...Summary In 2001, a sex discrimination lawsuit was brought against Wal-Mart by a female employee. It specified how female employees were not given the same opportunity to advance as their male counterpart even though they had just as must experience or more. They were also denied training for top positions and prohibited from working in certain departments that were designated for men only, which also paid more (McGraw Hill, 2014, p. 582). Wal-Mart developed a system they used to promote, pay, assign and transfer their employees. This system was said to be subjective and had a disparate impact on female employees. Wal-Mart officials knew about this mistreatment to their female employees but still did nothing to correct it. They even went as far as to retaliate against one female employee who complained about the discrimination (McGraw Hill, 2014, p. 583). Another lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart in June 2001 claimed employees were not allowed to get paid for their overtime work. The employees were also approached with intimidation by threats if they did not finish their work within a scheduled amount of time, even if it was impossible for the work to be completed that same day (McGraw Hill, 2014, p. 586). Discussion When Sam and his brother Bud established their first Wal-Mart retail store, the vision was always customer satisfaction. He believed if he treated his employees well, they would in fact return that same treatment or better to the customers causing them to come...
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...Wal-Mart and the Ethical Dilemma Presented to: Dr. Robert D. Gulbro In completion of MGT 5013 Organizational Behavior Florida Institute of Technology By: Felix Knight Wal-Mart was started by Sam Walton in 1962; the first store was in Rogers Arkansas. By the beginning of the 1970’s, Wal-Mart had grown to 1,500 employees and 44.2 million dollars in sales. The company also went public in 1970. The company’s growth continued throughout the decade, with the employee count reaching 21,000 by 1980 with $1.2 billion dollars in sales. Wal-Mart made its first acquisition, buying 16 Mohr-Value stores. In 1983, the first Sam’s Club warehouse opened followed by the first Wal-Mart Supercenter in 1988. By the end of the decade, the company had over 1,402 Wal-Mart and 123 Sam’s Club locations and $26 billion dollars in sales – an increase of 2,600% over the decade. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, with $405 billion in sales, over 4,300 stores, and 2.1 million employees (Duke, 2010, p. 0). One hundred shares of Wal-Mart stock purchased for $1,650 when the company went public would have grown to 204,800 shares worth over $10.1 million as of July 9, 2010 for a return of 613,431% (“Dividends & stock splits”, 2010, July 9) (“Wal-Mart (WMT) stock quote” 2010, July 9). Daft (2008) stated “Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States” (p. 129). Wal-Mart’s 2010 annual report provides the mission statement of the...
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...Gender Discrimination – Wal-Mart Employment Practices! MBA 6241 Human Resource Management in 21st Century Knowledge Situational Analysis Final Action Plan Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….…..3 Executive summary………………………………………………………………………............3 Wal-Mart’s Profile……..………………..…………………………………………..….…3 Wal-Mart’s Vision…………………………………………………………………..…….4 Wal-Mart’s Mission………………………………………………………………….……4 Human Resource Profile…………………………………………………………………..5 Economic context…………………………………………………………………………5 Political and regulatory context…………………………………………………………...6 Competitor analysis……………………………………………………………………….6 Cultural Context…………………………………………………………………………………7 Measuring organizational Culture…………………………………………………………7 Action Plan/Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………...11 Surveying members to identify organizational cultures and norms……………………11 Install executive CTC HR professional as member of Board of Directors………………13 Develop long term HR strategies and policies for growth of CTC………………………15 References……………………………………………………………………………………….18 Introduction Gender discrimination has been widely debated everywhere from the boardroom to the courtroom. In spite of the laws and regulations that exist to prohibit gender discrimination, it continues to be a common practice within many organizations. Throughout history, women have been relegated to administrative positions, such as typists, secretaries, receptionists and the like. Although...
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...Wal-Mart Unethical Business Practices - Business Research Paper Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton where it is the place that a lot of people usually do their shopping for the low prices and the variety of products. Walton was started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing with an innovative vision, and yet it’s the most successful entrepreneur in hypermarket industry. In fact, Wal-Mart is pointed to be the biggest company in the U.S. and it has stores worldwide. Recent research on PBS (PBS, n.d.) has shown Wal-Mart employ more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government; so far the majority of its employees with children live below the poverty line. In addition, Wal-Mart likes to portray itself as a seller of U.S. manufactured goods. However, the company has products on its shelves made in foreign countries and at questionable workshops. In consequence, Wal-Mart is facing a large amount of argument for unethical business practices. Some of these unethical business practices include the following. Discriminating Wal-Mart has been accused of discriminating against women. Women had been avoided training and promotion opportunities which are normally offered to men. Moreover, women are underpaid. Specifically, men wages are paid more than women wages and the wages gap between men and women are huge. (now.org, 2011) In fact, there are small amount of those women are managers even though there are...
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...Diversity and Globalization in Wal-Mart Wal-Mart started in 1962 with one store in Arkansas. By 1970 Wal-Mart had 38 stores in a few states. The department store was and still is growing very fast. Wal-Mart employs a very diverse workforce with young people, students, varied ethnic groups, senior people, and both educated and uneducated men and women (Wal-Mart, 2009). In the 1960s Wal-Mart began with a simple discount store and over time evolved into supercenters, which have the original discount store but include a grocery section as well. The chain has grown considerably, from small town to Fortune 500, over many decades. Wal-Mart learned many lessons as they evolved such as how they can save money for the people and company regarding recycling and efficiency. Wal-Mart started off less environmentally conscious than they are today, paying significant attention to energy, fuel, recycling, resources which saves money and the environment. At Wal-Mart, management believes that business wins when everyone matters, and that the true strength of diversity is unleashed when each associate is encouraged to reach their full potential. Diversity then becomes the foundation for an inclusive, sustainable business that embraces and respects differences, develops our associates, serves our customers, partners with our communities, and builds upon an inclusive supplier base (Wal-Mart, 2009). Wal-Mart implements diversity as part of its business plan, ensuring we can continue to be a global...
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...Shelby Kueser Dan Cramer Speech 201 September 18, 2010 The High Cost of Low Price Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that by shopping at wal-mart you are contributing to the discrimination against women, racial minorities, and the job loss of the American people. Central Idea: By shopping at wal-mart you are encouraging the continuance of gender discrimination, racial discrimination, unsupportive pay scale, and the outsourcing of American jobs by the closing of small businesses. Introduction I. Wal-Mart leads you to believe that they are an equal opportunity employer, while white men fill the majority of management positions. II. Wal-Mart states that they are one of the top paying employers with full-time benefits, yet the majority of their employees are keep under part-time positions. III. Many small businesses are forced out of business due to false price-cutting by Wal-Mart. (Transition: Wal-Mart can hurt the people it comes in contact with in many ways, including its own employees, starting with the women.) Body I. Wal-Mart is currently involved in the largest class-action lawsuit in history. A. 1.5 million women are suing Wal-Mart for gender discrimination in management hiring practices. i. Started with 6 women suing Wal-Mart in 2001. B. In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the world’s largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men...
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...Investigate the unethical business practice of Wal-Mart company Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world nowadays and it was established by businessman Same Walton. The company's marketing slogan, "Always Low Prices", which is successfully attracted most of the shoppers to buy products at the stores. However, there's unethical business practice and unfair treatment to employees behind this accomplishment. This paper will estimate the behavior of the company while it's doing the business, discuss the problems that the company carries out, the influences from the issues of discrimination, environment, society, and economy, and suggest possible solutions. Trace back to Sam Walton's historical line, he opened his first variety store after World War II and gained profit little by little. Later on, he got enough funds to open a chain of drugstore. His ambition turns him to cooperate with his brother in business. They expanded their business to more locations. According to PBS(Public Broadcasting Station), it reported that "by 1960, the Waltons' 15 stores were taking in $1.4 million a year". It led Walton brothers to step into a brighter future in their business planning. When the brothers believed they achieved their goal successfully, other competitor came into the market. The competitor utilized the tactic of discounting goods in the store. They realized that they had to come up with a way to survive in the market, otherwise, their business would be driven...
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...Wal-Mart Inc. Ethical Treatment of Employees Prepared for Wal-Mart Corporation Prepared by Alexander W. Nash April 26, 2011 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARYiii INTRODUCTION1 ANALYSIS OF WAL-MART’S ETHICAL TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES 2 THE COMPANY: WAL-MART INC.2 THE PRACTICE: ETHICAL TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES 2 WAL-MART’S ETHCIAL TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES3 RECOMENDATIONS5 EVEN PAY SCALE 5 MORE ACCOUNTABILITY5 CHINA’S LABOR LAWS AND CONDITIONS 6 CONCLUSION6 Executive Summary Wal-Mart is one of the biggest empires in the world. It dominates many markets by providing many different products for the lowest prices guaranteed. You can’t go anywhere without seeing a Wal-Mart, which has more revenue than the entire workforce of Utah. It has revolutionized the world or commerce, through implementing state of the art inventory tracking systems and mastering logistics. Many argue that it has become so successful and powerful from being unethical with its employees. Wal-Mart is currently involved in the largest job discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history affecting about 1.5 million women. Wal-Mart also has lawsuits concerning wage and hour violations, executives also admitted to being told by superiors to not pay overtime. It continues to have problems with its labor force in china, forcing them to work seven days a week and paying them less than China’s minimum wage, and having employees work with dangerous chemicals without the “right to know”, as its...
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...com GM591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior Mar11 Sec Ac Professor Jere Ferguson 4/8/11 Wal-Mart is an American public multinational corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores. In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is the largest majority private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US $258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Wal-Mart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, with 55 different names. The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states. It also operates under its own name in Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart itself has not produced the same results in different countries. With Wal-Mart's investments outside North America having mixed results its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China have been highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful. As Wal-Mart grew rapidly into the world's largest corporation, many critics worried about the effect of its stores...
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...built something successful. Such was the case for Sam Walton. His first attempt to developing a successful franchise failed. With much determination and desire to succeed, he became one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. Wal-Mart’s first store opened its doors in 1962. Sam Walton was the founder of the organization, which he thought of only after he had opened a chain of variety stores in the fifties that were unsuccessful. After the failure of those stores, Sam Walton went across the nation and studied everything there is to know about retail discount stores. Believing in his ability and with what he had learned from his first failed experience; Wal-Mart was born in Rogers Arkansas. Throughout the 60’s, discount retailers such as K-Mart and Target began to expand drastically, but Sam Walton had only built 15 Wal-Mart stores. That changed in the 70’s when the company began to be publicly trade on the New York stock exchange. By the end of the decade, there were 276 stores in 11 states. (Walmart.com) In the 80’s, Wal-Mart really began to expand and consumers began to pay attention. In 1982, Sam’s Club member’s warehouse opened supplying businesses and consumers with bulk low priced products. In 1988, the first Wal-Mart...
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...Library Research for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management MGMT 591 November 24, 2013 Introduction of Organization: Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and the world’s second largest public corporation (Wal-Mart 2013). Founded by the Sam Walton, this company runs a chain of large discount department stores, and warehouse stores (Wal-Mart 2013). With over two million employees this company is worth approximately $446 billion. To this day Wal-Mart remains a private employer and is still run by the Walton Family (Wal-Mart 2013). Description of Problem: With more than two million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart has faced major lawsuits in regards to workforce. Employees are generally dissatisfied due to low wages, poor working conditions, and inadequate healthcare (Hart 2006). Furthermore, Wal-Mart faces sex discrimination allegations against their female employees in terms of promotions (Wexler 2011). This in-turn has caused Wal-Mart to be scrutinized constantly in regards to how they treat their employees. These issues have caused low job satisfaction amongst all employees. In my paper, I would like to look at employee motivation and how it can be applied to remedy this low employee satisfaction Wal-Mart is experiencing. Additionally, I want to look at attitudes and job satisfaction and what steps Wal-Mart can take to make sure that their employees are happy. I want to compare Wal-Mart’s top competitor,...
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...Improving Wal-Mart’s Employee Relations GM591: Leadership and Organizational Behavior April 20, 2010 INTRODUCTION The Organization that we selected as our topic of discussion in our Project Paper is the Wal-Mart Corporation. Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart. He opened his first store called Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas in July of 1962. Their corporate office is currently located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. incorporated its stores on October 31, 1969. In 1972, they started selling stock on the New York Stock exchange. Although, though the company has had controversial operational business practices they have grown to be the largest Retail Corporations in the world. In 1997, Wal-Mart was able to become the largest private employer in the United States. In that same year, their annual sales totaled over $105 billion. In 2010, Wal-Mart has over 2.1 million employees worldwide. There 2010 fiscal year sales exceeded $400 billion dollars (Wal-Mart About Us, 2010). I have been a loyal customer of Wal-Mart for years. Therefore, I was shocked when I found out about some of Wal-Marts questionable unofficial policies through talks with friends and family members who worked for them in the past and some who currently employed by them. My mother in law worked for them from 2006 thru 2008. She was required to work 8-hour shifts without a lunch break on a regular basis. One of my cousins was required to clock out because...
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...! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!! ! ! Did Wal-Mart Wake Up? How Strategic Management Handled Wal-Mart’s Reputation [ABSTRACT] The nation’s largest private corporation and retail giant Wal-Mart has faced multiple opposition from labor unions, grassroots organizations, religious groups, and even from its own employees, impacting its corporate reputation and ultimately its bottom line. This case study will demonstrate the strategic communication Wal-Mart used for its corporate reputation management (CRM). In particular, the case describes the company’s response to criticism regarding its current business policies and practices. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………3 1. Company History……………………………………………………..5 1.1 Wal-Mart’s Early History: 1960s to 1970s…………………………….5 1.2 Wal-Mart Expands and Goes International: 1980s to 1990s…………...6 1.3 Attack of the Advocacy Groups: 2000 to present……………………....7 1.4 Repercussions…………………………………………………………...8 2. The Issue: Employee Relations and Workers’ Rights…………………9 3. Opposition…………………………………………………………….10 3.1 Labor Union-Funded Groups…………………………………………...11 3.2 Gender Discrimination………………………………………………….12 3.3 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price……………………………………..13 4. Wal-Mart’s Response……………………………………………………15 4.1 Response to Labor Union-Backer Groups………………………………...16 4.2 Response to Gender Discrimination Lawsuit……………………………..17 4.3 Response to Greenwald’s Film……………………………………………18 4.4 Wal-Marting Across America: Jim and Laura’s...
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...! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!! ! ! Did Wal-Mart Wake Up? How Strategic Management Handled Wal-Mart’s Reputation [ABSTRACT] The nation’s largest private corporation and retail giant Wal-Mart has faced multiple opposition from labor unions, grassroots organizations, religious groups, and even from its own employees, impacting its corporate reputation and ultimately its bottom line. This case study will demonstrate the strategic communication Wal-Mart used for its corporate reputation management (CRM). In particular, the case describes the company’s response to criticism regarding its current business policies and practices. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………3 1. Company History……………………………………………………..5 1.1 Wal-Mart’s Early History: 1960s to 1970s…………………………….5 1.2 Wal-Mart Expands and Goes International: 1980s to 1990s…………...6 1.3 Attack of the Advocacy Groups: 2000 to present……………………....7 1.4 Repercussions…………………………………………………………...8 2. The Issue: Employee Relations and Workers’ Rights…………………9 3. Opposition…………………………………………………………….10 3.1 Labor Union-Funded Groups…………………………………………...11 3.2 Gender Discrimination………………………………………………….12 3.3 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price……………………………………..13 4. Wal-Mart’s Response……………………………………………………15 4.1 Response to Labor Union-Backer Groups………………………………...16 4.2 Response to Gender Discrimination Lawsuit……………………………..17 4.3 Response to Greenwald’s Film……………………………………………18 4.4 Wal-Marting Across America: Jim and Laura’s...
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...! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!! ! ! Did Wal-Mart Wake Up? How Strategic Management Handled Wal-Mart’s Reputation [ABSTRACT] The nation’s largest private corporation and retail giant Wal-Mart has faced multiple opposition from labor unions, grassroots organizations, religious groups, and even from its own employees, impacting its corporate reputation and ultimately its bottom line. This case study will demonstrate the strategic communication Wal-Mart used for its corporate reputation management (CRM). In particular, the case describes the company’s response to criticism regarding its current business policies and practices. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………3 1. Company History……………………………………………………..5 1.1 Wal-Mart’s Early History: 1960s to 1970s…………………………….5 1.2 Wal-Mart Expands and Goes International: 1980s to 1990s…………...6 1.3 Attack of the Advocacy Groups: 2000 to present……………………....7 1.4 Repercussions…………………………………………………………...8 2. The Issue: Employee Relations and Workers’ Rights…………………9 3. Opposition…………………………………………………………….10 3.1 Labor Union-Funded Groups…………………………………………...11 3.2 Gender Discrimination………………………………………………….12 3.3 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price……………………………………..13 4. Wal-Mart’s Response……………………………………………………15 4.1 Response to Labor Union-Backer Groups………………………………...16 4.2 Response to Gender Discrimination Lawsuit……………………………..17 4.3 Response to Greenwald’s Film……………………………………………18 4.4 Wal-Marting Across America: Jim and Laura’s...
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