Walmart Versus Competitors in Leadership Styles - Management Essay Sample

Leaders of successful organizations across the globe have often adhered to specific leadership styles which they are comfortable with. However, the problem is that great leaders possess a series of leadership styles in a toolkit which they apply after diagnosing a situation and applying the most appropriate leadership at the right time (Agarwal, 2016). Walmart is one such company that has benefited from good leadership styles and effective management approaches. It started as a single store and developed to a multi-billion empire. Walmart began in 1962 by Mr. Sam Walton in Arkansas and Kansas with a little chain of stores. Mr. Sam invested 95 percent of his savings to start the company which later became a global brand with a vision of understanding the needs of the consumers.

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When Wal-Mart's leadership is compared to other retail brands, there is a significant difference. Their leadership style has been based on giving the employees power in the organization which has been implemented in profit sharing approach introduced by the founder, Mr. Sam Walton. Profit sharing approach allows the employees at Walmart to be part of the management process which provides an opportunity to achieve the set goals and objectives (Blome, Foerstl & Schleper, 2015). The employees, in turn, took care of the company and worked jointly towards achieving the set goals and objectives. The current management of the company under the leadership of Lee Scot has continued with the profit and sharing approach for the employees and involving them in various management decisions. The business biography indicates that the current leader has a strong belief in maintaining the existing positive relationship with the employees. The leadership style focuses on the good working relationship that creates a conducive working environment. This has been contrary to the competitors who focus on an authoritarian type of leadership. Leaders have often put into consideration the opinion of their middle-level employees and the low-level employees to make decisions in the organization management.

It can be easily stated that Wal-Mart uses a democratic style in leading and a cooperative approach to making decisions. Mr. Sam Walton created teamwork policy which has been applied even with the contemporary leadership to accomplish different purposes. These teams involve associates working in an area sharing the same managers with the aim of achieving the goals set and solving issues facing the specific work areas. Among the teams, each member has a passion for better ideas that can help achieve the set objectives and every idea count. Hierarchy doesn't exist in this case. This is different from the competing organizations, and it is for this reason that Walmart has achieved significant success as evident in their annual profit revenue and larger market share across the U.S (Miller, 2015). Mr. Lee Scot is a team player who motivates the employees and the managers to perform their assigned duties well, take risks at the workplace highlight on the set goals. This also brings in the attribute of transformational leadership since there is some sense of inspiration in the organization as opposed to other companies in the retail business where employees are not involved in the decision making and are not motivated to work hard and take risks.

In a nutshell, it can be said that the leadership personalities and styles used at Walmart are what led to the significant success currently witnessed. The founder introduced various concepts that have been emulated to present time. The leadership styles utilized instilled some sense of hard work and an organization culture that helped create a sustainable working relationship with the employees and the top management.

References

Agarwal, A. K. (2016). Business Leadership and Law. Place of publication not identified: SPRINGER.

Blome, C., Foerstl, K., & Schleper, M. C. (2015). Antecedents of green supplier championing and greenwashing: An empirical study on leadership and ethical incentives. Journal of Cleaner Production, 152, 339-350.

Miller, D. (2015). Disruptive Texts: Case Narratives As Research Inspirations. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 154-164.