Note: I need same assignment on different company

Managing Diversity and Eliminating Discrimination at Walmart

Introduction

The issues relating to diversity in the workplace have been major topics for research in organizational management in recent years. Many scholars in business leadership and administration have been conducting research relating to the trends of strategies that business firms have been implementing in their bid to nurture diversity in their workforces and overall operations. The topic of diversity has both legal and ethical implications in organizations, especially considering the levels of sensitivity that it has in public circles today. In the current report, a detailed review of the topic of diversity is undertaken, with the core focus being on the efforts required and being implemented to end various forms of discrimination in established organizations. The current report will mainly focus on Walmart, a highly rated Fortune 500 company (Fortune, 2020), renowned for its large workforce and extensive reach of business operations.

Background

Walmart is an American-based multinational retail corporation that has operations spanning almost the entire globe. The company has been rated as one of the largest companies in virtually every metric considered in measuring the status and performance of a company. Specifically, the company has a workforce of over 2.2 million people (Fortune, 2020).

Such a large number of employees present various challenges relating to how the company's leadership manages them, especially considering the multiple cultural and social backgrounds involved. The company remains to be one of the most attractive for employees and customers, which means that it has been handling the issues to do with diversity quite effectively. It is essential to consider the financial performance of the company and its relationship with the people that determine its business performance before establishing how it is handling diversity and discrimination.

explained herein, that it has undertaken significant measures to address the problems relating to discrimination in its operations.

Major Incidents Relating to Diversity and Discrimination at the Company

Issues relating to diversity at Walmart need to be viewed from multiple contexts. In the current task, diversity is considered from the contexts of race, gender, and disability. Various incidents relating to racism have been recorded at Walmart over the years. While the company has had to handle multiple cases of racism, a report by Reuters (2009) published in The New York Times indicates that the company had to settle a class-action lawsuit filed against by African American candidates for a position the company had advertised for truck drivers. In the case, Daryal Nelson indicated that Walmart had an unwritten requirement in which the company demanded an excellent credit rating to qualify for the job advertised, which the company used to favor white drivers while discriminating against African American candidates. The company had to settle the lawsuit by paying out $17.5 million, a significant amount that indicates the seriousness of racial discrimination at the company.

In recent years, the company has had issues relating to gender- based discrimination, especially regarding its treatment of women. Covert (2019) has documented several cases in which women have sued Walmart for discriminating against them, especially regarding how it promotes men with lesser qualifications, skills, and experienced compared

to women. In some cases, Covert indicates that women had to train the promoted men considering that they lacked the knowhow to complete their new duties and responsibilities. In yet another issue relating to gender discrimination, Walmart was recently sued for failing to provide adequate time to a woman seeking to pump her breastmilk (Green, 2019). Such a form of discrimination affects both the female employees and customers whose complaints have led to Walmart installing breastfeeding pods in many of its stores across the United States.

Gender-based discrimination remains to be a significant issue in the management practices of Walmart, and the company has taken deliberate steps in recent years intended to have it addressed.

The other issue relating to diversity at the company refers to how the company relates to disabled people. Selyukh (2019) indicates that Walmart is eliminating the greeters' position from over 1,000 stores across the United States. Greeters have mainly been disabled employees that Walmart has employed to help provide directions to customers that may find it challenging to navigate the company's stores. According to Selyukh, the company has indicated that it needs employees will be able to lift at least 25 pounds, which means that the new position will be eliminating several of its current greeters, leaving them without jobs to support themselves owing to their disabilities. Such a move is indicative of discrimination tendencies against the disabled, which raises concerns regarding the policies and guidelines on diversity that the company is implementing in its operations currently.

Themes and Concepts Informing the Strategy of Walmart

Diversity

Diversity has emerged to be one of the most critical issues in organizational management. Saxena (2014) explains workplace diversity as being the similarities and differences that define the employees of a specific organization. According to Saxena, the differences could arise out of age, cultural background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, which could be defining the employees of the organization. Diversity has been a critical issue in the operations of Walmart, considering the 2.2 million employees that the company has deployed in its American and global operations. The company has developed a code in which it defines the approaches it uses to appreciate the diversity of its employees. For instance, the company has been publishing annual reports in which it summarizes the various efforts it has made to ensure the diversity of its employees. In its most recent report, the company indicated that its US workforce was composed of 56% Caucasian employees, 21% African Americans, 15% Hispanics, 5% Asians, 2% two or more races, and 1% American Indian or Alaskan Native (Walmart, 2020). The report also indicates the inclusion of women and people of color in various promotions, which the company has created over the past year. My experience with Walmart is that it has been strategic and objective in its efforts to ensure that it achieves and maintains diversity in its operations. The annual report on diversity and

inclusion of the company identifies specific aims and objectives, which it then strategizes on meeting in all the employee management decisions it makes in its operations over the next year.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture involves the system of beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways that guide the interactions, which could be ongoing in the social and psychological environments of an organization (Driskill, 2018). Walmart has managed to develop an effective organizational culture, which has mainly been key at enhancing the entrenchment of the belief that it is a company that respects the diversity of the people in the various operations that it runs in its business activities (Alvarado, 2018). The company's organizational culture has been marked by various actions and practices reflecting the aspects of diversity and efforts to eliminate the various forms of discrimination. For instance, even with the claims of discrimination, Walmart has, to a large extent, been upholding diversity in its operations. For example, the company employs over 2.2 million people globally from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. The company has managed to create an organizational culture, which fosters the belief that respect among such a large number of employees is the main driving force of success and productivity in its operations. I believe that Walmart has been able to integrate multicultural teams and deploy individuals from various racial groups in tasks, which they then coordinate and work together to deliver the expected results. The organizational culture of the

company has allowed Walmart to be innovative as it draws from the diverse skills of employees, their experiences, and the expertise they have developed over the years.

Managing a Global Workforce

Globalization trends have created global workforces, which come in handy in the efforts that organizations are implementing as they seek to expand their operations to various countries around the world. Chetan and Deekshitha (2020) define a global workforce as one which is borderless, and capable of influencing the competitiveness of multinational corporations considering that employees are drawn from multiple countries. Walmart is a leading multinational company with operations across the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, and many of the countries in the rest of the continents. The company employs over 1.5 million people in the United States and over 750,000 people in the rest of the countries across the world. Walmart has been utilizing effective technologies to guide the interactions among the global workforce that it maintains. The company has an integrated information management system, which it uses to manage the needs of its global workforce, coordinate work-related communication, address the welfare issues of the individual employees while also allowing employee skill development through training and mentorship. I believe that the effective strategies that Walmart has been implementing with its global workforce management have led to its immense and incomparable success in its

operations around the world. In my opinion, if sustained and continuous improvement undertaken, Walmart will improve its performance to such an extent that it will outcompete many of the multinational corporations in its niche currently.

Teamwork

Teamwork is defined as the collaborative effort by individuals intended to achieve a common goal. It involves identifying a common goal and then breaking down to structured but straightforward activities, which, once undertaken, will yield the results expected, especially in an organization (Driskell, Salas & Driskell, 2018). Walmart has been successful mainly owing to its ability to coordinate its employees and form one large team capable of undertakings its activities as productively as required. The company has managed to create various units and sections in its operations. The company has created departments based on the various products that it sells in its outlets. For instance, clothing, shoes, and accessories and home improvement are among the eighteen different departments that the company has created based on the various products that it sells. Each of these departments is considered as a team, which works to improve the sales that it records to enable the company to achieve the sales targets it has set. The employees in each team have different but related duties and responsibilities, which collectively contribute to the overall performance Walmart records. I believe that Walmart has been successful in its sales operations mainly by creating

simple and structured teams hence making coordination and cooperation less complicated considering the scale of its operations and the large number of employees it has deployed in its operations.

Leadership

Leadership is defined as the action of leading people and motivating them to remain committed to a specific cause intended to lead to the attainment of specific goals (Denee & Thornton, 2017). An organization employs leaders who have different skills and attributes, which they then use to motivate and inspire the rest of the employees of the firm to focus on the delivery of specific aims and objectives in the operations of the business. In its leadership undertakings, Walmart has created an organizational structure intended to identify the specific hierarchy of duties, responsibilities, and communication. Walmart has created an executive leadership team led by Doug McMillon, who serves as the President and CEO of the company. It also has a Board of Directors led by Gregory Penner, who is its chairperson. I believe that the organizational structure of Walmart is one of the most effective, considering how decisions are made at the executive level and then implemented horizontally and vertically to cover all the units of the company. Even with a large number of employees and the vastness of its operations, I think that Walmart has managed to demonstrate the kind of leadership many firms lack hence hindering their pursuit of success.

Conclusion

The importance of addressing and managing diversity effectively and eliminating all forms of discrimination in the operations of Walmart cannot be understated. The company is unarguably one of the largest firms in the world today. The economic interests of the company go beyond the financial performance it records to the direct employment it creates to over 2.2 million people and the millions of suppliers that it employs indirectly. Managing such a large number of employees requires the company to focus on all strategies that will enhance unity and cohesion to ensure efficient and effective delivery of services to customers. In conclusion, managing diversity and eliminating discrimination remains vital undertakings in the global business operations of Walmart.

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