Consulting Project Plan for Walmart - Case Study Example

Consultation Project Plan affiliation Consulting Project Plan. Summary. Consulting has become an essential activity in organizations due to daily issues that arise from business relations. There are a number of functional areas of a business that face resistance from clients. For instance, accounting, Security and Emergency departments. For a good consulting project, the consultants must identify the causes that lead to resistance in an organization. Therefore, there must be a good response to overcome the resistance. For a good consulting plan, the implementation phase should be recommended. Feedback for Part One and Part Two. From the consulting project plan, Walmart faces a number of problems which affect the employees. For instance, low employee morale that affects productivity in the organization. Due to significant number of workers in Walmart, the workers are not getting enough support. Employees are working in unconducive environments that kill their morale. Walmart is working had to mitigate this problem by changing the structure of the business organization. It is introducing team support and teamwork to make sure that this problem is reduced. This will help the employees to rely on their teammates whenever they come across a challenging situation during their day to day activities in the organization. It has been noted that poor communication channels and feedback has contributed a lot to the problem of non-supportive groups among Walmart employees. This is an issue for the organization since workers do not have the necessary information for completion of their tasks. It leads to poor performance hence not achieving the organization goals and objectives. In regard to the communication plan, Walmart will use conference calls and status reports which will enable them to acquire quality feedback. Parties that take part in a teleconference can be free since they have no fear of losing their jobs. Many opinions are generated from different people. The ideas generated from both sides are used to identify the problem that is available in the organization and tries to come up with possible solutions. Through conference calls, remedies that are appropriate for the problems available are proposed. In order to countercheck the status of the employee’s job, the status reports are prepared. This increases the relationship between the employees and the management. Through this, there is an exchange of information concerning the progress of the job. The status report contributes a lot to Walmart in terms of rating the contemporary state of the business against the set plans and goals. Therefore, effective communication needs frequency. There should be more discussions for monitoring the progress and status of the job. Functional Areas of the business. In any operational business, there are a number of functional areas. Walmart is a functional organization that has the following functional areas. Accounting department ensures that the track of the company assets and liabilities is kept. For instance, records of accounts payable, accounts receivables, financial reportage, and budgeting oversight are maintained by the accounting department. Communication department ensures that the messages based on ethical considerations are conveyed. It contributes a lot to maintaining of Walmart reputation. The Stores and supply department stores products of the company. This department is very crucial to Walmart because, it makes sure that the business’s products are stored appropriately. Human resource department deals with all issues pertaining Walmart employees. For instance, employment of employees, Training, Recruitment and Selection of employees. Catering department is a crucial department in Walmart as it supplies food to the company staff. Transport and accommodation department offers the new staff housing and basic utilities. The department also provides transportation services to the staff members and workers. Emergency Department responds to emergencies such as the outbreak of fire. Security department plays a great role in ensuring that safety of the organization is protected. Any crime issue that may arise in the organization is dealt with the security department. Areas of potential client resistance. Areas of potential resistance include accounting department since most clients pose a stiff resistance to the accountants regarding cloud accounting apps. In the Communication department Mostly, clients become resistant to the communications department especially customer care section. Also, in the Emergency Department the clients may be resistant to the Emergency team by claiming that they are slow to act whenever an emergency occurs. In the Security department, Clients always complain about their security while they are in the organization. They become resistant to the security team by claiming that they are not doing their work properly. How to overcome resistance of the clients For Walmart to retain its customers, it has to look for ways of overcoming resistance from the clients. Firstly, the consultant should take the concerns of the clients seriously. The concerns of the clients should be understood and discuss the raised matters with the clients. It is the role of Walmart to make sure that the customers are served according to the standards required by the organization. Therefore, in case of any complaints from the client, Walmart must take immediate action to deal with those complaints. By so doing, the client will be satisfied that the grievances raised are dealt with (Orr & Orr, 2013). Walmart will win the customers loyalty by acting fast towards issues raised by clients. Clients are the main objective of the organization. Therefore, it is wise for any organization to take the clients complaints seriously. Walmart believes that, without clients there is no business therefore customers are their priority. Secondly, an empathic approach should be taken to solve the problems raised by the client. This approach will make the customer see that you are trying to find a solution to the problem. The customer will be satisfied. Lastly, to overcome consumer resistance easily, the consultant must engage the customer in a conversation that addresses the problems. The consultant should learn more about the needs of the clients and then address them. It is the nature of clients to feel secure and significant when their grievances are listened. Potential resistant points and type of resistance are expected. Clients may see things with profitability and, therefore, need the consultant come with innovative ideas for improvement. Clients see consultant and cost-effectiveness and productivity improvement as a management trying to start eliminating jobs therefore begin becoming paranoid. Client employee may hide information or give wrong information, hence, avoid cooperating. Client may hold information or even business requirement thus causing extensive rework late in the project. These are the major points where clients become resistant. Therefore, it is high time for the consultation team to address these points before the clients become paranoid about them. If the team does not take care, the clients may become more resistant and hard to control. Cause of resistance. The inability of the consultant to get into sync with the client may lead to resistance. The client may in one way or the other come with certain beliefs, if the consultant does not understand and handle the customer with care, the client may look miserable and therefore become resistance. It is the work of the consultant to understand the client’s source of resistance and, therefore, deal with it wisely. In order to deal with the client resistance, the cause of the resistance must be known. Therefore, it will be very easy for the consultant to address the client in ways that can lead to their consensus. Potential responses to overcome resistance. Clients’ problems or issues raised should be attended to with an immediate effect. This will help to overcome resistance from clients. By doing this, the clients will feel superior by seeing that the consultant have seen their concerns has taken an action. Implementation phase and tools. The implementation phase of consulting is where the consultant and the client work together to figure out the major issues that are facing the organization (Orr & Orr, 2013). They should identify actions to be taken to solve those problems. The implementation phase can be done either explicitly or implicitly. Explicitly defines the process of phase implementation while implicitly does not define the process. Walmart should embrace this strategy for easy management of client resistance. Implementation phase is effective in that it gives both the client and the consultant the opportunity to give their view on the underlying problem. Both sides come up with innovative ideas that are put to use to solve the problems available. Change process necessary. The appropriate change process to deal with client resistance is process consultation. This is a process where the consultant and the client act as equal. Knowledge of the organization’s nature, business issues are provided by the customer where the consultant gives knowledge of ways of thinking, practice, and techniques that can be put to use to solve problems. How to support the change. The process consultation is encouraged by the participation of the client and the consultant. If the two parties would not participate, the process consultation will not be successful. Tools for successful implementation. Tools that are put to use to enable a successful implementation of change are: open-ended questionnaire. The tool allows clients to give their concerns without fearing any victimization (Orr & Orr, 2013). The other tool that will be used is conducting interviews. The interviews will assist the consultant to have a conversation with the client face to face hence gathering reliable information for the implementation. Components of an engaged implementation phase. Partnership between client and consultant. The consultant and the client have to take part to ensure that they figure out the major issues that are facing the organization (Orr & Orr, 2013). They should identify actions to be taken to solve those issues. Understanding each part; the client and the consultant must understand each other for them to come up with appropriate solutions of the available issues. Collaboration. This is an important component of the implementation phase. It ensures that the client collaborates with the consultant for plan implementation. Methods of engaged implementation phase. Customer involvement, which makes the client feel superior hence participating fully in the implementation phase. Identification of problem; for an engaged implementation, the problem must be identified and analyzed fully. After the problem is recognized, solutions can be generated during the implementation phase. Support for engaged implementation. The support needed in engage implementation is cooperation of the parties involved. The client and the consultant must cooperate fully for the success of the implementation. This support is necessary for the implementation phase. Reference. Orr, L. M., & Orr, D. J. (2013). When to Hire or Not Hire a Consultant: Getting Your Moneys Worth from Consulting Relationships. Apress. Read More