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Contemporary Issues in Management: Walmart

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In a period of economic and global political volatility, it is essential to critically
analyse the contemporary issues that multinational organisations must face and the
extent to which they do so effectively. This report will focus on the American,
multinational, retail corporation ‘Walmart’. Walmart was a suitable company to focus
on within this report as they are somewhat representative of many large
transnational firms which have to face many issues in order to maintain a competitive
advantage within today's interconnected and globalised economy. One of the driving
motivations behind conducting an exhaustive critical reflective analysis of Walmart
and the method in which they respond to key contemporary issues is that Walmart is
an enormous corporation fixated with profit maximisation and world supremacy and
is arguably one of the earth's most prevailing company (Useem, Schlosser & Kim,
2003). This report will focus on issues regarding cultural differences and the effect
this has had on Walmart when operating in other countries and assuming mergers
and acquisitions, this issue seemed of great relevance due to the vast sources of
academic literature regarding the success and failures of Walmart when operating in
other countries in order for this report to compare and contrast these findings to
provide the reader with in-depth, quality business research and sound analytical
conclusions. Walmart has recently been under scrutiny for the pay gap between
executives and full-time hourly associates and this report will focus on this issue and
make recommendations on how Walmart should cope with this global issue. Walmart
operates within the UK under the organisation ASDA, this report will focus on the
economic impact of Brexit, its disruption on the UK economy and how Walmart will
cope with the economic fluctuations in order to remain competitive in the UK market
(Jones, Hillier & Comfort, 2014).
The first global issue that will be critically analysed are the challenges Walmart must
face during mergers and acquisitions (M&A), more specifically concentrating on the
cultural challenges that occur through post-acquisition integration within M&A. M&A
is an effective strategy for countless organisations to continue their growth trajectory,
create incremental value and compete in an internationalised market. And this is
supported by studies such as the graph in Figure 1 showing the number of M&A type
deals from the end of the 19th century to recent times; concluding that there is a
positive correlation and as the years go by more and more M&A deals have taken
place. However, while organisations have promising projections for the success of
M&A deals it must be recognised that mergers and acquisitions recurrently fail, and
this is partially due to the cultural challenges that occur through post-acquisition
integration and a neglection of human resource issues such as cultural sensitivity
and appreciation (Cartwright & Schoenberg, 2006). Recent literature in the field of
M&A shows that organisations overanalyse financial considerations and frequently
show disregard for human resource issues; thus fail to address cultural challenges,
this has proven to be a key issue in today’s increasingly interconnected and
globalised business environment (Ahern, Daminelli & Fracassi, 2015). However
other literature mentions that although sociocultural factors are critical factors
influencing mergers and acquisitions through knowledge transfer, the role of cultural
differences within M&A performance requires further clarification through research to
be held responsible for the failure of M&A in today's communicated commercial
domain (Sarala et al., 2016).

How is Walmart responding to this issue?

In the past, Walmart has proven to be a prime example of how multinational

companies neglect human resource concerns and are inconsiderate of human
resource and cultural issues within business mergers and acquisitions. This is
supported by a case study journal article which critically analysed the emergence of
Walmart within an Argentinian market, the study acknowledged that Walmart was
firstly insensitive to the cultural ideals of Latin America, Germany and South-Korea
and imposed the same strategy they found to be successful within the US (Landler &
Barbaro, 2006). This proved to be dramatically unsuccessful and lead to employee
demotivation; thus ultimately made Walmart incapable of competing with local
established rival retailers. Mergers and acquisitions and international joint ventures
are uncertain however provide an opportunity for future expansions, foreign market
penetration, strong prospects of international competitiveness, knowledge
expansion, increase economies of scale and share financial risks (Reardon &
Berdegué, 2002). When Walmart first brought about its stores in the Buenos Aires
region in Argentina it was faced with cultural challenges that made it difficult for
Walmart to be successful; Walmart employed its blueprint of low-pricing policies and
shopping procedures that proved to be successful in the US in Argentina. The
decision Walmart made to replicate rather than modify was detrimental to the
success of Walmart’s M&A deal as Argentinian consumers found Walmart’s
approach to entering into Argentina as arrogant and inconsiderate of Argentinian
cultural norms. Walmart responded to this issue by adapting its products to local
tastes, employing ‘freshness strategies’, adapting the store design, adaptation of
shopping culture, adaptation of practices within the workplace such as adjusting the
working culture so it’s more suited to Argentinian norms (Reardon & Berdegué,
2002). Walmart responded to this issue by becoming more attentive to human
resource issues when implementing M&A deals; using effective methods from North
American stores and combining them with trial and error methodologies Walmart
found to be effective within Latin America to create a fusion of cultures in order to be
a successful setup in foreign countries (Matusitz, 2016).

How are commentators (media and other stakeholders) interpreting and evaluating
Walmart’s response to this issue?

Walmart continues to employ its aggressive strategy of foreign acquisitions. And the
degree to which this aggressive strategy is successful is a controversial topic in the
light of the media and the opinions of Walmart’s stakeholders. In some cases, the
media believe that Walmart lacks the capabilities to achieve their goal of being the
all-around shopping destination in whichever foreign country they are operating in.
Landler and Barbaro (2006) from the New York times use Walmart’s unsuccessful
M&A venture in Germany as an example of how their formula is incapable of
effectively harmonising every culture even with necessary adaptations. Although
stakeholder’s mentioned that Walmart was able to effectively make necessary
adaptations to its organisation's work processes and HR issues in order to fit with
Latin American culture and be successful (Matusitz, 2016). Walmart also received a
lot of scrutiny from activist groups and the media in Mexico when Walmart was
accused of paying bribes in order to open a store less than two miles away from a
historical archaeological site and the “Pyramid of the moon” dated back to 200 AD.
Walmart replaced a small clay altar and other artefacts with its parking lot; proving
them to be inconsiderate of ancient Mesoamerican culture when conducting M&A’s
within Latin America (Barstow, 2012). Recent literature states that any stakeholders
come to the conclusion that in order for Walmart to combat this issue effectively it
must implement international strategic human resource management within the
workplace more effectively (Goggin, 2018).
The Brexit referendum is a popular and controversial topic of discussion among
economists and the severity of the impact of Britain leaving the European Union is
debatable. Some pro-Brexit economists believe that the impact of the Brexit
referendum is not as detrimental to the UK economy as first demonstrated by the fall
in the strength of currency and rise in inflation (Van Reenen, 2016). Although Menon
and Fowler (2016) believe that the effect of the Brexit deal is largely dependent on
whether the UK follows a hard or soft Brexit the degree of uncertainty within the UK
economy is a deterrent for large firms such as Walmart when operating within the UK
(Dhingra et al., 2016). Walmart operates within the UK under the name ASDA which
started its own brand before it was acquired by Walmart in 1999. ASDA is now the
third largest supermarket chain within Britain; thus the economic impacts of Brexit
are likely to disrupt revenue and Walmart’s international competitiveness whilst
operating within such a dynamic and unpredictable UK economy. The unstable and
capricious nature of the climate of the UK economy is likely to increase inflation
making it hard for ASDA to provide UK consumers with its low pricing strategy. The
Brexit deal is likely to translate to ASDA being forced to increase their prices, reduce
its range of products and provide poorer quality of goods to its consumers (Merrick,
2018). This could lead to immense changes within the supermarket industry inside
the UK, however, it is argued that large retail chains such as ASDA are more at risk
of losing market share due to entrants within the market that offer lower prices such
as ALDI and LIDL (Clarke, 2000). The Brexit referendums impact of the UK economy
is likely to impact the confidence of Walmart whilst operating in an unstable UK
market especially when Walmart’s goals is to become the largest retailer in the world
and has to compete with the likes of Amazon and Costco. Furthermore, Walmart
could experience detrimental effects due to the currency market as a stronger USD$
will almost definitely lead to a reduction in the value of Walmart’s international
revenues.

How is Walmart responding to this issue?

A number of sources conclude that Walmart has undoubtedly been attentive to the
unpredictable and volatile climate of the UK economy after it was voted to leave the
European Union. However, the impact of Brexit is still uncertain at this moment in
time and the UK doesn’t formally leave the EU till March 2019 and even if the UK
follows a hard Brexit this will not be fully implemented till the end of 2020 (Menon
and Fowler, 2016). Furthermore, Walmart is still precautious in the fact that Brexit
has raised a lot of economic uncertainty which will influence consumers to limit their
consumption due to job insecurity and inevitable price increases from supermarket
chains due to inflation and other shock factors. Walmart needs to be sure to keep
prices as low as possible in the midst of Brexit In order to remain competitive within a
volatile UK economy. However, if ASDA is to lower their prices they will start a price
war with the other large supermarket chains within the UK such as Tesco,
Sainsburys and Morrisons (Harvey, 2000). ASDA responded to the issues caused by
the Brexit referendum by imposing tougher payment terms on its clothing suppliers
for the brand “George”. Walmart’s ASDA was one of the first supermarket chains to
respond to the Brexit referendum and this is because Walmart use USD$ to buy its
fashion lines and the fall in the power of sterling due to Brexit shock means that the
money taken from tills at ASDA can comparatively purchase less USD$ (Steiner,
2017). There have been recent announcements made that say Walmart’s ASDA’s
method of staying competitive and combatting the volatile Brexit economy is to
merge with rival Sainsbury’s. By gaining market share and becoming market leader
ASDA will be at lesser risk to the economic impacts of Brexit. Sainsbury’s and
Walmart’s ASDA are the second and third largest supermarket chains in the UK and
if approved by regulators and they are able to merge they would be the market
leader; bettering Tesco (Amaro, 2018).

How are commentators (media and other stakeholders) interpreting and evaluating
Walmart’s response to this issue?

Walmart response to this issue by increasing prices, supporting mergers with

competitive rivals and imposing tougher payment terms on its clothing suppliers have
raised many concerns in the light of Walmart’s stakeholders. Walmart’s clothing
suppliers were perceptibly not contented in the fact that ASDA were imposing longer
repayment periods by 50% from 60 days to 90 days this has led to the controversy
by the owners of small businesses as they feel that they are being bullied and driven
out of the market. This also a sign for ASDA’s competitors that shows they perhaps
lack the financial backing to make fast repayments. Consumers are likely to be
frustrated with the rise in food prices across supermarkets in the UK especially at a
time where there is less job security and consumer confidence (Van Reenen, 2016).
However, if regulators approve the merger of Walmart’s ASDA and Sainsbury's this
will most likely lead to a decrease in costs from the firm due to economies of scale
and therefore a reduction in price as a method to drive other competitors such as
Tesco out of the market, benefiting the consumer in the short-term.
The excessive level of pay within large organisation is a relevant contemporary
global issue that concerns the likes of politicians, campaigners and shareholders
over the past few years and it is apparent from the rise in executive pay gaps over
these few years that little has been done to resolve this issue (Rushe, 2018) as
displayed in figure 4. The argument that has been made by many analysts is that
CEO pay is not representative of the company’s performance and figures show that
CEO’s get paid regardless of the financial and competitive performance of the firm
shown by the lack of correlation in figure 5 (Li & Young, 2016). Another concern that
is evident within the Walmart empire is the pay gap between executive officers within
the organisation and typical worker compensation (Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014).
Lichtenstein (2005) expresses his belief that the executive pay gap has always been
imbalanced however it is getting out of hand over recent years; Wilson, who arguably
the most well-paid executive in the 1950s, received around 135 times more than an
production line worker, while H. Lee Scott, the Wal-Mart CEO earned at least 1,500
times that of one of his full-time hourly employees recorded in recent years. Although
many academics and journalist express the issue with executive pay within
organisations, Lin, Yeh and Shih’s (2013) tournament theory expresses the belief
that large pay gaps in modern multinational organisations provide necessary
motivational incentives to strong credentialed managers in order to satisfy
organisational goals by improving overall firm performance.

How is Walmart responding to this issue?

Most recent findings from the fiscal year of 2018 show that the pay gaps between
shop floor workers and executives within Walmart are worsening. Walmart’s CEO
salary is recorded at an astounding $22.8 million which works out to 1,188.1 times as
much as a median employee within Walmart this is a 2% rise from last year and
evidence that Walmart isn’t taking noticeable action to tackle this issue (Heller,
2018). Walmart has shown attention to this issue and made statements to
aggravated shareholders saying they would cut cash bonuses of executives by up to
25 per cent, however, this did not occur (Ritcey, Zhao & Boyle, 2018). This can be
shown from a section on the Walmart (2018) equity report for its shareholders as
shown in figure 7. However, it can be argued that this behaviour is to be expected of
Walmart as they are the biggest employer within the US and focus on keeping its
costs to a very minimum therefore focus on providing their skilled workers with pay
that they deserve and keeping its typical store workers wage to a minimum.
How are commentators (media and other stakeholders) interpreting and evaluating
Walmart’s response to this issue?

A common theme surrounding literature and findings from articles supported by

statements from large shareholders within Walmart is that stakeholders are angry
with the level of executive pay within large organisations; shareholders have even
promised to take harsher action against unwarranted executive salaries (Dines,
2017). Foster (2017) from Sky News expressed that not only executives within large
organisations are paid too much but that the link between high pay and performance
is negligible mentioning executive pay has raised by 80 per cent over the last ten
years and return on investment has merely increased by 1 per cent. However
another spokesman on the media argued that the pay-out for executives is justified
using the example that multinational company Burberry lost half a billion when their
remarkable CEO stepped down (Foster & Bowman, 2017). Therefore, it can be said
that the media and stakeholders interpretation to the large gap in pay-out between
CEO’s and works is debatable as workers are said to perform better when the
organisation is performing well and this is largely related to the pay and performance
of skilled executives (Lin, Yeh & Shih, 2013). Some stakeholders believe that there is
a positive link between underpaid workers and welfare benefits, meaning that the
everyday taxpayer is contributing to mistakes made by companies such as Walmart
by underpaying workers. However, it can be argued that it is more important that
skilled managers are paid for the strategic decisions they are capable of making in
order to keep companies such as Walmart internationally competitive in a globalised
economy. Activists such as Bernie Sanders recently started a “Stop Walmart” act; a
campaign forcing Walmart to raise its minimum wage for its workers to $15 per hour.
This is a different response to other stakeholders to Walmart’s response to the
executive pay gap issue by increasing the wage of workers rather than attempting to
reduce the pay of executive officers (Gabatt, 2018).
Walmart is a large multinational company operating at a time of global political and
economic volatility; in the midst of operating in a globalised world there are many
issues that Walmart face that could have destructive effects on the long-term
success of the organisation.
Firstly, the reader must acknowledge that this critical analysis of contemporary global
issues that Walmart face is limited to three selected issues and there are other
prominent concerns in today’s business environment that could potentially be more
detrimental to the international competitiveness of Walmart that were not considered.

Key recommendations for your selected company

In order for Walmart to effectively respond to issues regarding cultural challenges

throughout post-acquisition integration in M&A; they must prioritise recruiting
talented individuals within their human resource management department; Aguilera
and Dencker (2004) find it most effective to employ a strategic approach within M&A
processes in order to avoid cultural challenges. This method to HR management has
proven to be successful in Froese, Pak and Chong’s (2008) study where three
western companies successfully adapted their organisational to gain acceptance and
were successful operating in Korean market, this can be imitated by Walmart in
order to achieve international competitiveness and its organisational objectives.
When Walmart is tackling the Brexit issue within the UK it is essential to keep prices
down at a time of economic uncertainty in order to maximise sales and profits
(Bostoen, 2017). However this may prove to be more difficult than you think with a
rise in inflation combined with an increase in the price of farmers foods across the
UK; therefore it may be the most sensible option for Walmart to sell the majority of its
ASDA shares to Sainsbury's in order to limit its risk as a strategic method to
concentrate on competing with global rivals Amazon (Lunden, 2018).
As for the issue of executive pay within Walmart, this is an issue that needs to be
attended to immediately in order to satisfy Walmart’s shareholders. However in order
for Walmart to maximise their success, it needs to focus on employing talented
CEO’s that can make the key strategic issues that will give it a competitive
advantage; for example when Samsung made the strategic decision to invest in
smartphones and gained an enormous success over rivals Sony (Grobart, 2013).
Lessons can be learned from these other multinational companies and Walmart must
continue to acknowledge the importance of hiring talented CEO’s within an
organisation and rewarding them accordingly. However, it is important to increase
the wage from the bottom up and increase the minimum wage of Walmart’s workers
in order to improve motivation and drive employee performance in line with
Walmart’s organisational goals and objectives for long-term success and prosperity.
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 Appendices

Figure 1– Waves of M&A (Bruner, 2005).

Figure 2- Cultural differences in M&A theoretical framework (Sarala et al., 2016)

Figure 3 - Five Dimensions of Hofstede Model of National Culture Difference (Hamza & Nizam, 2016)

Figure 4 - Rise in CEO to worker compensation ratio (Rushe, 2018)

Figure 5 - Correlation between executive pay and firm performance (Li & Young, 2016)

Figure 6 - Walmart executives compensation (Salary.com, 201

 Figure 7 - Walmart promising to make executive compensation changes (Walmart, 2018)

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