Management Information Systems in Walmart: Business Units, Data Forms, and Ethical Implications

MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Describing the different business units and their connection......................................................3
Explaining the different forms of data and the role of data warehousing....................................5
Ethical, legal and professional implications in Walmart’s latest programmes and data
protection legislation....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Walmart is one of the biggest retail multinational company of United States and its
headquarter is situated in Bentonville and also it is world's largest company in terms of revenue
generation. This report shows the different types of business units and the big data analysis used
by Walmart.
MAIN BODY
Describing the different business units and their connection
The structure of the Walmart describes or explains the activities or the functions of the
company that includes the operations of the organization related to the e-commerce activities.
The organizational structure of the Walmart help them in analysis the market and also helpful in
making the strategic implementations so that the firm is able to capture the bigger share in the
retail industry. On the other hand the culture of the Walmart determines or explains the way of
their employees respond to any problem, issue or the challenge that the firm is going to face
(Porter, M., 2019). The main or the important features of the culture of the Walmart help the
enterprise to adapt the new changes according to the trends of the market and also assist the
company to analyse the emerging challenges in the international market. However, it can also be
state the structure as well as the culture of the Walmart helps to achieve the competitive
advantage and leads the firm towards success.
The structure of the Walmart have the hierarchical functions of the organizational
structure. This type of structure mainly has two features such as function- based and hierarchy.
In this hierarchical feature states that the authority of the command and decision making goes in
a vertical line which means every employee has a direct supervisor or the superior and also every
department have its own head. Whereas the function- based feature states or involves various
type of functions or the activities that are fulfilled by the employees of Walmart (Begley and
et.al., 2019). The company have a separate department or the sector for each and every functions
or the operations such as finance department, human resources management, sales department,
technology, marketing, etc. The main impact or the effect of this type of structure is the ability
or the capability of the managers of Walmart that are handling the issues and the challenges of
the firm effectively and also contributes to the growth of the Walmart. Hierarchical functional
structure of the company facilitates them to fulfil or achieve the goals and the objectives of the

business and also help them to increases the productivity and the profitability of the Walmart. On
the other hand the drawback or the disadvantage of this type of structure is that it gives minimum
or the less support to the organization regarding the flexibility and also affect the lower level of
the company as it involves lengthy process of communication from top to the low level at
Walmart.
Source:Walmart Organization Chart,2021
The culture of the Walmart mainly has the four components or the elements that give the
guidance to the workers or the employees regarding their behaviour and the performance in order
to attract customers and also to increase the brand value of the firm. Walmart organizational
culture gave emphasis or focuses on the services given to the consumers, tries for the excellence,
respect for the employees and for every individual and also takes adequate or the relevant actions
along with integrity. As Walmart is a retail organization and also engages in the wholesale
Illustration 1: Organizational Structure