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Walmart and Employee Relations

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Walmart and Employee Relations
Walmart and Employee Relations Rinda L. Lane rindalane@att.net Prof. Jere Ferguson GM591 – Organizational Behavior December 12, 2011

Overview The organization that I chose for this project is Walmart where I am employed as a cashier. The focus of the project is employee relations. Walmart is an American public multinational corporation that has a large chain of discount department stores and warehouses. In 2010, the company was the worlds largest public corporation by revenue. Walmart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on
October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville Arkansas and is the largest employer and grocery retailer in the United
States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its $ 258 billion sales in the U.S. from the grocery business. The company also owns and operates the Sam’s Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has stores in Puerto Rico, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan and India. Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues regarding its workforce. These issues involve low wages, poor working conditions and inadequate health care, as well as strong anti-union policies. The company’s high employee turnover rate is seen as evidence of an unhappy workforce. Approximately
70% of its employees leave within the first year. On average, full time hourly associates earn $10/hr or less than $ 17,874 per year which is about twenty percent less than the retail worker makes. Walmart managers are judged , in part, on their ability to control payroll costs. The company also faced



References: Daniel, T., Employment Relations Today, 2003, 30,2, p.51, Tools for building a positive employee relations environment. O’Toole, J., Edward E, III., 2008, 31.4, 26-33, How American Corporations can succeed in the 21st Century, People and Strategy Rizakallah, E.G., & Razzouk, N.Y. (2007), Wal-Mart and the trap of Success: An organizational ecology perspective, The Business Review, Cambridge, 8(1), 19-26 – Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com

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