Wal-Mart: A Cost Leader With Focus on Stakeholders - Essay Sample

Introduction

Wal-Mart is described as a retail shop that concentrates majorly on the cost of leadership. The stakeholders are the groups of people or individuals who contribute to the development of the operations and functions in an organization in direct or indirect methods. The retail shop focuses more on the existing economic opportunities that exist for the employees and associates. The primary concern is also concentrated on the suppliers, environment of business. The stakeholders at Wal-Mart are prioritized in an orderly manner as follows; employees, suppliers, and according to the environment that they are within (Wal-Mart Environmental, Social, and Governance report, 2019).

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Employees- the employees should be focused on as the first factor contributing to success. Despite there being increased technological use, the employees are required less mainly where machinery can be used instead. The retail sector contributes to the success of many other businesses. It is the reason that employee's development is given priority

Suppliers- the organization is said to be operational in about 27 countries and with more than 100,000 suppliers. The organization, therefore, focuses on support and providing the required sources so that they can support the suppliers. The suppliers are also encouraged to deal with each other upholding high ethical status so that the business can thrive and increase efficiency for the company.

Environment- since Wal-Mart deals with products required for daily use by the customers. The organization has to create an environment suitable for promoting the availability of the products. The environment plays a massive role in this, which also makes the organization have plans, especially concerning the environment.

How Wal-Mart Has Responded to Stakeholders

According to Wal-Mart Environmental, Social, and Governance report (2019), the organization can respond to the stakeholders through a similar manner like the manner of prioritizing. The only difference is what entails the process though the order of stakeholders is the same as follows;

Employees- the organization caters for the employees as stakeholders by developing them mostly through finances. The significant examples are competitive wages where an employee is paid based on the performance. There are non-financial benefits like health insurance and the benefits to be provided after retire. The employees are also trained for free to raise their opportunities for being at the top at work.

Suppliers- the organization when it comes to the suppliers; they are critical to helping the suppliers as their stakeholders to know the quality and standards of various products. It helps the organizations to have quality materials to provide their customers. The suppliers are also helped such that they are equipped with adequate tools and also helped to maintain reasonable standards of living and their safety during work.

Environment- The environment that Wal-Mart has created is conducive for the environment like using renewable sources of energy to prevent pollution of the environment. The traditional methods of heat production are eco-friendly, therefore, as much as the organization still focuses on making products; there still is the drive of protection of the environment for their sake and also for future generations.

The Driving Force of Priorities and Responses

Wal-Mart is termed as a large organization in the retail industry. More to that, the business has had a massive impact on the community, environment, and the society that all benefit from it. The critical concentration of the organization is to make a definite upward trend to improve the effectiveness of the services, products, and the relevance of the initiatives that Wal-Mart supports. The organization's primary focus is to control the adverse effects that it may contribute to the environment. Among the factors that are helpful to curb the environmental factor is to adopt measures that minimize the negative impact on the environment. The organization focuses on strengthening the operations of the business, which play a significant role in development and returns of the organization. The organization has healthy and well-balanced priorities beginning with the employees that are given the respect they require not forgetting the suppliers. The customers are also given priority based on the quality of the products and services provided to the customers. The organization works to be excellent and perform with integrity for the benefit of the organization (Wal-Mart ESG report, 2019).

Development of an Improved Ethical Culture at Wal-Mart

In the current day, Wal-Mart retailer is described as the most trusted seller that is more committed to acting and performing business in the right manner that they are supposed to. The organization is most faithful to act as required in business and doing all that is needed. The most successful method to do business is by knowing how to conduct business successfully by allowing the values to guide the actions of the company in what they choose to do. The company should give all the respect deserved for all the people that work together with the organization to achieve success. The organization, through building competitive advantages, helps to acquire customers and retain the already existing ones. Also, through a Global Ethics and Compliance Program that helps enhance accountability and also transparency that allows stakeholders to perform as required (Wal-Mart Global Ethics and Compliance report, 2019). The methods that Wal-Mart used to improve and maintain ethics are:

Responsible purchase activities-the company is at an excellent position to use the power that it can purchase with to enhance their supply chain. The organization should work together with the suppliers to assess the risks so that the risks will be minimized to facilitate maintaining standard and quality products.

Giving priority to safety- the employees and stakeholders from both sides are required for the success and therefore are needed to be in good health every day as they leave the work premises. The managers have a role in ensuring that the employees have the right conditions of work at their workplace. There have been massive reductions in accident cases at work.

Minimizing risk of corruption- the organization has had a manner of choosing the other companies that it builds relations with and relating with government officials to help the organization calculate the risks that it may encounter as a result of for example performing with third parties. The transparency helps the organization to be open to third party relations since they can handle the challenges.

Conclusion

Wal-Mart has managed to maintain atop position in the retailing industry since the organization has planned and knows what is required to move forward. By assisting the employees in working under good condition, maintaining a healthy environment both for business, and maintaining an excellent ecological environment. In the ethical culture, the company has identified the weak areas and finding ways to better performance by creating ethical conditions.

Works Cited

Wal-Mart ESG report. Environmental, Social, and Governance report. (2019). Retrieved from https://corporate.walmart.com/media-library/document/2019-environmental-social-governance-report/_proxyDocument?id=0000016a-9485-d766-abfb-fd8d84300000

Wal-Mart. Environmental, Social, and Governance. (2019). Retrieved from https://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/environmental-social-and-governance

Wal-Mart. 2019 Update on Wal-Marts Global Ethics and Compliance Program. (2019). https://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/global-compliance-program-report-on-fiscal-year-2019