Final

Running head: TARGET CORPORATION COMPANY 1

TARGET CORPORATION COMPANY 12

Target Corporation Company

Tiffine C. Bourland

Business 4013

12/11/2016

Recommendations for enhancing the organization’s performance

Over the years, the global economy has been faced with various changes because of newly emerging trends in the environment. These changes occur either internally or externally and have a significant impact on the organizations’ performances. Therefore, it is essential for the organizations to increase their abilities to adapt to the ever-changing environment for them to cope with the rising number of challenges (Senge, 2014). For them to quickly adapt to the dynamic business environment, it is very crucial for the organizations’ management to formulate and implement realistic and actionable strategies that will enable the business to improve and progress on its performance.

The organizations’ performances are very vital to any organization as well as a key ingredient to the development of any country. These performances are a set of both financial and non-financial indicators that provide information on the degree of achievement of objectives and results of the organizations. The primary focus of this paper is to give practical and actionable recommendations for enhancing the performance through organizational structure, learning and organizational design practices to the management of Target Corporation Company.

Target Corporation Company is characterized by being one of the largest retailing companies in the United States, dealing with a wide variety of products including but not limited to electronics, household product, pet supplies and food products. Besides, it has a large customer base that can access the wide variety of products offered by Target Corporation at discounted prices. Also, it has many employees working for the organization in over 1800 locations around the world. Besides, Target Corporation collaborates with suppliers who specialize in production after which they package and brand their products as per their standards (Wahba, 2016). Due to its operations, it faces stiff competition from other organizations within the same industry such as Walmart which deals with almost similar products as Target Corporation.

For Target Corporation to be successful, the management needs to formulate and implement ways that will aid the company to achieve both its short, medium and long-term goals. To achieve such, it is important for the organization to focus on the organizational structure for it to achieve optimum performance levels. One such organizational structure is departmentalization: whereby the management restructures the company by grouping it into departments (Simons, 2013). These departments can be categorized as functional and product departmentalization. By forming these units, the management of Target Corporation will be able to stimulate specialization in various areas across the organization hence acquiring different kinds of expertise in its operation. The functional departments will specialize in multiple functions of the organization such as marketing and finance whereas the product unit will focus on the extensive product lines that the organization deals with.

Since the organization deals with a variety of products, it is, therefore, paramount for the organization to create a department for each line product. By doing this, each department would concentrate on specific products such as clothes, electronics, and food products. This will enhance the quality of the outputs which will meet the preference of the customers thereby improving the overall performance of the company. Also, the management should consider its chain of command for it to improve its overall performance. The leadership in Target Corporation has embraced a tall organizational structure with a relatively long chain of command which almost resembles the military. This type of leadership model should be restructured by the management of the organization for them to realize excellent performances. This kind of leadership does not encourage innovation from workers, and it devalues the brainpower of the workforce (Simons, 2013). Considering the current business environment, most organizations are competing for the talented and innovative workforce.

The probability of the organization trying to attract and retain top talented employees will be fruitless if the management of Target Corporation still insists on the bureaucratic style of leadership where there is a long chain of command. There are many challenges associated with the long chain of command but to name a few. One such challenge is communication flow; whereby the communication flows from the top ranks to the bottom levels. With such kind of communication flow, the tendency of innovation among the workers automatically comes to a standstill and engagement between the staff and the management suffers terribly such that there is no room for discussions and various opinions. Continuous limitations in communication flow, give room to the competitors and new incumbents who quickly enters the market.

The form of leadership style utilized by Target Corporation does not give much attention to the employees’ experiences (Simons, 2013). Therefore, most employees are not entirely motivated to work at their full potential, and the outcome is reduced productivity rate. Dissatisfied employees will automatically lessen the level of customers, since; they will offer poor customer service to their clientele. It is essential for the management of Target Corporation to consider employing other forms of leadership, such as democratic form, whereby the management of the organization creates room for the employees to discuss and offer alternatives for the betterment of the organization. When the workers' experiences are taken into consideration as well as their talents and ideas are positively embraced by the organizations, the probability of high productivity will be high. Highly motivated employee’s equal better customer services which lead to significant increase in customer levels thus increasing organization’s revenues due to increased sales.

Additionally, the Corporation’s management should also consider the distribution of authority in its organizational structure. This is very vital since it determines whether the organization’s management is centralized or decentralized. Based on Target Corporation, the management must a greater extent employed a centralized form of control (Simons, 2013). This is because all the critical decisions are kept within a executive group. Administration of this kind has significant limitations that make Target Corporation vulnerable in this competitive world of business.

As such, the probability of the Corporation performing poorer compared to its competitors such as Walmart is high. Target Corporation is in over 1800 locations in the world, but the negative part is that all decisions have to be made in their headquarters at Minneapolis in Minnesota in the United States. This is a dire situation because the numerous branches all over the world are exposed to different circumstances. These include the differences in political systems, social, cultural practices, legal systems and technological advancements. The centralized management system practiced by the organization must a greater extent contributed to the poor performance of the company in locations outside the United States.

For the company to achieve significant returns from their branches both within and outside the United States, the management should consider embracing a decentralized form of the directorate. Under this type of management, managers also have a say in decision making. This will be advantageous to the company since managers typically have more information concerning the organization compared to the specific executives and Board of Directors.

When managers of different branches both within and outside the United Stated can make decisions concerning vital areas of the activities of the organization without necessarily following the chain of command, the performances of the organization would drastically improve (Simons, 2013). Different nations are characterized by different political systems and cultures and the managers in those locations are in a much better position to make decisions that will benefit the company.

For example, the customers’ tastes and preferences differ among nations; therefore, a product packaged correctly to meet the preference of clients in the United States may be poorly received in another country outside the United States. Therefore, when decentralized form of management is applied, the managers in locations outside the United States will take the initiative and package the products per the tastes and preferences of the customers in the host country. Thus, the products will be widely accepted; hence, lead to increased sale volumes which equal increased revenues.

Also, for Target Corporation to improve its performance, the management could consider adjusting its method of controlling inventory. Reason being, the administration has fully embraced the LIFO method of inventory control. They should consider spreading risks that can arise from this approach of managing inventory. This approach involves a scenario whereby unsold inventory comprises the earliest acquired goods.

In the interview earlier conducted, the Corporation’s operational manager noted that the greatest challenge they were facing was caused by stocks becoming redundant because of new trends that kept on emerging, which demanded changes to the organization’s products hence resulted in significant losses. These losses could at some point be avoided if the management can consider spreading risks and incorporating another method of inventory control such as FIFO. The executives of the organization might test the new method first before fully embracing the new approach (Simons, 2013). By using FIFO inventory method, the Corporations could reduce by a greater margin the chances of stocks becoming redundant. Since FIFO method involves a situation whereby the unsold inventory comprises of goods acquired most recently. Therefore, the probability that stock could become redundant due to new trends emerging could amount to almost zero percent.

Also, the management of Target Corporation could look at its organizational design and strategize on methods of entry they could employ so as to enter new emerging markets in locations outside the United States. Most of the Corporate’s competitors such as Walmart have this strategy as their competitive advantage since they have several outlets in different places outside their parent country. For example, Target Corporation has encountered challenges whereby; its various branches located in Brazil have been undermined by the reluctance of the local government in the host country to embrace firms from America for other from the east such as China.

As such, the management of the Corporation could consider other forms of entering markets in different countries. One such strategy it could employ is by indirectly exporting its products via intermediaries who act as their agents (Simons, 2013). In this case, the intermediaries in the host country locate customers and negotiate for prices and later after reaching an agreement with the potential buyers, make orders to Target Corporations for them to export the merchandise. Also, the management could consider joint venture as another alternative to entering new markets in different countries.

This approach mainly involves a situation whereby the management of Target Corporation identifies a company in the host country and forms a partnership. When the Corporation embraces either of the alternatives to enter a new market, they will increase their sales volume which simultaneously will lead to high-profit realization. Also, by venturing into new markets in different countries, Target Corporation could reduce its overall cost production since it will be utilizing cheap labor in less developed countries such as India.

An additional organizational design practice that can significantly increase the levels of corporate performance is focusing on customers’ needs, tastes and preferences. Though the organization has put vital interest and focus on customers, it is however never enough since there is still room for more improvement (Senge, 2014). The management needs to analyze what their competitors such as Walmart are doing differently which has led them to have a broad customer base than Target Corporation.

One factor the administration can consider is advertising their products and services extensively. In as much as Target Corporation is widely known, it would be no harm to engage in promoting their products for them to capture potentials customers who are unaware of the services offered by the organization. By conducting thorough advertisements through print media or social media, the organization will realize increased sales from new customers thereby increasing the overall organization’s performance. Also, the management should maintain proper records of their clients’ names, addresses, and contacts. By applying this method, the management through various departmental personnel can keep track of their customers since they have their information in their software systems (Senge, 2014). Besides, the company could use this platform to notify their clients of any new products or changes in features of existing products.

Regular contacting of the customers would make them feel like a vital organ on the organization’s existence which would increase their loyalty and commitment to the organization. Thus, the volumes of sales would significantly increase which would lead to increased profitability levels, hence high organizational performance. Also, it is essential for the management of Target Corporation to adjust its organizational design by embracing a positive corporate culture. Organizational culture typically provides a framework in the behavior of employees in their workplace. Organizational culture may impact the overall performance of the organization either positively or negatively (Santos-Vijande, López-Sánchez, & Trespalacios, 2012). In Target Corporation, the managers’ focus on ensuring tasks are completed as per the instructions provided by the management.

The probability of the employees to work with fear and distrust under this kind of culture is great leading to employee’s low performance. When employees are not considered as a vital part of the organization’s growth process, they will tend to perform their outlined duties as boring chores. Since they are sidelined from the key objectives of the organization, they are not in a better position to understand the implications of their tasks, hence may not fully commit to achieving them. Consequently, this would result to low performances of the organization in general.

However, when the management of Target Corporation regards their employees as a major organ in the growth process of the organization, this will foster employees’ commitment to the overall goals of the organization (Argote, 2012). In this case, the employees can align their objectives in accordance with the organizations and will take full responsibility and accountability to ensure that the organizational goals have been realized. This positive culture, promoted by the organization’s management will increase the level of employees’ loyalty and commitment to the company hence result in increased productivity and improvement in the general performance of the organization. It is, therefore, the duty of the management to weed out any negative cultures that will deteriorate the performance of the employees.

Organizational learning is a very vital tool for the excellent performance of any organization. Companies that embrace the culture of learning can gain and sustain competitive advantage over competitors who neglect this essential ingredient. The management of Target Corporation should embrace the learning culture to enhance the overall organization’s performance. The executives can implement the learning culture through leading by example; whereby the senior management includes the learning process in the corporate strategy and makes it transparent (Argote, 2012).

Also, the management should make learning a habitual behavior for all employees at all levels and encourage the sharing of learning skill and knowledge as well as encouraging coaching and mentorship across the organization. By embracing the learning culture, employees will be able to think critically and become more innovative and creative. The impact of this approach will be, creating a culture of inquiry of matters on all areas of the organization as well as knowledge sharing. This will result in increased levels of employee satisfaction which will enhance their loyalty and commitment levels. It will, therefore, lead to increased levels of productivity hence high performance for Target Corporation.

The aim of this paper was to give practical and actionable recommendations for enhancing the performance through organizational structure, learning and design practices to the management of Target Corporation. This paper has achieved the above by outlining and describing the impact on performance the organization could make if the management could embrace the set recommendations. In conclusion, for Target Corporation to realize optimum performances, it is important for all employees regardless of their level to take the initiative and purpose to prosper as a team by committing the objectives of the organizations.

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