Wal-Mart’s Organizational Structure
Damaris Medina
MGT/230
September 13, 2012
Dan Kassmeier

Every company has their own form of organizational structure. Whether the business is big or small, an organizational structure is needed in order to have a successful business. An organizational structure helps put the business in order to make sure there are no problems in the future, but what is an organizational structure? It is how the reporting structure is organized. There are many types of organizational structures. Some examples of organizational structures are, the functional, matrix, and divisional structures (Bateman & Snell, , 2011). When business owners are planning a structure for their business, it is important to know
Wal-Mart is a role model for other similar store like Target. The way Wal-Mart is set up, is a great example of a well thought out structure. A matrix organization is one of many different organizational structures. Like mentioned before, each structure is based on the complexity of the business itself. Some other structures include divisional and functional organization. Divisional organization is based on the customers, geographic regions, and products, unlike the matrix structure, where it is based on who the employees will report to, such as CEO’s, general managers, and shift managers just to name a few (Bateman & Snell, , 2011). Functional organization is when a business groups different departments according to the skill of the group (Bateman & Snell, , 2011). Wal-Mart has a marketing team that does their best to keep their customers coming back. For example, the marketing team came up with the slogan “Save money. Live better.” ("Walmart", 2012). The other aspects of this particular business are the finance department and the human resource department. These departments, as well as others, also play a key part in the structure of the business. With so many different departments, each with different skills, there is a need for a structure that is able to keep the business organized. Being that they have a complex system, the matrix structure seems to be the best choice they could