Management at the Walgreen

Management at the Walgreen

Walgreen is a company that specializes in the provision of health care services. The company has changed its management style various times since its inception. The company changed its command and control approach to leadership to ensure that employees become more productive than before. It also changed its field and frontline leadership style. The senior management has had a critical in the change process. They have made critical decisions, offered support and compensated employees in the proper manner. The management has decided to increase the number of vendors so as to reduce costs and increase supplies. The spokespersons have been employed to deal with issues in the diversified countries that the country operates.
Implementation of an innovative idea at the Walgreen Company will make a positive impact on both the employees and the customers. The idea will be a creation of an interactive site whereby all stakeholders can share ideas. Additionally, several structures that have been established in the company have to ensure that the implementation of a change process has become a success. Open communication plays a significant role in ensuring that the implementation process is a success.
Walgreen is a company that deals with health and wellness products, health information, prescriptions as well as photo services. The company was established in 1907 by Charles Walgreen. It is the second largest drugstore chain in the United States.
There are several key changes that have taken place in the company’s management style since its inception to current day.

The company initial management style was the command and control approach. This approach was later considered to be counterproductive since there were many barriers to creativity and innovation. This management style was built on a strict hierarchy of authority. The role of managers is to give commands failure to which discipline is given. Through clear and concise processes, employees were in a position to follow instructions in an effective manner. Employees at that time were greatly motivated by commands. This approach was, therefore, effective, and the company used it for a long time after which it realized that change was necessary. Due to the increase in the number of competitors in the industry and the growth of internet market the company realized that it was losing a lot of customers. Walgreen decided to change the management style and therefore concentrate on training its workers (Benn, 2014).
The company also changed its management style that focused on field and frontline approaches of leadership. The company decided to abandon this type of management style so that it can focus more on training and coaching its employees. Employees were trained on how they could provide superior customer services so that the company could increase its customer base. The company decided to provide job descriptions and duties for each position in the company. The company also decided to create two new positions. The positions were their vice president in charge of markets and a community leader within the company. The vice president concerned with markets ensured that the leadership focused being closer top customers. On the other hand, the community leader served as a mentor to the store managers even he/she did not have any management experience. These two roles allowed for change and allowed the management style to be more self-evolving for both the company and its customers. The company has recently decided to blend it leadership style to suit that of Walgreens and Alliance Boots. The new management team has begun working, and change is being realized. The new management style is meant to solve the issues that the company was experiencing in the past (Hayes, 2014).
Based on the level of sales, smooth operations, a high number of customers, satisfaction of employees are among other reasons to believe that Walgreens is properly managed. Further, the company has had a high level of growth, and this has allowed this organization to become a global enterprise.
The senior management has had a critical role to play in preparing the organization for its most recent changes. The senior management was responsible for coming up with the ideas that were implemented to bring out the change. The senior management also provided the support needed for a change to be carried out. The management ensured that employees were fully engaged in the change process. The senior management also made critical decisions that affected the change process in a positive way. Some of the critical decision made is moving the store to store decisions to be handled at the company’s headquarters. The senior management also decided to create an effective pay structure that compensated employees based on performance.
The company’s management decision on its use of vendors and spokespersons has been positive to the business. The company intends to become the giant in purchasing prescription drugs. The company has therefore made a decision to have as many vendors as possible to allow the company choose the most reliable of the vendors and also to save the cost of drugs. Walgreen deals with many small communities in different regions of the world, and that is why they have a team of spokespersons. Spokespersons ensure that they deal with issues affecting the company such as customer concerns and others. The company has been doing good in trying to bring vendors and spokesperson together so that contracts can be long lasting and impacting to the whole organization (Williams, 2013).
As a manager at The Walgreen company, I would ensure that I have come up with innovative that would have a positive impact on both the employees and the customers of the Walgreens Company. Coming up with an interactive site belonging to the company where the employees, customers, and management will be interacting freely is an innovative idea that I would implement and I am sure that it would make a concrete impact on both customers and the employees. The platform will offer an opportunity for the customers to give feedback on what the fell about the products belonging to the company. The employee will also have an opportunity of interacting with the management and the customers to know about the views of the customers on matters relating to the customer service offered by the company.
The approach that I will take in making sure that I have implemented the idea successfully is asking for the opinion of the employees regarding the concept through a brainstorming session. Additionally, I would ask for suggestion on some of the feature that they would prefer to be included on the website. The process will make sure that the chances of the resistance during the implementation process have been minimized. The platform will also ensure that employees, customers, and management have lived like a family. The implementation process will also seek some help from an expert in that particular field as well as the other stakeholders and the top management. A forum will be hosted whereby the employees will be taken through the whole concept and be taught on how to use the platform thoughtfully for the benefit of all. As for the customers, they will receive this information through customized emails or annual reports from the company (Benn, 2014).
The Walgreen Company is a firm that has for long demonstrated its ability to adapt to the changing needs of the customers. Walgreen has always kept pace with current innovation that is aimed at ensuring that the needs of the customers have been addressed and as well as coping with the changes that are happening in the environment. The Walgreen Company is known to have set a strong framework that has always worked for the company whenever implementing various changes (Hayes, 2014).
An open communication channel is a very important concept the plays a significant role in ensuring that the implementation of change in an organization has become successful. These channels are designed in a way that they are simple and easy to understand. The clarity of the communication to the stakeholders, customers, and the staff ensure that the process has become a success. Open communication is very important since it ensures that it has created awareness to all the parties involved. The awareness makes every individual be conscious of the change process that is expected to take place (Williams, 2013).
Open communication is critical because it facilitates understanding. Through communication, individual are capable of sharing a meaning to particular change. Additionally, communication ensures that all individuals are well-informed and have clarity of the changes to take place and the positive impact that is expected to result from the change when it is fully implemented. Open communication is critical during the implementation process of change because it facilitates acceptance. Acceptance comes after the individuals involved in the change process or affected by the change process internalize the change and end up having a more favorable outlook on the change (Hayes, 2014). Open communication channels are critical in making implementation of change in an organization successful because they offer alignment of the stakeholders at various levels who support that particular change. The alignment that is created through open communication channel calls for experts having knowledge on how to handle the implementation process in various stages (Benn, 2014).
Commitment is another effect of open communication channel that contribute to the success of the change process. Commitment result manifested where individuals at an organization claim ownership and responsibility of a particular change that is taking place at the organization. Success in the implementation process of change determined by how the communication strategy has been designed. The utilization of communication vehicles that are multiple, as well as the delivery channels, are key to the success of the implementation of changes in an organization.
References
Benn, S. (2014). Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Williams, C. (2013). Principles of management. South-Western/Cengage Learning.