University Report: Analysis of Woolworths Supermarket's Organization

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths Supermarket, a prominent Australian retail chain. It begins with an overview of the organization, its strategic intent to become the leading grocery seller, and its customer-centric operating goals, including building a customer-led culture and continuous progress. The role of top management in setting the organization's direction is discussed, along with the causes of goal conflict and how managers can address them through clear communication and strategic alignment. The report then identifies Woolworths' functional organizational structure, outlining its strengths (defined roles) and weaknesses (limited communication) and suggests potential improvements like divisional or matrix structures to enhance customer focus and communication. The analysis extends to the task environment, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction and the need for Woolworths to embrace social responsibility to maintain its competitive edge. The general environment analysis focuses on political influences, highlighting the impact of government policies on the company's operations and advocating for changes like labor flexibility and tax reforms to facilitate growth. Finally, the report assesses Woolworths' international evolution, placing it in the multinational stage with aspirations for global expansion, considering the advantages (global customer base) and challenges (complex organizational framework) of such a move.

Running head: DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
Designing Effective Organization
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
Response to question 1
Woolworths Supermarket is one of the most popular retail stores in Australia. An
Australian grocery store has been operating since 1924 ("The Woolworths Story - Woolworths
Group", 2018). As the grocery store started to operate, primarily it was selling the grocery items.
As the business grew, the company started selling various kinds of household products,
stationary items, beauty products, magazines and many more. At present, the company has more
than one thousand stores that are operating all over the Australia. In addition to this, the
organization has come up with their online shopping site namely “HomeShop”. As the company
has become one of the most popular grocery stores and supermarkets in the country, the
company eventually sets out its aim to become the biggest brand in Australia. They have pointed
out that their aim is to become the primary grocery seller in the country, so that their customers
select the grocery store over others. In addition to this, the company comes up with very specific
customer oriented priorities such as building a culture that is customer and store led (Grant,
2016). Along with that, the company aims at generating continual progress ad holing up the
momentum in the food sector. In addition to that, the company also aims at upgrading their
production of drinks to derive more customer satisfaction. The company has laid its strategic
intent so that it supports the efficient business foundation. The next step towards the strategic
management is to deliver on and satisfy the customers by providing good prices, satisfactory
services and quality products. Moreover, to ensure the future development, the company has
planned store renewal programs.
In order to set the organizational direction and goals, the role of top management is to be
held of high importance. The top managements determine the strategies. They are more focused

2DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
on the prospects of market positioning and determine the long-term plantings accordingly.
However, while determining these strategies and in the process of implementing the, the
organizations often face conflicts. The reasons behind these conflicts can be various ranging
from competition, multiple outcomes and conflicts between goals of the employees and the
management. By employing proper strategies and having clear communications with the
employees, the managers can tackle the conflict. An organization needs to control the external
elements that are affecting the productivity. It is also important that the organization should be
open to adjusting and changing themselves along with the environmental changes. Along with
the changing environment, the companies are facing the needs of transformation along with the
changing and challenging environment (Daft, 2015). One of the important factors in
organizational operation is goal conflict. In order to avoid goal conflict, the managers should
take up methods of internal communication.
Response to question 2
Organizational structure ensures the implementation of activities, coordination and the
process of supervision of the management. The organizational structure influences the actions in
two ways. It lays the foundation of the operating procedure. In addition to this, an organizational
structure is also responsible for determining individual participation in the decision making
process (Huczynski, Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013). The organizational structure that
Woolworths follow is the functional organization structure. The foundation of the structure has
been decided based upon the specialties and the job roles of the organization. The advantages of
the functional or bureaucratic structure are that it follows methodology of diving responsibilities
(Finch, 2018). As the functions are defined, it clarifies the job roles and the expected outcomes.

3DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
This limits the possibilities of confusion and conflict. The weakness of this functional
organizational structure is that it does not create proper scope for organizational communication
(Shafritz, Ott & Jang, 2015). However, it can be said that the functional organization structure
helps Woolworths in maintaining the effective functioning. The company aims at product
specific outcomes, hence the company can take up the divisional structuring in order to put more
focus on the individual products and their marketing strategies. It is seen that the functional
structuring does not encourage free communication amongst employees and the management. In
this regard, it can be said that company should focus on the organizational communication in
order to avoid conflicts. Building proper and efficient strategic intent or directions is highly
important to tackle issues related to the mission and goals of the company (Daft, 2015). On part
of efficient managers, it is highly important that they look for creating a balance between the
goals of the company and external environment. Moreover, it is already known that the
organization aims at building customer satisfaction and has laid the foundation accordingly.
Hence, adopting a better communication process will help the organization in understanding the
customer demands. In this respect, it is understandable that the organization should take up the
matrix structuring method. By this way, the company can extract the best features of other
organizational structures and use them in order to build a strong foundation.
Response to question 3
Task environment of an organization mostly refers to the external environment of the
organization. Performance of every organization depends upon several factors such as the market
condition, competition and customer demands. As the company primarily aims at customer
satisfaction, hence consumers are the most important and influential factor that is creating impact

4DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
on the functioning of the organization (Kew & Stredwick, 2017). In this regard, the importance
of gaining competitive advantage is to be considered. One of the important aims of the strategic
intent is to provide support to the organizations so that they gain competitive advantage. The
managers need to decide strategies to gain edges over other companies. In this regard, it can be
said that the recent trend of the Australian consumers indicates that they prefer the organizations
that are being socially responsible. As per the present scenario, social factor is creating high
impacts on the Australian retail market. The organizations that are operating across the country
are liable to achieve higher responsibilities in community and societal development (Kolk,
2016). As a result, of this, the Australian customers are favoring the socially responsible
organizations. Hence, Woolworths needs to take up social responsibility in order to increase their
acceptance in the current market. Being one of the most popular grocery stores in Australia,
Woolworths eventually grabs more attention from the consumers. Hence, in this scenario the
company is more liable to take up actions that are contributing to the social development of the
country. Failing to this might create a reason for customer dissatisfaction. Moreover, as per the
present scenario, Australian retail industry has a high potential to grow. Hence, it is easily
understandable that the competition in the retail field is higher (Gupta, 2013). Multiple retail
companies are already trying to grab the attention of the customers by involving more in the
social developmental activities. Hence, in the present condition of cutthroat competition
Woolworths should not lose out any opportunity to retain its consumer base.
Response to question 4
Amongst the general environmental sectors that are influencing the organizational
performance off Woolworths, political influences are one of the most prominent one. Political

5DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
factor plays a significant role in determining the long-term profitability of the organization. As it
is widely known that, the company is operating across several countries and hence the political
changes play a very significant role in the operation of business (Hansen, Nybakk & Panwar,
2013). Moreover, in order to achieve significant growth, the company needs to take up risks of
the political environment. Moreover, before entering into a certain market, the organization
should closely monitor the political stability of the country. As Woolworths is primarily dealing
with grocery and food items, efficiency of the legal framework and the level of corruption are
highly important factors that are to be taken care of. Moreover, the taxation and wage legislation
policies also differ from country to country. Hence, having a fair idea of these factors is also very
important. While speaking in the context of Australia, it can be seen that the political situation of
the country is passing through troubled water. The country is combating with the multiple issues
related to poverty, migration and corruption (Birkinshaw, 2016). These factors create impacts on
the industries. In addition to this, being one of the giant manufacturing and grocery selling
company, Woolworths have challenged the government to come up with certain change in
organization and wage labor policies (Kolk, 2016). Moreover, they are advocating for the labor
flexibility and removal of unnecessary surveillance of the state and territory government. In
addition to this, they have demanded for the reformation in the trading hours across the country
and maintaining the cost effectiveness in the application of GST.
Bringing these changes into the political regulations will help the organization
immensely. It will open up more paths to successful trading within the country. The company
also points out that deciding a flexible working hour and increasing the wage labor will enhance
the employment of the country around 15% ("woolworths articles on News24", 2018).
Moreover, the rationalized GST policy and lowering the untoward surveillance of the territory

6DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
government will help in more revenue generation and eventually lowering the price of the
commodities. The company will be benefitted by the reduction of GST in overseas purchases and
this will ensure increasing online shopping from the organizational shopping portal.
Response to question 5
The four stages of international evolution of an organization includes evolution in
domestic stage, international stage, multinational stage and global stage. As per the discussion
regarding the operation of Woolworths, it can be said that the company has been successful in
the domestic, international and multinational stages. As per the first two stages, it is
understandable that the organization is aware of the political, economic as well as the social
scenario of Australia (Birkinshaw, 2016). During a long period, it is operating in the Australian
market and is considered as one of the giant retail industries. The company has started it journey
in 1927. In the year 1960, it has been declared as an international company and it was opened for
the entire Australia ("The Woolworths Story - Woolworths Group", 2018). Then onwards the
company has witnessed a steady growth in the fields of expansion. Over the course of years, it
has also take up acquisition of multiple brands and products. It has been declared as Australia’s
first nationwide retailer and came up with their own brands. From 2005 onwards, the company
started to operate as a multinational company by starting to function in New Zealand, South
Africa and India ("woolworths articles on News24", 2018). The present state of expansion of the
company is becoming a globally recognized organization. A global evolution will help the
organization in expanding its business. In order to look for a global expansion, the company has
to consider the global political and economic scenario (Bond, Morrison-Saunders & Stoeglehner,

7DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
2013). As it has already moved to few first as well as third world countries, the company must be
aware of the political scenario of these countries.
In order to expand in a global market, the company has to keep in mind that there are
certain advantages as well as disadvantages of doing so. The advantage of functioning as a
globally recognized country is that the organization will enjoy a global customer base. This will
make them a giant revenue generator for Australia. Grabbing global attention and recognition
will be highly beneficial for the organization. However, in order to become a globally recognized
entity, few factors are to be kept in mind (Zander, McDougall-Covin & Rose, 2015). Being a
global company implies the fact that the organization will not have a single home country. The
structural problem of these kinds of organizations is huge. They have to maintain a complex
organizational framework. Maintaining the subordinate branches that are scattered all over the
globe can be proven as a tedious task. Moreover, one of the major issue concerning the global
expansion is the presence of multiple and big competitors. Hence, the company has to be very
cautious while dealing in the global market.

8DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION
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Appendix

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