Preview

Mcdonalds Swot Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
18508 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mcdonalds Swot Analysis
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

!!!!!!!!!!!

!

!

Did Wal-Mart Wake Up?
How Strategic Management Handled Wal-Mart’s Reputation

[ABSTRACT] The nation’s largest private corporation and retail giant Wal-Mart has faced multiple opposition from labor unions, grassroots organizations, religious groups, and even from its own employees, impacting its corporate reputation and ultimately its bottom line. This case study will demonstrate the strategic communication Wal-Mart used for its corporate reputation management (CRM). In particular, the case describes the company’s response to criticism regarding its current business policies and practices.

Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………3 1. Company History……………………………………………………..5
1.1 Wal-Mart’s Early History: 1960s to 1970s…………………………….5 1.2 Wal-Mart Expands and Goes International: 1980s to 1990s…………...6 1.3 Attack of the Advocacy Groups: 2000 to present……………………....7 1.4 Repercussions…………………………………………………………...8

2. The Issue: Employee Relations and Workers’ Rights…………………9 3. Opposition…………………………………………………………….10
3.1 Labor Union-Funded Groups…………………………………………...11 3.2 Gender Discrimination………………………………………………….12 3.3 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price……………………………………..13

4. Wal-Mart’s Response……………………………………………………15
4.1 Response to Labor Union-Backer Groups………………………………...16 4.2 Response to Gender Discrimination Lawsuit……………………………..17 4.3 Response to Greenwald’s Film……………………………………………18 4.4 Wal-Marting Across America: Jim and Laura’s Blog…………………….18 4.5 Corporate Social Responsibility…………………………………………..20

5. Did Wal-Mart Wake Up?..........................................................................21

2

Introduction
Starting off with Sam Walton’s idea of low prices in the 1940s, Wal-Mart has since then become the world’s largest public corporation, topping the list of Fortune’s Global 500 for the sixth time in seven years.1 With headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, this retail giant has

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In “Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, she finds the truth about how Wal-Mart treats its customers and more importantly how the million dollar company treats its employees. In this essay, Olsson strongly believes that Wal-Mart keeps its stores understaffed and their employees overworked and underpaid, with minimal options for reasonable benefits.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Former bureau chief for the Economist, Sebastian Mallaby writes in defense of a large retailer in his essay, Progressive Wal-Mart. Really. Through his essay he explains that through the continual campaigns against the large corporation, Wal-Mart has been and still remains a benefit to working Americans seeking affordable goods. He elaborates on the crusade of Anti-Wal-Mart campaigns looking to paint the business as a detestable parasite, when all the company has done is keep costs low and earnings for its shareholders high while trying to defeat competitors, just as any company would.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1962, Wal-Mart opened their first store in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1970, Wal-Mart's first distribution center and home office in Bentonville, Ark. open and Wal-Mart went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Just nine years from that, Wal-Mart's annual sales exceeded one billion dollars. In 1988, Wal-Mart super centers opened across the country. In a merely three years from that, Wal-Mart opened their own store in Mexico City, Mexico; making Wal-Mart an international corporation. Not even sixty years has past, and yet, Wal-Mart is over-powering our country.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In opposition to this argument, Mallaby claims that critics of Wal-Mart are oblivious if they think Wal-Mart is the worst corporation when it comes to the way that employees are treated. He believes that it depends on what other corporations Wal-Mart is compared to and gives an example of this stating that “Wal-Mart opened a store in Glendale, Arizona, last year, it received 8,000applications for 525 jobs,” suggesting that not all people think that Wal-Mart mistreats its employees and that their benefits or wages do seem appealing to many (Mallaby 621). Though Mallaby does not discuss unions, Olsson targets this topic and mentions that Wal-Mart quickly rids of unions in order to keep opposition away. Commenting on the unions at Wal-Mart, Olsson says, “To protect the bottom line Wal-Mart is as aggressive at fighting off unions as it is at cutting costs” (Olsson 615). Wal-Mart has a main goal of fighting costs to make them lower than their competitors; therefore, fighting off unions is of utmost importance to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart does not want any opposition and does not want to lose to its competitors. Expanding the issue of working conditions to international relations, Mallaby shows how Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, the new anti-Wal-Mart movie circulating among activist groups, exploits the mistreatment of the Chinese workers that work for Wal-Mart.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Logan, J. (2014). The mounting Guerilla War against the Reign of Walmart. New Labor Forum (Sage Publications Inc.), 23(1), 22-29. doi:10.1177/1095796013513435.…

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When you hear the words low prices it is hard not to think of Wal-Mart. The company that revolutionized discount shopping. But what happens behind the scenes? How is it that the world’s largest retail chain can offer so many deals? In the last 20 years the anti-Walmart campaign seems to continuously be on the minds of many. Sebastian Mallaby and Karen Olsson share radically different views on the ethics of the Wal-Mart Corporation. In “Up Against Wal-Mart” we are forced to believe that Wal mart is a vicious company that shows no remorse when firing employees and cutting their benefits. The author produces factual information and eyewitness accounts pointing to these horrible deeds that the large corporation run by money hungry businessmen have cheated many employees out of proper wages, proper benefits and even their jobs. While Sebastian Mallaby depicts Wal-Mart like the average American company. In his article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” He states that while Wal-Mart is responsible for many questionable deeds, they are merely doing what they have to in order to survive.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essays “Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson and “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really” by Sebastian Mallaby portray Wal-Mart to two completely different lights. Olsson shames Wal-Mart for its poor health benefits, the meager pay Wal-Mart employees receive, and the managers who purposely fail to schedule enough workers. Mallaby, on the other hand, commends Wal-Mart on how much money the franchise saves customers.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Up against Wal-Mart

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Karen Olsson believes that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer company, under pays their employees for the amount of work they do daily. They do not offer good working conditions for their employees or enough medical benefits to support themselves and their families. Sebastian Mallaby says that Wal-Mart is not wrong for the way that they run their business; he feels as though Wal-Mart does their consumers a favor by keeping the wages low and offering “low prices” (620). It’s just business! They have to do what it takes to remain the world’s top retailer and continue to, “enrich shareholders, and put rivals out of business” (620). Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both address the topic of big business in today’s economy, but I find Karen Olsson’s argument to be the most persuasive because she has more information and quotes to support her opinion and views of the way that Wal-Mart treats their workers, while Sebastian Mallaby’s article is quite the opposite. Their opinions are very different but they share common interests which are: Wal-Mart, their customers, and their workers.…

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Liza’s article is very critical of Wal-Mart’s treatment of its employees and community. She makes the point that Wal-Mart attempts to constantly get the employees that are most in touch with their customers and uses them to exploit their consumer base. Liza makes the argument that Wal-Mart has no sense of value for their workers, who are abused and taken advantage of in almost every way. These are people who work for extremely low wages and, she cites an instance where Wal-Mart employees were locked away after they had completed their hours, totally exploited. She also says that these lack of values are a result of Wal-Mart’s low prices, as what they lack in profit is made up by low labor costs and violations of workers rights. Wal-Mart goes as far as discriminating against its workers and paying them wages which force them to buy from their own store. But Maich disagrees with her arguments, under the line that the majority of Wal-Mart’s workers appear to be content dispite the low wages and questionable benefits; The amount of interest in the jobs available at Wal-Mart’s would appear to contradict Liza’s arguments that Wal-Mart abuses its workers. So why would people join a company that abuses them? More or less, Liza makes the argument that they are the only jobs available to these workers as sort of another Wal-Mart…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Documentary Walmart

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Robert Greenwald uses a strong appeal to ethos, a slippery road argument, and a text track to bring attention to his audience about Wal-Mart. He establishes his argument by first presenting a claim made by the Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott and then showing the contrary to that claim with many examples from real people. Through these arguments the audience can determine that Wal-Mart is simply a bad company and they should stop spending their money there.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The decision that Walmart makes is to benefit the company and create additional growth opportunities by maximizing profit. It is up to us as individuals to decide if we want to work there or not even though the job market is difficult at this time. External social pressures are related to both organizational and personal choices aid us in determining if our ethics are aligned with reality. Occasionally people change their personal ethics so they are not scrutinized in the media and to avoid being the topic of a debate. Organizations typically reevaluate their ethics when they’re questioned by key decision makers such as shareholders and the government. External pressures can be both positive and negative depending on the individual or organizational issue which is being addressed. On the other hand, external pressures has changed a number of individuals and organizations for the best by posing their views and beliefs on individuals and organizations for…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walmart Impact On Society

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As the largest retailer in America, Walmart has been called “one of the most impactful organizations in the history of humanity” (Roberts 1); however, we must ask ourselves what type of impact Walmart is making. Because they are such a large corporation, Walmart has the power and ability to greatly influence our society either for the good or for the bad, and most people agree that their impression on our current society is a negative one. There is lots of controversy over the ethical and economic repercussions our country faces because of Walmart. It is evident to most people that Walmart negatively impacts communities, treats employees unfairly, and facilitates child labor in American and abroad.…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wal-Mart Controversy

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, but controversy surrounds their operating practices (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). The company known for significant sales profits, a large employee base, and the everyday low price provided to consumers is clouded by the pressure applied to suppliers requiring continuous reduction in pricing (Smith & Young, 2004). The small startup company that has grown to a multitude of stores across several countries does have some positive impact, but is it overshadowed by debatable ethical choices.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Low Wage Work in America

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As well known to all Americans Wal-Mart pays low wages. They often hire people for 30 hours a week rather than 40 hours a week and provide minimal health care benefits. For the past few years, issues concerning the company have become important as well and have begun dominating the news. In particular, Wal-Mart treatment of its employees has raised many issues in public and business discussions. Wal-Mart refers to its employees as associates a term intended to bestow a more lofty status than the term employees. Many different employee-related issues with respect to Wal-Mart have been the focus of much news coverage, the company has been accused of hiring too man part-time workers; offering jobs that are actually dead-end jobs; paying low wages and poor benefits; forcing workers to work off the clock, that is to work overtime without overtime pay; and taking advantage of illegal immigrants. There are also issues with regards to gender discrimination against women, who occupy most jobs at the company. Coupled with these allegations of employee mistreatment, the company which currently is not unionised has fought unions and unionization everywhere it locates.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    fter years spent fruitlessly attempting to organize Wal-Mart, unions and other liberal activist groups have taken a new tack: a public campaign to force the Bentonville behemoth to become more socially responsible. In 2005, Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), created Wal-Mart Watch, with an annual budget of $5 million, devoted exclusively to making Wal-Mart “a better employer, neighbor, and corporate citizen.” At almost the exact same time, a parallel group called Wake Up Wal-Mart launched, with much the same goal. In the nearly two years since, both Wal-Mart and its new opponents have spent millions dueling in the public and legislative spheres. The labor-backed groups have managed to stop Wal-Mart from opening stores in a number of communities and won isolated victories in court to force the company to aaron chatterji is an assistant professor of management at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and a fellow at the Center for American Progress. siona listokin is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.…

    • 4806 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays