Capstone Portfolio Assignment - Transferable Skills Exemplary Assignment and Reflection

Module01CourseProject-EthicsAndCreatingAMissionStatement (1)_JRover_052718.docx

Running head: ETHICS AND CREATING A MISSION STATEMENT 1

ETHICS AND CREATING A MISSION STATEMENT 6

Module 01 Course Project - Ethics and Creating a Mission Statement

Rasmussen College

Jeff Rover

05/27/18

Module 01 Course Project - Ethics and Creating a Mission Statement

Initially, Walmart started as Walton’s 5 and 10 in 1950 after Sam Walton bought a store from a businessman named Luther Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas (Trimble, 1991). In 1962, the Walmart chain as it is known today was established, starting with one shop in Rogers. By 1968, Walton had started opening branches outside Arkansas, had established stores across the Southern United States by 1980s and at least one store in each of the states in America and Canada by 1995. Sam’s club, which is a warehouse club by Walmart, was introduced in 1983 and by 1988, Walmart’s first supercenter was established. Presently, the company operates more than 11,700 stores in 28 countries across the globe.

When Lee Scott was appointed president and chief executive officer in the year 2000, Walmart’s revenue increased by more than double to a high of $156 billion since 1995. The same year (2000), the company was ranked by Fortune magazine as the fifth most admired company in the United States. Walmart acquired a minority of shares in Japan’s Seiyu Group in 2002, a feat that marked the company’s entry into the Japanese market. Seiyu became fully owned by Walmart in 2008, thus becoming Walmart’s subsidiary in Japan.

By 2005, the organization had sales worth $312.4 billion and above 6,200 facilities all over the world. 3,800 of these stores were based in the United States and the company had more than 1.6 associate workers across all their stores. At this point, Walmart’s presence in the United States was such that most parts of the country were within less than 60 miles from the nearest store (Zook & Graham, 2006). In the same year, the company recorded high numbers of customers visiting their stores all over the world. Walmart’s corporate philanthropy gestures provided aid to help those affected by hurricanes in the United States.

The corporation also entered the markets of countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. In May and July 2006, Walmart sold its stores in South Korea and German markets respectively. The company announced its intention to acquire Vudu, Inc. a video streaming company for an estimated price of $100 million (Bustillo, 2010). In mid-2011, Walmart acquired 51 percent of Massmart holdings’ shares, making it possible for the store to the markets in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, and Zambia. However, Walmart’s single store in Mauritius was closed about half a year later.

Discrimination and disrespect towards workers are among the most ethical that Walmart has been grabbling with. One of the company’s downsides was experienced in June 2014 when its workers organized an industrial action in all major cities where Walmart operates. In this particular strike, the employees were demanding that the company respect their dedication to work. Many believe that they are overworked and underpaid (Sheridan, 2014). Over the last ten years, the company has been sued numerous times and most of these cases involve workers’ unpaid dues and discrimination (Valenti, 2017). For many discrimination cases, employees complain that the company has in one way or the other profiled out of their jobs or out of money. For instance, in 2004 and 2005, black employees sued the company for denying them employment opportunities in the company on the basis of their race (Glater, 2005).

Walmart’s mission statement is “Saving people money so that they can live better.” The mission statement is identical to its slogan “Save money. Live better” (Ferguson, 2017). The company’s code of ethics are based on three key beliefs: “Respect for the individual, service to customers, and striving for excellence” (Walmart, Inc., 2018). The company articulates the code of ethics by providing services to customers at low prices and due respect. Further, Walmart also does their best to ensure that the products they sell are of high quality. However, based on the numerous cases of discrimination and employee mistreatment means that to some extent, they have no “respect for the individual” which is one of their code of ethics.

In my opinion, the company’s mission statement should be: Dedicated to the best quality service to customers and providing our employees with a good environment that enables learning and individual growth. The aim of such a mission statement is to ensure that the company improves its treatment towards existing and potential employees.

References Bustillo, M. (2010, February 23). Wal-Mart Re-Enters Digital Downloading of Movies With Purchase of Vudu. Retrieved from The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704454304575082010734950440?mod=WSJ_Markets_LEFTTopNews Ferguson, E. (2017, March 25). Walmart’s Vision, Mission, Generic & Intensive Strategies. Retrieved from Panmore Institute: http://panmore.com/walmart-vision-mission-statement-intensive-generic-strategies Glater, J. D. (2005, July 14). 2 Black Truckers Sue, Accusing Wal-Mart of Hiring Bias. Retrieved from The New York Times : https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/business/2-black-truckers-sue-accusing-walmart-of-hiring-bias.html Sheridan, P. M. (2014, June 4). Wal-Mart workers strike in major cities. Retrieved from CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/companies/walmart-strike-day/ Trimble, V. H. (1991). Sam Walton: the inside story of America's richest man. Westminster, London, England: Penguin. Valenti, C. (2017, August 9). Employees Sue Wal-Mart for Overtime. Retrieved from ABC News : https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=87844&page=1 Walmart, Inc. (2018). Walmart Code of Ethics. Retrieved from Walmart: https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/walmart500/code-of-ethics Zook, M., & Graham, M. (2006). Wal-Mart Nation: Mapping the Reach of a Retail Colossus. In S. D. Brunn, Wal-Mart World: The World's Biggest Corporation in the Global Economy (pp. 15-25). Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.