Organizational Behavior: Research, Interview, & Recommendations (Coursework Sample)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: RESEARCH, INTERVIEW, & RECOMMENDATIONS Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc516067069 \h 3Overview of the Walmart PAGEREF _Toc516067070 \h 3Findings PAGEREF _Toc516067071 \h 4Discussion on discrimination issues and effectiveness of diversity management programs of Walmart PAGEREF _Toc516067072 \h 4Interview questions to managers of the Walmart PAGEREF _Toc516067073 \h 7Analysis of asked questions PAGEREF _Toc516067074 \h 8Analysis of question 1 PAGEREF _Toc516067075 \h 8Analysis of question 2 PAGEREF _Toc516067076 \h 9Analysis of question 3 PAGEREF _Toc516067077 \h 9Analysis of question 4 PAGEREF _Toc516067078 \h 10Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc516067079 \h 10Recommendation 1: To develop a new vision of this organisation PAGEREF _Toc516067080 \h 10Recommendation 2: To construct the lines of action related to the diversity management PAGEREF _Toc516067081 \h 10Recommendation 3: To develop a proper communication strategy PAGEREF _Toc516067082 \h 11Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc516067083 \h 11Reference List PAGEREF _Toc516067084 \h 12Appendices PAGEREF _Toc516067085 \h 16 Introduction Diversity management has been considered as an effective practice in the current business context. As commented by Bendl & Hofmann (2015), multiple diversity categories of diversity have been found in previous works of scholars. Diversity factors like gender, sexual orientation and much more have been interpreted as critical from an organisational perspective. Therefore, in this research paper, diversity management of a renowned organisation of the US has been analysed. In order to identify key issues and challenges of diversity management of this taken organisation, interviews have been performed by the group members. This assignment has been structured into four major parts that have played a critical role in successful completion of this research. Out of those, the findings segment can be interpretive from a significant point of view as gathered information is portrayed in this segment. Focusing on the collected data, a learner has justified the organisational practices to promote positive diversity in workplaces. Overview of the Walmart Walmart has been emerged from a small discount retailer to a mammoth in retail business in the US and all across the world. It is found that Walmart operates across twenty-eighth countries and has a supreme workforce of almost 2.3 million employees globally. In addition, this retail organisation has expanded its streams in multiple niches that helped Walmart to maintain top position in the US. This retail organisation looks after to create an accurate environment to provide safety and comfort to its associates in a precise manner. Henceforth, the introduction of global office of culture, company’s mission on diversity and inclusion has ensured Walmart to maintain its organisational goals and objectives (Walmart, 2017). Therefore, following objectives of this organisation have been found from the company website: * To promote an effective culture * To maintain lifecycle integration of associates * To develop an inclusive brand and * To become modernised in measuring Due to such objectives, Walmart has focused on four fundamental factors to increase customer proposition in an extensive manner (Walmart, 2018). These are: * Price * Access * Assortment and * Experience Henceforth, it is observed that multiple types of products get sold in this organisation. From a range of personalised gifts to toys and groceries, this organisation has created its unique value amongst consumers worldwide. It can be said that information are collected through the official website of Walmart and interviews have been performed to gather raw data, regarding this organisation. In addition, one mid-level manager from the technology and ecommerce committee charter and one mid-level manager from the executive committee of this organisation have been identified for interview. It is to inform that confidentiality has been prioritised during this interview as no participant has been forced during the interview process. Findings Discussion on discrimination issues and effectiveness of diversity management programs of Walmart Prior to the interview questions, group members have performed an effective research on the diversity management and its practices in this organisation. It is observed that employees in this organisation often get violated regarding the ethnic and cultural background. However, not all stores of this organisation in this country are violated with discrimination. In this context, Joseph (2016) identified that Walmart has focused on the dispersed staffing technique that ensured a better satisfaction in white communities, rather than in black communities. Therefore, a recent research on 35000 reviews on multiple locations of Walmart has illustrated that higher percentage of black or Latino people across the store locations received fewer yelp reviews. Apart from this lower yelp review, Reich & Bearman (2018) identified a distinction in language pattern in different stores of this retail organisation. Therefore, in black zip codes negative languages of customers regarding the store has been observed. On another hand, affirmative reviews have been cited in stores that are situated in white zip codes in this country. From this, discussion, it can be analysed that inadequate staffing and ethnic discrimination are two prime negative factors of this organisation. On another hand, Taylor (2016) claimed that stores in low average income areas in this country have received most pessimistic reviews than stores in high average income areas in the US. Furthermore, the previous study on the issue of negative review might be considered as a baseless investigation. It is experienced that over-dependence on the Yelp reviews is fundamental as these reviews cannot allow researchers to identify the level of biases is present in such responses. However, counter-argument has been placed by Roberts (2015) that reflected on the positive aspects of urban expansion program taken by this organisation. It is found that Walmart relies on the big data to estimate the proper staffing of employees in different store locations across the US. Henceforth, diversity issues can be considered as irrelevant to this organisation. Furthermore, declining sales growth by this organisation has created a massive issue for the strategists of Walmart. Therefore, the significance of urban expansion can be found from the provided graph: Figure 1: Declination of sales growth of Walmart from 2000-2014 (Source: Roberts, 2015) Henceforth, it can be found that Walmart is required to develop proper diversity management to expand its stores across the urban areas of this country. Beside this, the increase rate of Cannibalization can also be interpreted as another major factor to expand in rural markets of this country. [Referred to Appendix 1] From the inclusion and diversity report of this company, it is found that 21% of the entire US workforce are black or African American, 14% are Hispanic or Latino, 4% are Asian and American Indian and Pacific Islanders are 1% each (Walmart, 2017). Therefore, it can be said that a proper diversity management is necessary to maintain such diversified workforce of this retail organisation. In this context, inclusion programs of this organisation play a significant role in isolating such diversity issues within employees and consumers. It is found that Walmart has launched some specific events to nullify the diversity from the associate resource groups. Such are: * Veterans Day Panel * From Click to Table * ARG Trivia Happy Hour Apart from this, Women’s Resource Council has organised a program to promote the feminist culture and diversity in this organisation. At this event, women from different background have taken the pledge of “fierce of change”. In this regard, feminists have claimed this organisation as a best and safest place to work for women across the world. Therefore, it can be said that Walmart has a wide list for mentoring such diversified workforce within the US. It is found that people of the US suffer from multiple disabilities (physical) that restrain such individuals to get a job. From a recent research, it is found that almost 12.6% of the entire population of this country have physical disability. However, it is also observed that people from minor background (ethnic) suffer from physical disability than others. In this regard, factors like low education, less skills and opportunities can be observed. In order to isolate bias from the decision making ability of employees, Walmart has introduced the ‘dining in the dark’ program. Apart from these diversity management programs, Cafe y Carreras and C.O.M.P.A.S.S can also be considered effective programs that have been launched by Walmart to reduce diversity issues from the workplace. Considering these programs, it can be said that Walmart has properly taken effective initiatives to promote inclusion and diversity within the workplace. As commented by Martín Alcázar et al. (2013), workforce diversity has been considered as a prime challenge in modern day organisations. In addition, it is also observed that majority of various models have been considered as vague in the organisation as those lack proper strategic implication in a cross-culture management. In this context, Incao (2018) addressed that Walmart has taken an effective strategy to overcome such issue. Evidence can be drawn from the promotion ceremony of Tanaka, a field associate of this company. It is observed that the CEO has promoted Tanaka in front of international audiences that can be considered as an effective strategy to mitigate diversity issues across this organisation. On another hand, Harris (2018) claimed the significance of dinner table as it is found extremely useful to ...