Paper on Walmart's Organizational Culture: Empowering Words and Excellence-Driven Policies

Aspects of the Organizational Culture

The conventional aspects of organizational culture include things such as the physical design of buildings, corporate symbols, words, and policies and activities (Robbins et al., 2018). This paper explores the culture of Walmart supermarket, focusing on two aspects; words policies and activities.

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Words

Every employee at Walmart is referred to as an “associate,” and managers are encouraged to practice servant leadership (Fillmore, 2020). The competitive spirit of Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder, is one of the most repeated stories, and it is instilled deeply among associates (Fillmore, 2020). The title given to the employees is a gesture of empowering them to adapt to prevailing circumstances and allow them the capacity to experiment with personal ideas (Fillmore, 2020). Besides, everyone is addressed by their first name, and jokes are allowed in staff conversations (Fillmore, 2020). Walmart’s empowerment of its associates through title customization and encouragement of freethinking and participation in operational management activities indicates the attributes of democratic leadership in the organization.

Policies and Activities

Walmart has reward systems for both customers and associates. Customers get rewards in the form of cash backs and card programs (Gudat, 2020). The company also rewards its associates with cash bonuses from the annual profits. In particular, the associates who get the highest bonuses are those who act with integrity and strive to excel in treating everyone with respect and offering high quality (Lombardo, 2019). Such individuals also succeed at the firm while those who seem to be their opposite fail. The retailer also introduced a paid time off program for dependable associates who fail to report to work for genuine personal reasons (Walmart, 2019). These policies and activities demonstrate that Walmart has high regard for customer service, excellence, and integrity.

References

Fillmore, K. (2020, May 4). Walmart organizational culture - International marketing. ZABANGA Marketing. https://www.zabanga.us/international-marketing/walmart-organizational-culture.html.

Gudat, S. (2020, January 20). Walmart's customer loyalty is rising to the top. CCG. https://www.customer.com/blog/retail-marketing/walmart-customer-loyalty-rises-to-top/.

Lombardo, J. (2019, February 15). Walmart: Organizational structure & organizational culture. Panmore Institute. http://panmore.com/walmart-organizational-structure-organizational-culture.

Robbins, S. P., Coulter, M., Martocchio, J. J., & Long, L. K. (2018). Management (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Walmart. (2020, February 1). Walmart introduces increased rewards and protected PTO for associates nationwide. Walmart Corporate. https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/02/01/walmart-introduces-increased-rewards-and-protected-pto-for-associates-nationwide.