How does Wal-Mart Stores organization manage its reputation and corporate citizenship?
Having become a global organization, which has a presence in nearly every country of the world, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. faced the necessity to transfer to the principle of corporate citizenship. Traditionally defined as “logical extension of corporations’ search for a consistent and sustainable framework for global engagement” (Schwab, 2008, par. 32), the above-mentioned concept presupposes that corporate social responsibility should become the basis of a company’s philosophy.
Seeing that the organization has recently been awarded for supporting the idea of corporate citizenship (Wal-Mart honored for corporate citizenship, 2005), it is reasonable to assume that Wal-Mart supports the idea and views corporate citizenship as its top priority at present.
What is Wal-Mart Stores organization doing right? Where can it improve?
Defining the quality of the company’s performance, one must admit that Wal-Mart has developed a very flexible pricing policy, which allows for not only boosting sales rates in the organization, but also creating trustworthy relationships with customers, who feel valued and respected by Wal-Mart. Therefore, the approach to pricing coupled with the company’s ethical principles and values, clearly is one of the organization’s key assets.
As far as the flaws of the company’s decisions are concerned, one must mention that the company may be too hasty in its attempt to expand in the global market. As a result, a range of Wal-Mart stores are characterized as cluttered and lacking competent staff.
The aforementioned issues gradually turn Wal-Mart into a rather chaotic place, where shopping experience can be bearable at best: “The reason there’s nobody to help you is because our salaried management team decided to cut hours and staff” (Nolan, 2014, par. 7). In fact, the issue under analysis can be considered critical for Wal-Mart, as it may destroy its image of a company that cares about its customers and strives to take every client’s feedback into account.
What has your experience been? What do other stakeholders report about the company’s citizenship and reputation?
Personally, I must admit that Wal-Mart has its flaws, as it is a huge corporation that clearly lacks staff at present. In most cases, the lack of comfort in using Wal-Mart’s services boils down to having trouble finding the staff member, who can provide essential information about the product. Nevertheless, as it has been stressed above, several people find using Wal-Mart’s services a very frustrating experience.
It seems, however, that the issues faced by Wal-Mart in terms of staff shortage are only temporary. Once the company reconsiders its strategy towards human resource management, it will be able to provide the services of a rather high quality, as a new employee-focused HR approach will contribute to a significant rise in applicants for vacancies in the company.
What makes you remain a stakeholder?
When it comes to locating the definitive qualities of the company that make it so attractive to its target customers in general and me as one of the consumers in particular, one must mention the philosophy of the company.
According to the mission statement issued by the organization (Farfan, 2012), the company focuses on changing the audience’s perception of quality and price by offering the products of a very fine quality for a considerably low price. As a consumer, I cannot help appreciating the above-mentioned approach towards customers’ needs. As a result, I remain a stakeholder (i.e., a buyer) in the framework of the company’s operations.
Reference List
Farfan, B. (2012). Company mission statements – complete list of world’s largest retail missions. Web.
Nolan, H. (2014). A Walmart worker explains why Walmart’s customer service is horrible.
Schwab, K. (2008). Global corporate citizenship: Working with governments and civil society.
Wal-Mart honored for corporate citizenship. (2005). Web.