Assignment on organization leadership

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BUSINESS: BUSINESS REPORT ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES FACING WALMART
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Introduction
The success of an organization is dependent on the organization is entirely dependent on the
organization leadership. With dynamic organizational changes, the management of any
organization needs to be prepared strategically to embrace the changes and provide useful
guidance aimed at driving increased efficiency and productivity of the organization (Brewster et
al. 2016, p. 7). The modern corporate world has been characterized by different challenges which
have affected the performance and efficiency of organizations. The development of effective
strategic management plans plays an essential role in running the organizations. The leadership
of the organization plays a vital role in developing the tone of the corporate culture. There have
been many contemporary issues which have hindered organizational development through
increased productivity. The process of resolving the problems and implementing positive change
in the organization starts with the identification of the main issues (Vance & Paik, 2014, p. 27).
This report, therefore, seeks to provide an analysis of contemporary issue affecting the Wal-Mart
Organization which has been faced with recent challenges in managing their employees. The
study will be focused on the use of various leadership concepts and theories to help in providing
a possible solution to the organization management team and enhance employee productivity.
Brief Background Information of Wal-Mart Organization
Wal-Mart Inc. is an American multinational retail company or corporation and is recognized as
the world’s largest retail company regarding revenue. The company or retail organization
operates a chain of hypermarkets, supermarkets as well as discount stores and grocery stores.
The company was incorporated in the year 1969 and was founded by Sam Walton (Schuler &
Jackson, 2014, p. 42). Being the largest trading retail company, it has been able to record

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revenue of $ 500.3 billion so far in 2018. It has been able to employ 2.3 million employees in
their various departments globally. The company operates through three primary segments
including the Wal-Mart US which is the most significant group, the Wal-Mart international and
the Sam’s Club. The company offers to its customers an assortment of the company merchant
and other company services at everyday low prices.
A contemporary issue affecting the Company
Despite the company productivity and profitability in the industry, the company has been able to
employ a considerable number of employees in the sector. The human resource department is
therefore presented with a challenge to manage the massive organization workforce. The
organization is consequently faced with numerous employee-related cases and lawsuits
especially with matters related to poor working conditions, anti-union politics, low amount of
wages for their employees despite increased profitability as well as inadequate health care for
employees (Hwang & Park, 2015, p. 822). Employees are referred to as the most significant
assets of the company. However despite the increased profitability of the organization, employee
management in the company has become a problem today and has hindered the effectiveness of
the company as well as its productivity. There is a great need for the company to develop various
leadership strategies that are effective in improving the company as well as enhance its
productivity.
The concept of Organizational Leadership
Organizational leadership in any organization places much emphasis on developing leadership
skills and abilities relevant to the organization. Either formal or informal leaders, they are
required by their organizations to develop and implement strategies that will drive a lasting

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change in organizational operations and enable it to adapt to rapid regulatory changes as well as
uncertainties (Dinh et al. 2014, p. 54). Organizations comprised of employees from different
cultures and backgrounds and therefore it is essential for the leaders to develop a management
system that will help to incorporate all their efforts into the business culture. More importantly,
the ability to understand the needs of every employee is critical and plays a significant role in
developing a sense of belonging to the company or organizations (Antonakis & House, 2014, p.
756). A satisfied employee will be willing to give his or her best efforts in helping the
organization achieve their set objectives. Inability to develop employee management strategies
may be very costly to the organization, and therefore it is the responsibility of organizational
leaders to build a corporate culture which takes care of employee interests.
The leadership of the organization should be aimed at establishing or developing the best
working relationships with the employees and ensuring that the working environments are
conducive to promote organizational development. Employee’s welfare is very critical in
determining their contribution to the organizational development and is inclusive of employee
rewards systems in the form of wages and salaries, employee health cover and also ensuring that
the organization supports the policies of employees union (Tourish, 2014, p. 83). These are some
of the issues which have been facing the Wal-Mart organization despite its growth and
profitability.
The employee of the company complains of their working conditions to be unfavorable and
require the organization to develop more favorable working conditions which will motivate them
and make the employee more engaged in the operations of the company. The organization has
been using a top, bottom approach to addressing employee-related challenges which have not
been active (Dugan, 2017, p. 7). The company has not always implemented some important

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policies from the employees union which require the company to cater for the healthcare of the
employees through insurance policies, medical cover or even having special health care benefits
for their employees.
The role of leadership in organizations is, therefore, to promote and motivate their employees to
achieve higher performances or improve their productivity and efficiency through enhanced
human relationships in the organization. The company employee reward strategy has not been
effective in motivating the company employees since the reward is based on relatively the job
levels and in most case, the individual performance incentives are rewarded to the different
managers heading different stores or departments (Steinbach et al. 2017, p. 1717). It, therefore,
does not recognize employee efforts and such has been one of the reasons the company has been
able to shut down some of its stores due to lack of productivity. Employees are always motivated
if the organization reward system is cognizant of their contribution and efforts in organization
development. The company has majored so much in rewarding company employees based on
their positions and status in the compared to the use of recognition and reward systems based on
employee’s performance. Due to the economies of scale in the organization and the nature of its
human resource services, the company has not been effective in addressing employee-related
concerns, and this may become a significant hindrance in achieving efficiency and sustaining the
company productivity levels.
Application of Leadership Theories in contributing to effective employee management in
the organization
Situational contingency leadership Theory

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One of the most important leadership theories used in organization development is the situational
contingency theory developed by Fred Fiedler. The approach pre-deposits that leadership
effectiveness in an organization is influenced by two main factors. The first factors are the
leader's motivational structures or their leadership style while the second factor is the degree to
which the leadership situation leads to effective control and influence over the situation
(Harrison, 2018, p. 26). According to this theory, we have two types of organizational leadership
or leaders; one that is task oriented or task oriented leaders and one that is relationship centered.
The job-related leaders are focused on delivering results and therefore are more directive, strict
to deadlines and have established different structure situations. They are interested or focused on
the effects more than the process. On the other hand, the relationship-oriented leaders are
focused on developing the right relationships with their employees and are usually less directive
and more considerate of employee issues.
This leadership theory is critical to understanding the Wal-Mart contemporary issues affecting
the company employees. From the Analysis of the company relationship with its employees, the
company can be said to be having task-oriented leaders who are interested with the results or
performance of the company and are less concerned with employee development initiatives in
the company (Gottfredson & Aguinis, 2017, p. 576). Despite the human resource strategies of
employee recruitment, training, and retention the company needs to change its leadership style to
a relationship-oriented leadership. This will facilitate the leaders with an opportunity to focus
much on employee-related issues and concerns. The productivity of an organization is
determined by how motivated their workforce is as well as their commitment to organizational
goals and objectives (Lee, 2017, p. 31). Focusing on employee development through establishing
the right working conditions, developing active reward systems, supporting the union policies

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and providing medical or health cover will help the company use fewer resources to achieve their
objectives as compared to using task-oriented measures.
The Behavioral leadership Theory
The development of behavioral leadership theory helped to establish strategic thinking that
leaders can be developed through learning and not through characteristic inherent traits. The
approach is focused on what the leaders do and how their behavior can be used to influence
organizational performance. The theory is critical in enhancing leadership development in an
organization and assumes that useful leadership behavior is as a result of productive role
behavior (Alcala, 2017, p. 41). The theory argues that leaders can use technical skills, human
skills as well as conceptual skills to contribute to the increased organizational development and
enhance leadership effectiveness. Therefore it is the behavior of an individual leader which will
be used as a measure of good leadership or bad leadership. The functional responses of
successful leaders according to this theory include the ability to determining goals, motivating
employees, achieving set goals, effective communication and ability to interact with employees
efficiently and build a team spirit (Tremblay et al. 2017, p. 57). Such leadership provides higher
satisfaction to the employees and promotes increased efficiency.
Wal-Mart company type of leadership can be said to be trait-based and not behavioral. The
company leadership has not been able to influence organizational performance positively. The
leaders have been efficiently determining goals of the company but have failed so much in
motivating their employees and having an active communication channel (Shore et al. 2017, p.
47). Interactions within the company are not sufficient since it’s not based on relationship
building but performance or task oriented. The top division of the company is made by the senior

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management in the organization and trickle down to the employees through the various
departmental managers. Such a system does not promote adequate relationship with employees
and may be slow to implement any solutions to employee problems due to the organizational
bureaucracy and leadership structure. Establishing a leadership based on behavioral approach
promotes the culture of higher satisfaction in the company.
Employee relationship strategies and Concepts
Every organization is faced with a responsibility to develop an effective employee relations
strategy. This is not the role of the human resource management but should be the role of the
organization leadership starting with the top management. Establishing a reliable and efficient
employee relations strategy is mainly concerned with the leader’s capability to develop an
environment that delivers what people want. People or organizational employees would love to
feel good about themselves, who they are, what they do and proud of where they work
(Bayraktar et al. 2017, p. 50). The understanding of these factors is an excellent step towards the
facilitation of effective leadership in the organization. On the other hand, the ultimate goals of
every leader in an organization would be to feel good about the organization productivity,
general performance and their ability to develop new leaders from within their organization.
Developing what employees want in an organization is our focus on helping us understand how
Wal-Mart Company can establish a culture that is inclusive and recognizes their efforts.
Developing an effective employee relations strategy starts with the development of
organizational culture. This is because most employees’ want of feel-good of what they are
doing and where they are doing it. This means that the organization needs to develop its image
and a good way to establish an effective organizational culture would be through effective

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leadership that is relationship oriented and not task oriented (Taylor, 2017, p. 29). Wal-Mart
company need to develop an employee relationship culture based on employee relationships and
not task oriented. This will help the leadership to be more concerned about the employee’s
welfare and not focus only on their contribution to the organization regarding performance.
The company needs to develop an active communication channel for communicating the
employee’s needs. The company communication strategy has failed and that has contributed to
the increased cases of lawsuits from employees since their issues cannot be addressed efficiently
through the human resource management strategies most of the employees have sought to seek
help from the courts which is something that has impacted the image and reputation of the
organization (Adjibolosoo, 2018, p. 84) negatively. Employees should be able to understand
what is going on in the company which means that the organization needs to involve the
employees in decision making especially in issues relating to employee performance. Instead of
making a decision from the top management level and passing the resolutions to employees
through the departmental managers the company should develop a platform for engaging their
employees through meetings and seeking their feedback about specific issues affecting the
company. An active communication channel plays an essential role in helping the employees to
channel or articulate their needs, concerns, wishes or even complaints.
Employees also want to feel that their services are valued in the organization, and the best way is
through developing an effective compensation strategy. The issues relating to low wages in the
company despite the continued profitability of Wal-Mart Company could have been resolved
through effective leadership. An efficient compensation strategy will involve the efforts of
organizational leaders to motivate their employees through various mechanisms or approach
(Dong et al. 2017, p. 440). The motivation can be done through attractive salary packages,

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benefits and incentives plans, reward systems for excellent performance and even other non-
monetary reward systems such as having dinners and social gathering as well as team building
activities. The company had failed in this aspect, and the leadership of the company paid more
focus or rewarding the top performance managers or focusing only on rewarding the high
performing employees who meet specific sales targets.
Lastly, effective leadership of organization will establish an employee relations strategy that if
focused on solving employee complaints. Every employee will always want to feel kind of how
they are treated by their employers, and therefore it is the responsibility of the leaders to develop
a mechanism of handling employee’s complaints and solving any conflicts by the use of internal
conflict resolution measures to avoid these issues going to the public through lawsuits and
increased cases.
Recommendations to the Wal-Mart Leadership and Management
The management and leadership of Wal-Mart organization are required to develop an employee
relations strategy that seeks to compensate or reward the employee's efforts not only based on
their performance but also on their overall contribution to the company. The company through
the human resource department should conduct a salary review in the organization based on the
total productivity of the company. When the company is more productive, the benefits should
also come back to the employees and not only to the company top management and shareholders.
The company should establish, so benefits sharing proportions accorded to employees annually
depending on the overall productivity of the company.
The relationship strategy should be aimed at improving the social and health status of the
employees. The development of employee health benefits is significant in enhancing employee’s

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productivity. Access to health has been costly, and every employee would love to have a health
cover by their employer which is also another form of compensation to the employees. It is also
important for the company through the relationship strategy to develop an internal conflict
resolution department within the various departmental stores through which the different human
resource managers can help in solving multiple employees’ complaints (Aarons et al. 2017, p.
29). Such a strategy will be advantageous in understanding the needs of the employees in the
company as well as protecting the reputation of the company by preventing small issues from
going to the public through lawsuits from employees.
Conclusion
With the rapid growth of organizations, human resource function has become very
important in the leadership of an organization. Effective organization leadership will seek to
establish a mechanism which will develop a positive relationship between employees and the top
organization management. Employee relationship management has become very vital in
determining the success of an organization and in assessing organization efficiency and
productivity. The leadership Wal-Mart company despite their productivity and profitability in the
retail sector need to develop and implement an effective employee relations strategy to solve the
issues facing the company leading to lawsuits from employees due to the failure of the
organization to meet and address their needs and concerns.

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