Refining Wal-Mart’s Employees Relations

Refining Wal-Mart’s Employees Relations

MGMT591

Professor Ferguson

October 17, 2012

Introduction

The organization that was chosen to be the main topic of this final project paper was The Wal-Mart Cooperation. The pioneer of Wal-Mart was Sam Walton. Mr. Walton opened his first store in Rogers, Arkansas in July 1962. The name of the store was Wal-Mart Discount City. However, the corporate office is currently located in Bentonville, Arkansas. On October 31, 1969 Wal-Mart stores Inc. was incorporated. In 1972 they became involved in the New York Stock exchange and begin selling stock. Even though this company has had quite a few business problems over the years they have grown to be the largest retail company in the world. In 1997 Wal-Mart had a productive year when it came to employment when they became the largest private employer in the United States. However, within that same year their sales total increased worldwide that added up to be over $105 billion. With fiscal year 2012 sales of approximately $444 billion, Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million associates (Walmart Corporate - Our Story)

Even though Wal-Mart has had quite a few loyal shoppers they were all caught off guard when they found out about some of Wal-Mart’s questionable unofficial policies after talking with friends and family members who worked for them in the past and some who are currently employed by them. The information that they shared was quite shocking, for instance, one former employer that worked for the company for 2 years stated that she was often made to work 8-hour shifts without a lunch break at times. Another employer stated that he was made to clock out because he was about to be in overtime but had to continue to work to keep labor cost down. These two former employers both took it upon themselves to do a little research to see if other people experienced the same injustice and they were stunned at the information that they found out about the company that they once...