Management Perspectives- A Case Study of Walmart

This case study analyzes Walmart's organizational theory, communication strategy, workplace culture, values, and ethics. It includes qualitative secondary data analysis and face-to-face interviews with store managers. The report concludes with recommendations for the company.

MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES- A CASE STUDY OF WAL-MART

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction:..............................................................................................................................3
2.0 Research methodology chosen and justification:......................................................................4
3.0 Organizational theory:...............................................................................................................5
3.1 Qualitative Secondary data analysis:.....................................................................................5
3.1.1 Vision of Walmart...........................................................................................................5
3.1.2 Communication strategy and organizational structure:...................................................6
3.1.3 Walmart’s workplace culture and metaphors:.................................................................6
3.2 Qualitative data analysis:.......................................................................................................8
4.0 Assessing the values, ethics and ethical practices of Walmart:...............................................10
4.1 Qualitative Secondary data analysis:...................................................................................10
4.2 Qualitative data analysis......................................................................................................10
5.0 Conclusion and recommendation:...........................................................................................13
References:....................................................................................................................................14
Appendices....................................................................................................................................17
Appendix – 1: Diversity in Walmart’s Domestic Workforces...................................................17
Appendix – 2: Female EEO Data Comparison..........................................................................18
Appendix - 3: Organizational structure of Walmart..................................................................19
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1.0 Introduction:
The current report presents a case study research of Walmart as the researcher intends to be
employed at the organization in near future. The case study attempts to examine a varied range
of secondary research sources to establish the extent to which the organization meets the vision
through operational strategies. The research intends to analyze and understand the
communication strategy, the organizational culture and structure, the ethical practices and
workforce diversity of Walmart. The present research also sums up the qualitative information
through primary research on data gathered from store managers to contrast and compare with the
secondary findings. The report concludes with recommendations for the company.
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2.0 Research methodology chosen and justification:
A ‘Mixed method Case Study’ research design has been chosen to analyze the outcome based on
descriptive opinion rather than the evaluation of statistical data. It has been speculated that a
mixed method case study method can help to assess the overall organizational approach, ethics
and values of Walmart in a better way. Schoonenboom (2017) stated that a case study method
helps to choose a small study group or one specific population. Thus, a specific study of Walmart
has been chosen to analyze and recommend existing gaps in the overall management and ethical
approach using a case study research method.
Qualitative data collection process has been chosen to analyze the corporate ethics and
diversities employed in Walmart. Apart from the secondary data collection, three store managers
were requested through email to attend the interview session and the existing requirement were
also sent to prove the authenticity and need of the study. As a part of the ethical process, the
interview process was started after receiving free consent from the managers.
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3.0 Organizational theory:
This section is segregated across 3 different aspects of Walmart’s organizational behavior. The
first subsection evaluates the viability of the organization in achieving its vision. The second
subsection looks into the communication strategies and the organizational structure of Walmart.
Final subsection analyses the workplace culture related metaphors as suggested by Gareth
Morgan.
3.1 Qualitative Secondary data analysis:
3.1.1 Vision of Walmart
The core vision of Walmart is to enable communities to live a better life and to make a positive
impact on them, and in due course to become the best retailing destination for customers. To
enable this vision, Walmart offers an extensive range of products with an Everyday Low Price
strategy. The company now stands as the world’s largest retailing corporation with USD 486
billion in revenue (McGee, 2018). The group further enables the vision of a sustainable
community with a multitude of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) acts such as awarding
grants to the non-government organization operating within the service area, associate
volunteerism program, national and international donation programs, and scholarships to
qualified associates and their dependents. The company has created a job opportunity of 500,000
positions in support and service sectors in the U.S (S2.q4cdn.com). Thus, it is evident that the
company has established the vision and core values of providing great customer service, enabling
individual opportunity and betterment of the community (Caraway, 2015).
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3.1.2 Communication strategy and organizational structure:
Walmart has a strictly formal and bureaucratic structure. Employing about 2.2 million people
worldwide, the company has a massive size. A suggested by Stuart-Smith, (2007) due to the
enormous size of the group, a defined hierarchical structure has to be maintained and any
alternative structure could not sustain the work division. The company also has a well-defined
functional structure with 3 major operating divisions namely: Store Operations, Logistics, and
Real-estate. At the further operational level the Store operations are subdivided into Above-store
managers, In-store managers, and In-store hourly workers. Being a global company, Walmart has
extended the departmentalization by function to geographic departmentalization (HI & Zhang,
2016).
There is a restricted span of control that implements the cost-leadership strategy of the
company, where the higher management teams decide on the merchandise pricing, logistics and
in-store management of goods. According to Brandes & Darai, (2014) Walmart has used a clear
top-down and is unidirectional communication strategy with the employees with the
centralization of authority, the unity of command and direction. The company has faced criticism
in the inter-organizational communication strategy, labor relations, and resistance towards
unionization of the workforce (Scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu, 2018). However, in
recent time the management has taken an open-communication approach with in-store visits to
gather employee feedback to improve on operational and store management aspects.
3.1.3 Walmart’s workplace culture and metaphors:
Organizational culture is the collective values and principles of the members that contribute to
the social and behavioral ecology of an organization. In accordance with Gareth Morgan’s
organizational metaphors, Walmart is a bureaucratic machine that is capable of sustaining the
Page 6 of 19

massive workforce globally (Küpers, 2013). The core of Walmart’s culture can be summed by
service, respect, excellence, and integrity (Cdn.corporate.walmart.com, 2018).
To implement a high level of customer service, the company provide extensive training for the
employees and implement strategies for cost reduction so that the customers can purchase goods
with the lowest possible cost. This strategy extends even to the manner the executives carry
themselves, the extended work hours and cost saving on the thermal regulations of the stores.
Since the company has faced legalities regarding gender-based discrimination and low wager of
the hourly staffs in the past, Walmart is now improving upon these aspects with better
remunerations and gender diversity to promote diversity, equality, and respect in the workforce
(Mayer &Noiseux, 2015). The company employs paid time off, short-term disability benefits and
quarterly bonuses to raise the workers' morale. The in-store employees are addressed as
associates showering a sense of respect and integrity. The figure in appendix – 1 shows the
diversity in domestic workforces of the company. It seems that almost 43% of the managers are
women which establishes strong environment of inclusivity and diversity.
To build on the culture of excellence Walmart supports programs like the Pathway training for
new entrants, educational opportunities for the associates and academic training programs for the
managers. 75% of the field managers in the U.S are promoted from the hourly workers
(Walmart.com, 2018). Thus, the company reflects the culture metaphor as defined by Gareth
Morgan, by building upon the various core aspects and by creating shared meaning in the
workforce (Barter & Russell, 2013).
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3.2 Qualitative data analysis:
This is basically face-to-face interview for descriptive opinion of the three store managers.
Q1).Which type of organizational structure and communication is followed in your
company?
The first manager stated that Walmart follows mainly hierarchical structure to divide the tasks
very precisely. A functional structure is also followed but limited to some departments and the
communication process is rigid. In contrast, the second manager stated that Hierarchical structure
and Top-down communication is mostly followed so that communication can be passed through
the vertical command line. The third manager also mentioned that a combination of the
functional and hierarchical structure is being followed recently so that the communication
process can be improved and overall effectiveness can be attained.
Q2). Do you think the corporate culture is potential enough to meet overall objectives?
The first manager opined that the corporate culture is very poor and the management should have
some urgent movement on that. The second manager stated that the work culture is okay as the
company is meeting its vision and objectives through competitive advantage. The third manager
contradicted the opinion of the second manager and pointed out that The Company needs to
improve the culture to maintain the overall effectiveness, as the employee empowerment is
comparatively lesser in the existing work culture.
Q3). Have you ever thought that certain changes are needed in the management policy of
Walmart? If yes, please explain
Page 8 of 19

According to the first manager, the overall employee participation is very less which creates
demotivation and results in a turnover of good employees, which needs a rapid change in the
overall communication policy. The second manager contradicted the opinion of the first manager
and stated: “The Company is doing very well and employees are also committed to meeting their
targets”. Finally, the third manager opined “An absolute change is needed to follow a flexible
corporate culture, potential negotiation process and two-way communication to resolve
employee issues and conflicts”.
Page 9 of 19

4.0 Assessing the values, ethics and ethical practices of Walmart:
4.1 Qualitative Secondary data analysis:
As per the published annual report (qualitative secondary analysis), it is clear that Walmart’s
value is to promote cultural integrity by incorporating global ethics (S2.q4cdn.com). Al Ghamdi,
& Dalain, (2018) stated that across the global operation, Walmart has become successful for
developing and upholding ethical policies for the internal and external stakeholders. The
previous reports also included that continuous ethics education and communication is the core
value of Walmart. Initiatives such as a change in the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
worldwide review of anti-corruption programs, etc. provide a clear picture of the ethical
practices followed by Walmart (Loomis, 2018).
However, diversity issues are found extreme and the company faced a long battle on gender
discrimination, despite having ethical policies incorporated in the corporate culture (Meeks &
Chen, 2011). The case of Dukes involvement is the class action of a lawsuit filed against
Walmart indicated massive issues on the diversity ethics. 1.5 million Female employees were
claiming gender discrimination, which was the significant issue charged against Walmart
(Scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu, 2018). After this case, in the FY 2004, Walmart also
established Global Ethics Office and statements of ethics has also been revised. Additionally, in
the FY 2016, Walmart has released corporate culture, which was a diversity inclusion report and
it showed that the retailers are hiring female workers to mitigate the ethical diversity issue of the
company (News.walmart.com, 2018).
4.2 Qualitative data analysis
This is basically face-to-face interview for descriptive opinion of the three store managers.
Page 10 of 19

Q1). What are the values and ethics of your organization?
According to the first manager, open-door communication strategy helps the company to assess
ethical issues and immediate actions are taken in adherence with the compliance and integrity.
This process has helped the company improving the values of stakeholders. The second manager
also agreed with the opinion of the first manager. The third manager stated that ethical standards
are high as to maintain the values Walmart has established Statement of Ethics so that associates
can be guided continuously based on the separate code of ethics for different organizational
hierarchy. Also, in terms of equal employment opportunity (EEO), it may be construed that the
firm has been proactively engaged in EEO initiatives which may be exhibited by figure in the
appendix – 2 in terms of employment opportunity for female.
Q2). Do you think existing ethical practices are potential to maintain overall sustainability?
The first manager stated that apart from diversity, all other ethical parameters are quite potential
to manage overall brand sustainability. The management has adopted different ethical rules to
maintain diversified ethical issues across the global operation; however, the diversity policies are
not potent enough to manage overall effectiveness. Contrary to this, the second manager stated
that existing ethical practices are based on global benchmark and it provides greater sustainable
growth to Walmart by means of meeting the commitments to the internal and external
stakeholders. The third manager opined that initiatives such as the amendment on the ethical
practices, forming of anti-corruption policy, renewal of corporate culture policies, etc. are
considered as the potential ethical approaches and it is potential to manage the overall
sustainability of the company.
Page 11 of 19

Q3). What are the loopholes exists in the current ethical approach? Please explain and
recommend.
The first manager stated “Apart from diversity management, all other ethical parts are quite
good. Although, since 2004 Walmart has revised the ethical approach to gender diversity, it still
lacks incorporation in the overall corporate culture. Thus, we need a potential synchronization of
revised ethical standards on the daily operational activities and effective monitoring”. The
second manager stated that recruitment and staffing need to be more diversified which is the
main loophole in the existing ethical practices. Finally, the third manager stated that despite
having potential ethical approaches the implementation is the major issue, which can be resolved
by employing frequent auditing to control and monitor the effectiveness and loopholes of the
amended ethical norms.
Page 12 of 19

5.0 Conclusion and recommendation:
After reviewing the qualitative and secondary data, it can be concluded that organizational
structure needs to be more flexible to follow an open communication process. After facing
ethical issues, although the company amended the ethical and communication rules, it lacks from
the right implementation of those principles and practices. Thus, a potential audit is required to
assess the effectiveness and implementation ratio of the newly framed ‘ethical, diversity and
communication approaches’. As a consequence, the brand can experience a flawless sustainable
growth.
Page 13 of 19

References:
Al Ghamdi, A., &Dalain, D. (2018). Ethical Trading in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case
of Walmart, Apple and Canon. Asian Journal Of Business Management, 10(1), 1-10. doi:
10.19026/ajbm.10.5856
Barter, N., & Russell, S. (2013). Organisational metaphors and sustainable development:
enabling or inhibiting?. Sustainability Accounting, Management And Policy
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Brandes, L., &Darai, D. (2014). The Value of Top-Down Communication for Organizational
Performance. SSRN Electronic Journal, 4(6), 23-31. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2441117
Caraway, B. (2015). OUR Walmart: a case study of connective action. Information,
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worlds of change. Journal Of Organizational Change Management, 26(3), 494-528. doi:
10.1108/09534811311328551
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Loomis, E. (2018). Walmart in the Global South: Workplace Culture, Labor Politics, and Supply
Chains. By Carolina Bank Muñoz, Bridget Kenny, and Antonio Stecher (eds.). Austin:
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Women. Global Labour Journal, 6(1), 32-45. doi: 10.15173/glj.v6i1.2455
McGee, R. (2018). How Large is Walmart? A Comparison of Walmart Sales to Nationss
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10.5539/jsd.v4n5p62
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Appendices
Appendix – 1: Diversity in Walmart’s Domestic Workforces
(Source: "ROAD TO INCLUSION - Walmart", 2018)
Page 17 of 19

Appendix – 2: Female EEO Data Comparison
(Source: "ROAD TO INCLUSION - Walmart", 2018)
Page 18 of 19

Appendix - 3: Organizational structure of Walmart
(Source: Walmart.com., 2018)
Page 19 of 19