Wal-Mart Corporation

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Wal-Mart Corporation

Recently, Wal-Mart corporation has found itself embroiled in court tussles with various groups and the latest being that of women. The two million people that are employed by this giant retail Wal-Mart have filed a case that touches on sex discrimination. This case can have huge ramifications to the company and many people in United States are watching to see what would come out of this lawsuit and especially on the standing of the company against the competition prevailing now. The company is big and every other person including the competitors agrees that the company has strength of its own. However, the recent issues clobbering the company may put the company in a tight rope situation grappling against the possible downtrend on its management. This paper looks at the pros and cons of the company’s management on how these have helped in the decline or rise of its fame.

Contributions of Wal-Mart

[1]Wal-Mart stores Inc told The White House that it supports the idea that all of the employers are supposed to provide the health insurance to all the workers, and this was viewed as a centerpiece of the president in the provision of near universal coverage for the American citizens. The support by such a company meant that the company was putting up a kind of image that shows its support for most popular initiatives in United States. However, some major companies in the country had opposed the idea, and this put Wal-Mart Corporation positive in the people, and as a big contributor to issues that are beneficial to the whole population. To this end, the company is not one, which can go down easily because it has distinguished itself as strong in many instances, and more so, it has made a mark in contributing to beneficial issues. Other companies were arguing that such a move would jeopardize the control of companies by the employers and give the citizens some forms of control.

[2]The company has survived out of the kind of innovation it has made which has had impacts to the whole country. It has set stage and basis for other companies to base their strength and everything it has done has become the ground. The company is good at learning, and has made its swimming upstream in addition to the kind of experiments it does with new ideas. In his biography, Sam Walton quotes, “I think my constant fiddling and meddling with the status quo may have been one of my biggest contributions to the later success of Wal-Mart” (36). The company is also known to learn from its own mistakes, and actually builds from these mistakes to become a major contributor to the issues that affect the society.

[3]Wal-Mart in the year 2003 was seen to contribute to the ideologies that were set by the then president especially on the sharing of the finances and wealth to the issues that touch on the whole societies (46). Some foundations have come out of the assistance of the company to help build donation centers for the societies in United States and that is why the company has gained fame and recognition from the people of America. The company has earned a name as a company that has made to strengthen its grips in the country especially on its charitable giving to the less fortunate in the country as well as making other people stronger in economies. These charitable services by the company have increased over time, and the more it does this, the more it gets a larger share of its market; a thing that other companies have not made to achieve.

The company was on news on positive effects when it announced that it has supported the proposal by First Lady Michelle Obama on healthy foods. When the executive of Wal-Mart announced this, there was fanfare from the media, but one thing that was clear is that the executive was on some other mission other than just mere support. It was argued that the company wanted to be a little bit closer to the White House and the government while the opponents argued that it was quite unethical to do so. Others argued that there were secret talks between the staff of the First Lady and the executives of Wal-Mart. However, other than the criticism, the company’s proposal to support healthy foods on positive to many and such a move would have positive repercussions to the whole of American citizens. It is true anyone can read interior motives in such a move by such a big company, but it is also positive that a company can go to any lengths to have a good public image but in the end benefit the larger majority of the citizens of the United States of America.

Detrimental Effects of the Company

Despite the hails and praises, the company has had some detrimental effects in United States, and while it appears to be supporting the people and in return getting hails from the governments, it has wronged other stakeholders the wrong way. In 30^th March 2011, women who work in the company have challenged the company in a court of law in a case touching on sex discrimination[4]. The case was on the argument that the company has done wrong to discredit women and as one of the women narrates, she has worked for the company for more than 20 years yet she is still underpaid, no promotions while her male colleagues are doing well in the company. The policies that have been set by the company about the case are that the women do not have enough evidence to link the company into this. However, this is not entirely the truth because, with the broadcast of the case, the company’s image would be adversely affected.

In the year 2010, Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported that the company was trying to fight its competitors in some efforts to make its groceries have more profits. Particularly, the Bentonville, Ark; a retailer company had gone to the court requiring that its opponents and particularly Wal-Mart to disclose the person who was footing the legal bills in the California lawsuits. However, it was reported that these efforts were out of the organizations by some activists in the country, and that only means that there were issues that the people on the ground were not comfortable. That is why people were keen on seeing that the company discloses the person doing the footing of the legal bills. In two of the cases that was involving the company in California, it was reported that the consulting firm was working to make sure that the expansion of Wal-Mart was thwarted. Such efforts could only be done if there is some opposition that was happening in the country out of detrimental effects it was affecting.

There was other bias suits involving the company against the people, and these only shows that the company was not as good as it was being widely viewed. In news, the company together with others such as Costco was being involved in the exploitation of the program, which was against the general ethics of companies. There were also demonstrators that were acting against the company and who were viewed to have been paid by other people who can only be said to be the opponents. [5]There were also reports that the company was using some orthodox attempts to break into the retail market in Chicago and the opponents were arguing that the company was driving down the wages as well as destroying the local businesses. All of these are the negative effects that have been brought up by the company out of its operations that were being used to make sure that the company maintains its status.

[6]In the year 2010, the company was involved in a lawsuit case that was dubbed Wal-Mart vs. a million angry women where a class action by women who were working at the company from the year 2001 against the company over the poor working conditions for women in comparable to that of men. The women who were working for the company were being paid less than their male counterparts were. As well, the women were receiving fewer promotions than the men were and instead of having the management postings for any openings; the company was relying on tap on the shoulder system. That case was a landmark one and which generally displayed the company as one, which does not care for the women as it do for men.

Conclusion

In this discussion, the concentration is on the pros and the cons that are associated with the Wal-Mart company. On the pro argument, the company is seen as Godsend where it has helped many in the country as well as supporting famous programs and initiatives by the governments meant to improve the lives of people in USA. However, on the negative side of its operations, the company is seen to be an anti-supporter of equality in the country where women in the company are seen to be underprivileged as compared to the male counterparts.

Works cited

Adamy, Janet. Wal-Mart Backs Drive To Make Companies Pay For Health Coverage. The Wall Street Journal, Published July 1, 2009

Kiplinger, Knight. Share the Wealth. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Sept 2003, Vol. 57(9), pp 46

Martin, Timothy. Wal-Mart Seeks To Force Disclosure of Opponents’ Funders. The Wall Street Journal, Sept 22, 2010

Millar, Lisa. Women Take On Wal-Mart In Landmark Case. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 30^th March, 2011

Stohr, Greg. Wal-Mart Vs. A Million Angry Women. Published by Bloomberg/business week,

Walton, Sam. Sam Walton, made in America: My Story. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Publishers, 1992

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