Recent Business Incident in Walmart Stores - Case Study Example

University name Student name Student id Course Date Executive summary This essay is about the recent business incident that took place in the Walmart stores. The incident took place early this year where an employee who was upset due to the failure of the management to promote him took a manager hostage. The essay is describing the incident and the reasons as to why it took place in the organization. Also, in the essay the action that was taken by the management of the company in the process of controlling the situation and avoids the occurrence of a similar incident in the future is being analyzed. The issues that led to the occurrence of the incident have been discussed in the essay where the policies employed in the company are explored. The various operations of the company especially the management of the employees and the promotion issues are being explored. Lastly, the strategy that the company comes up with to avoid a similar incident in the future has been explored as the recommendation to the management that the need to be implemented to avoid such situation in the future. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 The incident 4 Reasons that led to the incident 5 Response of the company 7 Strategies to avoid such incident in the future 8 References 10 The incident An employee of Walmart who was angry by the way the promotions were done in the company took another employee and the manager hostage. The incident took place this year where the employee is said to have been seeking ways of being promoted in vain. According to some reliable sources, the employee was angry with what he called unfair promotions where he thought he could have been promoted long time ago, but it took a long time for his manager to release the need for promoting him despite his efforts. The employee thought he deserved promotion considering his contribution to the organization and experience. The employees that he considered junior and less qualified comparing with his skills and expertise were promoted leaving him in the same position. This made him very angry to a point of taking the manager and an employee hostage before being killed by the police. The issues that made the employee take such an action were a clear indication that the management of the human resources in the company was facing some challenges. The action of the employee seems to communicate the challenges that are facing the company in the process of ensuring the fair promotion of the employees. The employee was aged around 54 years old where the lack of promotion was identified as the major motive towards the action of taking the manager and the employee hostage leading to his death. The employee took the manager into an office after firing a gunshot into the ceiling forcing the manager to the back side of the store belonging to the employee who was said to be held hostage with the manager. The police agencies responded to the incident where they found the manager and the employee still being held hostage by the armed employee. The police officers entered the office where they shot the armed employee leading to his death. Investigations were done to know the situation that led to the incident that involved different managers of the company. Reasons that led to the incident Reports have shown that the employee took the action as a response to what he considered unfair promotions by the manager. The human resources manager was said to rely on the information given by managers in the different departments to undertake promotions. The human resources management has to consult the immediate managers of the employees being promoted to ensure the performance does the promotions and ensure that the employees are given positions that they can deliver as per the expectations of the company. There were unclear criteria that guided the promotions making some employees suffer in silence to a point where one employee decided to take action. The manager did not have clear criteria in the process of ensuring that the employees are promoted fairly where the guidelines used in the process of promoting the employees was not set clear to the employees (Barnaro, 2016). As a result, the employees were not satisfied by the criteria that the manager was using in the process of giving suggestion to the human resources about the employees that needed promotions. As shown by the action of the aggrieved employee who took hostage after being annoyed by the failure of the promotion criteria that led to dissatisfactions of the employees. The employee who caused the incident is a representation of many employees who are not satisfied by the ways that are used by the management in the process of promoting the employees. The manager seems to have been conducting the promotion process without clear communications to the employees making the employees feel the promotion practices as unfair. The management lacked the clear criteria of ensuring that the employees are promoted in a way that they can find the process as fair to all employees. Failing to have fair promotion criteria can result in the lack of motivation of the employees, as they might perceive some employees being preferred than the others making the management face some resistance and the productivity of the employees might decline (Staff, 2016). The company seems to have also failed to have in place the necessary communication to the employees concerning the promotion of the employees and the various factors that need to be considered in the process of conducting the promotion exercise. Having the necessary communication of the strategies for ensuring that the employees are satisfied by the promotion criteria used in the organization can be crucial in ensuring that employees are satisfied by the management of the human resources. Besides, reports in the company have shown most of the employees who had left employment were said to have left their position after taking long to be promoted despite the promotion chances. The promotions are said to be given to the employees whom the managers do prefer. Most of the employees considered the promotion criteria to be guided by the interests of the immediate managers who give suggestions to the human resources concerning the employee to be promoted. As a result, many employees have ended up being dissatisfied with the way the employee promotions are done in the organization. The lack of fair promotion has led to the creation of unproductive working environment as the employees feel demotivated (Bianco, 2016). Also, the relationships between the employees and the managers have been said to be worse when the manager makes promotions based on his or her personal interests. The human resources manager in the company has been relying on the suggestions of the different managers as they are considered to have the necessary information considering the performance of the employees. In such a case, the managers can abuse their powers when giving the suggestions to the human resources manager concerning the promotions of the employees in their departments. Response of the company The company responded by conducting investigations aiming at establishing the challenge that might be facing the employee management. The incident raised concerns among the top management of the company where the board of directors organized an urgent meeting to discuss the factors that might have caused the incident. The incident was an indication that the management of the employees especially the promotion of the employees faced some challenges. The investigations showed that the managers have not been fair in the process of promoting the employees. According to the interview of some of the employees, the response of the employees showed that many employees were viewing the promotion strategies employed in the company as unfair (Greenhouse, 2016). The employees said the relations dictated the promotion where having differences with the managers can make one fail to be promoted. As a result, the promotion criteria used in the organization was unclear and based on the interests of the managers. Besides, the report showed that the company does not involve the various stakeholders in the organization when promoting the employees. For instance, the human resources managers involved only the manager of the respective department where the promotion of the employees is based on the suggestions of the manager. The managers in different departments are expected to give their opinions concerning the best employee to be promoted where the human resources manager has enough grounds to rely on the information provided by the managers (Barnaro, 2016). The human resources managers fail to realize that they might have some differences with the employees hence preferring certain employees who they are in good terms. Therefore, the company has been said to fail to involve other stakeholders such as other managers and employees in the process of promoting the employees. Involving the fellow employees in the process of carrying out promotions can ensure that there is transparency. Strategies to avoid such incident in the future The company can utilize some strategies to ensure fairness in promotions to avoid any such incident in the future. first, the human resources manager need to engage the employees in the promotion process where they need to give employees a chance to give opinions concerning the employees that need to be promoted. The promotions need to engage the employees as the managers can be biased in the process promoting the employees. Besides, the human resources manager need to ensure that there is clear criteria for promoting the employees where the promotion process need to follow the criteria set for the promotion process. Second, communication can be very important in the process of ensuring that there is fairness in promoting the employees (Bianco, 2016). The human resources manager needs to start communicating to the employees about the criteria for promotion from the moment the employees are recruited in the organization. The employees can also be given the chance to suggest the best ways of ensuring that there are fairness and transparency in the process of promoting the employees. The employees can then be aware of the parameters considered in the process of promoting the employees hence avoiding any unnecessary complaints concerning the promotion criteria. The human resources manager should not rely on the suggestions of the manager on the best employees of the organization. Instead, the human resources manager need to ensure that different managers are consulted concerning the employees that can be promoted based on their qualifications. This can involve forming a committee that is responsible for ensuring that there is fairness in the process of promoting the employees (Greenhouse, 2016). The committee can involve supervisors, employees’ representatives, and managers of different departments. Forming the committee can be crucial in ensuring that the necessary employees are promoted based on the set guidelines of promotion. References Barnaro, Michael. 2016. "A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room."The New York Times.  Bianco, Anthony; Zellner, Wendy. 2016. "Is Walmart Too Powerful? at the Wayback Machine." BusinessWeek.  Greenhouse, Steven. 2016 "Workers Assail Night Lock-Ins by Walmart." The New York Times.  Staff Writer. 2016. "Shoppers rush to pyramid Walmart". BBC News. http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Amarillo-police-respond-to-armed-person-inside-a-Walmart-382976491.html Read More