...Walmart is the world’s largest retailer. It employs …….. employees and on average serves…….. customers a day. The ethical policy of Walmart applies to millions of its associates, management people, suppliers, contractors, consultants and other service providers. SUMMARY OF WALMART’S ETHICAL POLICY As stated in its statement of ethics the three basic beliefs of Walmart that guides its decisions and leadership are: (talk about belief as a guiding principle as per objectivism) 1. Respect for the individual 2. Service to customers 3. Striving for excellence Beside these beliefs, Walmart has guiding principles to help its associates make right decisions and to act with integrity which are as follows: Make the right decisions, and to act with integrity. Always act with integrity. Lead with integrity and expect others to work with integrity. Follow the law at all times be honest and fair. Reveal and report all information truthfully, without manipulation or misrepresentation. Work, actions, and relationships outside of your position with the company should be free of any conflicts of interest Respect and encourage diversity, and never discriminate against anyone. Ask your manager or the Global Ethics Office for help if you have questions about this Statement of Ethics, or if you face an ethical problem. Promptly report suspected violations of the Statement of Ethics. Cooperate with and maintain the private nature of any investigation of a possible ethics violation. ...
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...Since San Walton opened his first store in 1962, Walmart has grown into a global retailer with more than 4,000 store in the United States and more than 6,000 internationally. Walmart is comprised of three business segments, Walmart US, Walmart International and Sam’s Club. Walmart Global eCommerce works across all three segments. Walmart’s mission statement “We save people money so they can live better”, is not indicative of where its strategic focus areas are, but it does sound good for the average customer who has a limited budget. This mission statement leads directly into Walmart Global eCommerce goals which include combining online, social innovations with physical stores to give consumers “anywhere, anytime shopping experience” in addition to its organizational sustainability goal of creating zero waste, using only sustainable energy and selling products that sustain the environment which is important to all of Walmart’s segments including eCommerce. Walmart’s overall objective is to deliver shareholder value by increasing earnings per share, returns and maintaining strong stable returns on investment. According to Walmart CEO, Mike Duke, Walmart’s strategic focus areas are: •Making sure the company has the best retail talent at every level of the organization by recruiting, developing and retaining the best associates; •Delivering on the productivity loop that enables Walmart to operate for less so the company can drive prices even lower for its customers ...
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...Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, opened the first Walmart store in 1962 in a rural town using an idea he acquired while working at JCPenney. Since then the company has grown tremendously. In 2001 Walmart was considered the “world’s largest retailer” surpassing big retailers like Sears, JCPenney, Target and Kmart, its “net sales had grown to $408 billion” by 2010, and today it “operates over 11,000 retail units” throughout the world (Carroll and Buchholtz 599-600) (Walmart Stores, Inc). However, since Walmart is the largest and most known company in the world, it has become a target of criticism to many groups and individuals. Some people see Walmart as a socially responsible company, while others see it as a “billion-dollar parasite” that should be banned from communities; and these different views create perceived conflicts of interest (Carroll and Buchholtz 602). Such conflicts, coupled with society’s criticism towards the biggest retailer, include business closures, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. In fact, to be further discussed throughout this paper, Walmart’s opponents are already trying to hinder its expansion since the company is not fulfilling all their social responsibilities and the economy could suffer long-term consequences. To be objective, a brief analysis of the company’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) using the four-part CSR model, can provide a better understanding of why it is causing problems...
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...Perspectives Michella Amonson ETH/316 January 16, 2014 Mr. Harralson Cross-Cultural Perspectives This paper is an overview and analysis of the ethical perspective and cultural issues that a global organization faces when interacting outside the United States. I will address and identify the cultural and ethical perspective of the global organization named Walmart. I will also analyze ethical and social responsibility issues that WalMart deals with as a result of being a global organization. I will further compare these ethical perspectives with other cultures that do business with Walmart. Walmart’s Ethical Perspective Walmart belief is built on a foundation of integrity , values of honesty, fairness and objectivity. Sam Walton founded Walmart with the strong conviction that a retailer could help people save money and live better. Since, Sam’s passing away, Mike Duke, Chief Executive Officer, President and CEO of Walmart states “culture is how we work together to fulfill that purpose. It's incorporated into every aspect of our business”. He further states “Our beliefs are the foundation of our culture: service to our customers, respect for the individual, and striving for excellence which rest on the foundation of personal integrity and responsibility(p.1).” Strong adherence to these principles has created a unique work culture at Walmart. No matter where you go — to any of our stores and offices in any of our brands around the world — our associates live these...
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...Summary of Case Table of Contents Summary of Case History Overview: * Vision, Mission, and Goals Major Issues Swot Analysis CSR Analysis - “Buy American” program and “Environmental Awareness” program Sam Walton: A motivational Genius? Walmart’s responsibility to it employees Stakeholder analysis Competitors Ethical Practice towards Walmart Walmart’s and the international arena Critique Recommendations References History Overview Walmart’s mission statement is “We save people money so they can live better.” Walmart's vision statement is to 'promote ownership of Walmart's ethical culture to all stakeholders globally.’ Walmart Corporation has guidelines to help associates to uphold this vision. Some of these guidelines are following all laws, being fair, having integrity, respecting others and embracing diversity. They also believe in the idea of “working together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone, and give an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.” One of their many goals is to become an international brand. Walmart was founded and opened by Sam and Helen Walton in Rogers, Ark. in 1962 while using their family home as collateral. The store was just 18,000 square feet of selling space, and had clothing racks made of plumbing pipes. Store 1 was modest, but customers loved the great prices and the wide assortment. Starting off with Sam Walton’s idea of low prices in the 1940s, Wal-Mart has since then become the world’s...
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...Evaluation of Business Code of Ethics Many companies and organizations employ codes of ethics that can enhance their image and endorse a form of legitimacy to that company or organization. A company such as Walmart with local and global outreach has incorporated into its system a culture of ethics and integrity that defines who they are as a company. This culture of ethics determine how customers and suppliers are treated by the company and how workers treat each other within the company. Walmart with many years of experience as a company deals with many ethical issues and there is need for constant evaluation and analysis of systems and structures to meet expectations, and remain in compliance with the demands of the corporate world of business. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1950, started out with as a single discount store in Northwest Arkansas and grew to become one of the world’s largest retailer in less than 50 years, with thousands of stores and clubs and millions of associates. Walmart is a value-based company that has ethics at the forefront.The company has three basic beliefs, (1) Respect for individuals. (2) Service to its customers and (3) Strvving for excellence. The vision statement is to promote ownership of Walmart’s ethical culture to all stakeholders globally. The company also has some guiding principles to assist their associates in making the right decisions and acting with integrity. These principles are, to always act with integrity. Lead...
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...Ethics and Compliance Paper FIN: 370 Finance for Business May 12, 2011 Walmart “Lowest prices guaranteed, Rollback prices and price matching”. You may have heard these lines on the radio or watched them in a commercial. These are all quotes from Wal-Mart advertisements promising the lowest prices. Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world, with over 4,227 stores in the United States alone and 3,210 stores internationally. Sam Walton opened up the first Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas little did he know how that was the start of a now; one of the largest worldwide enterprises. Wal-Mart; the largest retailer in the world, is a publically traded company. Wal-Mart has a very detailed ethical responsibility to their stakeholders, to ensure that their business practices are ethical and in compliance with the financial and legal requirements of each of the countries that Wal-Mart operates in. Ethics and Compliance Wal-Mart is one of the worlds leading companies financially, they have been widely recognized for many of there contribution (giving back to community), donations, foundations, military support, hunger relief, and world disaster relief programs. Wal-mart has also been recognized for working to reduce energy use and green house emissions buy continuing to transition to renewable energy and their goal is to one day only use energy that is derived from renewable resources. Wal-Mart has also joined with Humana, a health care insurance company...
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...that merits study at this point in the course? According to this case, the major issue is the conflicts between Walmart and local manufacturers. Because of the low price in Walmart, local manufacturing business cannot survive in the market. Also, production process in Walmart creates many environment problems. Meanwhile, importAlso, to produce low cost merchandise, Walmart provides extremely low wages and benefits to labors, which put workers in a hard condition. taking advantage of illegal immigrants. •Gender discrimination against women. • Most sued company in America in respect of lawsuits. 3. What sub-issues or related issues are present in the case that merit consideration now? Analysis and Evaluation 1. Who are the stakeholders in the case and what are their stakes? What challenges, threats or opportunities are posed by these stakeholders? From government perspective, US government gain good reputation. Walmart, as a US company, brings many good reputations. For Chinese government, it is a good supplier to Walmart. Walmart creates many job opportunities in China. However, Walmart harms nature environment in China. From owners perspective, The Walton Family earns a lot of money. However, it gets bad reputations in the society. To fix this problem, it can give back to society , such as donations. From Employees perspective, employees in Walmart get jobs. However, they can only get low wages. Labor unions argue for labors rights. It is against Walmart’s...
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...Walmart Movie Analysis Threat Level Midnight MGMT 382, 12:00pm Monday Class Rheanna Ladron De Guevara Mohammad Shojaei Danielle Seymour Teresa Radtke Curtis Anson Amy Self Walmart is quite arguably one of the largest multinational grocery retailers in America. The corporation routinely produces record sales, earnings, and employs more than 2.1 million full time employees. Last year Walmart earned a record four hundred and five billion dollars in revenue. The company was founded in 1962 by business entrepreneur Sam Walton. Walmart’s past (2006) advertising slogan, “Low prices, always”, accurately reflects the appeal the store has to the masses. In an attempt to attain a wider and more diverse customer base, in recent years Walmart has adopted the new slogan: “Saving people money so they can live better lives.” While there’s no doubt about Walmart’s low prices, it’s questionable as to whether Walmart actually allows people to “live better lives.” Not only this, but the ethicality of Walmart’s business practices seem unsound to say the least. After watching the film “Walmart: the High Cost of Low Cost”, the ethicality of Walmart’s business practices and the impact the company has on the communities in which they expand into become apparent. While some argue that Walmart makes unethical decisions quite often that harm the communities they expand into, others assert that Walmart operates within the law and is simply doing business rather than acting unethically...
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...Strengths 1. Core competency/Cost Leadership- Walmart is known for their “everyday low prices.” This sets them aside from their major competitors such as Target. Walmart strives for "saving people money so they can live better." With the cost leadership strategy in effect, Walmart is ensured a steady and returning flow of customers to their stores. That understood, Walmart has a comparative advantage over their competition. Consumers are able to feel better about their purchases knowing they are at a discounted price. Walmart is therefore given a rating of 4 and weighted score of 1.0 in this category. 2. Economies of Scale- Walmart is rated a 3 with a weighted score of 0.3 in this particular category. Being the giant that Walmart is, they have a very large scale of operations. This therefore gives them strong supplier purchasing power and the opportunity to reduce prices. With their vast amount of products they can spread their fixed costs out lowering the price of the products. “Higher economies of scale results in lower prices that are passed to consumers” (http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/walmart-swot-analysis.html) 3. Wide Range of Products- Walmart has one of the largest ranges of products providing ease for their customers. Customers are able to have that “one-stop-shopping” experience they so desire. Consumers certainly like this aspect for the convenience it entails. Although Walmart’s discount stores do in fact provide...
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...……………………………………………………………………3 Choice of Organization - Walmart……………………………………………………………….5 Environmental Analysis………………………………………………………………………….6 Divisional Effectiveness Measurements...……………………………………………………….8 Final Report………………………………………………………………………………………9 Cultural HR Issues……………………………………………………………………….10 Emerging HR Issues………….……………………………………………………….....12 Five Year Action Plan……………………………………………………………………………16 References………………………………………………………………………………………..17 Executive Summary Walmart is one of the world’s largest retailers, serving communities worldwide and employing millions throughout their growing organization. This global organization has faced large amounts of scrutiny over the years and has seen legal repercussions from failure to comply with labor laws. Continuing to grow and rise above competitors, Walmart’s strategic HR plan needs to address some of these key opportunities and set the right employees in place to deliver on the company mission and vision. An effective strategic plan will also benefit the organizations reputation and image, both internally and externally. Ongoing pressures and cultural HR issues Walmart faces includes environmental preservation and the companies initiatives to “go green”, as well as the organizations reservations and discouragement towards unionization. These are issues Walmart can address through communication and training. In addition, Walmart faces many emerging HR issues including topics such...
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...Case Analysis: Wal-Mart Alfonso Soloiro 10/28/13 BUS 365 Walmart is known worldwide as a powerhouse in consumer goods retailing. You could almost find anything you want at Walmart at the most affordable price, however Walmart has gained a negative reputation regards ethical behaviors and their working environment. Walmart first began in 1962, when its founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart Discount store in Arkansas. His plans towards Walmart and its ethical behavior seems the total opposite than what he had planned for its future and sustainability. Walton believed in customer satisfaction and hard work. Walmart claimed early on that a formal ethics program was unnecessary because the company already had Walton’s tradition of ethics. As the years went by Walmart would go from the most admired company in America to one of the most hated. One of the main ethical issues that’s been haunting them for years involves their employees and their treatment. Wal-Mart is known for its poor treatment of all employees. In fact, the average Wal-Mart hourly sales employee earns under $250 per week. Most full-time employees are working for $7.50 per hour for 28-40 hours a week. As a result of this pay scale, the majority of Wal-Mart employees are living well below the poverty line (PBS, 2010). Part of the reason that that Wal-Mart’s employees receive such low pay is that Wal-Mart is a notoriously antiunion company. The unionized retail...
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...Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World Introduction PharmaCARE (We CARE about YOUR health®) is one of the world’s most successful pharmaceutical companies, enjoying a reputation as a caring, ethical and well-run company that produces high-quality products that save millions of lives and enhance the quality of life for millions of others. The company offers free and discounted drugs to low-income consumers, has a foundation that sponsors healthcare educational programs and scholarships, and its CEO serves on the PhRMA board. PharmaCARE recently launched a new initiative, We CARE about YOUR world, pledging its commitment to the environment through recycling, packaging changes and other green initiatives, despite the fact that the company’s lobbying efforts and PAC have successfully defeated environmental laws and regulations, including extension of the Superfund tax, which was created by Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Based in New Jersey, PharmaCARE maintains a large manufacturing facility in the African nation of Colberia, where the company has found several “healers” eager to freely share information about indigenous cures and an abundance of Colberians willing to work for $1.00 a day, harvesting plants by walking five (5) miles into and out of the jungle carrying baskets that, when full, weigh up to fifty (50) pounds. Due to the low standard of living in Colberia, much of the population...
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...Walmart Swot Analysis Walmart, which is a multinational retail company is based in the US. It majorly deals with selling groceries and general merchandise. The company has developed a well organized planning method that is used to analyze and evaluate the opportunities and threats, strengths and weaknesses detected in a particular business venture. The method is known as Swot analysis. Despite the strengths approved, there is an existence of certain weaknesses which have been found to be existing in the Swot analysis of the company. Some of the weaknesses include; (1) employee turnover, which is high, (2) negative publicity, (3) little differentiation (4) labor related lawsuits, and (5) inappropriate marketing aspects (Dess, 2012). 1. Inappropriate marketing aspects. This is one of the major weaknesses concerning marketing identified in Walmart company. In this case, the company has failed to fully expand into new markets with respect to national and international levels. Because of the economic effects such as traffic and problems concerning the environment, many parts across the US attempted blocking Walmart introduction. This was done due to the company's damaged reputation. When the company conquers and acquires a new location, it finally insists in new stores which are unethical to be opened. For example, the company shut down business in Germany and South-Korea claiming that they were under-performing (Roberts & Berg, 2012 ). 2. Lobor related lawsuits Every year, Walmart...
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...One of the largest companies in the Fortune 500 is Walmart. This company is able to offer a wide selection of goods at a strong competitive price. Their size allows them to gain discounts from suppliers and pass those savings onto the customers. Their expansion into other countries and partnership formations have made them a more profitable organization. They have opened up thousands of job opportunities globally. They can continue to expand into convenient stores or open up an internet base store that does home delivery. The possibilities are endless with an organization that has strong management. Unfortunately their shortcomings are due to the large size organization. It is hard maintaining and managing all employees to see the same vision as the top management. The suppliers are always fluctuating their prices and their ability to supply when necessary. Even though Walmart offers satisfaction guaranteed, it is difficult to control the quality of the products because of their low prices. Small vendors and the local competition do everything they can to oppose the building of Walmart within their community. Walmart is a huge store and therefore must be built further outside the city than the smaller convenience stores. They can be affected by gas price increases because fewer people want to expense the travel costs. Like any company that is successful they are open to criticism and ethical mentality, such as lower salaries and poor work conditions, and suppliers coming from...
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