LED560 Case Study #2

docx

School

Trident University International *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

560

Subject

Management

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by CoachHawkMaster342

1 Trident University LED 560: Leadership and Strategy Case Study #2: The Socio-Political Compass Dr. Virginia Johnson

2 The Socio-Political Compass: Walmart and Juneteenth Sam Walton opened up his first Walmart in July of 1962 and has continued to grow into a mega business ranking as the number 1 on the Fortune Global 500 list and Fortune 500 list. With eleven thousand stores and over two million employees, Walmart has grown to be the biggest retail giant in the world. Every year, Walmart releases an annual Cultural, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (CDE&I) report that talks about how Walmart is making a difference in people’s lives. However, in May of 2022, Walmart created a controversy that went against their CDE&I initiatives and lead to the company having to issue a public apology and go back to the drawing board. In this paper, there will be a discussion about Juneteenth Ice Cream and merchandise, strategies followed by the organization after the incident, a SLEPT analysis on Walmart’s external environment, an alternate strategy and how the issue could have been managed differently, and future changes in procedures for the company. Specific Diversity and Inclusion Incident, 2022 Juneteenth Celebration In May of 2022, Walmart came out with merchandise designed for the Juneteenth Holiday. In the celebration and an attempt to affirm the values of its Black customers, Walmart produced Ice-Cream, T-Shirts, and other products covered with images of the African Continent and its colors (Neal, 2022). While this attempt to affirm the values of its customers seemed fitting for an American federal holiday, there was a lot of criticism to come for Walmart. The company failed to deliver in its attempts to garner appreciation as its actions went against typical CDE&I industry standards. Walmart failed to include a member of the race it was celebrating by having a white woman modeling the merchandise which was being advertised for Black liberation movements. Another incident happened when it was discovered that the Great Value Ice Cream flavor Walmart put out was a subject of accusations of theft from Creamalicious, one

3 of the only African American owned national ice cream brands, as being a duplicated flavor and exploiting the colors of the continent of Africa. With all things said and done, Walmart removed all of the merchandise and ice cream from their company inventory and then issued an apology to the public and Creamalicious. Strategies Followed by the Organization Walmart is not a stranger to controversies, so after creating a controversy by releasing a product line that created a profit line while exploiting a sad day in history, Walmart went on the defensive and had to change their market strategy to mend relationships. In their apology, Walmart tried to use Cultural Intelligence (CQ) to walk back their lack of CDE&I and public relationships by saying “we received feedback that a few items caused concern for our customers and we sincerely apology” (Drago, 2022). As Walmart has a yearly CDE&I newsletter, they try to keep inclusion at the highest levels for its employees. “Perceived inclusion refers to an individual’s perceptions of belonging and being valued for what makes them unique and different within a group” (Alexandra, Holcombe, & Randel, 2021). By acknowledging that Walmart leadership listened to feedback and admitted that the company had made a mistake, Walmart tried to increase their perceived inclusion within the organization and continue to build on their CDE&I program. SLEPT Analysis on External Environment Walmart is a unique organization as it has over ten thousand stores located all over the world. There are a lot of external environmental factors that affect the company. By using a SLEPT (Social, Legal, Economic, Political and Technological) assessment, one could see that Walmart faces a lot of things that affect its CDE&I initiatives. Socially, Walmart has to work its

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

4 products differently, depending on the country they are trying to sell out of. Take Germany for example, Walmart failed to succeed in the country because it did not adjust to the countries interest, instead trying to push an all-American brand instead of local and fresh (Frue, 2022). This matters in other countries and led to Walmart losing a lot of money. Next is looking at the legal side. Walmart has lawyers all over the world and must follow international and US laws when it comes to how the company runs. A failure to follow labor laws in a country can cost Walmart revenue in fines and procedural changes that have to be accomplished. “In California, Walmart paid $65 million dollars to 1000 current and past employees who said that the company did not provide seating accommodations for employees” (Frue, 2022). Economically, Walmart has to deal with the markets where its stores are located and are influenced by how a specific currency is doing. Having a bad market in a small country could hurt minorly hurt revenue, but having a struggling market in the US will have detrimental effects on revenue and costs of goods to all branches. On the political side, Walmart is influenced by the countries in which it is selling its goods. If a country changes political views, Walmart can be directly hurt through its supply chain to its prices. From wages to required work hours, any bill that changes in a country can directly impact the organization and how it operates. An example of political change can be seen in Chongqing China, where one store prohibited products to the Chinese public and the government was quick to limit the sale of all products sold by Walmart. The last external environment is Technological. Many changes to current manufacturing and marketing have allowed Walmart to be able to slim down in production and distribution. Walmart uses automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to be able to quickly process changes and save the company money that would be spent using human power. They are able to make efficient changes to their online brand and able to market out using revenue saved by these automated

5 processes. Externally, Walmart is able to leverage its products through different means and has a lot of areas where it has to pay attention to specific needs or changes that happen, but being a giant retailer does not give it an excuse on how its brand is used. Alternate Strategy and How the Issue Could Have Been Managed Differently While Walmart went back and removed the products it was distributing that were culturally unacceptable, the company could have used a different strategy than it did. The approach that it used appeared to be a great idea to its board of directors and marketing team but was rolled out in a way where the company was chastised through different external environments. An alternative strategy that the company could have used was to build an internal working group based off of the race and events they were focusing on and done a blind study to see reactions of consumers in the market. Many people feel that there was no accountability in the boardroom that made the decisions and that it was a market ploy to make money off of a cultural event. By having a working group that’s sole focus was the event, Walmart would have had better cultural intelligence on the situation and could have shown more responsibility. “If you do not establish accountability and responsibility, you kill trust, the relationship, and the positive spirit of your team” (Alexandra, Holcombe, & Randel, 2021). The working group could have identified where the company efforts were misguided and could have resolved the feeling that this was a bad idea used to make money off of a historical event instead of raising awareness and showing support. Future Changes in Procedures As previously discussed, Walmart needs to have a working group for ideas that promote awareness or equality that are built with members of the affected cause. “You hear stories where

6 you scratch your head and wonder... there are politics, people are afraid to make mistakes… people always fall back into a competition mindset… 100% efficiency gain if people trusted each other.” (Alexandra, Holcombe, & Randel, 2021). The organization would be better if employees and management worked together - for a cause and did not have to play the political game. By using a working group, the organization would have better accountability and responsibility when making an external decision and it would build a mindset in the organization where employees are focused on 100% gain. The working group can help identify issues at hand and areas where change needs to be made, like stealing a flavor from another company or making it look like the organization’s marking department does not care about inclusion or diversity of its customers. Walmart would go from looking like a company that is profiting off of tragedies and become a company that is focused on awareness. Walmart looked responsible when it apologized for what it did, but it did not look like it was accountable for the problems that it created. Conclusion Walmart made a mistake by trying to raise cultural awareness about Juneteenth while providing products that could have been stolen from another company and merchandise that made the company look insensitive. Walmart had to apologize for their actions, and it made them look like they were not accountable or responsible for their actions. Making a change in the company’s cultural intelligence or responsibility and accountability processes will help the company drive through external environmental factors in the world as the world’s biggest retailer. In this paper, there was a discussion about Juneteenth Ice Cream and merchandise, strategies followed by the organization after the incident, a SLEPT analysis on Walmart’s external environment, an alternate strategy and how the issue could have been managed differently, and future changes in procedures for the company.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

7 Reference Page Alexandra, V., Holcombe, K. E., Randel, A. E. (2021, January). Cultural intelligence, perceived inclusion, and cultural diversity in workgroups. Personality and Individual Differences , 168(110285). ISSN 0191-8869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110285 Available in the Trident Online Library Science Direct database. Drago, K. (2022, May 25). Walmart pulls Juneteenth ice cream after cold social media response . Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaliedrago/2022/05/24/walmart-pulls-juneteenth-ice- cream-after-cold-social-media-response/?sh=1da0667d744c Frue, K. (2022, August 20). Walmart pestle analysis . PESTLE Analysis. https://pestleanalysis.com/walmart-pestle-analysis/ Neal, M. (2022, May 27). What Walmart’s Juneteenth Ice Cream Gaffe really highlights . NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/walmarts-juneteenth-ice-cream- lack-understanding-black-experiences-rcna30888

LED560 Case Study #2

Related Documents