Introduction
Organizational change is inevitable in the current fast-moving business environment. Businesses should embrace change so as to ensure success and meet their growth objectives. Without change, business organizations are likely to lose their competitiveness, hence failing to realize their goals of ensuring loyal customers and sustainable growth. Change is very important in addressing new technology, changing economy, customer needs, status quo, and growth opportunities. The global economy has been integrated and liberalized in recent days. This puts great pressure on organizations to adapt change so as to meet the changing business needs. Wal-Mart has been in the forefront in embracing change.
Wal-Mart success and leadership in the retail business is attributed to good organizational management. The business model of low pricing adopted by Wal-Mart is effective in ensuring competitiveness and leadership in the retail market. Organizational restructuring is also vital for Wal-Mart in the sense that it enhances efficiency. At present, the business operations have been restructured to accommodate effective supply chain management. In order for Wal-Mart to enjoy sustained success and leadership it is bound to embrace change. The company should embrace change in the new pricing for products and services as well as reorganization of the management structure. In this essay, the importance of organizational change, the influence of global and internal environments on the need for change, and the stages of change transition will be discussed.
Main Body
Change management is a complex task in business organizations. The normal change transition curve is not easy to go for many organizations. This requires absolute planning and commitment by the management to ensure success. The change process in business organizations is usually characterized by opposition. This is because people may not understand the need to change or even the change may cause instability and inconveniences to them. The stages of change transition are as follows, anxiety and denial, happiness, fear, threat, guilt and disillusionment, depression and hostility, gradual acceptance and moving forward. In these stages, the management may face unwarranted opposition and reluctance among the employees in embracing change. This may jeopardize the entire change process. In response to this scenario, good leadership and motivation of employees should be adopted (Harigopal, 2006).
It is the duty of managers to help their employees overcome the uninformed optimism, pessimism and depression they may be encountering as a result of the change. In the case of Wal-Mart, initiation of change in organizational structure as well as change of prices will trigger anxiety among employees (Soderquist, 2005). This leads to uncalled-for denial and opposition which should be addressed to ensure the company realizes its objectives. Change triggers a crisis among the members of an organization. This is a dangerous situation which may jeopardize the normal business operations. Fear of the unknown is a main reason leading to depression, anxiety and denial by employees when new change initiatives are rolled out (Carnall, 2007).
There is need for effective and efficient planning by Wal-Mart so as to attain success in the change process. Managers should adopt efficient approaches to change. To begin with, a sense of urgency should be established. This inspires commitment among the members of the organization. The management should also form a guiding coalition to initiate the change. Another key issue is the creation of a clear vision for the change. By creating a clear vision, members of the organization a given a working framework and guide in adopting the change. Wal-Mart management should effectively communicate the vision and empower the organization’s members to act on the vision (Soderquist, 2005). Effective planning and consolidation of improvements to institutionalize the new approaches should be considered. These strategies help organizations to overcome the challenges in adopting change (Harigopal, 2006).
Organizational change is crucial for business success in the globalised markets. Organizational change helps business organizations to align their operations and prices to meeting new demands in the market. Regardless of the levels of operations, change is inevitable for any business seeking sustained growth and success. Wal-Mart global success and growth can only be attained through effective change management. This company is bound to restructure its organizational structure and review prices for the good of customers through efficient service delivery and affordable pricing. Adopting affordable prices will help Wal-Mart to increase sales by attracting more customers. This is an effective strategy which will see the company realize its growth objectives. The need for restructuring the organizational structure is inevitable. By embracing this change, Wal-Mart will be in a position to enhance efficiency in management as well as reduce operational costs (Carnall, 2007).
The global and internal business environments are key motivators of change. In the case of global environments, the world is rapidly changing through development of new technologies. Wal-Mart like other business organizations is bound to change by adopting new technologies. Adoption of new technology will definitely boost productivity and service delivery. Another global environmental factor is changes in the economy. This is a crucial factor influencing the manner in which organizations perform. Fluctuations in the economy influence business to change by cutting down their operational costs. For instance, during the recession, companies retrench people and use stock options as a form of compensation. This is a change approach influenced by the economy (Harigopal, 2006).
Internal business environments including status quo, growth opportunities and customer needs also influence organizations to change. The need to challenge the status quo is highlighted as a key factor leading to organizational change. This is a new phenomenon in business, where organizations seek to liberalize their operations. The need for open communication and employee management calls for challenging of the status quo, thus embracing change. Customers’ needs are growing and changing as the world is evolving leading to more demand for products and services. New opportunities for businesses are also opened up. As a result of these changes, business organizations should change so as to incorporate these customer needs and attain success (Carnall, 2007).
Conclusion
As observed in the above discussion, change is a key component in business organizations. In the contemporary business environment, change is inevitable in the endeavors of building business success and competitiveness. Organizations need to address the issues of technology, new opportunities, status quo, customer needs and economy through embracing change. Due to the challenging nature of the change process, there is a need for effective planning. It has been established that global and internal environments play a key role in influencing change. Organizational change usually faces opposition due to employee anxiety and depression, hence the need for proper communication. Proper change approaches through communication, teamwork and motivation should be adopted. Wal-Mart among other business organizations should embrace change since it is inevitable for their success.
References
Carnall, C. (2007). Managing Change in Organizations. London: Routledge.
Harigopal, K. (2006). Management of Organizational Change: Leveraging Transformation. New York: McGraw Hill.
Soderquist, D. (2005). The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World’s Largest Company. New York: Wiley & Sons Press.