Community management and organizations - Social Innovation for Waste Management at Walmart

Community management and organizations 1
Community management and organizations
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Community management and organizations 2
Executive summary
Over the years, social innovation has been termed as one of the important tools in
business operations because of its ability to assist organizations to attain various things such as
reputation, positive customer relationships, and minimization of costs among others. Although
businesses focus on better performance through revenue maximization and cost cutting, they also
focus on supporting social progress and enhancing the wellbeing of the people because to attain
positive performance, it is always important to value all stakeholders by engaging in activities
that do not have negative impact to the society. The purpose of this report is to discuss social
innovation and community engagement theory. The paper will also analyze how Walmart benefit
through innovating machines that assist it to properly manage its waste. Additionally, the report
will provide a SWOT, PESTLE and offer discussion on the possible funding and ethical
implications of your social, and also discuss the challenges that are likely to hinder
implementation of this innovation.
Social innovation and community engagement theory
According to Laurie (2011, p. 345), innovation is an essential tool in business operations
in the current century. Although there are many types of innovations that contribute greatly to
organizational performance, social information has been reported as among those that make
companies to realize different benefits that aid them to succeed. According to Didge (2012, p.
43), social innovation comprises the new concepts, tactics, ideas and organizations that are
developed to meet social needs that result from different factors such as education, health,
community, and development. The aim of coming up with these ideas is to enhance and
strengthen the civil society.

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Although companies have realized the importance of social innovation in their
operations, various aspects such as lack of finances, difficulties in adapting open innovation
paradigm, lack of proper networks make some of the firms to realize challenges in implementing
innovations. Diane (2015, p. 69) affirms that for managers to overcome these challenges, it is
essential to conduct extensive research and also to view innovation as an activity that requires
joint efforts from various stakeholders.
When an organization remain reluctant on issues that are essential in its operations, some
of the key stakeholders like customers, for instance, feel that the company is only focused on
revenue maximization and not on enhancing the well-being of the people who mean a lot on its
performance (Buchanan 2011, p. 98). This makes most of the customers to develop a negative
attitude towards the company, a situation that leads to a significant impact on its performance.
According to David & Michael (2010, p. 56), spreading social innovation is sometimes
problematic in business operations and also in the social sector. One of the reasons that trigger
this issue is that businesses feel everything is right when they realize substantial growth in sales
revenue. They forget that for them to establish a positive relationship with the society, they
should engage in social innovation to ensure their operations contribute to enhancing the
wellbeing of the society.
According to Kathleen (2018, p. 123), although social innovation happens in many
organizations, many promising ideas are not attained because they are either blocked by vested
interests or are marginalized. The competitive forces that drive social innovation in commercial
markets are either blunted or absent in the social field and therefore the absence of organizations

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and funds dedicated to social innovation means that too often it is a matter of luck whether ideas
come fruition or displaces less effective alternatives.
Carmen (2015, p. 204) asserts that if organizations consider social innovation in their
operations, a lot of them would not be experiencing some of the challenges they face. For
example, most firms face low performance not because they do not have big market shares but
because they do not have but the required measures to show that they value the well-being of the
people around them.
To attain a successful social innovation in organizations, the management should value
all ideas brought forward by employees and other stakeholders and reward those who come with
the best ideas. According to Kathleen (2018, p. 127), social innovation is not an easy task
because it requires the collaboration of people within an organization. This implies that the
management should not underrate any contribution made by other stakeholders because they may
serve a crucial role in making the activity to be successful.
Discussion of the proposed social innovation
Over the years, Walmart has been categorized among the organizations that contribute
most in environmental pollution. This factor has made the company to suffer in different ways,
including being subjected to legal actions that have forced it to pay huge fines. For instance, in
2013, the company was slapped with 10 million dollars in environmental fines after it was found
guilty for improperly disposing of pesticides. According to Didge (2012, p. 45), social
innovation is crucial especially for companies that want to enhance their relationship with the
public through environmental conservation. This implies that for Walmart to avoid such