External/Internal Factors

External/ Internal Factors

Wal-Mart is an organization that has been extremely successful in achieving its goals of becoming top retail store in the world. Managers for this organization must plan, organize, lead, and control each component of this organization in order to secure its success. There are factors, internal and external, that can impact these four functions within an organization. Management's responsibility is to take these factors into consideration to ensure that business will be successful. These factors are its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends. These factors are also referred by the acronym (SWOTT).

Wal-Mart's foundation was built on honesty, fairness, respect and integrity. They strive to preserve their foundation by bringing these qualities to the job everyday. Wal-Mart has always been a value-based ethically led company. Sam Walton had three basic beliefs that he believed that would bring the company great success. His three basic beliefs are respect to the individual, service to the customer, and strive for excellence. These three basic beliefs have made Wal-Mart one of the best companies in the United States. .

Wal-Mart is also known for the wide variety of diversity in the company. This company is one of the largest retailers amongst the industry leaders in accomplishing a grounded workforce. Anyone who has ever visited a Wal-Mart store can assure you that as you enter the store you are greeted by a senior citizen or even someone who is physically disabled.

After analyzing the external environment and internal resources, strategic managers have the information they need to put together corporate, business, and functional strategies of the organization. A comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats normally is referred to as a SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis helps executives go over the major facts and forecasts resulting from the external and internal analyses. From this, executives can derive a series of statements that identify the primary and secondary strategic issues confronting the organization. Strategy formulation builds on SWOT analysis to utilize the strengths of the organization in order to capitalize on opportunities, counteract threats, and alleviate internal weaknesses. In short, strategy formulation moves from simply analysis to devising a coherent course of action. (2004, Management: The Competitive landscape)

Wal-Mart's strength has been credited to its low cost strategy. Wal-Mart has grown from a general store to a super corporation. Wal-Mart has taken the busy Saturday afternoon of ripping and running from store to store and combined all your needs in a central location. You can buy groceries, clothes, tend to personal care needs, and have film developed to name a few. Wal-Mart has become known for the low prices, friendly faces, and convenient locations.

Wal-Mart is one of the largest and most successful companies in the United States. It seems as thought there is a Wal-Mart store on every corner. For this large cooperation to be successful they must have set standards for their organization and strictly enforce them for the best interest of the company. Yet and still Wal-Mart is not without its weaknesses. The conglomerate is constantly under attack for its labor issues. Accusations stem from firing whistleblowers, discriminating against women (and, most recently, black truck drivers). Among other accusations are violating child labor laws, locking workers into stores overnight, mooching off taxpayers, disregarding local zoning laws, mistreating immigrant janitors, abusing a young Bangladeshi women, paying poverty-level wages in the United States, and destroying small-town America. These issues all have negative public relations image and if not addressed can hinder the future growth of the corporation.

The opportunity for expansion and growth has blossomed since the boom of globalization. As cited in the workforce 2000; "Work and worker in the twenty first century" (Johnson & Parker, 1987) Major corporations require a more diverse workforce in order to be competitive. This new and diverse workforce requires changes in the way organizations attract and manage talented employees from all demographic categories. Human Resource management had to be retrained in attracting and recruiting talented, innovative, and creative quality workers from various nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Since Wal-Mart's number one goal was to give the consumers fast friendly service they had to make sure that their employees were willing and ready to deliver as well.

The vision of the Global Ethics Office is to promote ownership of Wal-Mart's ethical culture to all stakeholders globally. The Global Ethics Office was established on June 1, 2004. On June 4, 2004 Wal-Mart released a revised Global Statement of Ethics to communicate our ethical standards to all Wal-Mart facilities and stakeholders. The Global Ethics Office provides guidance in making ethical decisions based on the Global Statement of Ethics and a process for anonymous reporting of suspected ethics violation by calling the ethics line (Wal-Mart, 2005). The purpose for setting these guidelines are to protect the best interest of the store by allowing employees to report any ethical violations in the company. They have an open door policy for their employees to feel comfortable reporting any unethical activity

The next step in SWOTT is to examine the threat analysis. Wal-Mart's major threat is the negative publicity received from its labor issues and dedication to globalization. Northern