Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is a mega business with more than 11,700 retail units in 28 countries and approximately 2.3 million associates around the world. That’s a lot of employees to manage!

Its most recent annual revenues were more than $485.3 billion with profits of more than

$13.6 billion. Because of its position as the United States’s largest private employer,

Walmart often finds itself at the center of controversy over employee-related issues, from sick day policies40 to wage concerns.41 However, in 2016,

the company created its Walmart Academy training program,

a program intended to help those employees in lower level management positions be more successful in their careers. Currently, there are some 100 of these academies across the United States. Since its inception, more than 150,000 store supervisors and department managers have gone through the weeks-long training.42 What does the training include? Topics cover advanced retail skills, including merchandising, ordering, and inventory control, plus managerial skills, including better communication and motivating employees. All management training is designed with the goal of helping transform the in-store shopping experience into a consistently positive one. As the industry faces increasing competitive pressures from Amazon and other online sellers, brick-and-mortar retailers are being forced to provide customers with something that makes the customer want to come to their store again and again. For Walmart, this means that if the company wants to create a more pleasant in-store shopping experience, it needs a welltrained and engaged workforce. That starts with the managers who, in turn, take that focus back to training their employees to be attentive to customers. Walmart thinks this effort is so vital that it has spent $2.7 billion (yes, that’s billion!) on employee training and raising employee wages. That’s a significant investment. However, there are companies that evidently don’t focus on training managers as Walmart does. Here are some startling statistics43:

• 26 percent of new managers feel they’re unprepared to transition into management roles.

• 58 percent of new managers don’t receive any training to help them make the transition.

• 48 percent of first-time managers fail in that transition.

Considering the important role that managers play in employee motivation and engagement, investing in training, like Walmart is doing, seems to be a good investment.

Discussion Questions 1. Why would a company want employees in lower-level management positions to be more successful in their careers? (Hint: Think efficiency/effectiveness and the four functions of management.)

2. What benefits and challenges do you see to a training program such as this?

3. What additional managerial topics might you suggest be covered in the Walmart Academy training program? Think in terms of the three ways to look at what managers do.

4. Many college graduates are reluctant to pursue a career in a retail organization...even at the world’s largest.

Discuss how a company like Walmart could attract talented graduates.

5. Does an organization have an ethical responsibility to assist new managers transition into their positions? Why or why not?