Wal Mart : The Challenge Of Managing Relationships With Stakeholders

There are many opinions on the ethics of the Wal-Mart model, both favourable and unfavourable. The article “ROB Ranks Wal-Mart Among Canada’s Best Employers” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 287) offers a favourable viewpoint of the model, and the article “The Cost of Walmartization” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 288) offers an opposing unfavourable view. This paper discusses the theoretical approaches used in each article, along with the supporting evidence that was used in an effort to be convincing.

The following report will discuss American retail giant, Wal-mart’s current ethical and business objectives. The report will look at Wal-mart’s employee relations in regard to discrimination and other various issues involving their employees. It will look at how their ethical stance contradicts with what has gone on in the past regarding associates (employees) and management.

para. 7). Track 1 basically tells there are two players: winners and losers, players would have to design a strategy to win the game or in this case the win the market. Wal-Mart’s motto “always low prices”, attracts customers from other businesses, which is totally normal in organization for profit. Also, you mentioned Wal-Mart employed children to manufacture products; fact that proves ‘Greed’. Richardson, Tim. (2015) states “greed…striving for ever-bigger rewards and bonuses; loss of perspective; trappings of success” (ch. 6, p. 2), which is what companies usually look for, but this is why there is track 1 and 2. Finally, Wal-Mart’s business practices affect employee satisfaction, according to a survey conducted by Wal-Mart, 70% of employees leave within the first year of service, due to the lack of recognition and reward system (PBS, n.d., para. 5). It is important to understand the lack of engagement between employers and employees leads to high stress, turnovers and disinterest in persuading organizational goals, which is a clear evidence of ‘stress-related issues’. Richardson, Tim. (2015) states “ Stress-related issues: exhaustion through overwork; long-hours culture; burnout; illusion of busyness; substance abuse to maintain unnatural energy levels; 'never

Wal-Mart is one of the biggest retailer of its time who was known for being the major private sector employer worldwide. It has become an enormous company by identifying the market gap regarding customer services. They have tried to fulfill this gap through their market research of both small and large towns. As quoted in the case study Wal-Mart’s focus was on building up an efficient supply chain management system as it claims “Supply chain management is moving the right items to the right customer at the right time by the most efficient means.”

Initially Walmart presumed that their age old strategy that has worked for them for many years would be easy to replicate in a global setting. The question you have to ask yourself is, why wouldn’t it? Part of the problem is that Walmart failed to focus on the four elements of a global organization; Organization Structure, Management Processes, People, and Culture (Yip & Hult, 2012). When Walmart decided to make their first move in the early 90’s to enter the global market, they were lacking mostly in organization structure, management processes, and culture. The mentality of being the biggest retailer in the United States was not enough, operating in the global arena is different.

Companies must be able to provide environmental scanning. It is the monitoring of an organization 's internal and external environment. It helps to detect early signs of opportunities and threats that may influence its current and future plans. Some strengths Walmart has internally is its cost leadership and variety. However some internal weaknesses are the current labor related lawsuits, which lead to high employee turnover. This also creates negative publicity. Within the store these is sometimes little product differentiation making it difficult for customer to get exactly what they desire. Some opportunities available for Walmart externally are the rising acceptance of private label, trend of healthy eating, and increase in online shopping. Walmart is currently working on growing on the opportunities though their strategic management. Threats that are external to the company are the increasing competition and resistance from local communities. Walmart is working on defeating these threats though their competitive advantages and the increase in Neighborhood Walmart.

For the final group project we chose to complete a management analysis on Wal-Mart. Covered in this paper are the issues of productivity, hiring practices, corporate social responsibility and culture, diversity and affirmative action, the use of information technology, leadership, teamwork, and managing ethics.

There are few companies that have become household names all across the Americas and many parts of the globe. One such company is Wal-Mart. Since its’ birth in 1962, there have been over 4,700 company locations opened, employing over 1.4 million people in the continental United States alone. (WALMART STORES.COM 2011)

Wal-Mart seems to address the fact that there should be a code of ethics. The application of corporate ethical behavior needs to be dealt with on a personal and professional level. The key for Wal-Mart is to help their associates indentify if their actions are right or wrong. They rely on a system of training and business practices started by its founder, Sam Walton (“The NEW Age of Walmart”).

Walmart is successful by following a cost leadership strategy. Their sales revenues were $375 billion in 2008 but their profit was

Wal-Mart are aware of this and so by examining Wal-Marts practices using the 'best fit' perceptive will give a better understanding as to why they have adopted their various practices by linking them to their key organisational strategy and

Wal-Mart’s primary competition in US includes department stores of the likes of Target and Kmart. Costco offers competition to Sam Club format of Wal-Mart. In niche small markets, dollar stores are offering strong competition to Wal-Mart.

Bonini, S. M., Mendoca, L. T., & Oppenheim, J. M. (2006). When Social Issues become strategic. McKinsey Quarterly, 20-32.

I hope had a joyous holiday and New Year. As a valued client, I am writing to inform you of a possible addition for your portfolio for 2006. I have been monitoring Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Wal-Mart) and recently I conducted extensive analysis on the company’s financial performance. Throughout the following document, I will present the key pieces of information that I have gathered from my analysis to support my recommendation to purchase or not purchase shares of Wal-Mart. Then, based upon the information presented, you can best decide whether or not to include the equity in your portfolio. You will learn about the history of Wal-Mart and its operations, the number of locations and its competitors. From annual reports and 10-K filings, I will include factors for the company’s success, the competitive situation, as well as Wal-Mart’s strengths and weaknesses. The company overview provides a good backdrop to the quantitative data that is then presented for the retailing giant during 2004, 2005 and forecasted for 2006. The information will include Wal-Mart’s past financial performance during 2004 and 2005, as well as the associated ratios, and forecasted results for 2006 regarding potential financial operations, profitability or losses, as well as if the company will need to rely upon external borrowing. You will also receive the intrinsic value of Wal-Mart based upon the dividend discount model, assumptions to reach the stated conclusions and the required rate of

The global player Wal-Mart operates in 14 different markets all around the world, serving 176 million customers every week. Today, the second biggest company of the world, concerning turnover which amounts to 312,427 million US-$, categorizes its operational facilities into five divisions. Among those divisions are the Wal-Mart discount stores, offering convenience and low-priced goods. Wal-Mart supercenters are the biggest stores, being open 24/7 hours and employing a workforce of 350 people, selling all kinds of groceries and general merchandise at the lowest possible price. Wal-Mart neighborhood markets are specified in