Wal-Mart Competitive Advantages - Essay Example

Wal-Mart has experienced heavy criticism at the hands of several groups and individuals, which include labor unions, workers, and organizations that are smaller in size, environmentalists, and organizations. In 2006, Wal-Mart was criticized by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy as they believed that the company was paying 20% less to their employees as compared to the salaries paid by employers of other retail outlets (F. Cascio, 1). In 2001, the organization was criticized for paying $800/year less than the poverty line set at $14,630 by the federal government (Hansen, 1).

Before the death of Sam Walton, the company was operating a total of 1,714 and supercenters and Sam Clubs and the organization has employed 371,000 individuals and was earning a profit of 1.6 billion (Friedman, 1). After his demise, the number of stores decreased to 1,647 stores and 1,066 Supercenters, an additional 500 Sam Clubs, and the organization experienced a total profit of $6.6 billion with an increase in the number of employees to 1.3 million (Friedman, 1). On the surface, it seems that the company is performing quite well, but with the death of Walton came issues regarding unfair labor practices and labor unions forming to clash against Wal-Mart.

One of the issues experienced by Wal-Mart is in the area of labor relations. Employees claim that they are paid less than the amount of contribution they make to make the business successful. Wal-Mart itself agrees that its wages are quite competitive and it is one way through which it is saving its cost. As a CEO of Wal-Mart, I would have made changes in this corner. Several changes such as better feedback to employees and fringe benefits can be forwarded to employees to replace the issue of decreased hourly wages.

In the field of public relations, the organization needs to ensure that a positive image is created regarding the company. The public relations department can provide the message that even though the recession occurred all over the US, the company continued to perform and it successfully faced the recession and continued to employ several individuals even though there were tremendous amounts of job losses. The Company needs to portray a message that they are operating in an efficient manner and rumors such as child labor being used to produce goods for Wal-Mart need to be dealt with.