WAL-MART: Organizational Behavior Concepts
Introduction
Wal-Mart has been in business since 1962. Founded by Sam Walton, the company only showed major success in the 1980’s. Sam’s club was opened in 1983, and the first Supercenter opened in 1988. Through it all, the company has struggled to maintain a positive image while experiencing some opposition and bad press. This image is based on the principals of: respect for the individual, service to the customer, and strive for excellence. These beliefs are what help promote and build the illusion of integrity and ethical conduct that is the foundation of Wal-Mart. However, there is another side to this major multinational retail corporation. By examining Wal-Mart’s approach to decision-making, organizational structure, and organizational culture, one will see how this multinational company has succeeded and failed in some areas of business.
Decision-making
We will examine the role of perception in the decision-making process and examine how perception allows individuals to organize and interpret their sensory impressions. People have perceptions in order to give meaning to their environment. However, perceptions can be significantly different from reality. For example, one may see a person kneeling in an airport and hear them mumbling in a foreign language. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington D.C. by airplanes, one would probably perceive this man as a threat; however, this man is only performing his daily commitment to prayer.
Critical errors in perception can be extremely costly to any manager during his decision- making process. To understand the role of perception in the decision-making process, one must first understand how perceptions are shaped and formed.
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