Running Head: COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 1

Competency Four Artifact

Lizzeth Martinez
South Texas College
Management Theory I
April 23, 2019
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 2

Abstract
This paper includes the plan approach that has been developed for the selected company which is

Walmart. This paper first starts with the strategic planning of the organization to establish the

goals and strategies. Then it takes into consideration the vision and mission statements of the

organization and sets the strategic objective. This is all intended to achieve the organization’s

ultimate goal, which is to overcome several internal challenges and maintain the balance between

effectiveness and productivity. Furthermore, this paper reviews Walmart’s SWOT analysis to

observe the organizations strengths and weaknesses. The proposed plan and design change

would be aiming at the improvement of management, marketing and customer service. This

paper also provides visual effects to present the outcome for the projected three-year growth as

per proposed by management structure and design changes.

COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 3

Competency Four Artifact

Walmart is a multi-billion company in their website they state, “With fiscal year 2019

revenue of $514.4 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart

continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity.

It’s all part of our unwavering commitment to creating opportunities and bringing value to

customers and communities around the world” (Walmart, 2018). Walmart’s SWOT analysis can

consist of its strength which are, focus strategy in human resource management, and information

technology; weaknesses are lack of flexibility; opportunities can be merging into global markets

and expanding consumer markets; threats when being the leader in the market you are a target

for competition.

Walmart is currently functioning through a hierarchical structure where this means that

every member is a subordinate to a superior who have pre-defined responsibilities for each

subordinate. This structure is made to enhance performance and can involve transactional means

like promotions for motivation, but as proved reward can only go so far it is not a secure method

to produce a successful organization. While, hierarchical structure can produce desirable

outcomes for the organization it also lacks other things. For example, such structure can affect

communication between the organization than can slow down the process of decision making.

Rivalry between departments can occur making it a competition where division between them

may make one department make decisions to benefit them more than others, instead of looking at

it as the beneficial result for the whole organization. The proposed plan structure is one to create

balance and to fulfill the organizations mission and by doing so we would need to focus on

management change. The use of matrix structure can help improve the communication and

accomplish deficiencies. In such case, the department structure would be one where each
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 4

department has the independence and freedom to use resources for the overall productivity of the

department. Furthermore, implementation of this change would facilitate departments to have a

better platform, better communication and a greater probability to achieve its goals and

objectives.

Another part of the strategic plan is to focus on marketing, as for now Walmart focuses

on using lowest possible prices or rollbacks to attract customers. “Low price strategy can be used

for the complete masses” (Bhasin, 2017). The marketing goal objective is to ensure sales are

increasing. They have also as many, joined the online marketing bandwagon. You can say it is an

aggressive campaign where they try to deluge the market with their existence. The proposal is to

start with a marketing review to help us find valuable information that will let them know what

they are missing and then make adjustments to the marketing plan. By conducting a simple

market review, they may find problems such as not achieving certain goals, missing or changed

targets because service or products are not relevant, inconsistent website that may need

redesigning, and where marketing is not driving leads and sales (Murphy, 2014). Another part of

the proposal is to expand the place and distribution components in order to stretch the reach to

developing countries forming solider sustenance to the competitive market and part take in the

global market successfully. The purpose is to reach different markets globally will result in both

the revenue and profits being more consistent and this will maintain market share and growth.

Lastly, this paper will look at customer service. On of Walmart’s most valuable mission

is the value of their customers. Customers is what essentially makes or breaks the organization’s

success that is why they need to put more emphasis on this. The proposal is to enhance

Walmart’s customer service strategy. Customer service feedback can help improve customer

service skills and even incorporation of more service training. For this service to be successful
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 5

communication is of essence. They need to have better communication with the customer service

team and incorporate the employee feedback as well to help us define so all the organization can

head in the right and same direction, this will create a goal so the customer service team can

track it. The improvement of customer service can have great advantages to several parts of the

organization such as driving sales up and having competitive advantages. For example, by

improving customer service they can benefit from higher employee motivation and engagement.

If Wal-Mart provides the right tools for training employees for better customer service, they can

make employees see the bigger picture on how their role impacts the organization. Furthermore,

continual development and progress, keeps them motivated and more efficient because they are

better prepared when they deal with customers. To increase engagement, they can develop

assessments that will provide them with feedback (Explorance, 2013). Improved customer

service and increased customer satisfaction leads to retention and loyalty, which equals to rise in

profits. They can retain customers, acquire new customers, reduce employee turnover and

increase sales (Exlorance, 2013)

In conclusion, the proposed plan is to incorporate a matrix structure to the

established hierarchy structure to create balance in management, improve communication to fix

some shortages of objectives and achieve goals. The purpose of this implemented plan is to

create balance and to fulfill the organizations mission, while facilitating departments to have a

better platform, better communication and a greater probability to achieve its goals and

objectives. Secondly, the basic marketing review will help them gather useful information that

will help them in improving marketing plan. This review will help Wal-Mart pinpoint where they

are lacking in specific parts of the marketing plan and after adjusting in their plan, they can see

the results it will produce. The improvement of market strategy will help the organization reach
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 6

the market globally and create balance with revenue, profits, shares and growth. Lastly,

enhancement of customer services will produce great advantages such as increased employee

motivation and engagement. By providing employees with the right tools and training they will

make them more efficient and motivated in solving problems relating to customers. Improved

customer service and customer satisfaction help with the retention of customers and loyalty that

can contribute to the acquiring of new customers. This continual development and progress of

customer service skills will create balance and rise in revenue.

COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 7
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 8

•flexibility of human •increase

resources communication
•increase
comminication

Overall Team Quality of

Perfomance Communication

Collaboration
Decision
between
making
memebers

•Increase job •increase

satisfaction comminication
•individual motivation •benefits for overall
organiztion
•clear objective
COMPETENCY FOUR ARTIFACT 9

References

Bhasin, H., BhasinI, H., Garmon, C., Tanja, & Facebook. (2017, December 17). Marketing

Strategy of Walmart - Walmart Marketing Strategy. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from

https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-walmart/

Bhasin, H., BhasinI, H., Bhasin, H., Facebook, & Chy. (2018, January 14). SWOT Analysis of

Walmart - Walmart SWOT analysis & Internal Analysis. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from

https://www.marketing91.com/swot-walmart/

Explorance. (2013, September 5). 4 Key Benefits of Customer Service Training Programs.

Retrieved April 20, 2019, from https://explorance.com/blog/4-key-benefits-customer-

service-training-programs/

Murphy, D., Jamie, Murphy, D., & Matt. (2014, December 14). 7 Reasons to Conduct a Simple

Marketing Review. Retrieved April 20, 2019, from https://masterful-marketing.com/7-

reasons-to-conduct-a-simple-marketing-review/

Walmart. (2018). About Us. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://corporate.walmart.com/our-

story