Walmart's Cost Savings Initiatives

The organizational culture established by Sam Walton had fundamental elements that were key to Walmart’s success. He understood the importance of treating associates with dignity and respect and how the organizational behavior could affect the overall outcome and success of the business. The organizational culture of low cost, high margin has allowed it to become one of the largest companies in the world. While one would consider Walmart successful as far as revenue is concerned, many would describe them as unsuccessful in regards to treatment of and pay to their employees. Years of accusations and lawsuits from unsatisfied employees has formed a dark cloud over the company. In this paper, I will discuss the issues surrounding Walmart’s cost savings initiatives put in place by Sam Walton and its negative effect on …show more content…
Slow growth and lower margins were evident once the organizational justice was perceived as unfair. “All the negative publicity has hurt Walmart employees' morale. As a result, some shoppers now find them less friendly and courteous than they were in the late '90s” (Bernstein, 2005). Walmart employees also became interested in unions, despite the company’s strong policy against them. However, this did not stop a group of workers in the Los Angeles area from coming together to form Our Walmart. Becker describes Our Walmart as, “A nonunion worker association tied closely to the United Food and Commercial Workers. Even this elementary form of organization, joined by only a tiny fraction of Walmart employees, appears to have increased the capacity and confidence of workers to take action on the job. Under U.S. labor law, nonunion workers have the right to collective action over workplace issues, although, in practice, it comes with additional risks” (Becker,