BUS 621 University of Arizona Global Walmart Analysis for Leadership Case Study
BUS 621 – Final Paper – Walmart Analysis for LeadershipPrior to beginning work on this assignment,Watch the Week 6 Assignment video above with Dr. Williams Woods of Forbes School of Business and Technology.Read the Walmart Expands Again in India—But Still Not Able to Open Consumer Stores to Consumer Detriment (Links to an external site.) article.Read Chapter 16.1 in Northouse and review the GLOBE's nine dimensions of culture located in the same chapter of your course text.Read the MBA Program Case Study.Review the Walmart Case Study interactive below.For this class, the Walmart Analysis for Leadership assignment will apply toward Folio. Be sure to upload your paper to Folio once you have completed it and share a link in your submission in addition to uploading it to Waypoint to be graded. Learn more about Folio, Ashford’s ePortfolio tool, by viewing the Folio Quick Start Guide (Links to an external site.).In the first half of the assignment, you will prepare for Walmart to operate in a foreign market. You will need to analyze at least two leadership models and/or styles to determine which one will be more suitable for leading employees and for responding to stakeholders in a country outside of North America. Determine the leadership competencies that would be beneficial to you as a leader in the selected foreign market. You will choose either Peru, New Zealand, Philippines, Egypt, Czech Republic, or the United Arab Emirates for your analysis. You will also need to compare the concepts of cultural leadership according to how they can be applied in the country that you have selected. You must also determine the leadership skills and practices that should be used in order to foster team and organizational success.In the second half of the assignment, you will conduct an analysis of the country that you have decided to expand operations into. The analysis must include the rationale for country selection based upon demographic and economic data. Lastly, the analysis should inform leadership about the country’s culture based upon GLOBE’s nine dimensions of culture as argued in Northouse (2018). Incorporate each of the nine dimensions of culture in an analysis that will be hypothetically presented to Walmart leadership. When utilizing the nine dimensions, current information about the culture of the selected country must be utilized. The purpose of this preliminary analysis is to make sure that the leadership team understands the complexities of expanding into the country that you have selected. The paper should be eight to ten double-spaced pages and include five scholarly references.In your paper,Analyze the demographic and economic data of a country that Walmart is currently not operating in.Conduct an analysis for Walmart leadership about the country’s culture based upon the GLOBE’s nine dimensions of culture.Explain how Walmart’s leadership skills and practices may lead to organizational success.Formulate a model of cultural and ethical leadership as it applies to Walmart at a global level.The Walmart Analysis for Leadership Final PaperMust be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.Must include a separate title page with the following:oTitle of paperoStudent’s nameoCourse name and numberoInstructor’s nameoDate submittedFor further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.oFor assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.Must use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text.oThe Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.MBA Program Case StudyIntroductionThe purpose of this Walmart Case Study is to give each student an opportunity to apply subject matter from each course in the MBA program to an ongoing strategic development. The knowledge gained on the case in each course will be cumulative. The knowledge will assist the student in demonstrating his or her ability to conduct critical analysis and decision making across a wide range of subject matter throughout the MBA program.Throughout your MBA program you will be covering various subjects as they relate to business. You will initially have an opportunity in this class to create and build your own Walmart in a new global location. Your choices of location include: Czech Republic, Egypt, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates. As you progress through each course in the program you will build upon your case study for Walmart. Literature ReviewWalmart today is a global retail giant. According to Carbonara (2018), Walmart is the world’s largest retail company with continued plans for global growth. There are many competitors, one of which is Amazon. How will Walmart continue to be a global giant in the years to come? In order to maintain the market leader position Walmart will be required to continually look for ways to out grow its’ global competitors (2018).In order to understand Walmart and where they are today and what tomorrow holds, it is important to understand their foundation. “Sam Walton opened his first five-and-dime in 1950. His vision was to keep prices as low as possible” (Wilbert, 2018, para1). Walton opened the first Walmart in early 1960’s in Roger, AK (2018). One thing that has and will always remain a key component for all Walmart stores is to keep expenses low. There has always been a mentality behind the vision of Walton to demand that employees always keep costs to a bare minimum (2018). On average, “Walmart saves a typical American family of four about $2500 a year. That’s about what a family of four gets from the government in food stamps. That makes Walmart a major antipoverty force in the United States” (Kestenbaum, 2017, para3). Another factor to consider when thinking about Walmart is that “since 1990, the global rate of poverty has been cut by two-thirds. That’s the sharpest decline in human poverty in all of history, more than one billion people have been lifted out of poverty during that period and Walmart is a major force in that effect” (2017, para 3).Today, Walmart has grown considerably and continues to expand. Just to get an idea of how large this retail giant is:Walmart employs 1.6 million people.Walmart has 6,200 retail outlets. In contrast, Home Depot has 2,040. (Wilbert, 2018, Para4)One might question, what does Walmart do to continue to be successful and keep costs to a minimum? There are several things that this retail giant has incorporated into the operations. First, “Walmart became the first major retailer to demand manufacturers use radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The technology uses radio frequencies to transmit data stored on small tags attached to pallets or individual products. RFID tags hold significantly more data than bar codes” (Wilbert, 2018, para6). Another interesting fact is that “Walmart is the single most important pipeline distributing wealth from rich countries to poor countries” (Kestenbaum, 2017, para3).One concern pertaining to Walmart is how the employees are treated. It is well known that Walmart not only pays low wages, but they also will cut corners (Kestenbaum, 2017). Walmart tends to hire mostly part-time workers (2017). Some may even say that Walmart “pay their workers poverty wages” (2017, para 4). There have long been ethical concerns in how Walmart operates and manages their employees.MethodologyThe case is based upon past and current information about Walmart and the country of destination.1.Each student will select a country to develop his or her case from. The student will use the same country in each course of the MBA program.2.The student will be responsible for gathering as much information as needed that will help the student with determining the course of action that Walmart should pursue in the company’s quest to grow and meet the needs of international markets.ConclusionIn the next-to-the-last class of the program students will be able to present a summary of what they have learned in conducting the case study throughout the MBA program.ReferencesCarbonara, P. (2018, June 6). Walmart, Amazon top world’s largest retail companies (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercarbonara/2018/06/06/worlds-largest-retail-companies-2018/#55ead67213e6Kestenbaum, Richard . (2017, May 18) . Is Walmart good or bad for America? The question may be outdated (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved on July 25, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2017/05/18/is-walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/#2508388022aeWilbert, Caroline . (2018) . How Wal-Mart works (Links to an external site.). Retrieved on July 25, 2018, from https://money.howstuffworks.com/wal-mart.htm Additional Resource:Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.eduChapter 16: Culture and Leadership