Walmart Company - Research Paper Example

Walmart Company This reflective essay discusses my opinion on the case 32 which relates to Walmart and unethical practices related to human relationship management. Here I discuss my learning from the case study as well as provide my reflections on the case. The case study gives a very good example of how large business can be following certain practices that are considered as discriminationary by the employees and the general public. Walmart is a very big company with a very large number of stores all over the world and it employs thousands of employees. As such, the company is in a position to give employment and means of livelihood for community and the people. It is also one of the largest companies and so it can take advantages of the economies of scales in its supply chain and operations and so it can provide low costs and discounted products. As such, it is considered as beneficial to the customers also. However, there are many charges applied against Walmart for its policies and practices regarding its employees. I agree that there is a substantial amount of evidence that indicates that Walmart is following unethical practices. For example, it is well known that the company employees a large number of part time employees and puts them in in dead end jobs (Becker, 2013). There are also allegations of the company hiring illegal immigrants. This strategy means that the company does not have to worry about the incentives or benefits, insurance and other health related aspects of a large section of the workforce. Moreover, I believe that this strategy also makes it possible for Walmart to avoid planning a career path for these employees. A more serious charge levied against Walmart is that it sources its supplies in an unethical manner and uses sweatshops that employ children or other marginalized groups across the globe. By sourcing from countries that have weak or non-existent labour laws makes it possible for Walmart to get cheaper supplies and hence translate the cost saving to the customers. In addition to this being an unethical practice on the supply front, it is also touted as a market distorting strategy as Walmart is able to price its products lower than competition and hence affects free market dynamics (Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen, 2009) Another issue that was highlighted in the case study was that Walmart makes its workers spend long hours and do overtime, while at the same time it does not pay good wages. These allegations have been made against Walmart by several employees and there have even been cases filed against it (Kenny, 2006). While the Walmart itself denies most of these charges, it does agree that these unethical practices may be happening at the store level without the knowledge of the top management. However, Walmart continues to prevent unionization of its workers which means that the employees are more vulnerable than employees of other organizations (Paul, 2012). Walmart is also found to discriminate against female workers as it follows an implicit policy of hiring mostly male workers (Kampf, 2007). However, I think the discrimination is more within the store where the female employees may be given lesser salaries and incentives and where they may not be given any opportunities to get promoted or move ahead in their careers. There have been several cases of sexual discrimination against the company which indicate that this discrimination is a fact. In fact, there is a class action suit pending related to sexual discrimination based on statistics and data collected from Walmart’s stores worldwide, and this could result in billions of dollars of money lost for the company. The only answer that Walmart seems to have is that again, the top management was not aware of any discriminationary practices that may be happening at the store level. However, by simply stating that the top management was not aware of the unethical practices at the store level, the top management should not be allowed to shun responsibility. In fact, by stating that the top management is unaware of what happens at the store level is an acceptance of the fact that the company may not be run on sound values and policies. Walmart has also taken some steps to retrieve its image. These include opening up offices in eight cities across the world to establish good relationships within the community and reach out to make the locality a better place. In addition, Walmart has taken an environmental initiative and has entered into cooperation with activists to lend them support. It is also hired BSR Company to help project itself as an ethical buyer. However, most of these policies are coming much late and only in the event that the stakeholders (the public, employees and customers) have started raising their voices against Walmart. Also, as the CEO of the company had acknowledged, the share prices and growth rate of Walmart has slowed down (which could either be due to the maturity stage of its life-cycle or because of the growing market share of competitors); which means that Walmart may be desperate to obtain a better image in the eyes of the public to retain customers. The case study therefore provided substantial information on the various unethical issues that have been raised against Walmart. It identified the problems associated with hiring part timers and illegal immigrant workers, of keeping the unions away, employing sexual discrimination, sourcing unethically, and distorting market dynamics. The case study also presented the perspective of Walmart, though the presentation seems to be a little biased against the company. However, the case is an extremely interesting and useful one as it provides a wide range of areas where issues related to ethics can be raised in an organizational context. References Andersen, M., & Skjoett-Larsen, T. (2009). Corporate social responsibility in global supply chains. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 14(2), 75-86. Becker, B. (2013). Under the Radar. In New Labor Forum, 22 (1) : 7-9 Kampf, C. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: WalMart, Maersk and the cultural bounds of representation in corporate web sites. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 12(1): 41-57. Kenny, K. E. (2006). Code or Conduct: Whether Wal-Mart's Code of Conduct Creates a Contractual Obligation between Wal-Mart and the Employees of Its Foreign Suppliers. New. Journal of. International Labour. & Business, 27:453. Paul, S. N. (2012). Watching Walmart in China. In New Labor Forum , 21, (2):. 115-118). Read More