Information Management and Strategic Decision-Making at Walmart

This report examines the critical role of information management in strategic decision-making, focusing on Walmart as a case study. It details the features of data and information, the criteria for selecting appropriate data to support strategic decisions, and the impact of a management information system (MIS) on the company's productivity and performance. The report also emphasizes the importance of information sharing, legal responsibilities in data handling, and the formats for information delivery. Furthermore, it analyzes the use of information to identify impacts, patterns, and trends in decision-making, evaluates decision-making techniques like SWOT analysis, and reviews methods for monitoring and improving information management to support strategic decisions. This analysis demonstrates how effective information management contributes to Walmart's ability to make informed and competitive strategic decisions.

Information
Management and
Strategic Decision
Taking

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Features of information and data .....................................................................................1
1.2 Criteria applied when selecting appropriate information and data to support the strategic
decisions.................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Impact of a management information system to a company............................................3
Importance of information sharing within the company .......................................................4
2.1 Legal responsibilities in storing, sourcing and sharing information ...............................4
2.2 Critically discuss when information should be offered and access allowed....................4
2.3 Evaluate the formats in which information can be provided and the influence of using
different formats ....................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of team performance plan to meet strategic objectives........................................5
3.1 Analyse information to identify impacts, patterns and trends on strategic decision making
................................................................................................................................................5
3.2 Evaluating a range of decision making techniques and tools available to support strategic
decision making. ....................................................................................................................6
3.3 Information and data sources available to assist in strategic decision taking..................6
Review and monitor management information......................................................................7
4.1 Identification of the various methods through evaluating management information within
the company ...........................................................................................................................7
4.2 Methodologies and processes for analysing the influence of information on the strategic
decisions made. ......................................................................................................................8
4.3 Methods for the purpose to develop information capturing to support and inform strategic
decision making. ....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Information management is basically a cycle of processes which helps in supporting the
learning activities of the organization, use of information, development of the services or
products, acquiring of information and identification of information needs. The organization
chosen for this report is “Walmart”. The organization is an American multinational retail
corporation which generally operates grocery stores, chain of hypermarkets and discount
department stores. The company was founded in the year 1962 and headquartered in Bentonville,
Arkansas, United States (Walmart American company, 2022). The present report involves the
importance of management information on strategic decisions, importance of information sharing
within the company, use of the information to support the strategic decision making and
monitoring and reviewing the information.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
1.1 Features of information and data
The company basically relies on the big data for the purpose to get a real time view of
the workflow in the pharmacy, throughout the e-commerce and stores and distribution centres
(Azam and et.al, 2020).
Features of Data
 Accurate: When it comes to data, it should be sufficiently accurate for the intended use
and should be captured only once. As per the case of Walmart, the organization uses data
accuracy scorecard for the objective to monitor the accuracy of the product data provided
by the suppliers.
 Validity: It should be used and recorded in compliance with the relevant requirements.
When it comes to Walmart, the company uses data mining for the objective to discover
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patterns in point of sales data which further helps in providing product recommendations
to users based on which products are bought together.
 Reliability: The concept of data reliability means the data is accurate and complete.
When it comes to Walmart, the reliability of data is considered to be a very crucial
foundation in order to build trust across the company.
 Timeliness: It generally refers to the speed of the dissemination of the data. As per the
database management, Timeliness of data is considered to be a significant aspect which
generally depicts to the accessibility and availability of data in carrying out business
decisions. The organized data drives the Walmart's manager smart decisions and makes
for a better understanding of what to expect in the future(López-Robles and et.al, 2019).
 Relevance: As far as the Walmart is concerned , the data relevance basically comprises of
the level of consistency between the user's area of interest and content of data.
 Completeness: It should be clearly specified based on the data collection process and
need of the company. In Walmart, incomplete data or missing information could lead to
false conclusions and costly mistakes (Balasubramanian and Xu, 2022).
1.2 Criteria applied when selecting appropriate information and data to support the strategic
decisions
Data based approach to strategic decision making is considered to be a very important
factor when it comes to meeting the external demands and increasing efficiency (Klein and
Crandall, 2018). Relevance to Walmart, the organization is paying much more emphasis on
increasingly recognizing the value of data and are focusing on various factors such as
technology, artificial intelligence, robust data before selecting a data source. It is very important
for the organization to focus on various components such as:
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 Data Coverage: While selecting a data source, it is very important to develop the need in
order to make sure that the data sets have good coverage. With the help of Data
Coverage, it offers a full suite of customizable outsourced IT solutions to companies like
Walmart.
 Data Accuracy: It helps in determining how effective the solution will be (Regens, 2019).
In Walmart, this helps the company to find out suitable solutions for the purpose to seek
development.
 Simplicity of integration: It is very important for the organization to choose data provider
who can easily integrate data into a product or platform. This helps the Walmart's
managers providing faster responses to the customers.
1.3 Impact of a management information system to a company
Management information system plays a very important role in the company and results
in creating an impact on the productivity, functions and performance of the organization. The
MIS has an overall impact on Walmart's productivity, functions and performance of the
company. With the help of MIS, the monitoring and tracking becomes much more easy (Al-
Emran and et.al, 2018). Reference to Walmart, the MIS plays a very significant role in the
company and creates an influence on the productivity, functions and performance of the
company. A good MIS helps in contributing towards the management of the production,
marketing, personnel and finance becoming more efficient and effective.
TASK 2
Importance of information sharing within the company
2.1 Legal responsibilities in storing, sourcing and sharing information
Legal Responsibilities plays a significance importance in Walmart, such as ensuring the
food and products in a safe manner, investigating the concerns raised by the stakeholders,
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customers and associates and using the data and technology in a very responsible and ethical
manner.
 General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) is basically a legal framework that helps in
setting out the guidelines in relation to the processing and collection of personal
information from the different individuals. In Reference to Walmart, the organization's
stores has deployed a encryption system and data security for the purpose to secure data
going over its global network.
 Data Protection Act: Such type of act is basically designed for the purpose to protect the
privacy of the various individuals (Ghasemaghaei, Ebrahimi and Hassanein, 2018). In
context to Walmart, the company tracks emerging data privacy laws and also implements
compliance programs across the global enterprise.
2.2 Critically discuss when information should be offered and access allowed
The right to access plays a very important role and in case of right to access, it allows the
data subject to exercise further rights. In case of right of access, it basically comprises of planned
duration of storage, categories of recipients and various other factors. As per the GDPR, the data
is subjected to have the right to access the data through collection on them by the data controller
and it is very important for them to request within 30 days. The company uses personal
information for the purpose to provide services and products in order to fulfil the requests of
different customers. Also, the customers of Walmart have the right to know what information is
being collected about them and whether their personal information is disclosed or sold for a
business purpose.
2.3 Evaluate the formats in which information can be provided and the influence of using
different formats
As per the viewpoint of individuals, it creates information for a variety of purpose. File
Format is basically a standard method in order to store information. In case of information, there
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are various formats in which the information could be provided or offered such as books,
magazines, academic journals, art, websites, government documents and much more. Using
different information formats, it basically comprises of presenting information in a different
method and basically with a different purpose. Tables are considered to be the best method for
the purpose to present complex information. Information can be clearly presented through
displaying and using appropriate label with the help of columns and rows (Louis and Dunston,
2018). The Walmart managers basically applies bar code system. The organization is among the
best companies that successfully organize data gathered from various places into a meaningful
information.
Evaluation of team performance plan to meet strategic objectives
Team performance plan is basically a detailed plan for the purpose to identify the desired
performance levels of the team. With the support of a effective performance plan, it helps in
identification of the various performance levels and also helps in providing direction and
guidance to the team (Shi and et.al, 2020). The team performance plan can do wonders on an
individual and company-level scale in Walmart. Also it helps in identifying the various problem
areas within the group, laying out certain guidelines and desired level of improvement that help
the company to achieve its aims and objectives.
TASK 3
3.1 Analyse information to identify impacts, patterns and trends on strategic decision making
For the purpose to remain competitive and to survive, it is very important for the
companies to carry out decisions which will maximize the short term results and minimizing the
long term risks. Such trend, basically involves a general direction of a price over a period of
time and in reference to pattern it is a set of data that basically follows a recognizable form.
companies, the trends and patterns in data helps in revealing the information and important
evidence (Pan and et.al, 2020).
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3.2 Evaluating a range of decision making techniques and tools available to support strategic
decision making.
The leaders and managers of company makes hundreds of decisions every day and it
generally comprises of the gathering data, defining the problem, identification of the alternatives
and much more. There are various tools and techniques.
 Swot Analysis: It basically helps in identification of the various forces that results in
impacting the initiative, strategy and action. All this information can be used for the
purpose to support the decisions of the business and offering right direction. The
Walmart's Swot Analysis basically reveals how the largest organization in the world uses
its competitive advantages to dominate and successfully grow in the retail industry. It
helps the organization in identifying the key strengths, opportunities, threats and
weakness that could affect and impact the organization the most.
 Decision matrix: The decision matrix helps in bringing the clarity and also helps in
identification of the various changes which could be effective for the operations of the
company. Walmart's decision making supports the managers of the company in bringing
more clarity and proposing a number of decisions which helps in improving its standing
in the retail market.
 Enterprise Reporting Software: This software basically comprises of creation of reports
which could be distributed to online. As per the case of Walmart, such type of tool
provides users with a comprehensive view of the company and its performance at a high
level with graphs, metrics, dashboards and other user-friendly business intelligence tools.
3.3 Information and data sources available to assist in strategic decision taking
There are different sources of information which are generally used by the decision
making by the seniors managers of Walmart, which comprises of internal memoranda, reports,
policies files, minutes of meetings among many others. The three most important sources of data
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for the effective decision making basically comprises of Three methods, Observation method,
Experimental method and Survey Method. In Walmart, for the purpose to carry out good
decision making, it is very important to use internal and external data which acts as a really
essential element. The organizations who use more external and internal data possess a greater
range of possibilities for the data analysis. For organizations such as Walmart, it is very
important to use limited data sources as the high number of data source could lead to problems
with the governance and data quality especially when the sources are external. The usability of
information, good data governance, accessibility and data quality becomes very important as the
number of data sources increases.
TASK 4
Review and monitor management information
4.1 Identification of the various methods through evaluating management information within the
company
 Decision support system: It is basically a computer based system which is used by the
team of managers for the purpose to make effective decisions. For any decision maker, it
basically comprises of skills or knowledge. The companies such as Walmart uses
Decision Support System which provides suppliers with a 13- week future projection of
their orders from Walmart.
 Management Information systems: It is basically a kind of computer which basically
process or collect information from different sources for the purpose to carry out effective
decisions in level of management. When it comes to Walmart, one of the most important
information system that the company applies is Bar code system. The company is among
organizations that successfully organize data gathered from different places into
meaningful information. The data which are gathered from bar codes are basically used to
monitor the sales.
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4.2 Methodologies and processes for analysing the influence of information on the strategic
decisions made.
Continuous analysis plays a very important role when it comes to decision making
process which is highly essential for the transparent decisions and high quality.
 Analysis: It is basically an attempt for the purpose to have deep understanding about the
company's strategic position in relation to the environment (Kluetz, O'Connor and
Soltys, 2018). Walmart leverages big data analysis for the objective to develop predictive
capabilities on their mobile app. With the support of decision analysis, it basically helps
the company in evaluation and addressing the important choices which are confronted by
the company.
 Decisions: A strategy is basically the decision which basically comprises of no strategy.
During decision making process, the Walmart's managers should also query if the
company should be in business. Through this, the organization will be able to identify the
prices they will offer for their services and goods. Through analysis, it will offer the
information regarding the technology, markets structure, supply and demand.
 Implementation: It basically referred to as the last part of the strategy and it is very
important for the company to use resources and individuals and implementing change.
When it comes to In Walmart, there are various strategic decisions areas of operations
management which comprises of Inventory Management, Human Resources and Job
Design, Strategy and layout design, quality management and much more which are
basically taken into consideration for the purpose to implement the change in a successful
manner.
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4.3 Methods for the purpose to develop information capturing to support and inform strategic
decision making.
Information Capturing is basically the process of getting records that you have created
into some sort of information management system and recording their existence in the system.
The company uses data mining in order to discover patterns in point of sales data. It is very
important to determine the best method for the purpose to carry out data and information
capturing. For Walmart, it is very important to capture information and data and also
highlighting the differences.
 Manual Data Capture: It is basically entered in a manual manner with the use of input
devices such as mouse, keyboard and touch screens etc. When it comes to Walmart, the
organization began collecting logistics, product and customer data in order to gain deeper
insights into the customer behaviour.
 Automated Data Capture: It basically comprises of the use of computerized technology
for the purpose to capture data. For Walmart, it is very important for the company to
puts much emphasis in order to improve the automated data collection which is basically
a part of their plan for the organization's continued growth.
 Optical character Recognition: This type of technology is basically considered as a
business solution for automating data extraction from written and printed text from a
scanned image file or document and then converting the text into a machine readable
form to be used for the data processing like searching and editing. In Walmart, this
technology is used to covert the text into readable form.
 Intelligent Character Recognition: It basically helps in capturing and recognizing printed
characters from the image files (Najafi-Ghalelou, Nojavan and Zare, 2018). Such type of
technology allows companies like Walmart to use different styles and fonts of
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handwriting to be learned by a computer during processing to improve recognition and
accuracy levels.
 Optical Mark Reading: It is basically used for the purpose to capture the human marked
data from different documents such as surveys and forms. When it comes to Walmart, the
company uses this method for the purpose to enter the data into a computer system.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that strategic decision making and unit
information management allows the students to identify the information or appropriate data in
order to support the various strategic decisions and also to evaluate the influence of management
information system in the company. Moreover, it has been also determined that the strategic
information management helps the organization and business to process and categorize the data
they basically receive and create. Furthermore, it also helps the organization to identify the
different operations and have a positive influence on the profits.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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management processes on information systems: A systematic review. International
Journal of Information Management, 43, pp.173-187.
Azam, A., Bertolotti, F., Boari, C. and Atif, M.M., 2020. Top management team international
experience, international information acquisition and international strategic decision
rationality. Review of International Business and Strategy.
Balasubramanian, N., Ye, Y. and Xu, M., 2022. Substituting human decision-making with
machine learning: Implications for organizational learning. Academy of Management
Review, 47(3), pp.448-465.
Ghasemaghaei, M., Ebrahimi, S. and Hassanein, K., 2018. Data analytics competency for
improving firm decision making performance. The Journal of Strategic Information
Systems, 27(1), pp.101-113.
Klein, G. and Crandall, B.W., 2018. The role of mental simulation in problem solving and
decision making. In Local applications of the ecological approach to human-machine
systems (pp. 324-358). CRC Press.
Kluetz, P.G., O'Connor, D.J. and Soltys, K., 2018. Incorporating the patient experience into
regulatory decision making in the USA, Europe, and Canada. The Lancet
Oncology, 19(5), pp.e267-e274.
López-Robles, J.R., Otegi-Olaso, J.R., Gómez, I.P. and Cobo, M.J., 2019. 30 years of
intelligence models in management and business: A bibliometric review. International
journal of information management, 48, pp.22-38.
Louis, J. and Dunston, P.S., 2018. Integrating IoT into operational workflows for real-time and
automated decision-making in repetitive construction operations. Automation in
Construction, 94, pp.317-327.
Najafi-Ghalelou, A., Nojavan, S. and Zare, K., 2018. Heating and power hub models for robust
performance of smart building using information gap decision theory. International
Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 98, pp.23-35.
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Pan, X., Pan, X., Song, M., Ai, B. and Ming, Y., 2020. Blockchain technology and enterprise
operational capabilities: An empirical test. International Journal of Information
Management, 52, p.101946.
Regens, J.L., 2019. Augmenting human cognition to enhance strategic, operational, and tactical
intelligence. Intelligence and National Security, 34(5), pp.673-687.
Shi, S., Wang, Y., Chen, X. and Zhang, Q., 2020. Conceptualization of omnichannel customer
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Online
Walmart American company, 2022. [Online] Available Through
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/Walmart>
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