Reflective Essay: Evaluating Wesfarmers' Effectiveness

This essay is a reflective analysis of the author's experience as an assistant manager at Wesfarmers Australia. The essay evaluates Wesfarmers' effectiveness using the Institutional and Organizational Assessment (IOA) Model, examining its purpose, scope, and the perspectives of employe...Read More

Running head: ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
As an undergraduate student of business administration and management, I had been
fortunate enough to work with the Wesfarmers Australia, the most famous supermarket of the
country as an assistant manager. The respective paper is a reflective article about the experience I
gathered as a management trainee and employee in the company Wesfarmers Australia. The
respective paper is an evaluation of the credibility and effectiveness of the respective
organization, the purpose of the organization with the reflective analysis of the stakeholders and
the implications of the effectiveness of the organization.
Purpose and scope of the organization
Wesfarmers limited is a conglomerate company of Australia which has its headquarters in
Perth. The company specializes in retail of the country Australia and New Zealand on chemicals,
fertilizers, coal mining, industrial and safety products (Wesfarmers.com.au., 2019). A
conglomerate company can be defined as a combination of multiple business entities operating in
entirely different industries under one corporate group. A conglomerate can also be called a
multi-industry organization. The company Wesfarmers is considered to be the largest Australian
company by revenue which has been overtaking the other powerhouses of Australia, which are
Woolworths and BHP. The company is considered to be the largest private employer in Australia
having around 220,000 employees working under the company (Campbell, 2017).
Evaluation
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization Wesfarmers Australia, I have
utilized the Institutional and Organizational Assessment Model (IOA Model). The Institutional
and Organizational Assessment Model is a framework that consists of four parts of assessment
which includes: External environment, organizational motivation, organizational performance

2ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
and organizational capacity (Schaltegger, Hansen and Lüdeke-Freund, 2016). I would like to
utilize the respective criteria because the respective model holistically and comprehensively tries
to evaluate the respective organization from every sphere and dimensions, encompassing all the
statics and dynamics of the organization. Therefore, I believe the IOA Model would be ideal for
assessing the organization I have chosen, which is Wesfarmers Australia.
Stakeholders’ Assessment
The two stakeholders taken into account in case of the organization Wesfarmers Australia
are the employees and the customers. The respective criteria that I have chosen, which is the IOA
Model or the Institutional and Organizational Assessment Model, might also be utilized by the
respective stakeholders I have taken into account, the employees and the customers, who would
assess the organization based on the factors of the model.
The respective model consists of four factors, which are: External environment,
organizational motivation, organizational performance and organizational capacity. The
employees would assess the organization on the grounds of External environment, organizational
performance and organizational motivation in order to come into any kind of conclusion
regarding the company. Under external environment, factors such as legal, social, political,
economic, ecological and technological factors, or rather external environmental factors that
influence the organization is present. The employees would definitely assess them in order to
understand the possible opportunities and threats the company might face which is also
important for the employee as he might be working with them. The factor of organizational
motivation which consists of history, mission, culture and incentives of the organization would
also be assessed by the employee as he needs to know what is the history of the organization

3ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
where he is going to work. Apart from that, he has the right and necessity to know the incentive
or reward plans of the organization and organizational culture where he would be getting in to
work. Under the factor of organizational performance, the aspects such as effectiveness,
efficiency, relevance and financial viability of the organization need to be checked by the
employee because the employee must know about the credibility of the organization where he
would be working. For instance, an organization whose financial performance has been
degrading should not be chosen by a candidate to work as there are chances of collapse of the
organization, which would end up in termination of the company and he might lose his job. The
relevance and the efficiency of the company should also be noted by the employee as a candidate
always searches for getting into an organization which is either reputed or working properly in
the market with a lot of efficiency that might bring it future prospects of business and profit
(Stufflebeam and Coryn, 2014).
As far as the consumer is concerned, he might utilize the aspect “history” and “mission”
of the organization under the factor of Organizational Motivation under IOA Model. He might
chose the respective aspect for assessment because the customer has every right to get
information about the company from where he is purchasing the products or the services. He has
right to know the vision – mission and history of the company to understand weather the
company is credible or not. The customer can also utilize the Organizational Performance factor
which has effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and financial viability to assess the company in
order to understand where the company is standing. Often, the long time customers have to
invigilate such issues so that he might not get betrayed by getting associated with the company
(Stufflebeam and Coryn, 2014).

4ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
Conclusion and Implication
Stakeholders are important and effective resources of an organization. Therefore, they
should be given utmost importance and attention. A stakeholder is usually an investor in a
company whose actions determine the outcome of the business decisions (Matuleviciene and
Stravinskiene, 2015). The respective IOA Model which the employees and customers might
utilize to assess the Wesfarmers is important because the stakeholders should be aware of the
company where they might be having their stake and the company might also understand where
it is standing through such assessment and might get chances for rectifying or enhancing itself.
The approach of assessing effectiveness of the company taken by me, which is the IOA Model, is
important because the model holistically and comprehensively tries to evaluate the respective
organization from every sphere and dimensions, encompassing all the statics and dynamics of the
organization. With the help of such instrumental as well as intrinsic details of the company, I
would be able to make decisions regarding whether I would be willing to work for the company
in future or not.

5ESSAY: REFLECTIVE PIECE
References:
Campbell, J. 2017. Insights from the company monitor: Wesfarmers. Equity, 31(8): p.16.
Matuleviciene, M. and Stravinskiene, J., 2015. The importance of stakeholders for corporate
reputation. Engineering Economics, 26(1), pp.75-83.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E.G. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2016. Business models for sustainability:
Origins, present research, and future avenues.
Stufflebeam, D.L. and Coryn, C.L., 2014. Evaluation theory, models, and applications (Vol. 50).
John Wiley & Sons.
Wesfarmers.com.au.2019. Available at: https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/who-we-are/who-we-
are