Walmart employee perspectives on social responsibility initiatives in Kansas City

Wal-Mart Social Responsibility Analysis: An Employee Perspective

To begin the study "the purpose statement is "a statement that provides the major objective or intent, or "road map" to the study" (Creswell, 2009a, 104).Therefore, the purpose of this narrative is to discuss what employees at various Wal-Mart facilities around the Kansas City area have experienced regarding the social responsibility initiatives undertaken by the company. The method for this particular paper is a qualitative design. Because the desired conclusions were to be drawn from the specific experiences of individuals employed at Wal-Mart stores and Distribution Centers around the area, it was determined that the best method of gathering that information was via interviews with employees rather than the gathering of quantitative data which would not reveal individual interpretations of the policies put in place. The specific questions asked to the participants ranged from their impressions of environmental policies to treatment of employees within the company. Since the employees have a unique perspective with regard to the accomplishments of the company in this regard, it seemed necessary to make them the focus of the study. Also, line employees were chosen for the research, as supervisory personnel may be more biased in the answers given. It is hoped that this research will contribute significantly to like studies which can be accomplished in other areas of the country and compared to see the actual overall temper of the company. The author of the study hopes to determine if the latest literature, which almost exclusively lists Wal-Mart as a very responsible company after years of being degraded by media and watch groups, has actually changed for the better or if this is an illusion concocted by the company itself.

Nature of the Study

The method of a study must meet different criteria based upon the type of study it is. This means that since qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods designs have specific components, they must be selected with care. As Maxwell (2005) says "a good design, one in which the components work harmoniously together, promoted efficient and successful functioning: a flawed design leads to poor operation or failure." This basically means that the way a study is to be conducted has the greatest bearing on what type of study it will be.

Realizing that, it must first be said that "Often the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is framed in the terms of using words (qualitative) rather than numbers (quantitative)" (Creswell, 2009b, 3). A quantitative study necessarily has the component of numbers analysis (statistical analysis) because of the word used to describe the type of study. Quantitative studies deal with large groups of data from which specific, relatively concrete conclusions can be reached (Maxwell, 2005, 18). Qualitative studies are more subjective in nature. Although research questions can be asked in such a way as to get at specific response types, people and not number are the focus. Creswell (2009b, 3) states, "The selection of a research design is also based on the nature of the research problem or issue being addressed." According to Merriam (2009, 1);

"Having an interest in knowing more about one's practice, and indeed improving one's practice, leads to asking researchable questions, some of which are best approached through a qualitative research design. In fact I believe that research focused on discovery, insight, and understanding from the perspective of those being studied offers the greatest promise of making a difference in people's lives."

More than for any other reason, this particular study is qualitative because the goal is to seek the actual responses of known employees. This method of research has a greater personal impact on the people reading the words than a quantitative method which can be very impersonal.

Research Question

This study examines how individual line employees at Wal-Mart stores and Distribution Facilities view the socially responsible actions the parent company has taken with regard to environmental sustainability and improving the work setting of its employees.

Conceptual Framework

An organization is necessarily a system with many different components that make it either successful, or failing, make it defunct. The people within the organization make up one large system, but there are also those outside (such as customers) who are affected, and, for a company as large as Wal-Mart, pretty much all of society is affected by the company in some way. The systems that Wal-Mart affects also include the financial systems of many communities, regions and nations. Environment yet another system that is affected by a large, multinational company such as Wal-Mart. For these reasons, the approach that was used to develop this study was from a general systems theory.

It must first be understood that the goal of systems theory is "to understand man and his environment as part of interacting systems" (Skyttner, 2005, 3). This basically reiterates exactly what was mentioned above in relation to the company which is the primary focus of this study. Wal-Mart has a great effect on human environment, especially as regards its employees in the two areas mentioned in the research question. Interestingly, when talking about corporate organizational systems, Skyttner (2005, 358) said a few words about the exact topic to be considered herein, namely that "human rights and ecological matters are seldom considered beyond the responsibility to improve the efficiency of organizations" (Skyttner, 2005, 358). The fact that corporations are faceless and emotionless, and that there only motivation is the bottom line of the company, has been postulated as infinitum. However, the goal of the research is to see if the overriding Wal-Mart system seems impersonal and strictly corporate, or otherwise in the eyes of its employees.

Significance of the Study

There are two areas contained in this section of the study: the reduction of gaps that have existed in the research, and the implications for social change. The gap in the research is that line employees are very rarely included in the research into anything which speaks to the supposed social responsibility of a company. Therefore, the gap which this study begins to fill is the one in which the importance of the opinions of the regular, line employees has been ignored. As for the second condition of significance, the entire reason for undertaking this effort is to exact some form of social change if it is needed. These types of employees constitute the majority of Wal-Mart's workforce. Thus, this study will give a small glimpse of the minds of the majority of Wal-Mart employees with regard to the company's social responsibility to themselves and the environment.

Literature Review

This review is intended to give a view of what has been written on Wal-Mart's past and present social responsibility. The review will be conducted in a chronological fashion to determine if there has been any noticeable change in the company over time, after a general discussion of industry social responsibility is conducted. This literature review is a culmination of research into databases (Questia, ProQuest) which offer peer-reviewed journal article on many subjects. After the literature was collected from these databases it was arranged in a chronological manner according to the date of publication for the individual articles.

Social responsibility for companies has been either a "cajoled" or "bullied" element in the protests of progressive activists for much of the last century and a half (Chatterji & Listokin, 2007). The fact that companies have responded to the efforts of protestors who believe that they have either the employees of the environments best interests in mind, has made corporations uncomfortable at times. However, this activism has also produced some very positive results in the form of worker rights and a cleaner environment (Chatterji & Listokin, 2007). Dyer & Whetten (2006) interestingly found that this activism was less virulent when it came to family-run corporations, so there had become what they called an 'amoral familism." By this the authors meant a trend toward nepotism as well as lesser regard for those employees who were outside the family tree. In part, the authors of the study explain, this is what led to some of the entitlement which large companies like Wal-Mart felt (Dyer & Whetten, 2006).

Wal-Mart has been known as a "bad" company for some time. In part this is because of the track record that they have amassed since the founder died. When Wal-Mart became the largest retailer, they also became a big target. However, it was not all just targeting; many of the accusations were true.

In the early part of the new century, Wal-Mart was continuously attacked for its irresponsibility and seeming profit-at-all-cost attitude. This meant that when the retailer entered an area, they did everything that they could to run any competition, no matter who they were, into the ground (Baker, 2003). This impression of the corporate giant was then extended to how it treated communities and workers in other parts of the world. In 2003/2004 a massive controversy involving sweat shops caught both Kathy Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart in its collective noose (Esbenshade, 2004). It was found that both parties knew of the conditions and low wages that worker were plagued with in Asian factories. This only fueled other accusations against the retail giant.

Other stories leaked out of the corporate offices regarding how Wal-Mart's practices regarding vendors for its products was forcing some companies to outsource to other countries (Dhiman, 2007). Although, at the time, Wal-Mart was already trying to rework its public image as more socially responsible, there were still problems that could easily be pointed to. As late as 2009, Wal-Mart was still seen as a corporate "bully" by many companies who did business with them (Sum, 2009).

However, Wal-Mart realized that its reputation was a significant factor in whether the comp any would continue to prosper or not. Kampf (2007), in an article comparing Wal-Mart to fellow industrial giant Maersk, said;

"Through the differences in self-presentation on the Wal-Mart and Maersk web sites with respect to the environment and the community, the cultural system-based need of Wal-Mart to place itself as being socially responsible in the local community, to its employees and in the environment stands out not necessarily as implying that Wal-Mart is more socially responsible than Maersk, but rather as demonstrating that Wal-Mart has a greater need than Maersk to prove that it is a good corporate citizen."

This difference was seen because while Maersk is a shipping company which deals with large, not individual clients, Wal-Mart's sales were based on the impressions of the individuals who frequented their stores. Thus, Wal-Mart finally saw the need to be responsible in the image that was presented.

One big reason researchers see for this turnaround is that Wal-Mart is worried about its bottom line (Entine, 2008; McPeak & Tooley, 2008). Entine (2008) talked specifically about the "green" initiatives that the retailer has enacted and the more ecologically responsible products that are being sold in Wal-Mart stores. McPeak & Tooley (2008) researched how Wal-Mart has begun using a think tank called RMI to streamline its business in a more environmentally friendly way.

Wal-Mart, and other "big box retailers" have also been seen as prime movers in the recovery effort of natural disasters, most notably Katrina (Horwitz, 2009). Besides helping the victims of the hurricane, Wal-Mart has also been instrumental in assisting poor neighborhoods through banking initiatives (Yoon & Chung, 2010). This is a change that may be the result of corporate survival rather than a change in corporate attitude, but it has resulted in significantly more positive press.

Transition and Summary

Wal-Mart employees have been with the company through all of the ups and downs that the company has gone through. The purpose of this investigation is to see what changes employees have seen, and whether they see them as positive or not. Since the company has been through myriad changes in image, it would seem that employees would have gone through the same changes personally. The fact that the media see that the company has started to become more socially responsible does not mean that those on the inside of the business see the same thing.

The value of such as study is that it will shed more light on whether the company has actually begun to change, as its advertisements say it has, or if that image is a facade. Employees who go rely on the company for their livelihood, a sense of purpose and part of their personal image will have a better understanding of how the company is actually progressing than the media or company management.