Introduction
Organizational change is an essential process in the current organization. This refers to systematic techniques, policies, and knowledge to handle new approaches and structures. This involves adopting corporate systems, technologies, and strategies to deal with changes arising from the external business environment. Companies, including Walmart, must keep up with the dynamic business environment to achieve their strategic objectives. Therefore, they must implement new strategies affecting their primary processes (Haas et al., 2020). Walmart is one of the leading retail stores operating a range of stores, including supermarkets, discount stores, and grocery stores. The store operations are guided by fundamental principles and policies that include excellent customer service, actions with integrity, and respect for individuals. However, the company must implement specific organizational changes to attain its objectives. There are different ways that Walmart can identify and implement changes, it also follows several steps to implement changes and achieve several results from implementing change.
Identification of Changes
Identification and implementation of changes at Walmart refer to the procedures that ensure that the adoption of new processes, products, technology, and new business opportunities are successfully implemented while reducing adverse outcomes. Effective change management within the company is critical to ensure that the employees, managers, and stakeholders participate in change implementation. Structured change management for Walmart will enhance a continuous improvement and proper alignment of the company’s objectives allowing critical changes to occur within the organization. There are several activities that the executive managers at Walmart can change to enhance productivity and success.
One of the changes that Walmart should implement is the low-profit margins. Over the recent past, Walmart has been falling on its profit margins due to investment in long-term e-commerce projects. In 2019, the company achieved a profit margin of approximately 1.33% (Galli, 2018). Another factor that Walmart needs to change is its business model; the company is publicly traded, utilizing a brick-and-mortar business model. Close competitors can easily imitate this model, leaving Walmart with little or no competitive advantage. The company should implement a robust organizational structure that can help strengthen its competitive edge. The company specializes in huge sales volumes; it has a minimal profit margin. Walmart management also needs to implement changes regarding employee treatment and discrimination. This includes unpaid overtime, promotion and compensation inequality, and gender discrimination.
Preparation for organizational change
Implementing changes at Walmart requires adequate preparations by the company executives and the employees. While employees can execute detailed tasks, senior-level managers perform different tasks and plans from their subordinates. The role of leaders during organizational change is to ensure a smooth transition during change implementation. They implement change by adopting effective ways to direct and design the change process. Managers achieve this objective by utilizing different purposes, including good communication, higher emotional intelligence, and effective organizational skills. Preparation for organizational change requires managers to identify and define the difference (Vamanan, 2021). The employees need to understand why change is essential; when the subordinates know about change benefits, they will likely support the change process. The executives should also ensure that the change process aligns with the organization’s strategies. The change should be flexible to offer timely adjustments when challenges arise.
Steps to Implement Change at Walmart
Preparation and identification of change management procedures at Walmart are executed by the executive and top-level management responsible for the process (Vamanan, 2021). With this in mind, the company should focus on the critical steps that enhance improvement. The 8-step change model offered by John Kotter can effectively attain a beneficial change management process at Walmart (Galli, 2018). The model asserts that the change process should be executed sequentially following specific steps as follows;
Create urgency
The first step is to develop a sense of urgency; this involves the need for the organization to want change. At this stage, the leaders should communicate openly to influence employees positively toward change. Creating urgency allows individuals to start discussions about new issues and plans the company can adopt to offer better solutions to the desired changes (Galli, 2018). Through the talks, the urgency to execute change will automatically build up; discussions taking place at this stage may include; igniting open conversations and giving reasons and opportunities for individuals to start brainstorming. Identification of potential threats and development of possible scenarios of what might happen. At this stage, Walmart should identify effective change executives across all departments to steer change. Successful change implementation requires forming a strong team with diverse knowledge and capabilities (Vamanan, 2021). At Walmart, the possible discussions would include the brick-and-mortar business structures adopted by the company and the possible solutions. Kotter asserts that in an organizational change, approximately 75% of successful individuals buy the change ideas at this stage (Galli, 2018). However, panic and haste at this stage can lead to losses and short-term failures.
Form a Powerful Coalition
Convincing individuals may not be effective without the formation of a strong coalition may not be successful. A strong coalition often comprises critical individuals within the organization; these individuals influence others and can lead to change. These individuals should collaborate to create powerful awareness by eliminating doubts (Galli, 2018). At this stage, the management at Walmart can work closely with the team, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses while ensuring that they are a perfect match from different departments and knowledge sources. At his level, individuals may develop resistance due to the new ways of operations that could affect their employment, compensations, benefits, and promotion.
Create a vision for change
When the employees engage in discussions relating to change, ideas, opinions, and solutions will emerge. With different views, individuals would likely want to be part of change agents. This will allow managers to develop a strong vision that individuals can easily remember. This stage is essential since it overviews how different individuals perceive organizational change. This stage is crucial for Walmart to develop teams with strong collaboration and mutual trust (Galli, 2018). The team should determine primary values that could result from changing; for instance, the deals can include determining gender and inclusion criteria when hiring personnel. These opinions could develop into a strong vision, eventually leading to change. The executives at Walmart should encourage the team to write down a summary of what individuals foresee about the company’s future based on the identified issues requiring change.
Communicate the vision
A created vision may not be adequate, however vital it is unless it is communicated. If the vision is not communicated frequently within the organization, it might execute the desired role. Visions and goals must be communicated frequently to ensure they are not lost among other organizational plans (Vamanan, 2021). Although organizations undertaking change management, including Walmart, may wait to communicate these visions during official meetings, more communication avenues must be created to ensure a competitive edge for the idea against other everyday day-to-day conversations. These visions must also be embedded in the organization’s plans, where they will remain relevant and robust. This involves communicating the visions openly and sharing them with different people through different communication techniques. Moreover, executives should lead the change by demonstrating the level of behavior they want their subordinates to portray; this shows a level of seriousness instead of just talking.
Remove obstacles
The next step is to remove obstacles that may come your way. Several obstacles could hinder an effective change management process even with effective communication of a strong vision. This can include; resistance to change, fear of the unknown, fear of moving out of the comfort zone, and many more. In this situation, the managers and the executives should develop a design for change and continuously monitor the obstacles (Tang, 2019). Improving the buy-in strategies will motivate individuals sharing the same vision for change, boosting the agenda forward. At this point, Walmart may appoint executives whose primary role is to ensure smooth delivery for change. The primary duties at this point could include assessing the organizational structure, model, and compensation schemes to ensure that they align with the change vision. Walmart can also use different strategies to eliminate obstacles; for instance, the change lead can identify individuals against change and help them understand the program’s long-term benefits. This may change their perspectives and become the company’s change agents.
Create short-term wins
Creating a short-term win depends on the nature of the change required by the company. Short-term wins are a great motivator to great success; the wins motivate individuals to have a glimpse of how the change will be beneficial finally. Walmart can identify a compensation technique offering equal compensation based on experience and competencies (Galli, 2018). The target could run for three months to ensure that it is achievable since extremely short targets can be expensive and may not be efficient for adoption. The company should also analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the planned change before rewarding individuals who meet the selected criteria. The primary objective of the small wins is to motivate individuals to embrace change in readiness for the future milestone.
Building on change
Organizations seeking to implement change should not declare success early. Effective change takes time; hence, an early declaration may result in the complete failure of the project. Walmart has had different issues, such as the brick-and-mortar business model, discrimination, and inequality in employee compensation (Tang, 2019). The company should therefore implement the change process systematically. Given the nature of changes required at Walmart, if wins are declared early, the organization could face more strategic issues. Significant planned changes should be embedded into the company’s culture, this may take time to implement, therefore, the change team should use early minimal wins for the basis of more significant success. This will allow the organization to revise structures and policies that do not align with the change objective.
The company should build up success periodically since each successful project requires opportunities for review and improvements. At this point, Walmart should analyze every success to determine what was successful and what steps need progress on the next project. Setting goals after every success is also essential for improving the momentum and identifying new ideas for the upcoming project (Tang, 2019). The company could also hire, promote and develop personnel who implement the new plans effectively. Moreover, employees have to be trained to execute new projects effectively.
Anchor the changes in corporate culture
The final step of implementing change is ensuring that everyone within the organization is aligned with the new changes. The changes should be made part of the primary businesses of the organization such that everyone coming into the organization finds it easy to understand and implement the change (Galli, 2018). Walmart, at this stage, should ensure that changes are easily identified within different aspects of the organization and rooted in the company values and structure. For instance, changes relating to discrimination during hiring should be observed when attracting candidates, and the organization should set up employment policies that encourage gender and inclusion. This should also be incorporated into the company’s programs to educate employees on the effects of discrimination.
Results of Change Implementation at Walmart
As identified above, change implementation at Walmart targets different aspects, including; changes in profit margins, business model, and employee treatment. Executing change in these areas will impact the organization positively. Firstly, change will result in employee engagement and development; working with new strategies allows employees to understand and adopt a broader perspective of doing things (Haas et al.,2020). Although attaining a complete buy-in of employees to embrace change may be complex, individuals with a positive attitude will attain development on a personal level by trying out new techniques. Walmart staff who can understand the benefits of implementing change become the organization’s most valuable resource. These staffs create better solutions where the company business can thrive and boost their development and engagement through continuous interaction with the top management.
Implementing change at Walmart will also result in new business opportunities. Executing change will help the organization identify new ideas and opportunities to enhance business growth. Adopting new business methods is beneficial for the company in the long run (Haas et al.,2020). For instance, the current focus for Walmart is a large volume of sales with a minimal profit margin. Therefore, by adopting a low-cost but competitive price, Walmart will boost its net profit margins putting the company in the best position in the market. The company should diversify its products to attain a competitive advantage over its close rivals.
Implementing change at Walmart will result in increased employee motivation. Changes within the company would include better employee treatment that includes; paying employees for overtime hours, a periodic increase in salaries, eliminating discrimination within the workplace, and offering promotions based on experience and employee competencies (Haas et al.,2020). Successful implementation of changes in employee treatment will motivate employees, allowing them to work deliberately towards achieving the organizational objectives. The change will also boost employee engagement; this is essential for employee productivity since engaged employees feel that the organization values their services.
Recommendation
While different companies face challenges when implementing changes in their processes, Walmart is not an exception. The company has faced many issues when changing its organizational structure and business model (Tang, 2019). The company should adopt effective strategies to ensure that its model and structure are successfully changed since it causes significant impacts on its profit margins. Moreover, the model lacks creativity and thus can easily be imitated by its rivals. One of the recommendations that the company should adopt is the diversification of its portfolio. If the company offers slightly different products from its competitors, it can offer competitive pricing, improving its profit margin (Tang, 2019). Secondly, the company should adopt different selling strategies from the brick and mortar to stay relevant in the market and attract different consumer segments. This will improve not only the company’s margin but also annual revenues. Walmart should also create a coupon mobile Application where consumers can access selected discount rates during specific seasons. This will boost store sales and the total revenue of Walmart.
Conclusion
Conclusively, Organizational change involves adopting corporate structures, technologies, and strategies to deal with changes arising from the external business environment. Companies, including Walmart, must keep up with the dynamic business environment to achieve their strategic objectives. Identification and implementation of changes at Walmart refer to the procedures that ensure that the adoption of new processes, products, technology, and new business processes are successfully implemented while reducing adverse outcomes. There are eight steps followed for effective implementation of change. These steps include; creating urgency, forming a powerful coalition, creating a vision for change, communicating the vision, and removing obstacles. Short-term wins are a great motivator to great success; the wins motivate individuals to have a glimpse of how the change will be beneficial finally. Walmart can identify a compensation technique offering equal compensation based on experience and competencies. Walmart is one of the leading retail companies globally; it has adopted a brick-and-mortar business model for most of its business operations. For successful implementation of change, Walmart should adopt different strategies, including; different business models and selling strategies.
References
Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124–132. Web.
Haas, M., Munzer, B., Santen, S., Hopson, L., Haas, N., Overbeek, D., … Huang, R. (2020). #DidacticsRevolution: Applying Kotter’s 8-Step change management model to residency didactics. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 21(1), 65-70.
Tang, K. N. (2019). Change management. In Leadership and change management (pp. 47-55). Springer, Singapore. Web.
Vamanan, D. (2021). Walmart unveils next-generation business model. Web.