Managing Stakeholder Relationships

In the modern corporate world, organizations are expected to recognize the input of different stakeholders by availing favorable conditions that encourage people to meet the assigned tasks. Besides achieving the goals outlined by an organization, there is a need to identify the techniques that can be used to overcome challenges that affect the relationship between an organization and its employees. Naturally, employers should address problems affecting their workers by developing viable solutions that address the issues affecting their relationship in the workplace. Importantly, creating systems that enhance communication, among other aspects promotes positive interactions between the groups in a work context. From this realization, established corporations such as Walmart among others have been criticized heavily for failing to create conducive work conditions where employees can achieve their desired career targets. While reviewing the conduct of Walmart’s top leadership, it is essential to identify the methods that can be used to manage and maintain stakeholder relationships. Hence, business leaders can group their stakeholders, communicate the project scope, and embrace consistency in the communication channels to gain the trust of the different parties.

Walmart’s Response to Different Stakeholders

Employees

When concerns emerged regarding Walmart’s interaction with its stakeholders, individuals began digging across the organization to establish issues that affected the company’s approach in interacting with their clients and employees. Firstly, workers are the core of an organization’s auspicious start in the business environment because of their roles that lead to the development of viable solutions. In the same vein, employees determine the level of competitive advantage an organization can have because of their effectiveness in handling tasks assigned to them (Schnackenberg & Tomlinson, 2016). From this perspective, organizations should treat each stakeholder with respect because of their unilateral roles that contribute towards their success in the corporate world. However, in this case, Walmart failed in its attempts to create favorable work conditions that address the changing needs of prospective buyers. For instance, employees were denied association with any labor unions because of their impact on the reputation of the corporation in the market. By creating these barriers, the organization tampered with employee unity and disrupted their perspectives towards work.

Consumers

Organizations are expected to fulfill the dynamic consumer needs by investing in research activities. In this regard, many individuals have in the past claimed that they could not access different products in the global retailer’s local stores. From this realization, Walmart failed to address this issue by banking its hopes on its global reputation that superseded its objectives in the local market. On many instances, corporations should directly respond to client concerns because of the impact of problems affecting individuals in their immediate environment (Bourne, 2016). Looking at the different techniques that can be deployed in the business environment, the retailer should have adopted a lean system of responding to queries from the consumer network and offer suggestions that can address their pertinent issues.

Suppliers

Two years ago, Walmart developed a complex system that would focus on finding suppliers who delivered different products late and even earlier than the stipulated timeframe. While the move was geared to improving its supply chain efficiency, the global retailer responded wrongly to issues affecting various operations in the business environment. The organization could have engaged the suppliers to understand the issues affecting their delivery timelines before imposing fines during their interactions with the corporation. In many instances, many corporations would have been happy if the suppliers delivered their products earlier than the stipulated timeline. From this observation, Walmart would have deposed the earlier-delivery penalty to encourage many on-time deliveries to different stores in the U.S. and beyond.

Labor Unions

Labor unions protect the wellbeing of its members by ensuring timely deliveries and calling for upgraded work conditions that enhance the ability of employees to realize their potential. Many workers’ unions around the globe create policies that compel corporations to regard the problems that can affect the operational performance of the organization (Crane & Livesey, 2017). By barring employees from associating with the labor unions, the organization failed in its attempt to create a favorable environment where employees can discover their potential. Understanding the different ideologies used to overcome problems enables corporations to map the market and create elaborate systems that enhance the individual productivity of individuals in the work environment.

Developing an Ethical Culture in the Workplace

In the work context, employers should be keen about their behavior when interacting with other people. By setting an excellent example for their employees, company managers can create an ethical environment that addresses problems affecting the overall productivity of an organization in the business environment. However, understanding the different items that affect an organization’s competitive performance in the market prompts business leaders to develop ambitions and inspire confidence among their workers. From this realization, Walmart can establish ground rules that are a product of interactions between the employers and other stakeholders in the business environment. At any given time, the top management should demonstrate to workers the necessary acceptable behavior, a move that reduces the time taken to monitor individual activity in the workplace. In many instances, individuals understand the significance of having their company managers as role models because of their ability to develop insights that address challenges emerging in the business environment.

Communicating ethical expectations enables workers to have a grasp of the values that should be embraced when solving problems in the workplace.. In this regard, employees are supposed to comply with the expectations that have been highlighted by the organization to achieve their desired objectives and those of their employers. Importantly, company managers should offer training to new employees and existing workers to remind them about their obligation to meet the dynamic individual problems in the business environment (Obeng, 2019). By rewarding ethical behavior and punishing those who fail to comply with the company’s expectations can raise the standards of operation in Walmart. Coming from the point of negative publicity to an environment where the retailer is recognized as an equal opportunity employer, Walmart can become an agent of ethical change in the world today. Therefore, the retailer’s business managers should emulate moral values that inspire confidence among the employee base and their ability to accomplish outlined goals.

Conclusion

Business leaders can group their stakeholders, communicate the project scope, and embrace consistency in the communication channels to gain the trust of the different parties. In the world today, many corporations are judged according to their ability to create innovative solutions for their target audience. However, when the organizations fail to acknowledge the input of their stakeholders such as consumers, suppliers, among others, then they are believed to have ignored their mandate. From this realization, Walmart has had some trouble in managing its relationship with stakeholders in the recent past. In this case, the global retailer encountered many challenges due to its negative interactions with stakeholders. However, the corporation can establish change agents among its employees to improve the potential market results.

 

 

References

Bourne, L. (2016). Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational implementation. Routledge.

Crane, A., & Livesey, S. (2017). Are you talking to me?: stakeholder communication and the risks and rewards of dialogue. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking 2 (pp. 39-52). Routledge.

Obeng, E. (2019). Bullseye: An argument for effectively managing retail stakeholder relationships. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 49, 327-335.

Schnackenberg, A. K., & Tomlinson, E. C. (2016). Organizational transparency: A new perspective on managing trust in organization-stakeholder relationships. Journal of Management, 42(7), 1784-1810.