work culture at walmart

Motivation and Team Work

Leadership And Organizational Behaviour

Assignment –Motivation and Team Work

Leadership and Organisation Behavioural

Submitted to Prof. Rekha Prof. Gowtham Prof. Suchitra

Submitted by Hitesh Goyal Batch PGPRM-9 Reg. No. BLR 0903071001 Word count


Contents: Page No:

Introduction 3

Executive summary 3

Literature Review 4

Key findings, discussion and analysis 5

Personal reflective evaluation 6

Conclusion and recommendations 7

References 8



Introduction

According to Sam Walton (founder of The Wal-Mart), “If you want to go fast, go alone and

if you want to go far, go together.”

In present scenario, every industry such as banks, IT sector and airlines are facing the

economic recession and most of the affected countries are America and Japan. Last year more

than 1.2 million people have become jobless in America. To lay-off the employees is not the

solution of the economic downturn. If a company motivates its employees to work as a team

then it will help company and its employees to increase the profit and work efficiency. So,

this assignment is based on the motivation and team work that how organizations motivate

their employees to work as a team.

I have chosen The Wal-Mart Store Inc. According to The Forbs Magazine, 2008-09 “It is on

the 1st position amongst 500 corporations all over the world.” It was formed by Sam Walton

in 1962. Approximately 2.2 million Workforce of America and other countries engage with

it. It has near 4400 stores all over the world. I have chosen this because it motivates

employees, they work as a team and because of this even in difficult situation of America

(where many big companies have become bankrupt) it has been making huge profit.

I have used secondary data which includes academic literature books, e- books, relevant

websites and journals review to understanding the concept and complete this report.

Executive Summary

In this report I have covered how The Wal-Mart motivates its employees, encourage for team

work and whether it helped the employees to enhance their performance.

The main object of making this report is to make clear the concept of motivation theory

which I have learnt and relate them to motivation concept which The Wal-Mart is using to

motivate its employees. To reach out the conclusion of this report, I have used secondary data

methodology. The other main key points of this report are to find out whether The Wal-Mart

encourages the team work and does it help the employees to enhance their performance.



Literature Review

Motivation

Motivation is a process which involves of an individual intensity, direction, and persistence.

These three factors are important and as discussed below:

Intensity – how hard a person tries to achieve goals?

Direction – how much effort he make for a company benefit?

Persistence – how long a person can maintain effort?”

Motivations can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motives include factors like interesting

and challenging work, responsibility and being creative etc., whereas extrinsic includes

factors like pay, promotion, job design etc. Motivation is internal to a person and varies from

person to person. (Saha, 2006)

Goals are a major source of work motivation. It tells us what should be done and with how

much effort. The specific goals increase the performance and difficult goals decrease the

confidence of employees, same is the case with goals with feedback and goals with non-

feedback. (Robbins, Judge, 2007)

So, we can say that motivation means to motivate employee to enhance his work efficiency to

achieve the goals of an organization. It is a major factor which is used not only in

organization but also everywhere. There are many motivation theories which used in

organization to motivate employees such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Cognitive

Evaluation Theory, Goal-Setting Theory (Edwin Locke), Adams’ Equity Theory, Vroom’s

Expectancy Theory. McClelland’s Three Needs Theory

Maslow’s Theory: In this theory, there are five stages of motivating for an employee, they

are: Physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualization. An organization can motivate

its employees through these various stages and as each need gets satisfied, the next need

starts becoming dominant. (Robbins, 2007)



Adams’ Equity Theory: In this theory every employee treated same and every employee

should respect each other whether they are on high level or on low level. (Saha, 2006)

Goal Setting and cognitive Theory: In this theory an organization sets a goal which may be

in limit and out of limit and after setting the goals they motivate their employees through

giving them rewards to those employees who perform better.

KEY FINDING

After study conducting on The Wal-Mart’s motivation strategies, I have found by the help of

secondary data that The Wal-Mart is using so many motivation strategies or theory which

enhances the performance and satisfaction among the employees and it also encourage and

prefer the team work. There are some strategies which are considered as the best practice to

motivate the employees:-

Firstly, The Wal-Mart is the 1st corporation which introduce the profit share plan with

employees in term of giving them share, bond, bonus share, dividends, store discount,

pension saving account and a part from the net profit. 94.5% of its employees have health

care insurance coverage. Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s new chief executive officer said that we

treat our employees as an equal partner of the corporation. It helps employees to enhance

their work efficiency, to feel secure and valuable.

Secondly, sharing profit and providing ownership are not enough alone to motivate

employees. Mike said we set the goals and encourage competition amongst employees in

order to make them very effective. They also use term cross-pollination in which managers

from different branches switch their job with each-other and those who performed well get

award in term of money, bonus and promotion also for example in 2008-09 The Wal-Mart

awarded near 90000 employees. They spend near $634.4 million on awards and bonus which

was 46% more than 2007-08.

The Wal-Mart sponsored the multicultural festival in 2008-09 for employees. They did

exhibition, fashion show, team drama, Latin dancing and singing which helped employees

who are from different culture to work in a team.



Moreover, The Wal-Mart provides equal rights to women employees. Dottie Mattson, GMM

of Women’s Apparel for The Wal-Mart, “There is no differentiation between women and

men employees. Women continue to make growth, progress and promoted at The Wal-Mart.”

60% of workforce is women in The Wal-Mart. It stands out as the first choice of women for

doing job. The Wal-Mart has formed ‘The Women Resource Council’ which helps women

employees to educate and trained about new technologies and it really motivates and helps

them to work with their full efficiency. It was named in 2008-09 one of the best companies

by National Association for Female Executive, America because of women welfare.

Analysis

The Wal-Mart is also using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory for example it provides good

salary to its employees, its 94% employees have health care insurance, it sponsors the multicultural

festival, it takes part in exhibition, it has joined the national association community, it made a movie

on its employees, it provides free shares and bonds to employees then it gives part of profit to

employees and they treated equal to big shareholder.

The Wal-Mart is using cognitive and goal setting theory. In goal setting theory firstly an

Organisation set the goal for employees, encourages them to achieve those goals and those

who work hard, they get reward. As I have mentioned The Wal-Mart also set the goal and

encourages employees to achieve them and those who work hard, they get reward, bonus and

promotion, this is cognitive theory.

The Wal-Mart is also using the Adams’ Equity Theory. They treat women equal to men

employees. It provides same authority, responsibility, rights which men have. The Wal-Mart gives

them good training, educate them about new technology and they get reward also.

Team work

According to Sam Walton (founder of The Wal-Mart), “If you want to go fast, go alone and if

you want to go far, go together.” By the help of this quotation I can say that Yes, The Wal-

Mart encourages employees to work as a team. Even their logo is “Go Together” shows that

the importance of team work. Don Soderquist (Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of

The Wal-Mart) said during his interview with The Wall Street Journal that all of their

department such as finance department to marketing department, their senior board members

to truck driver are vital part of The Wal-Mart team.



They work as a team and it helps employees to enhance the work performance and because of

this still The Wal-Mart is maintaining its top position even in recession period in America. It

is the largest corporation in term of turnover, workforce and profit.

Personal Reflective Evaluation

I have learnt through this assignment motivation and team work is very important for

employees as well as an organisation. I have learnt that how an organisation use motivation

theory in real life to motivate its employees. Motivation and team work help employees to

create good relationship with a company and achieve the goals. Firstly the concept was not so

clear to me but now through this report I understand properly. By this report, I have got the

idea that how to relate the motivation theory which I have learnt and an organisation uses and

how should I use this in future to motivate my employees. It has also helped me in term of

prepare the academic report, analyse the situation, find the relevant information and how to

give reference.

Conclusion

At last I would like to say that motivation and team work is very important for an employees

as well as every industry. Without them it is difficult for an organisation to survive in this

competitive environment. We can take an example of The Wal-Mart Inc. that how it has

become the market leader with the help of motivation and team work. I am not saying

motivation and team work is only the factor which makes the mountain smaller but it makes

easy to climb for a company. These are the factor which we can need and easily feel every

step of our life.

Recommendation

Should a company motivate its employees and encourage for team work? Is motivation and

team work really important?

I think if a company motivates employees then it would be easy to achieve goals. Without

them it is difficult for an organisation to survive in this competitive environment. Employees

are very important part of any organisation for example in retail sector the success of an

organisation is totally depends on employees. If they are not motivated and working as a team

then it would be difficult task. After research on The Wal-Mart we can say that motivation



and team work is really important. It gives awards, prizes, share, and health insurance to

employees and they help organisation to achieve its goals.

References

Berman, B. & Evans, J.R. (2007). Retail Management (10th ed) .Prentice Hall. Delhi.

Benkhoff, B. (1996, September). Catching up on competitors: how organizations can motivate employees to work harder. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(3), 736-752. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from ebschost premier database.

Coutu, D., & Beschloss, M. (2009, May). Why Teams DON'T Work. Harvard Business Review, 87(5), 98-105. Retrieved May 26, 2009, from Business Source Premier Database.

Hall, R. (2006, September). Employee Perks That Work: How to motivate employees without breaking the bank. Professional Builder, 71(9), 33-33. Retrieved June 5, 2009, ebscohost premier database.

Katzenbach, J., & Smith, D. (1993, March). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71(2), 111-120. Retrieved May 26, 2009, from Business Source Premier Database.

Pepitone, J. S., & Bruce, A. (1998). Motivating Employees. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill ltd.

Potter, C., & Potter, D. (2007, June). The Truth about Safety Incentives: What does it take to motivate

employees to work safe? Spa Management, 17(6), 78-80. Retrieved June 4, 2009

Robbins, S.P., Judge, T.A. & Sanghi, S. (2007). Organisational Behaviour (12th ed). Dorling Kindersley. South Africa.

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