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Running Head: Evaluating performance through Motivation, Ethics and Conflict at Wal-Mart Evaluating performance through on Motivation, Ethics, and Conflict at Wal-Mart (Authors Name) (Institution Name) Introduction Wal-Mart management operates through a number of functions classified in general as the planning, organizational, leading, motivation and control mechanism factors. The evaluation of employees performances based on motivation, ethics and conflict at Wal-Mart is assessed on very scientific and professional basis, which is one of the main reasons for Wal-Mart to have grown into one of the most famous, well-managed and largest companies of the world. In this essay, we shall take these three factors into consideration to understand how Wal-Marts management and employees deal with these important issues. A. Motivation The motivation factors of Wal-Mart have been divided into the three sub-groups of growth, achievement and equity / satisfaction as per the following details: A 1.
Growth The growth of Wal-Mart has been due to the coordinated and harmonious controlling of this organization by the management of Wal-Mart by the encompassing and deployment of human resource, finance technology and availing of opportunities to further expand its business with success. While in all other organizations there is a differentiation between managements and the natural leaders that naturally exist where so much manpower is employed, the organizational roles of the management and leaderships play out with perfection in their normal business operations for its success. In fact in the Wal-Mart hierarchy system, the CEO, Chairman, Directors and other high position holding personnel play out the roles of leaders more than that of management and therefore are responsible for the direct outcome of this organization in terms of its profits and benefits that are achieved. A 2. Achievements In Wal-Mart, the leadership facet of the management is one of the required assets that successful managers must have to maximize output through administrative measures such as organizing, planning, directing, controlling and having the correct and appropriate number of staff. At the same time managers can not be simply leaders if they do not have the formal authority to be effective for qualitative initiatives without the support of their senior management to play out the part of an impacting role model.
In other organizations there are may be instances where leaderships are not required when for example motivated groups and individuals find the roles of leaders as dominating. This fact therefore proves that although leaderships may not be essential sometimes and it can be considered only as an asset within organizations. The different approach adopted by Wal-Mart is what gives it a decisive advantage over other organizations for its overall success. A 3 Equity/Satisfaction The difference between Wal-Mart and other organizations management and leaderships is that in other organizations, managements rule and must be obeyed while leaderships tend to make individuals follow them naturally by the personal choice of employees. In such organizations managers may have earned their authoritative positions through the time and proven loyalty they may have given to an organization and not through their leadership qualities while on the other hand, leaders may not have the required organizational skills but their vision unite individuals who are around and behind them. Managers on their part think incrementally and do things the correct way according to the rules and regulations while leaders tend to think radically and do things that they perceive to be correct and are often governed more by emotion than intelligence.
Leaders therefore stand differently as they question assumptions, suspect traditions while they seek out the truth and base their decisions on fact and not prejudice and are more innovative by nature. They allow their vision, goals, strategies and values to be their guidelines for their action and behavioral patterns in preference to controlling others and make their point by highlighting team success with charts, graphs and presentations with appealing funny ideas. Leaders also have the qualities of being observant and sensitive and realize their team strengths and weaknesses better based on which they develop mutual confidence within the groups they are in. (Leadership) While in Wal-Mart the general policy is of not selecting managers directly but to promote leaders and older employees who have plans, ideas and thoughts that are more helpful for the organizations further growth. Therefore to become managers at Wal-Mart, employees have to devote and struggle for long periods of time so that they gain experience at different levels of the organization and this factor helps them to process correct decisions. Managers at Wal-Mart have the responsibility of making short term and spontaneous timely decisions that do not reflect the organizational view points yet they play a vital role in the profitability ratios through the managing of the stores by the as the need may require, placement of shelves, products and with the experience and required levels of professionalism of dealing with co-employees and customers. B.
Evaluation of Wal-Mart's ethics program based on the elements of Code of Ethics, Training & Monitoring and Enforcement B 1 Code of Ethics The corporate culture of Wal-Mart is the biggest contributing factor that helps to identify Wal-Mart as one of the world's most admired companies. When Sam Walton founded the company, he instilled in his people and his business the system of belief that is still very much evident and in place even today. These beliefs state with clarity that, we respect our customers, associates and suppliers and strive to treat them as we ourselves want to be treated and in building and nurturing these relationships, as well as serving the communities where we live, we " ve helped build a better business - one committed to excellence. The management and leadership of Wal-Mart have been wise enough to follow the culture principles of Sam Walton which provides them with purpose, direction and motivation that are necessary even more in our present competitive and challenging business environment. Customer as well as employee satisfactory is of paramount importance at Wal-Mart, where managers play their parts by taking timely decisions and where they are also the sources who provide leaderships and suggest newer and innovative ideas and thoughts that sets up the long term vision for the better future of Wal-Mart. (Wal-Mart Culture) B 2 Training & Monitoring Managers at Wal-Mart therefore also play leadership roles in their dealings with subordinates and co-ordinate by making them aware of new strategies, policies, offers and incentives with which they grew to further motivate them in a natural way. Many of the current managers of Wal-Mart appreciate the roles that their predecessors had played in grooming them into becoming not only good managers but also good leaders with skillful, willing, and success-oriented qualities.
Wal-Mart managers exhibit their skills in these areas for getting others to participate in an effective manner in achieving goals as per the target end results of their plans for which they motivation their sub ordinates as per the policies of Wal-Mart that emphasizes on teamwork and to make employees feel as a part of Wal-Mart. This approach makes the employees of Wal-Mart think of the organization goal as personalized and their own and thereby result in the further growth and success of Wal-Mart. B 3 Enforcement & Control The planning stage is where decisions are taken with regard to the requirements of the future and as the managers of Wal-Mart have experience in their particular field, their devotion towards their service with visionary leadership always helps them to plan better for present, the coming weeks, coming months, coming years and as far ahead as the next coming five year period. Managers make the optimum usage of the resources required to enable them to implement the successful carrying out of plans so that customers are attracted through new and innovative incentives, lower prices, and discounts etc. through effect advertisement and publicity campaigns through practical logical and theoretical approaches. The enforcement and controlling roles played by Managers in the evaluation process to check progress against plans is based on regular feedback and modifications if required are put in place or new strategies are planned to motivate and at all times keep people aware about the existing vibrancy in the practically working system of Wal-Mart with reset target goals.
C. Analysis of Wal-Marts Conflict Management Approaches C 1 Direct At the management and leadership levels of Wal-Mart there are the following three generalized styles through which direction is given, plans are implemented and employees are motivated: Authoritarian (Autocratic): In this style the managers / leaders can tell the employees what has to be done and how it should be done without referring to the rule books or higher echelons of hierarch. Some appropriate conditions for the use of this style may be that the managers / leaders have all the information to solve the problem and due to the shortage of time this method may provide motivation to the employees. Participative (Democratic): This style involves the leader together with one or more employees to jointly determine how a work process should be implemented.
However, the manager / leader maintains the final decision making authority and bears the responsibility in such matters. The using of this particular style can not be considered as a sign of weakness on the part of the manager / leader , but rather as a sign of strength that employees respect. Delegative (Free Reign): In this style the employees are allowed by the manager / leader to make decisions, however, the overall responsibility of that decision still remains of the manager / leader . This method is utilized when employees are capable of analyzing situations and determining the course of remedial action. However, in this method priorities and limits of delegated powers have to be within acceptably allowable limits. The factors that influence these styles that can be used depend and include the following realities: How much time is available.
Are relationships based on respect and trust or on disrespect? Who has the information - you, your employees, or both? How well your employees are trained and how well you know the task. Internal conflicts. Stress levels. Type of task.
Is it structured, unstructured, complicated, or simple? Laws or established procedures such as OSHA or training plans. While good managers / leaders adapt and use all the above styles and their decisions would depend upon the followers, situations and other such factors. At Wal-Mart however, most of the people who have risen to senior and managerial positions appreciate their predecessors for using the authoritarian style while they were learning their job skills. We therefore can deduce that if a manager / leader is competent and if an employee is new and motivated to learn a new skill, the authoritarian style works best. But if employees already know their jobs, then a participative style is best because he would want the employee to become a part of the team.
The use of the delegation style is best when an employee knows more about the job than the leader, therefore the onus of the responsibility can be passed easily to such employees with consideration to the situations that might be called for. (Leadership Styles) C 2 Indirect The suggestion to Wal-Mart managers / leaders would therefore be to adapt and use all of the three different styles in the execution of their duties, which would enable them to save time, get to learn even from sub-ordinates who anyway would be the leaders of the future. Interactions whenever done in a participative manner are always useful and the exchange of knowledge and for the correct motivation and morale-boosting of all participants. While the trend of rewarding positive employees with promotions is a very good one, perhaps a generalized way of appreciating long-serving employees should be made perhaps by methods such as providing health care coverage, paid holidays with travel tickets and perks, education expenses for their children and other similar benefits for motivation of all the employees of Wal-Mart, because realistically speaking only a small percentage of them must be rising to senior managerial positions, while the rest can be considered senior within the organization but would probably still not have risen in Wal-Mart hierarchy as some of their counterparts. This change would with great effect deflate the de-motivation factor is existent in old Wal-Mart employees. D Analysis how A, B & C when successfully implemented can result in a high Performance Team The managers / leaders of Wal-Mart are constantly seeking newer and better ways of working so that they can help their company grow and become more reliable and responsible.
Their efforts continue to improve and fulfill the expectations of the Wal-Marts stake-holders and also provide qualitative services to their customers. Wal-Mart leaders have been able to maintain an environment that is success-oriented and adapt to changes whenever required with ease and are always on the lookout to target new markets where they can further expand their vast network of Wal-Mart stores. The combined efforts of leaders and employees of Wal-Mart have raised the levels of profits and in respect of the motivations exhibited by employees, promotions are encouraged where for examples individuals who began their careers as cashiers or in other low paying positions get rewarded with position such as store managers, market managers, compliance managers and market fashion managers. The leaders of Wal-Mart consider the needs of their employees and offer good incentives for the continual future goals so that the growth and the objectives of this organization are achieved.
Employees are encouraged and motivated to continue their services with Wal-Mart through the above type of facilities and benefits which is why a number of their employees have remained in Wal-Marts service for periods that range between 16 and 20 years. The excellent qualities exhibited by the managers / leaders of Wal-Mart to enable them to plan out their ideas, to communicate and in an organized manner implement them with other team members, inclusive of stakeholders, retailers, outlets, promotion campaigns and employees who work with them and serve them. The passion of Wal-Mart to combine technology in their business has helped to provide customer satisfaction with the adjustment of every day fluctuations in the prices of essential goods. Wal-Mart leaders hold regular short meetings instead of big ones with bigger intervals so that immediate focus is made concentrated on the available opportunities and to remove weakness if any in the 24 hours. 7 days a week services, which also includes a great online shopping business.
Conclusion The conclusion that we can derive from this essay is that if we have leadership without management than a vision sets in without consideration as to what the new direction will achieve. People who eventually are left in such organizations have to work harder to make sense of the trail that is left behind and having to put together the strewn pieces together to make thing work. A good example of this is available in the mythological film that has created a sensation in our present decade, The Lord of the Rings, where at the council of Elrond, Frodo Baggins rescues the council from conflict and takes on the responsibility of the quest for destroying the ring while the management of this task comes to his group from others. While management without leadership controls all the resources required to maintain the status quo and to ensure that things happen as per established plans, and here we can take the example of the referee who manages a game but does not provide leadership. The referees part is therefore of controlling the resources only to make sure that the rules of the game are followed and that status quo remains in order. On the other hand, leadership combined with management sets a new direction and manages the resources to achieve goals.
We can take the example of a newly elected Prime Minister or President who sets sup new directions for a group that manages and controls according to laid down principles. However, we shall conclude this essay with the hope that the legacy of Sam Walton shall continue through his laid down aggressive vision with the same courage and commitment to change and adapt to the changing environmental, product sourcing, healthcare benefits, and diversity by serving the best interests of the very communities that helped Wal-Mart to become what it is today. (Difference between Leadership and management & 21 st Century Leadership) Works Cited: 21 st Century Leadership (Accessed: May 19, 2007) web Difference between Leadership and management (Accessed: May 19, 2007) web Leadership Styles (Accessed: May 19, 2007) web Wal-Mart Culture (Accessed: May 19, 2007) web
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