Analysis of Walmart's Corporate Social Responsibility Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Walmart's corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance, examining its practices and impacts across three key areas: people, planet, and profit. The introduction establishes the importance of corporate responsibility and its relevance to Walmart's operations. The report delves into how Walmart's actions affect various stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, and suppliers, analyzing both positive and negative impacts. It explores instances of corporate irresponsibility, particularly concerning environmental issues, and evaluates current personnel relations practices. The analysis extends to the environmental (planet) aspect, assessing the environmental impacts of Walmart's policies, corporate irresponsibility towards the environment, and the short and long-term effects of its environmental policies. The report also investigates sound business practices (profit), determining which stakeholders are affected when the company remains profitable and how this balances with corporate responsible behavior. Finally, the report offers recommendations for improving relationships with stakeholders, enhancing environmental policies, and maintaining profitability, including implementation steps and potential cultural changes. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations, supported by references.

Wall mart continues

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Company corporate responsibility including people, planet and profit.................................1
People...............................................................................................................................................1
Major stakeholders affected by behaviours of Walmart through the lens of personal
relationships............................................................................................................................1
Corporate irresponsibility.......................................................................................................2
Current practice in terms of personnel relations occurring Walmart.....................................2
Environmental (Planet)....................................................................................................................3
Environmental impacts affected by the policies of company.................................................3
Corporate Irresponsibility of company towards environment................................................3
Short term and long-term effect of current environmental policies.......................................3
Sound business practices (Profit).....................................................................................................4
Determine what stakeholders are affected when the company remains profitable................4
Balance with corporate responsible behaviour.......................................................................4
Recommendations and implementation section...............................................................................5
People...............................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations of ways to improve relationship with stakeholders.................................5
Planet................................................................................................................................................5
Recommend ways this company could improve in terms of its environmental policies.......5
Profit................................................................................................................................................6
Adjustments required to be made to remain profitable..........................................................6
Implementation................................................................................................................................6
People...............................................................................................................................................6
Steps required to be taken to implement recommendation and possible sacrifices along with
changes in culture...................................................................................................................6
Planet................................................................................................................................................7
Steps to implementation recommendations and their help in changing the culture of company.
................................................................................................................................................7
Profit................................................................................................................................................7

Specific steps necessary for the company to remain profitable.............................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Corporate responsibility is considered as important aspects that implies to the actions and
steps which are taken by enterprise to provide support to the people in society and sustaining
people and profitability. Present report is based on the analysis of operations of Walmart which
is an international retail store in US. There is various aspect of sustainable development has been
analysed along with the responsibility of organization towards improvement of relationship with
the stakeholders.
Company corporate responsibility including people, planet and profit.
Every international and small business enterprise have their major role in providing
growth to the country. In this context, there are various important function have been performed
by Walmart to provide growth and development to people and sustaining the planet as well as
profitability. Some key steps which are taken by organisation are mentioned above:
People
Major stakeholders affected by behaviours of Walmart through the lens of personal relationships.
Stakeholders are important part of business of Walmart which are always gets affected by
the decisions taken by organisation. The following are the main stakeholder’s groups considered
in the Walmart corporate social responsibility arranged as per the company's priorities:
 Investors: These are parties who are mainly interest in profits. They usually want the
organisation to get more profits rather than considering its responsibilities towards the
people (Crane, Matten, and Spence, 2013). In order to investors are also interested in
minimizing the cost of operations of the company because lower cost will lead to higher
profits which are considered as beneficial for investors of Walmart.
 Customers: These are considered as stakeholder groups. In the case of Walmart,
customers are mainly interested in getting products at low prices as long as these
important products have appropriate quality. Further, Walmart is effective and successful
in fulfilment of interest of customers as a group of stakeholders.
 Employees: Individual working in Walmart are important for consideration in their
managerial decision making. In this context, employees have two important interest such
as job security and higher wages. For development of positions lens of relationship
company needs to full fill these requirements of deserving candidates.
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 Suppliers: Suppliers of Walmart are getting more interest in attainment of more of their
products sold at the outlets of company in the profitable way. The major interest involves
not just selling the products of suppliers but also selling the products at competitive
prices, Suppliers wants the company to sell its products at high prices.
Corporate irresponsibility
It implies to responsibilities of organisation towards the individuals which are affected by
their business which they have not performed effectively. It also implies to the negative impact
of business operations of Walmart on the countries' climate, people and profits (Tai and Chuang,
2014). Facing the public pressure, the Walmart has developed various guidelines for ethical and
sustainable sourcing. It was that company is not providing adequate amount of revenue to their
suppliers and also providing low wages to their employees. This major irresponsibility has
increased the problems for them in market. Further, the packaging which is used by the company
for providing their products was also not considered as major in the basic problems and policies.
Moreover, some major environment crimes have further strain the sustainability record of
Walmart after violation of clean Water act, clean air act and federal pesticide safety rules,
threatening both the habitats and public health in local communities.
Current practice in terms of personnel relations occurring Walmart.
There are various important business practices that has been performed by Walmart in order to
develop effective personnel relations with the employees in the organization. It is considered as
one of the biggest organization. In terms of personnel relations it is essential for the organization
to ensure that its human resource is supported in satisfying the business requirements and
expectations (Wilson and Post, 2013). It needs to consider the ways through which the activities
just like internal organizational processes, supports its employees at workplace. In this context,
the current practices of organization involve addressing the human resource planning and job
design and analysing the aspects that contribute to the high performance of employees at
workplace. For development of effective personnel relations, organization also provides training
to improve the efficiency of their employees. Wal mart Hr department will also consider the
organization structure, recruitment and selection, retention and training, performance
management, compensation and career development.
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Environmental (Planet)
Environmental impacts affected by the policies of company
There are various environmental impacts which are raised due to policies of Walmart
which has raised the problems for enterprise to sustain their business in market. The key
environmental issues involve the industrial waste, sustainable development of raw materials and
air emissions (Fontaine, 2013). These key issues affect the business as the laws requires the
Walmart to change their processes and equipment’s and procedures to meet the imposed
standards. Waste created by packaging of products and manufacturing of products. With the
effective implementation of waste management system, company has reduced the Environmental
impacts. They are also implementing recycle programs, also selling the products which they can
waste to other manufacturers who use it in their own processes of manufacturing. Further,
company has also provided major focus on sustainable development through sustaining the
natural resources. For example: Walmart has decided that they will not use the polythene bags
and also follows all the laws related with air pollution and clean water act to remove all the
consequences.
Corporate Irresponsibility of company towards environment.
There are various actions of organization through which they have unknowingly provided
major impacts on the environment which has provided major consequences on their operations.
In this context, Walmart has also failed to maintain sustainable development in country because
they have not fulfilled the criteria which is provided by the laws and regulation (Bakan, 2012).
Selling of shoddy products refers to the supply of down quality products to customers to achieve
highest profitability has provided impact on the health of its customers. Company Waste
reduction program are miniscule compared to the volume of pollution and waste which has
results from the consumptions of Walmart goods. Lagging on the renewable energy is also an
important reason of corporate irresponsibility. Moreover, company has not fulfilled the demand
of their suppliers. They have also reported that emissions grows by 14 percent and it also expects
its emissions continues towards expanding despite of promises to improve the energy efficiency.
Short term and long-term effect of current environmental policies
There are various environmental policies developed by government to sustain the
environment of country and these policies needs to be followed by organization. Business
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operations of Walmart also gets affects due to these policies in short term and long terms.
Environmental regulations provide short term effect by reducing the employment and creativity
through small amounts, in the particular in pollution as well as energy intense industries. With
the rise in competitiveness in market, the companies are tending to raise their sales and
profitability for which they are proving down quality products. Clear water act provides impact
on operations of Walmart (Mena and et.al., 2016). The effect of current environmental
regulations on their trade and investments which has taken place and has been shown to be
negligible as compared to other factors such as market conditions of market and the quality of
local workforce. Competition and consumer act 2010 has provided focus on organizational
impacts will also help to attracts and retain staff. It also helps in reducing the sustainability of
Walmart business will improve the sustainability of their business. Moreover, company is less
dependent on the natural resources than their competitors will have a greater opportunity of
getting success in long term.
Sound business practices (Profit)
Determine what stakeholders are affected when the company remains profitable.
From the above analysis, it is analysed that there are some important stakeholder’s groups
which are affected by the activities and policies of Walmart because these important parties and
personnel have their important role in regulation of business enterprise.
When the company will remain in profitable condition, their investors will remain are affected
positively because they will attain high returns on their investments (Tench, Sun and Jones,
2012). Further, employees of organization will also positively have affected because with high
profitability organization will be able to provide them effective compensation against. Moreover.
Company will also tend to raise the quality of their products and services which also effects the
customers and influence them to purchase the products. Suppliers will also positively have
affected by profitability situation of Walmart as they will get proper amount of revenue for their
inputs.
Balance with corporate responsible behaviour.
This has balanced with the corporate responsible behaviour because company will be able to
fulfil all of its responsibilities towards the sustainability development When the organization will
achieve high profits they will tends to raise their contribution towards sustainability of
environment. By providing quality products, they will also tend to follow the regulation related
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to health and safety of consumers. Moreover, Walmart will also focus on improvement of
relation with their suppliers and also provide them support to raise their growth and development
which is considered corporate responsible behaviour.
Recommendations and implementation section.
People
Recommendations of ways to improve relationship with stakeholders
Walmart is effective in addressing the interest of their stakeholder’s groups of investors
as well as customers. The organisation only partly satisfies the interest of their employees as they
have to continue at low wages. In order to develop and improve relationship with the stakeholder
s group company adopted various policies which are not considered as harmful for business
operations (Ross, Pandey and Ross, 2015). By increasing quality of products and services the
company will be able to provide satisfaction to their customers and develop a healthy
relationship through offering discounts. By keeping low prices of products, company has tended
to raise the profitability which is required by investors and they will get satisfaction through this.
Company provides maximum returns to their stakeholders. Walmart improve supplier’s relation
by meeting the suppliers in the middle rather on excessively low prices. While these important
recommendation will might lead to raise in selling prices at Walmart stores.
Planet
Recommend ways this company could improve in terms of its environmental policies.
There are various important ways through which company can improve its business in terms
of environmental policies. Moreover, the environmental policies of US is considered a federal
government actions which are used to regulate the activities which have an environmental
impacts in US. In order to improve in terms of clean air act, which is comprehensive federal
laws from the stationary and mobile sources. In this, company needs to provide high quality
products to protect the public health and public welfare and also reduce the emission of
Hazardous air pollutants (Dodd and Stacks, 2013). The setting of these important pollutant
standards was coupled with the directing states to develop state implementation plans, applicable
to the appropriate industrial sources. As per Clean water act, the company needs to implement
the pollution control programs such as setting the waste water standards. Company can be
monitoring the sustainability of resources for development of sustainability. They also required
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to use effective materials for packaging which must be disposed of or should be recycled rather
than polyethene bags and other pollutants.
Profit
Adjustments required to be made to remain profitable.
There are various that organization is required to make in order to remain profitable and
achieve high growth and profitability. Through development of effective relationship with the
suppliers, Walmart will be able to get quality inputs at low prices which provide them support in
reducing the prices of products (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014). For example: Walmart provide
funds to the farmers for production of grains and other food products so that they will get inputs
at low costs. Moreover, Walmart also requires to make adjustments with the investors by
providing returns on their investment but getting a promise that they will not make demands to
reduce the prices of products. Company will achieve profits when they supply high quality
products for consumers. This quality products at low prices will satisfy the customers’ demands
and tends to raise the profitability. By following all the environmental policies company will
tends to remains profitable because they will not have to face any consequences of not abiding
the environment.
Implementation
People
Steps required to be taken to implement recommendation and possible sacrifices along with
changes in culture.
Study has determined various steps through which the Walmart will be able to improve its
relationship with stakeholders such as:
Activity building strong relationships: It is also essential for the organization to develop effective
relationship with stakeholders such as employees, investor, shareholders, and customers. In this,
company would like to share their vision which they would like to achieve and should consider
the suggestion provided by stakeholders (Wright, 2012).
Involving stakeholders: Company needs to involve their stakeholders in their business process in
order to operate effectively and reduce the burdens of operations. For instance. Walmart involves
their stakeholder while taking important decisions. Also takes customers reviews for introduction
of new products and services.
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Rewards and recognitions: in order to improve relationships, company must reward and
recognition to their employees at workplace. They can also develop special offers and coupons
for their customers which tends to raise their sales and profitability.
Addressing issues: It stated that company needs to address the issues faced by customers,
employees and their investors through application of effective and relevant measures.
This will tend to raise the culture of corporate responsible behaviour in organization.
Planet
Steps to implementation recommendations and their help in changing the culture of company.
 Comply with the environmental legislation and other requirements such as approved
codes of practice.
 Significance of environmental issues to their business.
 Implementation of effective environmental suitability strategies.
 Business operations of Walmart also gets affects due to these policies in short term and
long terms.
 Environmental regulations provide short term effect by reducing the employment and
creativity through small amounts, in the particular in pollution as well as energy intense
industries (Ghai and Vivian, 2014).
 Walmart must reduce the use of raw materials, energy and supplies.
 Development of effective waste management system at workplace.
 With the rise in competitiveness in market, the companies are tending to raise their sales
and profitability for which they are proving down quality products.
 Spread awareness about environmental aims and objectives among the employees.\
Profit
Specific steps necessary for the company to remain profitable
 Increase staff productivity: Walmart needs to raise the productivity of their employees vy
providing them guidance and training so that they will perform better and achieve higher
sales of products and services.
 Development of new product lines: Company must undertake customers surveys about
new products (Charter, 2017).
 Finding new customers: For increasing sales company must finds new customers in other
countries and develop strategies to influence them.
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 Compliance with rules: Following all the rules and regulations related to sustainable
development by Walmart will tends to remove consequences and increase profitability
(G C O Y I , 2017).
 Reduce costs: By reducing the cost of labour and inputs, company will be able to remain
profitable.
 Customer service: By providing effective and adequate service services to customers,
company will be able to meet their requirements.
CONCLUSION
In this report, it is concluded that corporates or organization have their major responsibility
towards sustainable development in retail industries. Walmart has faced various consequences
due to environmental policies and they are now implemented various important measures to
reduce such consequence. It is important for enterprise to develop effective relationship with
their stakeholders in order to remain in profitable position in industry.
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REFERENCES
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Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L., 2013. Corporate social responsibility in a global context.
Dodd, M.D. and Stacks, D.W., 2013. Organizational social media policies and best practice
recommendations. In Social Media and Strategie Communications (pp. 159-179).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Epstein, M.J. and Buhovac, A.R., 2014. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing
and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler
Publishers.
Fontaine, M., 2013. Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: the new bottom
line?. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(4).
Ghai, D. and Vivian, J.M., 2014. Grassroots environmental action: people's participation in
sustainable development. Routledge.
Mena, S., Rintamäki, J., Fleming, P. and Spicer, A., 2016. On the forgetting of corporate
irresponsibility. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), pp.720-738.
Ross, R.B., Pandey, V. and Ross, K.L., 2015. Sustainability and strategy in US agri-food firms:
An assessment of current practices. International Food and Agribusiness Management
Review, 18(1), pp.17-48.
Saboori, B., Sulaiman, J. and Mohd, S., 2012. Economic growth and CO2 emissions in Malaysia:
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Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), p.117.
Tench, R., Sun, W. and Jones, B. eds., 2012. Corporate social irresponsibility: a challenging
concept. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Wilson, F. and Post, J.E., 2013. Business models for people, planet (& profits): exploring the
phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation. Small
Business Economics, 40(3), pp.715-737.
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Wright, J.H., 2012. What does monetary policy do to long‐term interest rates at the zero lower
bound?. The Economic Journal, 122(564).
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