Strategic Cultural Interventions at Wal-Mart - Research Paper Example

?Strategic Cultural Interventions at Wal-Mart Introduction Most people pay attention to the organizational culture of an organization or a company merely for the sake of using the organizational culture to identify or describe the company. However, a lot more go into the organizational culture of various companies and corporations than mere self identity (Wiredu, 2003). As a matter of fact, organizational culture encompasses every aspect of an organization as it is created by the people of the organization and should go beyond their identity to include reasons why the organization is worth doing business with. This means that organizational culture of a company affects a company’s success and development including revenue. It is against this backdrop that Louis (1980) is quoted by the Air University (2003) as explaining that organizational culture is “a set of understandings or meanings shared by a group of people that are largely tacit among members and are clearly relevant and distinctive to the particular group which are also passed on to new members”. The discussions above point to the fact that the organizational culture of an organization cannot be over emphasized, overlooked or underestimated in any way. As much as possible, all corporations and organizations must make it a prime priority of achieving a socially and commercially welcoming organizational culture. Because of this, this essay has been set out to critically look into the organizational culture of Wal-Mart Company, looking at the company’s present organizational culture and evaluating how the present culture has impacted on the successes of the company and if any, suggest the way forward for the company in terms of its organizational culture. Current Organizational Culture Giving a clear cut definition or description of the organizational culture of Wal-Mart may be very difficult. This is because the public and especially the media tend to portray the company and many different ways. These ambiguities not withstanding, careful review of literature and scrutiny of media reports point to some common characteristics that run through the company and can therefore be generalized to be the company’s organizational culture. In the first place, Wal-Mart has and believes in the culture of respect. The company portrays a high sense and level of respect for all its stakeholders including customers, suppliers and associates. The company also practices an open door system of governance whereby there is an open communication channel for all stakeholders; especially customers and suppliers to get their ideas through. There also is what the company refers to as the Sundown rules. With this culture, the company answers to requests even after the company’s usual closing hours. This is done in a bid to foster the culture of respect for meeting the customer at the point of his or her needs. Finally, there is an assumed and supposed servant leadership culture at Wal-Mart whereby it is said that Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart said that “"It's more important than ever that we develop leaders who are servants, who listen to their partners – their associates – in a way that creates wonderful morale to help the whole team accomplish an overall goal,”” (Wal-Mart, 2011). Assessment of the current organizational culture of Wal-Mart using Deep Assumption Model Having discussed the organizational culture of Wal-Mart above, this section of the write-up shall be used to give deep assumptions interpretations to assess the current organizational culture of the company. Cummings and Worley (2009) explain that deep assumptions are very important because they represent the deepest levels of an organization’s culture that is generally unexamined. These assumptions shall be considered because as Cummings and Worley (2009) put it, they are “tacit and shared assumptions that guide member behavior and that often have a powerful impact on organization effectiveness.” Among some unexamined assumptions behind the culture of Wal-Mart is the fact that the company is an opportunist company. This assumption is ‘loud silence’ in the sense that it seems to be in the minds of people but hardly expressed. Even when expressed, this assumption is expressed informally. There are a few instances however when there have been public and formal outcries of how Wal-Mart takes advantage of its staff and in some cases, its size. In a report by Anderson (2004), there were two great accusations of opportunism expressed against Wal-Mart. These were against the company for “paying low wages to workers, and generally abusing them” and also “purchasing low-priced goods from abroad, which puts American workers out of jobs.” Most recently, “Wal-Mart just recently settled a U.S. federal lawsuit about overtime paid to its’ employees” (Lady, 2007). One other aspect of organizational culture that is mostly overlooked is the company’s change stack – meaning the company lives by the principles of its founder, which was set several tens of years ago. This ‘idolism’ is making any creative innovations possible. Above all, it can be said that the company keeps an authoritarian culture to ensure that the other cultures are adhered to (Santa, 2011). How to change the culture and impact it could have There should be change because the voice of the people they say is the voice of God. The present silent assumptions of Walt-Mart should be changed based on principles. For instance the company should have a comprehensive and transparent payment structure that makes all its reward, salary and remuneration systems open to the public. This way, the public becomes an informal external quality assurance expert, who would appreciate that the company is being fair with its staff. Secondly, the company should have medium and long term strategic plans that are made in such a way that the core cultures and regulatory principles of the company are reviewed and changed with time so that the company does not seem to be a change stack company. Finally, the company should live by its saying that it practices an open-door system by having a democratic governance system in place. This democratic governance system will bring the ideas and suggestions of all people on board the company so that it will not be said of the company that it is authoritarian. REFERENCE LIST Air University (2003). Organizational Culture. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt4ch16.html Anderson W. L. (2004). Does Wal-Mart Destroy Communities? Mises Daily. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://mises.org/daily/1521 Cummings T. G. and Worley C. G. (2009). Organization development & change. Cengage Learning: Washington D.C Lady (2007). Organizational culture of Wal-Mart. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://mgmt339.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/16/ Santa B. (2011). Wal-Mart’s Authoritarian Culture. New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/opinion/22Lichtenstein.html?_r=1 Wal-Mart, (2011). Culture. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/295.aspx Wiredu A. F (2009). Organizational Culture and its implications to Business. Print Well Company Limited: Tokyo Read More