Organizational Culture At Wal-Mart Essay Example

environment yield corresponding beneficial results, touching areas such as job satisfaction, employee wellbeing, efficiency, commitment, employee retention, increased sales/profits, and customer loyalty, amongst others. This underlines the importance for astute businesses to implement a systematic strategy aimed at nurturing their corporate cultures, in order to sustain their trading performances amidst today's rapidly changing, technologically advanced and global work landscape.

The influence of a company's culture can serve as either its asset or flaw. Using Walmart as an example, it is evident that the corporation has fostered a culture prioritizing employees' well-being while maintaining a socially responsible corporate persona. As the world's largest retail chain, Walmart employs over 1.5 million full-time and contract workers (NY Job Source 2005). The company's renown is rooted in its extensive array of products and services, which are provided at highly competitive low prices.

Wal-Mart announced a massive yield of $285.2 billion and a net profit of $10.3 billion in 2004, with its store sales seeing an uptrend by 2.9%. The enormous scale of its earnings allows it to surpass Home Depot's annual profits within just one quarter (Fishman 2003). As a large global company based in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart faces considerable challenges concerning labor practices and international expansion. Therefore, it is essential for Wal-Mart to adopt a humble approach during these challenging times to present itself as a corporation committed to social responsibility.

All businesses experience highs and lows, and even an industry titan such as Wal-Mart can be undermined by a series of small mistakes. While the ongoing employee attrition may appear inconsequential to Wal-Mart currently, its implications could amplify over time, possibly causing adverse effects on the company's ethical norms and

honesty. The amalgamation of these factors creates the distinct Wal-Mart culture which is a significant part of its power. The principal characteristics of Wal-Mart's culture revolve around its excellent customer service and dedication to offering top-notch value at rock-bottom prices. This mirrors three outstanding qualities inherent in Wal-Mart's strategies and operations.

Wal-Mart's global expansion strategy is garnering admiration due to its clear demonstration of the company's financial and managerial capabilities. The procurement and harmonization of a range of Wal-Mart stores denotes an element of the company's internal growth and progression. This diverse portfolio makes for a wide array of products that caters to a larger customer base. Moreover, the sheer scale of Wal-Mart's reach allows them to dictate supplier costs, which then allows them to offer their products and services at low prices. The distinguishing features of Wal-Mart's strategy mainly revolve around extensive diversification and a strong focus on cost efficiency.

The elevation of Wal-Mart amidst its competitors is attributed to the overwhelming variety of brands, products, and services provided at affordable prices, sourced globally. Wal-Mart has carved a niche for itself primarily due to top-notch leadership strategies. The executives continually formulate comprehensive business plans and execute them to proliferate their foothold worldwide while heightening customer service and sales across all outlets. To visualize and implement domination over international retail shopping is the task of proficient leader-managers. Furthermore, the past five years have seen a noticeable growth in their store numbers, manifesting the company's advancement.

Despite the rise in Wal-Mart's long-term liabilities and commitments due to its global growth, the company's success is largely credited to its deeply ingrained culture. Most of this cultural ethos has been preserved

because its founder, Sam Walton, esteemed that content employees yield great performance, leading to happy and fulfilled customers. As such, Wal-Mart staff were motivated to strive for excellence and uphold discipline as their main focus. Consequently, it can be argued that Wal-Mart's corporate culture is definitively customer-focused and dedicated to service (Walmart’s Culture: Supporting Success).