foundation of anything they engage in. The firm defines culture as being more of their values in action .The ‘Walmart Culture’ is formulated to attain a high level of performance. These values and behaviours are expounded as being; service to the customer where it is emphasised that the customer would always be given the first priority through listening to them and serving their immediate needs and wants at all times; it is frontline focused such that it will support and empower the employees in their day-to-day efforts of serving the customers; and, also it is innovative and agile in nature so that it incorporates aspects related to creativity; assuming of only smart risks and move with speed in executing their tasks In regards to performance management, it has been noted that the company formulates measures and standards that are considered to be unique for each and every position held within the company. The paper suggests that the organisation strives to incorporate beliefs in addition to the values-that is currently relied upon. There are always reports coming up criticising the firm about its inability to address their employee’s issues especially in relation to lower wages and salaries. These criticisms deviate a great deal with its value of ‘respect for individuals’-the organisation core culture hence they should come up with way of aligning their beliefs with values. References List Australian HR Institute.2017. About Performance Management. Accessed from https://www.ahri.com.au/assist/performance-management Abdul Rashid, Z., Sambasivan, M. & Johari, J., 2003. The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance. Journal of Management Development, vol.22, no8, pp.708-728 Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human Resource Management Review, vo.22, no.1, pp.43-56. Colombia University. 2017. Guide to Performance Management. Accessed from http://hr.columbia.edu/helpful-tools/hr-manager-toolkit/managing-staff/goal-setting-managing-performance/guide-performance Deal, T.E. & Kennedy, A.A. 1982, Corporate Cultures. Perseus Books, Reading. MA Martins, E.C. & Terblanche, F., 2003. Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, vol.6, no.1, pp.64-74 Pope, D.G. & Pope, J.C., 2015. When Walmart comes to town: Always low housing prices? Always? Journal of Urban Economics, vol.87, pp.1-13 Pulakos, E, D. 2004. Performance Management: A Roadmap for Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Performance Management Systems. SHRM Foundation-USA. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/india/hr-topics-and-strategy/performance-management/creating-high-performance-culture/Documents/Performance%20Management.pdf Schein, E. 1992, Organisational Culture and Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA Wal-Mart. 2016. Working at Wal-Mart: Opportunity & Advancement. Retrieved on March 9, 2017 from http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/working-at-walmart Read More