Does Walmart’s Use of Automation and Information Technology Eliminate the Need for Workers and Managers? Explain.

Question 1:

Does Walmart’s use of automation and information technology eliminate the need for workers and managers? Explain.

Theory (Textbook)

A goal for many of today’s operations managers is to find the right combination of technology and management to most efficiently produce goods and services.The use of radio-frequency identification (RFID), a tiny electronic tag on individual pieces of men’s clothing, including jeans, underwear, and socks has been part of the technology automation. The tags emit a weak radio signal that enables employees to know what sizes are missing on the shelf and what items are available in the stock room. Radio-frequency identification tags can identify and track pallets or cases of goods, and the move to individual items. Most retailers had used RFID only to track pallets or cases of goods, and the move to individual items has raised concerns over potential invasions of privacy.

Advanced information technology makes just-in-time inventory management work seamlessly, but it has also transformed management in many other ways. An organization’s information technology (IT) consists of the hardware, software, telecommunications, database management, and other technologies it uses to store data and make them available in the form of information for organizational decision making. In general, information technology has positive implications for the practice of management.

(New Era of Management, Richard L. Daft, 10th edition, 2012)

The development of computer-based information systems presents alternatives to the traditional vertical organizational hierarchy in existence since the 1850s. By providing managers with high-quality, timely, relevant, and relatively complete information, management information systems have reduced the need for tall management hierarchies. Horizontal information flows are now viable, supplanting the flow of information from one department up through management layers and then back down to another department...