In relation to the walmart case we talked about in class I have a few comments I want to put out there.
Walmart has around if not over 4500 stores in the U.S. and almost double that worldwide. With that many stores and an improper infrastructure to detect these things it is understandable that this could happen. I am in no way saying that this sort of discrimination is an alright thing. With the number of employees and managers that headquarters has to manage, along with all other aspects of the Walmart culture, it is not a foolproof plan and there are sometimes mistakes which they have now discovered. And as long as Walmart fixes this issue going in to the future and compensates those who were discriminated against then it is a step forward.
Check this story out:
I was watching undercover boss one week and it was with the hooters organization. As you can imagine they have their fair share of discrimination. The one manager that this boss shadowed was a jerk to his employees to say the least. He forced them to do contests when it came to letting people off early. The one contest was eating a plate of baked beans with no hands. Yeah this guy was a creep. Anyway, later when the manager had the meeting with the boss. The boss said how he knows that this sort of management style is wrong and that he's sure there are a few bad eggs in the company but that he would do what he could to find them and prevent this from happening again. The manager was fired instantly.
I was feeling the same ways about the WalMart case; not fully convinced. I'm making an assumption here but I was feeling that the author maybe had a valid point but did not develop it. Based on the article we read the discrimination case was not convincing however if I read the same case with an author who had more facts and background to back up his opinions it may yield a different decision.
ReplyDeleteI too watched that undercover boss episode... I agree with your idea that discrimination often lies in the individual and not the company. However considering the company hires these individuals maybe they should also be held accountable for this. I was happy to see the manager was fired after the episode but how many other managers are doing these things that the undercover boss episode brought to light? Hopefully the company took that to heart and institutes some kind of check up system.
I agree with what your saying. More facts and maybe shrinking the class action group would definitely help make a stronger case.
ReplyDeleteAs with discrimination I feel like both the individual and the corporation should be liable for their actions. Yes the individual in most cases is the one creating the discrimination but the corporation should take a portion of the blame for putting that person in that position. The corporation should put forth a portion of compensation for the actions of that individual.
I feel that even though it may be harder for Walmart to detect these types of issues at first, they should still be responsible for correcting the situation. I also think that Walmart should go beyond compensating the individuals who felt discriminated against, and actually work to reorganize their infrastructure to prevent these things from going unnoticed in the future.
ReplyDeleteAs for the hooters under cover boss episode, I feel that the boss should have expected that he would find something similar to this during his research. When he creates a company centered around its female employees, they should be treated with more respect.
To be honest I am still not quite sure how to take this Walmart case. My initial reaction was against Walmart because I do believe that there is still some discrimination in certain companies. As much as Walmart has been in the news for the way it has treated its employees in the past, I wouldn't put it past them. I was also slightly annoyed at the fact that Walmart sent two women to the interview to discuss the topic...of course they are going to say everything is fine.
ReplyDeleteHowever after reading over the article again and reading your opinion, also agree that I think some of the important information is being left out. I would also agree that this discrimination is made by an individual rather than the company itself. I could not imagine Walmart not allowing any women to fulfill management positions.
Overall, I think in order to make a complete decision, I would have to research the situation more in-depth. I thought you had valid points and they really helped me to see the other side of the story.