Management Concepts: Planning and Organizing at Woolworths

This essay examines the application of key management concepts, specifically planning and organizing, within Woolworths, a major Australian supermarket chain. The essay explores Woolworths' strategic planning, including its analysis of customer behavior, brand value creation, and market expansion strategies. It also investigates Woolworths' organizational practices, emphasizing employee recruitment, training, and development, as well as its adherence to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the Collegial Model. The essay highlights the importance of these management concepts in maintaining Woolworths' market position, enhancing customer loyalty, and fostering a positive work environment. The author, acting as a future manager, reflects on how these strategies can be applied to create value, promote sustainability, and digitally transform the organization, ultimately emphasizing the crucial role of effective management in navigating internal and external changes within a competitive market.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Management is related to a set of principles that are applied to an organisation for
planning, staffing, organising, controlling and directing, and using these principles for
harnessing the physical as well as financial resources to effectively and efficiently achieve
organisational goals (Rothaermel 2016). For the essay, the organisation that I have chosen is
Woolworths in Australia. The primary aim of the essay will be to identify two key concepts
of management that are critical to the success of the modern organisation, particularly the
organisation that I have chosen. Furthermore, I will discuss how these concepts will create
value in the organisation.
The two key concepts of management that I have chosen is planning and organising in
Woolworths. Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia. Is has more than 995
stores with approximately more than one lakh employees, support offices as well as
distribution centres to provide the customers with an efficient customer service experience
(Biddle 2016). The supermarket understands the need of customers as they look for new and
simple ways. They also have an option for online shopping for the convenience of the
customers. Woolworths is an organisation that pays attention to the planning concept of
management where they make decisions according to the information that they have at their
disposal as well as implement new strategies to retain themselves in the competitive market
(Haskins et al 2019). The primary goal of Woolworths is to provide products as well as
services to the customers to satisfy their needs. They plan and analyse the purchasing
behaviour of the customers and divide their supermarket into many segments so that it is
easily accessible to the customers. They also planned to create a brand value for their
customers that influenced them with their effective performance. Brand value is an essential
criterion for the growth of any organisation as well as its survival in the competitive
environment. The organisation had created brand value through customer satisfaction and the
quality of products (Devin and Richards 2018). They also planned to make the products

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available in every part of Australia so that it will be easily accessible to the customers. They
further planned to lower their production cost so that they could sell their products at a
reasonable price that would attract new customers (Bailey 2016). These steps were successful
because Woolworths had applied the strategy of Management-by-objectives strategy where
the managers as well as the employees set goals as well as objectives for every sphere of their
business and then use the purposes to measure the progress as well as the success of their
planning. The MOB can only be successful when it follows the four activities that are setting
goals, developing clear action plans by having clear objectives, reviewing the progress and
lastly appraisal of the entire performance (Humayun 2016).
The strategic planning used by Woolworths follows the strategy that was started by
Hambrick and Fredrickson. The two proposed five elements of strategy such as-arena (place
where business will be active), vehicle (how the company will reach there), differentiators
(how successful will the market be in that particular area), staging (what plans will be
incorporated by the organisation), and lastly economic logic (how much money will the
business make) (Austin, Bentkover and Chait 2016). Woolworths very well planned these
stages before introducing their company in Australia and it proved to be quite successful.
These five elements can be identified by using SWOT analysis methods.One of the strengths
of Woolworths is that it solely governs the Australian Retail market along with Coles. They
have a strong presence in the upscale and lower value segments. They can create a different
in-store experience for the customers (Culley et al 2017).
The company for the success of their organisation closely follow Henry Fayol's
fourteen principles of management. Some of the policies that are supported by Woolworths
for their planning are- discipline, unity, centralisation, equity, order and scalar chain
(Ramakrishna 2019). The fourteen principles guide the managers to plan their organisational
goals. Woolworths further is a recognised brand as it has evolved over the years by changing

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their strategies according to the changes that take place both internally and externally. This is
common to the contingency theory, where the decision-makers apply their style of leadership
according to the situation. For instance, Woolworths initially targeted the upper-class
customers towards their products, but with time they realised that to stay in the market they
cannot continue by prioritising a small section of the society (Austin, Bentkover and Chait
2016). As a result, they reduced their cost so that their products become reasonable for
everyone to purchase. This was an example of contingency theory that was used by the
organisation.
A second management concept that has been applied by the organisation is
organising. Woolworths takes extra effort to satisfy the employees to improve the overall
productivity of the employees and achieve the goals of the organisation. The recruitment and
selection process of the organisation is a fair one. The organisation has a well-defined set of
rules as well as regulations for the operation of selection and recruitment. Their recruitment is
dependent on the experience, professionalism and merit of the candidate (Woolworths 2016).
The company treats its employees equally and shows respect to them as well. They strictly
follow the Anti-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity for all the candidates in
the recruitment process and follow the privacy act while dealing with their personal
information (Woolworths 2016).
They strictly follow Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, where the company fulfils the
physiological needs by recruiting candidates and fulfilling their basic needs. Secondly, they
are provided with safety measures within the company by getting paid for their hard work.
Employment benefits are given, such as health insurance benefit and job security. They also
have a good incentive structure. They have separate women mentoring programs that remove
the barriers and act as a restriction in building their career. Thirdly a strong unity is
maintained, they are given career breaks and offered well-being programs. Full as well as half

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time employees get the same employment benefits. All the employees are treated equally that
boost their morale (McCarthy 2016). Everyone is recognised for their hard work, and the
company has a good appraisal scheme. They do not support any harassing behaviour towards
the employees or within them. Lastly, self-actualisation is achieved by encouraging the
employees to go beyond the limits to achieve the target they have set for themselves.
Woolworths also creates a healthy work culture for its employees. They follow the training
and development strategy to ensure that none of the employees has low morale. They follow
a diversified culture within their organisation that helps the employees to work without any
hesitation (Woolworths 2016). They even select candidates with a disability to work for their
organisation and also support them in their work.
Under the aspect of organising Woolworth's have also included the Collegial Model
that shows a close connection between the partnership and managerial orientation of the
team. Efficient performance by the overall team is an essential role of every organisation. The
employees of Woolworths have to maintain proper self-discipline as well as are required to
be responsible for their acts. By meeting the self-actualisation aspect of the employees, the
managers are ethically devising the work responsibilities. This, in turn, increases the
performance of the employees and help the company to accomplish their desired goals
(Eriksson 2019). Regular analysis of employee performance helps the organisation further to
reduce any gap in the performance of the employees. Woolworths gives compensation to
their employees based on their performance. The company also has many systems of talent
management that help in enhancing employee productivity. Furthermore, the organisation
engage their employees in many decision-making processes that help the company to retain
the talented members. The organisation also ensures that they are fair while giving rewards to
the employees so that they feel motivated that will indirectly enhance the customer
experience (Collier and Munir 2016). By following the organisational aspect of management,

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Woolworths can initiate a positive approach concerning new innovative trends that could be
applied by an organisation for creative strategy.
The above strategies and management concepts are important for Woolworths
organisation as it has helped the company to retain themselves in the market and enhance
customer loyalty. The organisation should regularly review their HR metrics that involves
cost per recruitment and employee turnover rates that will help the company to make an
analysis of the current employee trends at workplace. By incorporating digital supply chain in
the company will prove to be beneficial for Woolworths. Technological training should be
given to the employees as the market demands innovation.
As a manager I will apply the above strategies and management concepts to create
value in my organisation. It will also help the organisation to create and connect to
convenient ways of shopping for the customers. The concepts will further be used by me to
create strong value system that will help in promoting sustainability through education as
well as environmental sustainability. The strategies will further help me to transform the
stores digitally, improve unity amongst the staff as well as the customers. It will further help
in creating valuable in-store experience for the customers. I will further apply Lewin’s model
of change that will urge the employees to understand the importance of changes so that they
resort to modern training.
Therefore, to conclude it must be noted that management concepts are essential for all
organisations to compete with internal as well as external changes. It is effective management
concepts and strategies that will make an organisation capable of competing with other
markets. Well-known supermarket such as Woolsworth in Australia too is dependent on the
management concepts to run their company as it helps in creating value for the organisation.

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References
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