Wal-Mart: Management Planning and Ethics
Today, Wal-Mart management involves several entities that are not employee or customer
related. Wal-Mart managers have to be just as knowledgeable with legal issues, ethics and
corporate social responsibility of the company, as well as the financial responsibility to the
company. In addition, if a company has legal, ethics, and social responsibility issues the
financial part will no longer matter because the company could go bankrupt due to these
issues. Therefore, in order to remain successful Wal-Mart Stores are now retraining their
management staffs. This ensures the company that their management staff is well versed
and capable of handling most issues.
One problem that is affecting Wal-Mart Stores today is legal issues. The biggest challenge
facing Wal-Mart Stores, from a legal perspective, is diversity in upper management.
Several Wal-Mart Stores have to restructure their hiring practices in order to satisfy
diversity issues. Managers have to make sure that they are hiring the best candidates, while
maintaining diversity. When a manager fails to maintain this balance it could result in the
company possibly being sued for unfair work practices. This issue is very challenging to
management, because they are to satisfy two needs, which are best candidates yet keeping
a diverse balance.
Secondly, major legal issues facing Wal-Mart is compliance issues. Compliance issues
involve several parts of the business depending on which division, person, or manager.
Child labor violation is a compliance issue that affects the entire store. This law applies to
anyone who is under the age of 18. The law simply states that a child in school can only
