Management and Business Practices

Management is a broad subject which involves the grouping of organizational activities, human resources, and the scarce financial resources in a way that generates expected results from actual performance, and leads to attainment of the set organizational goals and objectives (Drucker & Maciariello, 2008). Every organization comes up with its own structure for efficiency and effectiveness in the operations. Efficiency is based on the premise that resources are allocated in a manner that ensures that they not wasted, for example, idle employees waiting to be allocated work is a sign of inefficiency.

Effectiveness on the other hand entails that things or activities are undertaken at the right time and at the right place for example, a company exits from a market just as it starts to decline. Organizations do not operate in vacuums but rather on large and complex systems that constitute the environment (Dessler, 2001). The environment generally refers to the surroundings, circumstances, and influences on the individuals and the organization. The effects of the environment can be either positive or negative for the business enterprises. All business enterprises must seek to adjust to the environment that they dwell in so that managerial authority exists, since environments exert pressure on management and these results in drastic consequences.

Management has evolved from past scientific theories to the current and modern ways of management. The application of these theories on the environment based on observation has resulted in the achievement of specific goals and overall organizational success (Dess, 2012). Managers have roles and responsibilities, and business and management educators are interested in helping people to acquire managerial skills, specific competencies, and specialized skills that result in high performance in management jobs. A brick and mortar organization or business is one that operates its entire team under one roof or serves its customers within a building or a certain physical location as opposed to an online business. Based on this, the management of brick and mortar organizations should be result oriented, team builders, dispute mediators and worker motivating managers with an interest in employee satisfaction and company growth. These organizations have leaders in close proximity, hence, the employee performance is much better compared to online business and no emotional connection is lost by the employee towards the employer.

Management and leadership in the brick and mortar context should be changed in order to give employees freedom to work without close supervision and complaints issued to a centrally placed office or suggestion box. Leadership should entail followers being directed to achieving a specific goal without the team leader following the workers around (Cooper, 2005). For online business, management and leadership should be addressed in a way to ensure that performance of business is optimal in terms of increased sales and less costs of marketing and human resources, and that the leadership does not lose the emotional connection with its employees due to the distance involved.

Wall-mart is a successful traditional retailer operating large discount department and warehouse stores in America making it the largest retailer in the world (Roberts & Berg, 2012). Google is an example of an online retailer offering internet support services all over the world. The organizational structure of Wall-mart is headed by the founder Sam Walton, who acts as the owner of the retail chains and the top manager. Departmental store managers, cashiers, and store supporting staff are below him, all amounting to over 2 million employees. Each department has an accountant and a personnel assistant. Google has a founder and a chief executive officer as the head of the company, group directors or managing directors, departmental managers, and regional managers in all headquarters around the world, supervisors in all departments and the junior staff in all departments and headquarters.

The management challenges facing Wall-mart chains of stores are competition with other similar retailer shops and the unfavorable employer-employee relationships. Competition has led to the lowering of prices that has rendered other small businesses out of the market (Roberts & Berg, 2012). The challenges Google faces are competition with other companies like Oracle and the numerous advancement in today technology, which the company must acquire to remain relevant in its operations.

Competition is basically a challenge for both companies since they all operate in a competitive environment and have companies in their environment offering similar products or services. The only difference in their problems is how they treat their employees and how they have incorporated modern technology to keep in touch with their clients and upgrade their operations efficiency. My advice to a traditional retailer seeking to shift to online business is to retain the physical stores and establish an online shop so that he or she can increase the sales at the same time owning a physical shop since many customers prefer the instant gratification of making a purchase from a shop and enjoying it right away. Also, starting up an online shop is more affordable compared to a physical store that requires huge amounts of capital and human resources possessing specialized skills to run the company. Operating an online shop together with a physical has a competitive advantage over other businesses due to the increased customer awareness of the products and services and their easy acquisition from the relevant stores (Dessler, 2001).

Organizations are made up of individuals with specialized skills and competences who join hands in working as a team to achieve the desired outcome (Drucker & Maciariello, 2008). Organizations operate in environments hence the need for management to be able to observe and critically analyze the organizational setting that best fits the environment in order to maximize on returns and expand the organizational business. The organization is changed by leaders having a strong and unifying vision that they direct all their employees towards and communicate group involvement in decision making process and ensure steps of progress are undertaken and group member’s needs are met. In the firm, a manager has numerous roles ranging from organizing resources and ensuring their optimal use, firing and hiring employees, planning the work to be done, identifying employee problems and making decisions (Drucker & Maciariello, 2008). The techniques used to manage change are training employees on new roles and responsibilities, introducing changes in the organization gradually, and communicating the necessary new changes to get the employees’ opinions and reduce the drama and stress in the event of phasing out business practices and incorporating new ones.

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