Diversity and Performance at Walmart, Research Proposal Example

Problem Statement

The current study is designed to examine the limitations of WalMart’s corporate strategies to embrace diversity at the workplace. While the company ensures that its employees come from diverse background, the main thesis that the author would like to examine is that in the company’s leadership, minority groups are still under-represented. Based on the assumption that cultural diversity helps companies connect with culturally diverse customers, understanding their values and beliefs, WalMart is losing out on creating a competitive advantage through recruiting leaders who understand the culture of the given country.

Company Analysis

WalMart was founded in 1962, when the first Arkansas store opened. Today, it is one of the largest supermarket chains in America, and the company has recently expanded its operations to global markets: Asia and Latin America. The company currently operates in 26 countries (WalMart, 2013), however, the representation of culturally competent employees in the leadership is low. As an example, none of the global executives are from minority background. Some of the regional store chains, however, have an internally recruited CEO, such as Horacio “Haio” Barbeito, the president and CEO of WalMart Argentina, and the president of Mexican and Indian store chains. The author  – through careful analysis of performance reports – would like to prove that the stores of WalMart are more successful in countries where local leadership is present. While the global expansion strategy of WalMart overall successful, it is clearly visible through reviewing the organizational structure of the company (WalMart, 2013) that in global leadership minority groups are under-represented. This indicates that the company has a limited ability to create meaningful and culturally relevant messages to diverse populations.

Significance of the Issue

Kreitz (2007) states that companies can take different approaches towards diversity: they can either tolerate, value, celebrate, manage, harness, or leverage it. From the review of WalMart’s organizational structure, it is evident that the company limits its diversity policies to tolerating and valuing culturally diverse workers, however, the management fails to harness and leverage the talent of these individuals within the organization. While the company currently has a Leadership Academy Program (Freifield, 2014), it is currently limited to the U.S. Freifield (2014) mentions that recruiting from within the organization has created transformational results, therefore, implementing the same program in international operations is likely to produce the same outcomes.

Literature Review

According to Tharp (2005), organizational culture impacts the overall effectiveness of the company. Examining WalMart’s culture, the author will attempt to determine where the company stands on the competing values framework (Tharp, 2005, p. 2), and which of the organizational culture types (control, compete, collaborate, create) is relevant to the international operations of the organization.

Shore et al. (2009) talks about the basic assumptions related to ethnic/race diversity at the workplace. The authors mention that some researchers found positive correlation between team outcomes and overall performance (Shore et al. 2009, p. 118). However, the author of the current study would like to focus on the underlying assumption that “an increase in racial/ethnic diversity means that a work group will experience possible positive outcomes such as: increased information, enhanced problem solving ability, constructive conflict and debate, increased creativity, higher quality decisions, and increased understanding of different ethnicities/cultures” (Shore et al. 2009, p. 118).

Stevens, Plaut & Sanchez-Burks (2008) differentiates between three approaches towards diversity: colorblind, multicultural, and all-inclusive. The author of the current study would like to review the above categories and determine the place of WalMart on the scale of approaches, examining how implementing (or improving) the all inclusive approach can increase the company’s competitive advantage.

Preliminary Solution Options

• Recruiting more culturally diverse leaders in the global executive team, therefore, increasing the insight of members in global strategies
• Increasing collaboration between CEO-s of global WalMart companies, in order to share knowledge about global and local issues and adjust corporate strategies accordingly
• Developing a leadership management program aimed at culturally diverse workers to increase the proportion of diverse executive and middle manager members
• Strengthening the core values of the organization while aligning them with individual systems of beliefs.

Preliminary Leadership and Organizational Behavior Concepts

• Due to global expansion and increased competition, WalMart needs to face changes and challenges regularly. This means that there is an increased need for collaboration within the leadership. Samovar, Porter & McDaniel (2011) talk about improving intercultural communication within the company.
• Schein (2004) states that leaders need to create an open communication system that embraces diversity and creativity, while aligning organizational values and culture with individual ones. Creating a strategic team that involves all regional and executive leaders to create more effective strategies, while involving regional teams in the decision making process (democratic leadership) is likely to improve the company’s performance and organizational commitment.
• Chemers (1997) talks about implementing transformational leadership while strengthening core values of the organization in order to successfully face the challenges of the globalized and multicultural world.

References

Chemers, M. M. (1997) An integrative theory of leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. London

Freifield, L. (2014) How the Walmart Leadership Academy become a center of excellence for the global retailer. Training Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.trainingmag.com/content/soapbox-developing-leaders-walmart

Samovar, L A, Porter, R E, McDaniel, E R (2011) Intercultural communication: A reader. Cengage Learning.

Shore, L., Chung-Herrera, B., Dean, M., Ehrhart, K., Jung, D., Randel, A., Singh, G. (2009) Diversity in organizations: Where are we now and where are we going? Human Resource Management Review 19 (2009) 117–133

Stevens, F., Plaut, V. & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2008) Unlocking the benefits of diversity all-inclusive multiculturalism and positive organizational change. The Journal Of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 44 No. 1, March 2008 116-133

Tharp, B. (2009) Four Organizational Culture Types. Haworth.

WalMart. (2014) WalMart Corporate. Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/leadership/executive-management/