Employment Essay Example for Free

Employment EssayThe musical arrangement that we selected as our topic of discussion in our Project Paper is the Wal-Mart Corporation. Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart. He open his first store called Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas in July of 1962. Their incorporated office is shortly located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. incorporated its stores on October 31, 1969. In 1972, they beated selling stock on the New York armoury exchange. Although, though the company has had controversial operational line of credit practices they suck grown to be the largest Retail Corporations in the world. In 1997, Wal-Mart was able to become the largest private employer in the United States. In that same division, their annual sales totaled over $105 billion. In 2010, Wal-Mart has over 2. 1 million employees worldwide. There 2010 fiscal year sales exceeded $400 billion dollars (Wal-Mart About Us, 2010). I have been a loyal client of Wal-Mart for years. There fore, I was shocked when I found out to the highest degree some of Wal-Marts questionable unofficial policies through duologue with friends and family members who blended for them in the past and some who currently employed by them. My mother in law worked for them from 2006 thru 2008.She was mandatory to work 8-hour shifts without a lunch break on a regular basis. One of my cousins was require to measure out because he was about to be in overtime and relate to work to keep labour hail down. I decided to Google Wal-Mart, to see if other people experienced the same in justice. I was stupefied to see some of the practices of this company I loyally posted. According to an article released by the Associated Press on 12/24/08 called Wal-Mart to Pay Workers Up to $640 Million it allow for pay as some(prenominal) as $640 million to dresstle 63 lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations, ending years of dispute.Wal-Mart faced 76 similar clear action lawsuits in courts across the co untry as of March 31, 2008. These violations range from having employees clock out and continue to work without pay, denying them with lunch breaks that they argon entitled to by law, non-payment for overtime worked. They have also had issues with discrimination against women, resulting, from denying them promotions and salaried them less then their male counterpart even though they held the same position, and in some cases, women had seniority over the men (Associated 2008).It is widely known that Wal-Mart pays its associates below the average retail wages. In 2008, the average safe time Associate (34 hours per week) earns $10. 84 hourly for an annual income of $19,165. That is $2,000 below the Federal Poverty Line for a family of four. In 2007, Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott earned $29. 7 million in total compensation, or 1,551 time the annual income of the average full time Wal-Mart Associate. Consequently, large portions of their employees qualify to receive Gov ernment Assistance to support their families.They are well aware that they pay their fulltime employees below the poverty level. In event, Wal-Mart actually encourages their employees to collect usefulness of the Government Assistant Programs (Wake Up Wal-Mart, 2008). Wal-Mart does non offer its associates affordable healthcare insurance benefits. According to Wal-Mart employees, when they complained about high the cost of the insurance and omit of coverage it offers their managers would simply suggest that they try to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.According to Wal-Mart Facts. om, If an average full-time Wal-Mart employee chooses the least expensive family coverage plan, they would have to spend over 20% of their income originally the health insurance provided any reimbursement. An average full time Wal-Mart Associate faces a atrocious family health issue. They have to pay the entire out-of-pocket maximum for the least expensive health plan, which adds up to pay 53% of t heir income (Wake Up Wal-Mart, 2008). I am just a customer of Wal-Mart. I am an accountant, so I budget my money pretty well and I love a grave bargain. However, when I look at this brass and their parentage practices all I see is greed.Therefore, as a customer I have to question my whether or non to continue to support this business if they incline on behaving in such an manner that is clearly unfair to its employees. This is not a struggling organization. It brings in sales exceeding $100 billion annually. Wal-Mart has the resources to make their employees NEEDS a precession. I would like to confide that they are sincerely go awaying to make the necessary changes.Wal-Marts management behaves immorally towards its employees. They do not value their employees needs, rights, or the labor laws that the US put into lace to protect them. Wal-Marts low outlay on everyday household products is what sets them apart from other discount retailers. Their employees jockstrap make it possible for them to master their competitors in the discount retail market and maintain their warring advantage. It is essential for employees to life that the company that employs them provides an estimable organizational elaboration in order for them to feel a sense of job security and to be motivated to be productive for the company. What is organisational Culture? What type of OC does Wal-Mart reflect?What effect does their OC have on employee job satisfaction, morale, and performance? What potful management do to improve their employee relations?According to our text Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition, a companys organizational culture is a shared set of beliefs and set within an organization. The culture is the behaviors that employees feel they are required to fit in order to meet the expectations of their organization (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, Uhl-Bien, 2010, p. 12). On of the OCIs that the Human Synergistic Study addresses the Aggressive/ justificative C ulture.The cultural norms are build upon a value structure whereby management puts its own interests before those of its key constituentsits customers, employees, suppliers, and even stockholders. Members place priority on doing what is best for themselves over the long-term best interests of their organization. Previous organizational successes (due to prior leadership, technological patents, or good business strategies) fuel the arrogance and short-term orientation of management and allow Aggressive/Defensive organizations to continue to appear effectiveat least for a piece.However, as shown by John Kotter and crowd together Hesketts study of 207 organizations (and consistent with research based on the OCI), this type of value structure prevents organizations from efficaciously adapting to changes in their environments and at last has a negative impact on their financial performance (Human Synergistic 2006). Your business strategies shift your organizations values should not. Organizational values guide employee actions and influence business practices. They suffice provide meaning for employees searching for an emotional connection to work each day.Also known as ground rules or operating principles, at their best values are actionable guidelines, not to be confused with abstract beliefs that are merely held or posted on a plaque (Organizational Values, 2008). In an Aggressive/Defensive Culture, management tends to have very little value for people. There focus is on setting goals and meeting them by any means necessary. They are very competitive and want to wipe out the competition. Some of the characteristics of this type of culture are oppositional, competitive, motivated by power, and perfection.Managers may oppose things indirectly, stubborn, al shipway has to be right, avoids admitting mis depletes, resists suggestions ille by others, and have a strong need to win or dominate. Their members do not feel any sense of job security. Employees typi cally mean that they have to go with the follow in an apparent movement to avoid the label troublemaker in order to keep their job. They fears managements retaliation and often feel as though they are in a hostile work environment (Human Synergistic 2006). module turnover is near 20-year highs for many companies.Two research firms, Walker Information and Hudson Institute, recently joined forces to carriage a nationwide employee loyalty study. Their results confirmed that staff loyalty is in short supply. Only 24 part of employees consider themselves truly loyal, root forted to their organization and its goals, and planning to stay at least ii years. Thirty-three percent of employees were high risk, not committed and not planning to stay. Thirty-nine percent were classified ad as trapped. They plan to stay, but are not committed to their employer. Among those who felt they worked for an ethical organization, 55 percent were truly loyal.For those who did not feel they worked fo r an ethical organization, the loyalty figure was 9 percent (Lowenstein 2006). Creating a culture within the organization that nurtures loyalty, commitment, advocacy and productivity from the moment the new hire walks through the door and end-to-end the lifecycle of the employee go out go a long way to sustaining customer loyalty behavior. The good news is that employees, specially those in customer service, seek trust and trustworthiness and they desire to be active contributors to that effort (Lowenstein 2006).The benefits for business of adopting ethical human resource management practices and viewing employees as human capital to be actual and to provide a unique advantage in the marketplace can be utilized as part of a corporate social responsibility strategy. Effective corporate social responsibility requires that along with minimizing harm to the environment, a company needs to be aware of the social impacts of its operations and ensure that they are not harming human sta keholders (Tracey Lloyd 2009).The importance of health insurance as an employee benefit is also illustrated by the fact that more than one quarter of Americans report that they or an immediate family member have encountered job lock, passed up a job opportunity, stayed at a job they would otherwise have quit, or had not retired only when because they needed to keep the health insurance coverage they were receiving. According to some other survey, employees are moderately contented with their benefits, with 39% of full-time workers reporting this, which is a rise from 32% in 2003 (Reddick 2009).Employers who hope to retain solid, hard-working employees should be prepared to offer basic employee benefits. In addition to salary, good benefits provide important resources that not only jock build a positive working relationship between employer and employee but also elevate good work habits and financial practices (Thompson 2010).Wal-Mart problem is their leadership style. It refle cts many of the characteristics of an Aggressive/Defensive Culture. Its issues stem from them putt their interest before the needs of their members. It does not value its employees as of Human Capital.Employees are just another resource used to achieve the organizational objectives. Wal-Mart leaders invest a lot into making decisions and strategies that will get the best prices for their customers and keep their competitive advantages. Nevertheless, they are not investing enough time and effort in preparedness managers on how to treat their human capital. As a result, managers are presented with problems that they have no been trained for and they avoid the issue or make bad decisions. I find it hard to believe an organization as large and successful as Wal-Mart can make these types of mistakes and they go unrecognized or resolved for so long.Several people had to have been complaining about the errors before having to go before a judge. Considering the validation of the errors dur ing the outpouring investigation, it is safe to say that if Wal-Mart had through its due diligence prior to trial they would have resolved this pay issue. There is no reason a company of Wal-Marts coat and resources could not have identified and addressed the discrepancy prior to it escalating to a court issue. Which raises the question of, was this done intentionally or their employees c formerlyrns or grievances are not a priority to them. This type of mmoral behavior ultimately leads to employees distrusting the company, resulting in a low morale, lack of motivation, and high turnover.Every company has a distinct set of characteristics that drives the decisions, practices, policies, procedures, and organizational goals, which in turn affects the organizations atmosphere. The biggest influences are going to come from the visions and standards that the Senior Leaders of the company. Wal-Marts employees do not feel any emotional connection or sense of value from their organization , which leads to a lack of job satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment.Of course, this is going to show up in how employees treat customers. All Wal-Mart has to offer is low prices, at that place is very little customer service. For example, I pulled up to customerservicescoreboard. com and some one posted this comment. Wal-Mart has the worst customer service, worse yet, they ignore any inquiry and advertise that they value it I really have to commit to not shopping there any more lines are long, cashiers are slow and dont even help put bags in carts.Their greeters wont get carts and roll their eyes, the bathrooms are a mess, the shelves are empty, I hope they get what they deserve ower customer count and lower profits today I tried once more and wasnt disappointed, no carts, very long lines and best yet customer service said there was no manager on duty and there were not customer complaint forms go figure. mad at Wal-Mart 4/1/10 221PM . In order to change this Wal-Mart has to cons ider ways to attract and retain productive employees (Customer 2009). Another issue is the lack on emphasis on groupwork. Employees concerns and suggestions have no validity. They are not included in any part of the goal setting or decision making shape on the individual store retail level.The my way or no way management attitude does not work. There has to be some compromise. SOLUTIONS Wal-Mart has to change their leadership style. The CEO and other major Leaderships need to take a more active role in establishing satisfactory managerial behavioral procedures and rules to direct the organization. Instead of reacting to all of the bad press concerning their employee relations they need to take a more active approach to dealing with all of the stigmas attached to the company.For example, they can start by sending out a corporate communication-notifying managers and employees that the company is about to undergo so major changes to and are about to invest in an organization overhaul that will put just as much value in taking care of the associates that make their sales possible and they put into their valued customers. Wal-Mart can continue to ride the cloud of success with no regards to the long-term ramifications of lack of change, but these are the cost of avoidance. Change will be forced upon them one of two ways.The lawsuits will continue to come and the courts will make to settlements high enough that Wal-Mart will feel the financial sting of their unethical behavior. Secondly, they will start to see a significant decrease in their sales because of the poor customer services rendered by their distrusting, low morale, and unmotivated associates. Considering how large Wal-Marts organization is this change would be a major contrive they could consider doing it in-house, but I suggest they hire an outside consulting firm that to oversee the project in order to get some fresh ideas and strategies.Of course, they would be collaborating with Wal-Marts project team in order to what the deliverables are to complete the project. Wal-Mart Leaders need to ensure total participation by giving the project team the financial and staff resources needed to complete the project. The first step would be to perform a training needs analysis and determine where the practice and policy breakdowns are occurring. Then address the issue, by establishing a new uniform policy, updating the employee handbook, training managers and employees on the new policies, and finally enforcing it.This project will take about a year to prepared, reviewed, and implemented. Prioritization will be according to the most critical needs, such as proper employee pay protocol, anti- discrimination policy training, and team building programs. For example, have a workplace potpourri class set up to teach managers how to cultivate diversity and to prevent discrimination. Require that managers have a complete training class annually. Address and investigate all allegations of disc rimination immediately. Written documentation is required for discrimination allegation, investigation, and resolution steps that taken.The only way to ensure that employees feel a since of organizational justice is to uphold the companies policies on the matter. Consequently, immediate punishment is required if an employee found guilty of the allegation. Send out corporate communication, notifying employees of the companies commitment to improve employee relations. Send the communication via email and display it in high traffic areas. pack managements desire to include employees in some of the decisions that directly affect them by establishing an Employee Involvement Team to be apart of the project.That will help Management and employees address employee concerns and grievances, such as a fair and competitive wages and health insurance package. Allowing employees to be apart of the decision making process will help management get feedback on the best ways to go about achieving up coming goals, while building team commitment, loyalty, and moral. There will be annual policies will be reviews and revision if necessary. Managers and employees will complete skill assessment tests annually.There will be skill-training classes set up to teach managers how to incite effective communication and leadership abilities. Issue training results to department heads and certificates of completion to participants. Finally, collect feedback from the managers and employees to evaluate, results and feelings on the process improvements. Leave a comment section to get their feelings on the companies efforts to improve employee relations. Identify remaining problems and work with the In-house Project Team and the Employee Involvement Team to improve them.