Walgreens International Culture: Diversity and Inclusion

Overview of Walgreens' Global Operations

Walgreens is an American-based pharmacy chain that now operates in more than 25 countries, providing medications, prescriptions, and other health-related products. Its operations span both retail and wholesale markets worldwide (Bells, 2017). The company took on its current international form after the merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in 2014, which opened pathways to global market entry. The retail business now operates in 11 countries, while the wholesale distribution network extends across 19 countries. Within the United States, there are over 8,100 stores, with more than 4,500 located outside the country. Walgreens maintains a particularly large domestic presence in California, Florida, and Texas, with 633, 831, and 713 stores, respectively.

The United States remains the most lucrative market for Walgreens, accounting for more than 70 percent of its total sales. International retail sales reached $13.3 billion in 2016, while wholesale sales totaled $20.2 billion during the same year. Given the company's ability to generate substantial profits outside the United States, it relies on a workforce drawn from around the world — an extremely diverse employee base representing a wide range of cultures and backgrounds. The international culture that exists beyond the company's home market carries its own distinctive characteristics.

Diversity and Inclusion as Organizational Values

Walgreens has worked to establish a strong value system shared across communities in the foreign countries where it operates, in order to maintain its global market image. Employees are expected to collaborate with one another by respecting cross-cultural differences so that optimized work performance is achieved. Fairness and equality have been foundational criteria for the multinational company since its earliest days (Walgreens, 2013). Commitment and passion are defining qualities of its international culture, qualities that are passed on to customers, patients, and communities across countries in a consistent global manner.

A diverse and inclusive work environment is essential to the company's operations, since engaging employees from varied cultures to serve across numerous countries would be impossible without it. Walgreens maintains a workplace that fosters encouragement and dedication among culturally diverse workers so that they can perform at their best. Research has established that employee engagement and inclusiveness are closely linked: highly engaged workers produce better outcomes through their distinct and diverse ideas, provided those ideas align with company values (Itam & Bagali, 2018). When employees feel a genuine connection with the company and its goals, they are better positioned to contribute innovation that enhances the customer experience.

Operational performance is central to the success of this international business. Walgreens aims to be recognized as a "Next Practices" corporation for diversity and inclusion — a designation that signals the firm provides an internationally aware culture within its workplace where employees feel culturally safe. Workplace practices are designed to promote employees' self-development, and their freedom of perspective is not challenged. Superior business performance can only be delivered when employees are satisfied and both current and future customers are served well across borders.

Walgreens has advanced its diversity and inclusion vision through several strategies, including fulfilling all obligations associated with its federal contractor status and earning recognition as a partner, supplier, employer, and retailer of choice by various organizations and publications. Its strategic plan also involved building agreement around new business functions in which diversity was integrated into function-specific responsibilities. The company's international culture extended to employees with disabilities, and leadership developed initiatives for disability inclusion programs within distribution centers. More than $1 million was donated to 120 pharmacy schools across the country to promote greater diversity and cross-cultural expertise, with a particular focus on institutions serving Black and Hispanic students. A new e-learning program was introduced to welcome diversity at every level of the organizational hierarchy. Employee-driven strategies included the use of business resource groups to advance talent acquisition and development, brand building, and community awareness.

Diversity and inclusion are two major drivers of business performance for transnational companies that employ workers from different cultures (Jayakrishnan, 2019). Surface-level diversity refers to observable demographic characteristics such as age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability. Deep-level diversity refers to individuals' perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes, which can potentially create internal conflicts. Walgreens has worked to address both types of diversity by encouraging daily communication and interaction among employees. This proactive approach enables the firm to remain engaged with both its employees and its international customers, so that cultural differences do not become significant barriers to success.

Equal access to opportunities and resources during recruitment draws attention to the importance of inclusivity. Walgreens pledges to treat all employees fairly by recruiting, empowering, and retaining diverse talent. Serving diverse markets presents challenges; however, the company has met those challenges by developing leadership structures that provide equal employment opportunities and talent outreach plans to support future growth, as well as by strengthening relationships with suppliers and communities across different countries.

References

Bells, S. (2017). Walgreens versus CVS: Comparing international presence. Market Realist. Retrieved from https://marketrealist.com/2017/10/walgreens-versus-cvs-comparing-international-presence/

Itam, U. & Bagali, M. M. (2018). Diversity and inclusion management: A focus on employee engagement. In N. Sharma, V. K. Singh & S. Pathak (Eds.), Management techniques for a diverse and cross-cultural workforce (pp. 149–171). DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4933-8.ch009

Jayakrishnan, S. S. (2019). Diversity and inclusion. Seshadripuram Journal of Social Sciences, 2019. Available at ResearchGate:

Okoro, E. A. & Washington, M. C. (2012). Workforce diversity and organizational communication: Analysis of human capital performance and productivity. Journal of Diversity Management, 7(1), 57–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v7i1.6936

Walgreens. (2013). Living our commitment: Diversity, inclusion, and engagement. Retrieved from https://www.walgreens.com/pdf/diversityreport2013.pdf