walmart
Companies Have Built a Reputation Around Their Corporate
Cultures?
In this text we have already mentioned several companies that have famous organizational cultures, including Lincoln Electric and Southwest Airlines. Other companies with famous cultures are IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Goldman Sachs, and Starbucks. Companies with infamous cultures that are now out of business were Enron and Arthur Anderson.
Consider the case of Wal-Mart, one of the most famous organizational cultures of all time.
Wal-Mart created its organizational culture around the image of its founder, Sam Walton, a small town merchant who became an American tycoon. Sam Walton opened his first Walton’s 5 & 10 in 1950 in Bentonville, Arkansas, and when he died in 1992 he was running a phenomenally successful empire of retail stores nationwide. At the time, he was the world’s second richest man, behind Bill Gates. Today his company has successfully entered such international markets as Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil,
South Korea, China, and Puerto Rico.
“Genuine, polite, civic-minded, and wholesome,” are characteristics of both Walton and
Wal-Mart.10 Walton was one of the earlier employers to call his employees “associates,” give them stock, and share store data with them. He was “enthusiastic, positive, folksy, and nurturing,” a charismatic leader who did the hula dance down Wall Street when Wal-Mart’s net profits exceeded 8 percent.11
Wal-Mart’s employees don’t “work for” someone, they “help out.” The Wal-Mart message to them is that the people who work hard and take part in the company’s profitsharing program become rich and happy.
As we discuss various aspects of organizational culture, we will use Wal-Mart to illustrate our points.
How Do You Discover an Organization’s Culture?
It’s your first day on the job and you have just walked through the door of your new company. How do you figure out what its culture is?
What Do You Need to Know?
Think of a company’s culture as
Cultures?
In this text we have already mentioned several companies that have famous organizational cultures, including Lincoln Electric and Southwest Airlines. Other companies with famous cultures are IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Goldman Sachs, and Starbucks. Companies with infamous cultures that are now out of business were Enron and Arthur Anderson.
Consider the case of Wal-Mart, one of the most famous organizational cultures of all time.
Wal-Mart created its organizational culture around the image of its founder, Sam Walton, a small town merchant who became an American tycoon. Sam Walton opened his first Walton’s 5 & 10 in 1950 in Bentonville, Arkansas, and when he died in 1992 he was running a phenomenally successful empire of retail stores nationwide. At the time, he was the world’s second richest man, behind Bill Gates. Today his company has successfully entered such international markets as Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil,
South Korea, China, and Puerto Rico.
“Genuine, polite, civic-minded, and wholesome,” are characteristics of both Walton and
Wal-Mart.10 Walton was one of the earlier employers to call his employees “associates,” give them stock, and share store data with them. He was “enthusiastic, positive, folksy, and nurturing,” a charismatic leader who did the hula dance down Wall Street when Wal-Mart’s net profits exceeded 8 percent.11
Wal-Mart’s employees don’t “work for” someone, they “help out.” The Wal-Mart message to them is that the people who work hard and take part in the company’s profitsharing program become rich and happy.
As we discuss various aspects of organizational culture, we will use Wal-Mart to illustrate our points.
How Do You Discover an Organization’s Culture?
It’s your first day on the job and you have just walked through the door of your new company. How do you figure out what its culture is?
What Do You Need to Know?
Think of a company’s culture as