Introduction
For an organization to succeed the management must be considered as an important tool. However, both the internal and external factors impact on each and every function of the management since they influence the organization, controlling, leading and planning decisions made by managers. They also influence the manner in which work is delegated by managers throughout the firm. Thus, there are four significant factors which are considered by administrators to warrant achievement and support a firm to move ahead. Wal-Mart can advance beyond its marketplace rivals if the corporation properly utilizes its ethical codes, diversity, product innovation, technological advancement and globalization.
Globalization
Organization administration is constantly demanding for change to occur so as to catch up with the changing time, technology and innovation. Wal-Mart Inc is among the key corporations that successfully utilize the four management functions. Globalization as stated by Deango (2001) aids worldwide marketplaces to have several opportunities and enhances the number of marketplace participants that require advanced capabilities to attain competitive advantages. Therefore, before going global to take advantage of the Indian market the management of Wal-Mart had to take a different planning course in order to function effectively in the Indian marketplace. Wal-Mart management had to study the trends and sizes of the Indian market so as to change its operational strategies to suit that universal market (Britt, 2010). In fact, the management of Wal-Mart had to designate responsible personnel to run its Indian market sites, plan how such individuals had to control and operate in that site to make sure that all Wal-Mart corporate goals and objectives are accomplished. Globalization has enabled Wal-Mart to formulate new operational strategies that suit foreign markets, hence increasing its corporate profitability margin.
Technology
In the current world technology has frequently changed and corporations that want to stay ahead of others have encountered various technological challenges. To be successful and surpass other global market competitors Wal-Mart functionality has been affected by technological advancements. For instance, Wal-Mart Inc altered its storage and mainframe goods to IBM through renovating its technology in the fiscal 2001 (Deango, 2001). This enabled Wal-Mart to keep its technology updated. The organization, leading, controlling and planning decisions that were previously made from the older technology had to be stopped. Wal-Mart adopted the new technology to allow this corporation to meet all the demands of the suppliers, consumers and stakeholders. Technological advancements enabled customers to shop online thus forcing Wal-Mart to implement the IBM framework which ensured that the company served the interest of its stakeholders while maintaining its market dominance.
Innovation
Innovation affects the four management functionalities. In fact, consumers and Wal-Mart clients have been able to obtain every product plus newly fangled goods at very low prices than those of market rivals. To be precise Wal-Mart Inc via the use of employees’ innovativeness has been able to persistently adjust to customers’ demands and marketplace variations. Workforce innovativeness has allowed the administration to warily plan to identify every good that is essential and the manner in which they are supposed to be traded. In a competitive market good leaders must be prepared to listen to the comments that come from both the external and internal clients and ensure that all employees are ready to tackle each market eventuality. The management of Wal-Mart through its four functions has been able to absorb the artistically novel ideas from the corporation workforce by putting them into practice. This helped Wal-Mart to inspire its employees to generate new ideas that ensure all products that meet the consumers demands are produced and sold at comparatively low prices than those of other market players (Deango, 2001).
Diversity
Wal-Mart is a famous company and the managers controlling, leading, organizing and planning for most of its activities are affected by its ethics and diversity. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart experienced different changes during its expansion periods there are other operational aspects that remained unaltered (Bateman & Snell, 2009). For example, the company management maintained Wal-Mart Inc strong corporate culture that is founded on individual respect, striving for excellence and customer service principles. Wal-Mart Inc ethical codes hardly discriminate.
Irrespective of disability, gender, religion and race of a person Wal-Mart will always offer equal and open chances for people who are willing to work for the corporation. The ethnical diversity embraced by Wal-Mart affects the management planning. This is because certain managerial and operational issues tend to arise from workers and consumers as a result of cultural diversity. Since there are cultures that are prohibited to work during certain hours and days, Wal-Mart Inc has been affected as it accommodates diverse staffs. Failure to enforce guiding principles may make employees to believe that such rules are not necessary. This may give rise to lack of respect as well as poor control of the workforces.
Ethics
All the decisions that Wal-Mart managers make are affected by the ethical codes that govern Wal-Mart operations. The ethical guidelines affect the planning, control and organization decisions that managers make. For instance, it is considered unethical for shift managers to force workers to work round the clock. Hence when the management of Wal-Mart realizes that any staff member is uncooperative, lazy or careless it might be forced to micro-manage the workforce so as to lead it to accomplish the assigned tasks (Mars, 2004). The human resource manager is also required to follow ethical codes designed by Wal-Mart when organizing, recruiting and controlling staffs that are required to complete the projects. Therefore, it is apparent that globalization, product innovation, technological advancement, ethics and diversity affect Wal-Mart Inc organization, leading, planning and controlling.
References
Bateman, T. & Snell, S. (2009). Management: Leading and collaborating in a competitive world. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Britt, D. (2010). Impact of globalization in creating sustainable competitive advantage. Web.
Deango, B. (2001). With new technology, Wal-Mart could gain edge over competitors’ massive hardware upgrade IBM is big winner in deal, beating out Hitachi, EMC for $40 million contract. Web.
Mars, T. (2004). Wal-Mart legal department diversity. Web.