Walmart Productivity Issues and Social Media Solutions
This case study examines two key productivity and competitiveness challenges facing Walmart Inc.: ongoing worker rights violations and the company's difficulties adapting to customer expectations in foreign markets. Drawing on Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory and Adler's model of cultural diversity, the paper proposes specific social media and networking tools — including employee blogs, wikis, intranets, and multilingual regional social media pages — as practical solutions. The paper uses examples from IBM and Dell to illustrate how other corporations have successfully leveraged these tools, and concludes that targeted social media strategies can meaningfully improve employee engagement, public reputation, and international market competitiveness for Walmart.
- Communication and Productivity Issues at Walmart: Overview of two core productivity challenges at Walmart
- Workers' Rights Violations and Labor Relations: Labor lawsuits, pay violations, gender inequality, and union suppression
- Customer Needs in Foreign Markets: Walmart's failed foreign market entries due to cultural misalignment
- Using Social Media to Address Employee Relations: Blogs, wikis, and intranets proposed as employee engagement tools
- Using Social Media to Address Customer Needs in Diverse Markets: Multilingual regional social media strategy to understand foreign customers
- Conclusion: Social media strategies projected to boost Walmart competitiveness
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds its social media recommendations in established theoretical frameworks — Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory and Adler's cultural diversity model — giving practical proposals academic credibility.
- Supports each recommendation with real-world corporate examples (IBM, Dell, Intrawest Placemaking), making the argument more persuasive and grounded.
- Honestly acknowledges the limitations and risks of each proposed solution (e.g., employees wasting work time on forums, difficulty creating universal social media guidelines), which strengthens its analytical balance.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates applied theoretical analysis: it identifies real organizational problems, maps them to recognized management theories, and then derives concrete recommendations from those theories. Rather than simply describing issues, the writer uses theory as a lens to evaluate the problems and justify specific tools as solutions. This approach — problem identification, theoretical framing, evidence-backed recommendation — is a core skill in business and management case study writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into two clearly delineated sections. The first section uses secondary literature to document Walmart's productivity problems around labor relations and foreign market failures. The second section pivots to solutions, subdivided by problem type. Each subsection introduces a theoretical model, applies it to the Walmart context, proposes specific social media tools, offers a real corporate example, and closes with a candid discussion of potential drawbacks. The references follow APA format and include textbooks, a journal article, and a trade book.
Communication and Productivity Issues at Walmart
A review of literature reveals two issues that negatively affect the productivity and competitiveness of Walmart Inc. These relate to workers' rights and customer needs when venturing into foreign markets.
Workers' Rights Violations and Labor Relations
Recent years have seen Walmart come under serious criticism from labor unions and civil rights organizations for a large number of violations regarding work hours and wages for its associates. Beyond issues of low pay, the company also faces a growing number of lawsuits alleging that managers tampered with employees' wage and time records, forcing them to skip lunch and short breaks and to work off the clock (Brunn, 2006). At one point, the organization was required to award back pay to 83 employees who had been forced to work off the clock in Oregon. Such lawsuits and back-pay actions affect the company's profitability and reduce its ability to compete.
Walmart additionally faces serious concerns related to unfair labor practices and reward and compensation schemes. Despite making up approximately 67% of the total population of Walmart associates, women comprise less than 10% of the company's top management (Ferrell, 2009). It is unsurprising, therefore, that an internal study by a Walmart executive found that most associates — particularly women — are dissatisfied with the company's appraisal and reward system (Ferrell et al., 2009).
The issue of unions is also a key concern at Walmart. Ferrell and colleagues note that the company has spent considerable resources and time ensuring that its employees do not unionize (Ferrell et al., 2009). There have been reports of managers sabotaging unionization attempts and even intimidating pro-union associates (Ferrell et al., 2009). Incidents such as these harm the company's reputation and impede its ability to compete effectively in the retail market.
Customer Needs in Foreign Markets
Walmart has been forced to pull out of several key foreign markets as a result of failing to adjust its business model to fit the needs and expectations of customers in those markets. The most notable withdrawals are from South Korea, Germany, and China. Studies have shown that the company's exit from the South Korean market was driven by its failure to understand local customers' shopping preferences and adjust its business model accordingly (Gandolfi & Stratch, 2009). For instance, South Koreans expected to see local products presented in a localized fashion in Walmart stores (Gandolfi & Stratch, 2009). They expected eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing displays, yet Walmart provided the Western-style box-store format it uses in the United States and Europe (Gandolfi & Stratch, 2009). Moreover, South Koreans are known to prefer fresh foods, and Walmart's strategy of focusing on dry goods, clothing, and electronics did not appeal to the local market (Gandolfi & Stratch, 2009).
This failure to understand local markets' expectations and preferences stems from the company's inability to communicate effectively with locals in foreign markets before entering them. Walmart operates a number of social media platforms that it uses to interact with customers in foreign markets and better understand their needs and preferences. However, there are numerous opportunities that could be exploited to make this interaction more effective and productive, as explored in the following section.
Conclusion
The recommended strategies are deemed to go a long way towards increasing the company's competitiveness and overall productivity.
References
Adler, N. & Gundersen, A. (2008). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (5th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Inc.
Brunn, S. D. (2006). Walmart World: The World's Biggest Corporation in the Global Economy. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, J. (2009). Business Ethics 2009 Update: Ethical Decision-Making and Cases (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Gandolfi, F. & Stratch, P. (2009). Retail internalization: Gaining insights from the Walmart experience in South Korea. Review of International Comparative Management, 10(1), 187–199.
Haneberg, L. (2012). The ASTD Management Development Handbook: Innovation for Today's Manager. Alexandria, WV: The American Society for Training and Development.
Keyes, J. (2013). Enterprise 2.0: Social Networking Tools to Transform Your Organization. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Schermerhorn, J. R. (2010). Management (11th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
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