Research Paper - Plagiarism Checker

It was unfortunate that after the outbreak of this pandemic, there are many things that changed concerning this organization. It was extremely hard for the management to move with the pace it was moving with. Besides, it could no longer sustain its high number for the employees and therefore most of them had to be force for a compulsory leave. It’s quite unfortunate that others were affected by the pandemic where some of them required while other succumb. The family of some of the people who succumb have filed the lawsuit against this organization where they accuse the management for negligence. According to them, the management did not set up the appropriate measures to protect the employees against the coronavirus. Such actions have been quite ineffective because they have tarnished the image of this organization and therefore it will take a long time to get back where it was before the pandemic outbreak.

Background information

At the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, no one was anticipating that this pandemic will have dire consequences to the organization. Hence, many organizations across the globe did not set up measures that will protect the organizations from the effects of this pandemic. In regard, majority of them were taken by surprise and therefore led to a great loss in the process. Today, the world economy has been hard hit, it will take years for it to get back to where it was before the pandemic. Many countries are in problems based on the large of people who have been rendered jobless by the pandemic. Such individuals have no means to cater for their needs and therefore they have to depend on the government. This is a great challenge that will need to be addressed before their lives goes down the drain. Besides, it is not safe for the government to have such a great number of people being jobless because most of them will resort to crime, which will increase insecurity to a country. Hence, the government has a duty to act immediately to look for long term solutions to the challenges created by this pandemic.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the experiences of many business across the globe. The behaviors and attitudes of the employees, customers, leaders as well as other stakeholders are changing. Besides, this pandemic has created a crisis that will forever change how the customers are buying the products or services of a particular organization. For instance, after the threat of this pandemic is over, organizations will need to establish measures to consider how these changes impact them (Li, Yang, Liu, Zhao, Zhang, & Xiang, 2020). Besides, they will have to think about how they will design, build, communicate and run the experiences which individuals need and want.

With such emerging new behaviors, there is a great opportunity for the companies and business to speed up the pivot to the digital commerce, this should be done by expanding the existing structure and coming up with new lines of services that will be most effective to the customers in any business. However, they will need to ensure that the product or services they are providing are quality or of high value that will attract the customers in the world market. Failure for the organization to ensure they add value to their products will be quite effective because it will be impossible for them to achieve their long and short terms goals. Based on the standard that COVID-19 will force organization to raise for the customers service, it will be hard for organization that will keep applying the traditional methods to compete with the organization that will have adopted the technological and current methods for handling business. Hence, before the effect of this pandemic is over, it is upon the management of different organizations to ensure that they change their way of doing things. It should not be business as usual.

This has been a wakeup call to most management that their enterprise risk management should always be in place and ready for use any time it needs to be used. If organizations were regularly reviewing their concepts of the enterprise risk management and ensuring that it’s effective and able to help the organization from incurring great losses, majority of the organizations could not have collapsed, they would still be operating. The importance of the enterprise risk management is ensuring the success of life and health of the business enterprise. In regard, if the business is not able to identify the risk to its existence, it will not be well prepared to face risk events. This is what has been happening to many organizations, they have been affected by the covid-19 pandemic, they had not taken the right measures required to address the challenges posed by this pandemic.

Besides, the ERM institutionalized the procedures for the risk management in the business. This is done by standardizing methodology, tools and individuals process in monitoring project risks for the employees, customers and other stakeholders. This is essential in any business since it impact people’s project failure and ensure that it is addressed effectively.in most cases, information and ideas concerning the enterprise risk management is mainly concerned by need to the proactive as opposed to be reactive, which is what many organization prefer. Putting the enterprise risk management in its simplest and effective form means expecting the unexpected (Yu, Li, Yu, He, & Zhou, 2020). Hence, organization should always be waiting for surprises and ensure they have set up the right measures to handle such surprises. It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure the team is thinking concerning the risk situations, ideas for problems prevention and how the organization should progress after the risk situation. When COVID-19 happened, it only few of the organizations that were thinking about it. They have not anticipated a situation like the one caused by the pandemic, which the reason there was a great loss. Hence, management need to learn on the importance of the enterprise risk management (Paul, & Chowdhury, 2020).

Every project must have some risk/ in regard, one should always consider and anticipate that something is likely to go wrong and therefore there should be steps taken in advanced to provide a remedy to such scenario. Besides, there should be a team given the mandate to identify, qualify as well as qualify the risks. The most effective way in which this should be done is through the project manager working together with the team and as well as other individual from outside the project whose primary object is to brainstorm the concerns concerning what would go wrong. When the team have the list potential risks, it will be very effective and will enable the team to determine the risk value by finding out about the total cost. This will help one to get the factors risk values. Such values are what help a team or organization to always prepare for any risk or threat that might end up disrupting the organization progress (Wang, Cheng, Yue, & McAleer, 2020). Hence, actions are taken much in advanced to prevent the negative effects of from disrupting the progress of the organization. The risk value that one is likely to get include;

· The cost for every risk

· The total cost that would be needed if the risk happened.

· The cost required to the problems to less severe.

· The occurrence probability to every risk

For effective to be realized, the value for the factored risk should be added to the initial estimate. For the risk items whose occurrence probability is very high, the full cost should be added to the initial estimate. There is no need for lowering the estimate due to the hope of the most effective outcome.

Research questions

How should Walmart organization apply the concept of the enterprise risk management to overcome the dire effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Steps Walmart should consider

The following are the Enterprise Risk Management plan for Walmart Inc. to reopen after the COVID-19. Before the application of these steps, it is important for the management to carry out a thorough and comprehensive research to ensure that these steps are fit to be applied in this organization. With good management, it will succeed and find it easier to come overcome the challenges post by this pandemic (Leung, Wu, Liu, & Leung, 2020). Besides, it will call for patients for these steps to be affected. There should be a vibrate teamwork among the leadership and the employees, each should be allowed to contribute equally in the making of decision that will affect the organization in the long run. These steps that needs to be taken in implementing enterprise risk management in overcoming the threat posed by COVID-19 in Walmart Inc. include;

a. Identify the risk. The management of this organization should apply the concept of the risk management in predicting the unpredictable. This should be done by navigating the risk as well as the opportunity created by the outbreak of this pandemic. This is exercise is vital and will play a significant role in preventing further damage in the organization. It is possible that the exceptional circumstance that are created by this pandemic may come to light risks that the organization has not yet considered. This will make it possible for the Walmart organization to think of a plan or a strategy based on how it is likely to move on in the future. Before this organization moving in a particular direction, it will require the leadership as well as employees of this organization to catalogue the risk that the business is likely to face over the next six to month to one year. For this organization to accomplish this, it should;

i. Consider every form of risk without overlooking even a single one. This include the financial, strategic as well as reputational.

ii. Consider other organizations, whether within the country or in other countries across the globe and find out how they are moving on after the pandemic. This may play a vital role in adding knowledge or providing ideas on how the Walmart should improve its way of address the challenges created by the pandemic.

iii. Gather information from every stakeholder. They may help the organization to understand the best way the organization might move on and ensure the customers are still getting their services without much problems.

For one to bear fruits in this exercise, they should dig deeper before taking any action. They should also keep referring to the decision made for the next couple of years to avoid making decision contrary to the decision established. This will ensure that the plan or strategy is updated whenever new development come up. Hence, the organization will always be up to date and there should never again be caught off guard like it happened with the COVID-19. They will always be prepared to handle any problem and therefore ensure their progress is not disrupted.

b. Be agile: it is always important for the organization to learn from its past and ensure that it make changes that will keep it from suffering from similar challenges in the future. Therefore, after the COVID-19 is over, the Walmart Inc. should be required to do a thorough audit and recount the challenges it will have passed through based on this pandemic. After which, with the help of the leadership, it will be required to find out what should be done to avoid such challenges in the future. This means that the plans that they had before the pandemic, they are no longer feasible, appropriate or realist now. They need to consider the challenges that they gone through due to this pandemic and come up with a different strategy that will fit the current post pandemic standards (Richter, & Wilson, 2020). However, the management will not have to throw it’s ensured play book out, instead the appropriate thing to do is to return one’s value and redefine how they should be realized. This is will call for a hard work since entail a very complex task. Hence, one should be ready to uncomfortable at times. Besides, this period should be navigated with understanding and flexibility. Creativity in the approach that takes is also important. It will help in a good progress as one establish goals and vision that the organization should adopt in future. It is also good to listen to the want and needs of the stakeholders and make a consideration of how they can be met. Hence, the Walmart Inc. should make effort to be agile, which will be an effective way of moving forward with easy after the effect of covid-19.

c. Think people: in every organization, the backbone lies with people. In the current era, people are tired, stressed, scared, taxed and preoccupied. Hence, the business risks based on employees’ mismanagement during this time can be quite effective. The management should ensure that the health, financial, safety, legal, operation, reputation etc. for the employees are well management (Mossa, Meltzer, Kim, Tuite, Kolli, & Tan, 2020). They should be given a priority and ensure that they have a friendly environment for them to discharge their duties. This will ensure a good progress; it will be possible to the business to keep operating and also serve its customers effective despite the challenges that have been created by this pandemic. Hence, Walmart Inc should ensure the welfare of the employees and other stakeholders are well handled to ensure that they discharge their duties and responsibilities without any problem. In most cases, people want to feel that the organization is making effort to address their concern. They need the assurance for the leadership that what they are doing is adding value to the organization. Therefore, Walmart organization should allow its employees to understand that they a risk plan, a crisis plan as well as business continuity plan that may protect them from any negative effective like the COVID-19 did to business. Once the employees have this assurance, they will discharge their duties with diligence and determination. Once the leadership have confidence in them, it will be possible for them to go an extra mile and do beyond what is expected of them. This will allow the business to progress without any challenges despite the prevailing condition. Moreover, it will stand out among its competitors based on its management and good control of the employees. Enterprise risk management works effective since it fosters and relies upon the holistic approach to identify, evaluate, analyze as well as treating risk. Although it is important for it to be supported and endorsed by the top leadership, the entire organization has to be involved for it to succeed. Moreover, there has to be frequent communication in all levels of the business, which will foster great trust and trust. (Obrenovic, Du, Godinic, Tsoy, Khan, & Jakhongirov, 2020). As Walmart establish measures to continue operating in the face of this pandemic, these steps need to be carried out effectively. The leadership should be at the forefront in ensuring that there is compliant to the rules and regulations that have been set in place for the success to be achieved in the long run.

d. Consider business continuity: business continuity is established to ensure that the organization is able to survive the threatening events. It comprises of various plans that have been established for a time to mitigate the impact of such incidents and shorted the recovery time. It is reasonable for the Walmart business to take time in evaluating the impact which this pandemic might have to the organization. It has to look both internally and externally for it to be able to come out with an effective business continuity plan.

i. Internally: this has to do with identifying organization important functions, employees and equipment as well as finding out, where and who the important services should be provided. Sometimes, one may consider suspending the work that may not seem to be important so that it can reduce the risk of exposure, as well as the unnecessary expenditure of case and show support to social distancing. Walmart leadership should ensure that the employee’s availability, safety and health is well monitored. This is because every individual within the organization is at risk of being affected by this pandemic. The essence of the business continuity plan is to help in taking the right action in case the employees as well as the other stakeholders are affected by the pandemic in large number. When a plan is made in advance, it will be possible for the organization to understand the steps to take to prevent further damage. Besides, it will ensure that the progress in the organization is well maintained despite the challenges that keep cropping up.

ii. Externally: this entail the instalment of the supply chain analysis as well as effective assessment of the potential risks faced by manufacturers, vendors, suppliers, purchasers, distributors, stakeholders as well as other organization where the management interacts and rely upon.

Amid the instruction and restriction by the government for people to work at home, the use of organization is very necessary for many organizations across the globe. This is an area that the Walmart organization has effectively done. The management has installed technology, which the employees have been using to handle different function that enhances a good progress in the organization. This has greatly been effective in reducing the interruption and increasing the productivity. Moreover, it ensures that the employees have the necessary software, hardware equipment and the right internet connectivity to work efficiently and safely from home. This is an area that this organization has done extremely well.

Methodology

In this study, the researchers adopted the qualitative approach. This was fou8nd to be effective since it would help the researchers interact with the respondents and enquire from them concerning important issues about the research. The respondents will be selected from the Walmart organization, there will be others from outside. The researchers will ensure that any respondents selected has the right information concerning how the Walmart organization has been dealing with the effect of this pandemic. Hence, the population sample in this study include the veteran employees, casual employees, veteran employees and other stakeholders. The sample size will come from the total population. To achieve the goals of this study, the sample size will be 120 respondents. Confidentiality will be highly observed in this study, the privacy of the respondent while protected by getting rid of any other personal identification form. There will two ways in which the data will be collected. This include the interview and questionnaire.

i. Interview

It is defined as the conversation that happen by the use of question for the interviewer to acquire elicit information on a particular issue. Different types of interviews will be used in this study. For instance, there will be group and individual interviews. The researchers will move to the ground to meet the respondents. They will be engaged on specific and general questions concerning how the Walmart organization should apply the enterprise risk management to handle the challenges posed by COVID-19. Interview will be the best choice in this study because it will help the researchers save on time and resources. However, if there will be leaders as part of respondents, it will be hard to get them based on their tight schedule, in such a case, the phone interviews will be used. Researchers will use their phone to engage the leaders based on the subject of this study.

ii. Interview

This is another method that will be applied in collection of data to be used in this study. Questionnaire refer to the written or printed list of questions that respondents should provide their answers as part of the survey. The researchers will design the appropriate and effective questions based on the subject of this research. They will be designed in such a way that it will be possible for the researchers to get the vital information required to come up with a conclusion on this issue. There will be two forms of the questionnaires, this include the close ended questions where the employees will be limited in giving their answers. For instance, they can only provide a “Yes “or “No” answers (Richter, & Wilson, 2020). Besides, they will be open ended questions where the respondents will be able to answer the questions as they wish concerning the situation. Data which the researchers will collect from both the interview and questionnaires will be recorded by the researchers and used during the analysis, which will help the researcher make a conclusion based on what they will about the situation.

Data analysis

Based on the results, the measure taken by the Walmart organization to deal with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic are wanting. They were not able to help the organization handle the problems that this pandemic caused. That is why it has been among the organizations that were hard hit. The leadership had not done the due diligence in finding out whether the responsible department had done its best in establishing the right enterprise risk management measures that will make it possible for the organization to keep operating when there is a threat (Paul, & Chowdhury, 2020). Due to such failure, this organization has encountered many problems during the period of this pandemic. For instance, it has several court cases from the employee who were affected in various ways. It is said that the organization was not able to set up with the most appropriate measures that will enable it deal with the challenges posed by this pandemic. That is some of the employees lost their lives while others are still in hospital trying to recover from the disease.

Conclusion

Based on the data collection, Walmart failed to enact the right enterprise risk management and therefore it was among the organizations that were highly affected by the pandemic. This is a lesson from any organization that it is always good to anticipate problems that might completely disrupt the progress of the organization. This is a reality that cannot be ignore and once the management embrace this reality, it is will ways do everything possible to protect the organization from such challenges. They will be planning in advance and coming up with ways in which organization should be well protected.

The research was success. Process of data collection method was well done; the researchers were able to solve the challenges that stood their way and protected them from achieve their goals for this study. The researcher question was answered. For instance, it was found that the organization has been failing to what enact the right measures to protect itself from calamity. Hence, this has been a great lesson to Walmart, after the COVID-19 is over, the management will go back to the drawing bought and improve on what they did not, which will play a significant role in protecting organization in future.

Discussion

Based on this study, it came out very strongly that the cause for Walmart Inc. failure in dealing with the effects of COVID-19 is the leadership. If they played their role well, this organization should not have been affected as it was. This is a demonstration that the failure and success of an organization is based on the action of the leadership. If they fail to play their role and motivate the employees to play their duties well, the future of the organization is very risk. In many cases, those organization that did not collapse based on the effect of this pandemic, will have to work very hard before they get back where they were. However, there will be a long-term impact on customers’ attitude (Olson, & Wu, 2018). This is because many clients realized that some employers, they do not do the due diligence to ensure that business will continue meeting their needs in the face of the major crisis like the one faced today due to this pandemic. Hence, if such customers find good competitors, they will move on. This will make some business to lose customers will other will gain. Besides, the future research should find out the specific role that should be carried out by leaders in in preventing the progress of the organization from being disrupted by threat such as COVID-19 pandemic. This will ensure good preparedness.

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