Essay Sample on The Need for Change: Adapting to Survive and Thrive in an Evolving World

Introduction

Change is a common thread that runs through businesses regardless of their size, industry and also ages. Organizations are required to implement changes quickly because of the continuous change in the world. It is evident that organizations that are able to handle change tend to thrive while those that do not may struggle to survive. The need for organizational change is informed by changes in the workforce demographics, economic and socio-political environment, and constraints on resources as well as community demographics (Dawson, 2019). Wal-Mart is a big company that has grown to become one of the largest retail stores found in the world. The profit margins for Wal-Mart have expanded steadily over the years and the overall success of the company is attributed to the fact it has applied effective change management strategies to reach the mission and vision.

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Wal-Mart Company Profile

Wal-Mart stores came about as a result of the investment of the late Sam Walton. The company has grown to be a multinational retail corporation whose operations are a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and also discount department stores. The mission of Wal-Mart when it started was to become the best retailer in the minds and hearts of customers as well as the employees (Song, 2018). The company has already achieved the aim of being a top retailer. It has had a great influence on the minds of customers regarding financial benefits. It is such that the employees of Wal-Mart earn their wages as the customers save money because of the subsidized prices for their commodities.

Wal-Mart's mission is to save money for customers with the aim of living better lives. The slogan of the company is "Save money. Live better." Wal-Mart believes that culture is value in action and they have set standards to deliver customer services at their best and also create an environment at work that will ensure improvement in performance so as to achieve the mission and vision (Song, 2018). The values that Wal-Mart holds include superior customer service, respect, action with integrity and also striving for excellence. Wal-Mart also upholds the ethical behavior expected of a large company in its operations.

The company financials and market position shows that in the year 2016, the reports show a record of the total revenue of $482 billion (Kopnina, & Blewitt, 2018). In general, the company had close to 11,500 retail locations, an optimized supply chain, e-commerce websites in eleven countries and also 2.3 million associates. In terms of dividends, Wal-Mart was able to return $10 billion to the shareholders. Recently, Wal-Mart announced that there will be an increase in dividends to $2 per share.

Change Management Identification and Implementation

The operations of Wal-Mart are in four corporate strategies found in change management; branching new retail sectors, creating the best brands, expanding in the US and expanding globally. Wal-Mart is restructuring the store operations in the US which will see the business consolidate its divisions (Kopnina, & Blewitt, 2018). The major weaknesses that Wal-Mart has experienced include the thin profit margins, high business vulnerability to innovative competitors and also disruptions in the industry environment in the presence of major firms such as Amazon.

Change management identification consists of the activities that are related to ensuring that Wal-Mart adopts new technology and new service systems to the customers. Change is necessary to cover for the weaknesses of the company hence the implementation leads to a better company (Hayes, 2018). The effective use of change management in Wal-Mart has been a core strategy in transforming the company in terms of its processes, and employees, which has enhanced the overall performance and ensured continuous improvement in making changes to the business environment. Wal-Mart has applied change management that is comprehensive and well-structured hence the success of projects.

Issues in the Change Management of Wal-Mart Company

There have been issues in change management for Wal-Mart. It has been as a result of disagreements on the factors that influence initiatives for transformation. Wal-Mart managers have looked on the initiatives at a different perspective which is on their basis of personal experience and they have had a different focus on factors of success (Song, 2018). For effective change, Wal-Mart executives have put in effort in using different approaches in the different areas that are within the company.

Change management for Wal-Mart Company has had its focus on the soft issue such as the culture of the organization, motivation issue and also leadership. These are significant elements in the success of Wal-Mart but they are insufficient when it comes to managing change since these soft factors have no direct and major impact on the results of change programs (Song, 2018). The company has also faced issues with the worry of time in implementing the change programs with the assumption that the initiatives that require longer periods are likely to fail. These notions have resulted in the closure of opportunities where they forget their objectives, they lose enthusiasm and the company accumulates to more problems.

Organization Development (OD) Strategies for Change Management in Wal-Mart

Applying Lewin's model of change management in Wal-Mart could be an effective strategy towards attaining an effective model that is long lasting to operate. Kurt Lewin's model of change management involves three strategies which are unfreezing, changing and then refreezing (Hussain, Lei, Akram, Haider, Hussain, & Ali, 2018). Lewin describes that the process of change consists of the creation of a perception that there is a need for change then one move towards the new and desired level and then solidify the change to be their norm.

The freezing stage for Wal-Mart will be determining the needs to change through surveying the organization to understand the present state and determining why the change needs to take place. Wal-Mart will need to ensure that there is strong support coming from the senior management (Hussain et al., 2018). It will also involve managing and understanding the doubts and concerns through being open to addressing the issues presented by customers and employees.

The change stage of the model that Wal-Mart will incorporate includes empowering action by providing opportunities for employee evolvement. Wal-Mart has initiated the strategy of anti-unionization for the employees which has allowed them to have unions (Hussain et al., 2018). The company is driven by profit and encouraging such a trend will increase their profitability.

The refreezing stage is where Wal-Mart will need to anchor the changes into the culture by identifying what supports the change and the barriers sustaining change. It will also be necessary to develop ways that will sustain the change such as ensuring leadership support, establishing feedback systems especially for service done to customers and adopting an organizational structure as needed (Hussain et al., 2018). The employees will need to provide support to the strategies and the company should keep everyone informed.

Wal-Mart has had the strategy of utilizing political capital fully in a bid to expand overseas. Concerning this strategy, the leaders have had to bend their beliefs and consider the reaction of the local community. The strategy started by dealing with Japanese retailers. However, Wal-Mart is required to learn more about different cultures that will help the business to adjust to the different countries even faster and raise their profits immensely.

Wal-Mart has also come up with the strategy of the introduction of charity work to the public. It is in the manner that the company sends the managers to the local people where they offer their time in a meaningful way (Tidd, & Bessant, 2018). These donations made by Wal-Mart help to expand the current space that will increase their profits. It is evident that the Company has continued to remain aggressive about its change management and leadership.

Wal-Mart needs to know that sustainable change and leadership starts from within. The top officials need to be aware that the success of the company is dependent on the strategies that they will put across such as setting and communicating the goals of the company, understanding how the change will be achieved and engaging the necessary individuals to implement the change (Kopnina, & Blewitt, 2018).

Wal-Mart already began the change in leadership initiatives in a manner that is comprehensive for the business and they set their targets. The company named this initiative as "sustainability 360" which has strategies such as the elimination of resource wastage, the sale of products that are sustainable and empowerment through renewable energy. These goals by Wal-Mart Company are as a result of inspiration by social and ethical behaviors that the firm has adopted.

It is quite possible that resistance to change will be experienced at Wal-Mart both at the employee level and also leadership level (Carnall, 2018). Thus, the changes need to take place in stages so as to mitigate the resistance to change so that the employees will get accustomed to the same. One key way of minimizing resistance is through education and communication. The employees need to be informed about the changes in the organization and the logic behind it. To enhance the engagement of employees, there will be a need for Wal-Mart to consider negotiations and also awards as a way to motivate them.

Fostering management for Wal-Mart will need the leaders and employees to understand the present state of the firm. The company needs to lay out the desired future state of the organization so that it is communicated to employees. Stability of Wal-Mart will also help to reduce anxiety levels. The company needs to be aligned with the vision, mission, core values and also guiding principles.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The successful organization and development of Wal-Mart to the changes in its strategies need to be taken with keen concern. The business model of Wal-Mart should ensure that they generate the return on equity which is able to satisfy the customers and the investors. The company's growth in terms of the profits is from the expansion of its activities and also through procuring goods and services at fair prices. Wal-Mart needs to concentrate on managing change in its strategies and upholding the code of conduct that is necessary to build a good reputation and sustainable growth.

References

Carnall, C. (2018). Managing change. Routledge.

Dawson, P. (2019). Reshaping change: A processual perspective. Routledge.

Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.

Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 123-127.

Kopnina, H. M., & Blewitt, J. H. (2018). Strategic change for sustainability. In Sustainable Business (Vol. 139, No. 156, pp. 139-156). ROUTLEDGE in association with GSE Research.

Song, X. (2018, June). A Study on Management Model of Human Resources in Multinational Companies Based on Cultural Differences--Taking Walmart as an Example. In 2018 International Conference on Sports, Arts, Education, and Management Engineering (SAEME 2018). Atlantis Press.

Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. R. (2018). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change. John Wiley & Sons