Organizational Behavior – Analysis of Wal-Mart

All organization has its individual distinctive behaviors, the uniqueness that symbolizes the organization’s traditions of constructing pleasant relations by accomplishing individual, organizational, and social goals. This characteristic in the organization culture is what identifies the business. The organization’s thinking, ethics, mission, vision, goals and objectives, communication, ability to grip changes, culture and knowledge positions as its form structure which the organization draws its purpose. Every small nicety of the behavioral part in a company are included in regulation currently identified as organizational behavior. Its function is to assemble healthier associations by accomplishing individual, organizational, and social objectives. Organizational behavior includes a broad collection of focus, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams.

Organizational Behavior (OB) is a broad study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in their respective organizations. Typically, organizations employ structure approach that interprets the individual organization relationships beginning at the least to the entire social system .Organizational Behavior is in the basic term which consists of the diversity, communication, business ethics, and change management. Wal-mart Stores has publicly owned American Corporation, and currently the nation’s largest company. This paper entails an examination on the organizational behavior displayed by Wal-Mart Corporation.

Organizational culture is the persona of the company. According to Carter McNamara (2000), “Culture involves the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors.” Organizational culture is also recognized as casual behaviors that an organization and its workers accept as their approach to doing business. Many of Sam Walton’s values replicas these descriptions of corporate culture, which is the part of the culture that appeals to customers.

Go into any Wal-Mart at 7 a.m. and the customer may take notice of something a little bizarre, such as a cheer performed to Wal-mart employees. Wal-Mart has a cheer. Wal-Mart’s founder, Sam Walton, was in Korea touring a tennis ball manufactory and he saw the employees do a cheer and exercises established by the company which is done every morning. He incorporated a daily cheer into the day to day activities of the Wal-Mart Corporation, which is now part of the Wal-Mart culture. This rites performed by Wal-Mart employees is merely one instance of the numerous elements of organizational culture that Sam Walton worked to inspire in the employees who work for the Wal-Mart Corporation.

The culture establishes the style of leadership, communication, and group dynamics inside the company. The employees identify this as the way of work life which expresses his or her level of motivation. The ultimate result is performance, employee fulfillment, and individual growth and improvement. All these fundamentals combine makes the mold or structure that Wal-Mart operates. Part of organizational behavior and culture is diversity, communication, business ethics, and change management.

Diversity is individuals who has distinctive perceptions or outlooks that he or she can bring to the business. As the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart value diversity and promote a work atmosphere that enhances the individual and proficient practice of the organization’s employees. Wal-Mart makes diversity a component of their company plan; guaranteeing the company can maintain being a worldwide leader in all portions of Diversity and Inclusion (Wal-Mart, 2007). Wal-Mart not only value diversity also places much emphasis on company business ethics.

In the past years, Wal-Mart has found themselves under fire for their business ethics. Although Wal-mart declares to be a company established on family principles, many believe otherwise. Wal-Mart is branded as the friendly neighborhood supermarket, however, until lately; Wal-Mart has themselves in the hot seat fighting unjust employment practice lawsuits. A worker employed by Wal-Mart in New York has charged the nation’s top merchant of unjust labor practices. The lawsuit was filed in a New York state court on behalf of more than 10,000 existing and past workers of Wal-Mart and stores affiliated with Wal-Mart stores in New York. The grievance maintains at Wal-Mart practices unfair compensation to employees and forcing workers to work while not on the clock.

Business ethics is the use of moral values to business behavior. Business pertains to every part of the company’s code of conduct, starting at the highest level of management, how companies care for their staff and merchants to sales practices and bookkeeping practices. Ethics goes further than the lawful requirements for the company and is, hence, about optional choices and behavior directed by values. Business ethics is important to the dealings of the employees and to the activities of the company as a whole. “Communication is the key to avoid any unethical business practices. Communication is the glue that holds organizations together. It is the way we share information, ideas, goals, directions, expectations, feelings, and emotions in the context of coordinated action.” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2008 p. 318) Change management has help Wal-mart to turn around all the bad in the company.

Change management is a methodical advance to dealing with change, equally from the standpoint of a company and on the individual point. Change management has at three diverse features, adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. For any organization, change management represents determining and applying measures and knowledge to implement changes in the company’s surroundings and to benefit from changing chances.

The largest corporation has organizational behavior and culture. These characteristics are what shapes the company and make the company stand out from others. Wal-mart deals with the day to day functions of being a successful business. Communication, business ethics, diversity, and change management are a part of Wal-Mart’s activities. These things are important to the success of any company not just Wal-Mart. The outcome is performance, employee fulfillment, and individual growth and improvement.

Reference
McNamara, Carter (2000) Organizational Culture. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm
Schermerhorn, John, R., Hunt, James, G., Osborn, Richard, N., (2008) Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). Wiley, New York, NY
Wal-Mart (2006) Diversity. Retrieved on November 23, 2008 from http://walmartstores.com/Diversity/