Examining Walmart for Lessons in Managing Diversity

Wal-Mart remains one of the most important economic actors in the U.S., both because of its contribution to the economy and because of its role as an active job creator. Wal-Mart is a huge recruiter, employing a large number of individuals and offering a range of opportunities for them, including health insurance and the possibility of rising to managerial positions. Wal-Mart is also a diverse organization, employing different race or sex minorities, including African-American, Hispanics and women.

The case study about Wal-Mart clearly reflects the approach that Wal-Mart has taken in this sense. The case study mentions that Wal-Mart is the world's largest employee and this alone implies diversity: it shows that Wal-Mart has an international presence and, in that quality, it is willing to embrace cultural differences and blend its organizational culture according to these differences. In terms of statistics, the case study shows that Wal-Mart has 41,000 Asian associates, 171,000 Hispanic associates and 257,000 African-American associates. At the same time, the company, as the case study emphasizes, employs 869,000 women associates.

Despite this approach that appears to target the employee and his or her being in the company, Wal-Mart has also been the target of several actions in court. Some of its practices have been contested in this manner by external entities, particularly the fact that the company prohibits unionization. Strangely enough, the most high profile case is, in fact, a case regarding diversity, namely the alleged discrimination against women in the organization.

The case study presents the case of Duke vs. Wal-Mart, a case where a former Wal-Mart associate, Betty Duke, sued the company, complaining that she had been unfairly reprimanded. The fact that more women joined the lawsuit turned this into a serious discrimination suit for the company, one where several women associates joined in to transform this into a gender discrimination suit for the company.

In this context, this paper aims to look at some of the diversity practice at Wal-Mart and evaluate them in terms of their effects, both medium and long-term. At the same time, the paper will look at other instruments and mechanisms employed to manage diversity in other organizations and will evaluate these comparatively.

Analysis

Wal-Mart has been consistently promoting a diversity agenda and the first argument in this sense is the fact that the company has a managerial position called Chief Diversity Officer that handles exactly diversity issues at Wal-Mart. This is not a symbolic position: Sharon Orlopp heads a team of 14 people and the process includes mechanisms of feedback and control, including reporting once a quarter to the compensation, nominating and governance committee of the board

According to Orlopp, one of the most important instruments to promote diversity at Wal-Mart is to include diversity into each business unit's strategic plan. The idea here is simple: having diversity as a general, overarching, organizational objective makes it less operational and more in the area of wishful ideas. Taking the concept from that sphere and moving it into the business unit makes it more concrete. By including it in the strategic plan of a business unit, it becomes an assumed strategic objective, something that each unit will need to take into consideration. This approach also gives the process of handling and promoting diversity more flexibility and unit-based decision making processes.

There are several other proactive instruments that Wal-Mart uses to promote diversity and a category of these relies on the idea of bringing people in contact with diversity. The range of approaches here is vast. It includes mentoring two associates and participating to diversity-related events. However, it also goes to include visits to the Martin Luther King Memorial House, for example. This is part of a wider learning process for employees.

Certainly, there is also specific monitoring and feedback of diversity related elements such as inappropriate language or behavior towards minorities at the workplace. The aim here is to ensure that employees are aware that this is part of their annual evaluation and that it is also a significant part of their overall performance.

There is also significant effort when it comes to talent development. The company boasts important successes in the number of women, for example, that attended management-trainee programs, as well as underrepresented groups in general. Its direct action policies have also increased the number of female store managers (39% at present), as well as store managers from other minority categories. This is partly a result of the company's policy to promote from within, to development its own human resource etc.

A final note in this analysis on the existence of several diversity-related structures in the company, such as the global women's leadership council comprised of senior leaders from the 15 countries in which it operates. Such structures obviously encourage and sustain diversity throughout the organization by assigning women and other minorities more visible, preeminent roles.

One important element about diversity management that Wal-Mart seems to implement is essential top executive support.

The importance of this support comes from the need for diversity programs to have overall acceptance in the organization as a strategic objective for the corporation. Wal-Mart appeared to have understood the necessity for this type of implication: it has CEO commitment, but, as seen previously, also a dedicated managerial position for this.

This managerial support for diversity also helps another key requirement for the successful implementation of diversity practice: the organizational culture

. To a certain degree, the management team, by setting principles and approaches, helps drive the organizational culture. Integrating diversity into the organizational culture is something that the company needs to commit to before implementing concrete programs.

One important aspect (and perhaps a problem that Wal-Mart has) that should be emphasized is that some authors see diversity management as a way to adapt management policies depending on each employees' characteristics and particularities. In a complex organizational and business environment, this seems correct. With this in mind, it may be that Wal-Mart has always aimed towards creating a strict, rigorous structure on all issues, including diversity. Some of the legal problems it has could have come out of this attempt to impose a "one fits all" approach for everybody involved, something that did not function well.