Working Conditions at WalmartWhen Sam Walton founded Walmart, one of his corevalues was that if the company treated employees withrespect, tied compensation to the performance of theenterprise, trusted them with important informationand decisions, and provided ample opportunities for ad-vancement, they would repay the company with dadcation and hard work. For years the formula seemed towork. Employees were called "associates" to reflecttheir status within the company, even the lowest hourlyemployee was eligible to participate in proft-sharingplans and could use profit sharing bonuses to purchasecompany stock at a discount to its market value. The com-pany made a virtue of promoting from within two-thirdsof managers at Walmart started as hourly employeesAt the same time, Walton and his successors alwaysdemanded loyalty and hard work from employees-managers for example, were expected to move to anew store on very short notice and base pay for hourlyworkers was very low. Still, as long as the up side wasthere, little grumbling was heard from employees.However, more recently the relationships betweenthe company and its employees has been strained bya succession of lawsuits claiming that Walmart pressures hourly employees to work overtime without compensating them; systematically discriminates againstwomen; and knowingly uses contractors who hire un-documented immigrant workers to clean its stores, pay-ing them below minimum wageFor example, a class-action lawsuit in WashingtonState claimed that Walmart routinely (1) pressuredhourly employees not to report all their sme worked(2) failed to keep true time records, sometimes shavinghours from employee logs (3) failed to give employeesfull rest or meal breaks; 4) threatened to fire or de-mote employees who would not work off the clock; and(5) required workers to atend unpaid meetings andcomputer training. Moreover, the suit claimed thatWalmart has a strict "no overtime" policy, punishingemployees who work more than 40 hours a wook, yetthe company also gives employees more work than canbe completed in a 40-hour week. The Washington suit isone of more than 30 suits that have been filed aroundthe nation in recent years.With regard to discrimination against women, complaints date back to a 1996, when an assistant managerin a California store, Stephanie Odie, came across theW-2 of a male assistant manager who worked in thesame store. The W-2 showed that he was paid $10,000more than Odle. When she asked her boss to explainthe disparity, she was told that her coworker had "awife and kids to support When Odle, a single mother,protested, she was asked to submit a personal house-hold budget. She was then granted a $2,080 raise.Subsequently, Ode was fired, she claims for speakingup. In 1998, she filed a discrimination suit against thecompany Others began to file suits around the sametime, and by 2004 the legal action had evolved into adass action suit that covered 16 million current and former female employees at Walmart. The suit claims thatWalmart did not pay female employees the same astheir male counterparts and did not provide them withequal opportunities for promotion.in the case of both undocumented overtime anddiscrimination, Walmart admits to no wrongdoing. Thecompany does recognize that with more than 2 millionemployees, some problems are bound to arise, but itdaims that there is no systematic company-wide effortto get hourly employees to work without pay or to discriminate against women. Indeed, the company claimsthat this could not be the case because hiring and pro-motion decisions are made at the store level.For their part, critics charge that while the companymay have no policies that promote undocumented over-time or discrimination, the hard driving cost containmentculture of the company had created an environment inwhich abuses can thrive. Store managers, for example,are expected to meet challenging performance goals,and in an effort to do so, they may be tempted to pres-sure subordinates to work additional hours without pay.Similarly, company policy requiring managers to moveto different stores at short notice unfairty discriminatesagainst women, who lack the flexibility to uproot theirfamilies and move them to another state at short notice.While the lawsuits are ongoing and may take yearsto resolve, Walmart has taken steps to change its em-ployment practices. For example, the company has created a director of diversity, a diversity compliance team,and restructured its pay scales to promote equal payregardless of gender. Walmart has also taken action tostop employees working overtime without pay. For example, it programmed cash registers to shut down afteran employee had exceeded a certain number of hours,and has told managers to make sure that employeestake lunch and rest breaks. CaseStudy: Working Conditions at Walmart (GroupActivity)Presentationof the Case StudyCaseStudy FormatThecase study format is typically made up of eightparts:1.Executive Summary. Explain what you will examinein the case study. Write anoverview of the field you're researching2.Background. Provide background information andthe most relevant facts. Isolatethe issues.

Question

Working Conditions at WalmartWhen Sam Walton founded Walmart, one of his corevalues was that if the company treated employees withrespect, tied compensation to the performance of theenterprise, trusted them with important informationand decisions, and provided ample opportunities for ad-vancement, they would repay the company with dadcation and hard work. For years the formula seemed towork. Employees were called &#34;associates&#34; to reflecttheir status within the company, even the lowest hourlyemployee was eligible to participate in proft-sharingplans and could use profit sharing bonuses to purchasecompany stock at a discount to its market value. The com-pany made a virtue of promoting from within two-thirdsof managers at Walmart started as hourly employeesAt the same time, Walton and his successors alwaysdemanded loyalty and hard work from employees-managers for example, were expected to move to anew store on very short notice and base pay for hourlyworkers was very low. Still, as long as the up side wasthere, little grumbling was heard from employees.However, more recently the relationships betweenthe company and its employees has been strained bya succession of lawsuits claiming that Walmart pressures hourly employees to work overtime without compensating them; systematically discriminates againstwomen; and knowingly uses contractors who hire un-documented immigrant workers to clean its stores, pay-ing them below minimum wageFor example, a class-action lawsuit in WashingtonState claimed that Walmart routinely (1) pressuredhourly employees not to report all their sme worked(2) failed to keep true time records, sometimes shavinghours from employee logs (3) failed to give employeesfull rest or meal breaks; 4) threatened to fire or de-mote employees who would not work off the clock; and(5) required workers to atend unpaid meetings andcomputer training. Moreover, the suit claimed thatWalmart has a strict &#34;no overtime&#34; policy, punishingemployees who work more than 40 hours a wook, yetthe company also gives employees more work than canbe completed in a 40-hour week. The Washington suit isone of more than 30 suits that have been filed aroundthe nation in recent years.With regard to discrimination against women, complaints date back to a 1996, when an assistant managerin a California store, Stephanie Odie, came across theW-2 of a male assistant manager who worked in thesame store. The W-2 showed that he was paid $10,000more than Odle. When she asked her boss to explainthe disparity, she was told that her coworker had &#34;awife and kids to support When Odle, a single mother,protested, she was asked to submit a personal house-hold budget. She was then granted a $2,080 raise.Subsequently, Ode was fired, she claims for speakingup. In 1998, she filed a discrimination suit against thecompany Others began to file suits around the sametime, and by 2004 the legal action had evolved into adass action suit that covered 16 million current and former female employees at Walmart. The suit claims thatWalmart did not pay female employees the same astheir male counterparts and did not provide them withequal opportunities for promotion.in the case of both undocumented overtime anddiscrimination, Walmart admits to no wrongdoing. Thecompany does recognize that with more than 2 millionemployees, some problems are bound to arise, but itdaims that there is no systematic company-wide effortto get hourly employees to work without pay or to discriminate against women. Indeed, the company claimsthat this could not be the case because hiring and pro-motion decisions are made at the store level.For their part, critics charge that while the companymay have no policies that promote undocumented over-time or discrimination, the hard driving cost containmentculture of the company had created an environment inwhich abuses can thrive. Store managers, for example,are expected to meet challenging performance goals,and in an effort to do so, they may be tempted to pres-sure subordinates to work additional hours without pay.Similarly, company policy requiring managers to moveto different stores at short notice unfairty discriminatesagainst women, who lack the flexibility to uproot theirfamilies and move them to another state at short notice.While the lawsuits are ongoing and may take yearsto resolve, Walmart has taken steps to change its em-ployment practices. For example, the company has created a director of diversity, a diversity compliance team,and restructured its pay scales to promote equal payregardless of gender. Walmart has also taken action tostop employees working overtime without pay. For example, it programmed cash registers to shut down afteran employee had exceeded a certain number of hours,and has told managers to make sure that employeestake lunch and rest breaks. CaseStudy: Working Conditions at Walmart (GroupActivity)Presentationof the Case StudyCaseStudy FormatThecase study format is typically made up of eightparts:1.Executive Summary. Explain what you will examinein the case study. Write anoverview of the field you're researching2.Background. Provide background information andthe most relevant facts. Isolatethe issues.

Accepted Answer

"The solution has been provided in a generalized Manner."

The relationship between Walmart, the…