WAL-MART

Culture at Wal-Mart

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Introduction

In looking at Wal-Mart more closely we realize that since Wal-Mart is a traditional company its value chain is its supply chain. In order to strengthen its value chain we must focus on strengthening components in their supply chain. As we further analyze the company, Wal-Mart maintains a win-win situation with its suppliers since they order large quantities and they represent one of the largest customers for their suppliers. If we were to analyze Wal-Mart like any other company and focus on its value chain rather than supply chain, Wal-Mart still comes out on top. On the other side, strategic management is the process of decision making which have high medium term to long term impact on activities of the organization including the implementation of those decisions to create value for customers and key stakeholders and to outperform the competitors (Hubbard, 2000).

Wal-Mart's Culture

Wal-Mart built its culture upon three guiding principles. The principles are to respect individuals, customer service, and striving for excellence. A positive corporate culture drives employee behaviour and promotes positive attitudes, which in turn creates happy employees. I share the belief that a company's culture should involve good service to the customer, fair dealings with employees, and courteous acts towards internal and external customers. Wal-Mart promotes the virtues however; they seem only to apply to upper management. What makes Wal-Mart so successful? Examining customer service provides the answer to this question. Simply stated, customers are the lifeblood of any company. Successful organizations always promote and cultivate excellent customer service relations and build customer loyalty. By building positive relationships with customers, organizations can benefit from repeat business (Thompson, 2004).

Thompson (2005) stated, Wal-Mart has traditionally been a Republican supported company. During the past 15 years, more than 75% of its political donations have gone to Republicans. Democratic political leaders have recently shunned Wal-Mart because of its policies regarding benefits and wages. Wal-Mart promotes a culture of hostility towards unions (Thompson, 2005). For example, Thompson (2004) stated, “In 2000, when meat-cutters at a Wal-Mart located in Texas organized into a collective-bargaining unit, the company reacted by shutting down its meat counters across Texas and in five neighbouring states. Wal-Mart ceased operations of an entire store in Quebec, rather than see workers unionize.” This organization has done an excellent job of preventing employees from organizing, which has helped keep wages low for ...