Custom «Management and Leadership Paper» Essay Paper Sample

Every business requires good and efficient manpower to ensure that it meets its set targets. Even with the current onset of the extensive use of machines and computers to assist in all areas of work it is paramount that all successful businesses employ good people who are qualified in their respective fields to see the companies reach their respective goals. There are as such different departments in any company that need to worn in sync to ensure that there is a good flow of communication and ideas throughout the whole company. In such instances companies will tend to divide its employees in categories depending on the kind of work that they perform in the company, for instance there will be the accounts department, front office, delivery and supply and other departments. Each department will have someone officially appointed to head the department as in a managerial or leadership role.

Management can be defined as an act of getting people together in order to work together with the sole purpose of accomplishing set goals and objectives while making use of all the availed resources and equipment towards the accomplishment of the set goals. Wal-mart is the largest company in the world and it deals in retail, as such there are many different departments in the stores that all come together to ensure that the stores run smoothly. When merchandise is sourced for the stores, it is done by the requisition department that is responsible for ensuring that a particular store has all the necessary items in the right quantities for sale. The stores people will then receive the products when they are delivered to the store and take them to the shelves for display and consequent sales. The sales team is responsible for guiding any prospective client to the right place to get the right product that they came to the store to get and buy. The cashiers are then responsible for charging the clients for all the goods that they buy from the store and collect the money for the goods on behalf of the company. It is a seemingly endless circle that has no end but on closer examination one will note that all the different departments have a particular job that they do in order for a product to be sold in any of the store, thus all the different department do work together to meet a particular set goal in this case retail sales. It is thus clear that Wal-Mart does have a good and clear example of good management systems that are comprised of proper planning, staffing and organization that when followed correctly eventually lead to the organization meeting its targets while using all the necessary manpower that it has available in the different departments.

Leadership can be defined as a process by which one person engages other people mostly at the workplace to ensure that as a team they reach a set goal and accomplish all the intended tasks given to them. Ultimately it is a way by which creative people in a team engage all the others within the team to ensure that a certain task that had been assigned is completed. Leaders in this context can thus be defined as those people who are gifted in one way or another to influence others by successfully integrating and maximizing all the available manpower and other resources in the immediate environment for the attainment of organizational or set goals. It is one of the most admired traits that one can possess as leadership is essential in seeing one climb the corporate ladder. Wal-Mart being a world leader in retail requires leaders to oversee the different needs and wants of its stores. Leadership skills will come in handy especially when it comes to the handling of all the staff who works in any of the stores. It is very important for all the staff within the company to be organized within their different work environments and this requires the input of good and qualified leaders who are left with the difficult task of running the stores for the company. It is not only very challenging to run such big stores but to include leading a team of hundreds of staff in one store is only manageable if one is a good leader with good leadership abilities.

Wal-Mart has many managers and team leaders who assist in running the stores to the management standards. These are people who have grown in the business and the company has a policy whereby staff are frequently evaluated to check on their personal contribution to the company and to identify those that are reaching their set goals and those who are not. It is through this process when those who have special skills are noted and assisted by the management to grow and is motivated to explore their leadership roles by being given extra duties. Eventually those that excel are promoted into leadership roles within the company. This company prides itself in the fact that most of its current leaders started in smaller roles within the company and rose through the ranks (Wal-Mart.com). They thus have the advantage of knowing firsthand what goes on from the bottom through the ranks and are in a position to identify with the junior staff in case of any complaint since they were at one point in that position. Organizational managers have the very important role of ensuring that all the set company goals are reached by ensuring that any decisions that the company makes in regard to employees are conveyed to the employees in the right way within the right time. Managers also have to ensure that the employees under their watch work as stipulated in their scopes of work and are all working towards accomplishing the goals of the company. Above all, the organizational managers have to set a good example for the other employees to emulate and ensure that at all times they work towards uplifting the good name that is Wal-Mart, their employer.

Wal-Mart has many stores outside The United States and is therefore a global retail chain. As such it has embraced the globalization tag and has different ethnic and races of people working in its stores. Globalization has brought changes to the way that the retail chain is run especially outside The United States. Different stores in different continents require different management skills and practices to run. When the store opened its shops in Germany they had not foreseen any shortcomings. In the end they were forced to shut down since Germans were not receptive to the American way of shopping within large retail outlets. China was more receptive to the traditional American themed shopping experience and this has led to the Wal-Mart stores there to register large profits.

To maximize on profits, companies have to employ the right strategies to maintain a healthy organizational culture. Most important is that companies have to ensure that there is openness and fairness from the top management to the junior staff. There should be humility in that any member of the junior staff can have access to any of the senior managers any time so long as they follow the appropriate channel. Most managers make the mistake of feeling too bossy and do not even allow the junior staff to talk to them and they vice versa do not take the time to mingle with the junior staff or in the least visit their working environment. It is important to note that arrogance kills off learning and restricts growth since it blinds us to our own weakness. One can learn so much more from being receptive to others opinions. Another winning strategy is the creation of an environment that basically revolves around personal accountability and responsibility. As much as we work in shared offices and in structured departments, one has to have a sense of what their input is in the overall work done for the company. Many people hide behind others and enjoy the success that comes with others working for them. These are the kind of people whose input into an organization is limited and the company would be better off without them. Frequent appraisals are good in identifying and uprooting this kind of people who add no value to the company.

It is thus very important for both business people and for employees to realize that management an important aspect in the development and continuous growth of any business. Staff should strive to follow all the rules set by a company to ensure that those in the management and leadership positions have ample time to deal with major issues instead of following staff around. Those people who know that they have leadership qualities within them should also be bold and take up extra responsibilities since they possess a very admirable quality that many companies look out for. Leaders are born and others learn and acquire the necessary skills and thus all those with such qualities should step up and assist in the overall growth of companies. Companies should also put necessary measures in place to ensure that they tap into these people and assist them grow within their companies. Leadership and management are key pointers to where a company is heading.