Organizing Change at Walmart

 

One large, red sphere weighs one end of a gray balance beam down
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Walmart is a well-known discount retailer with stores across Canada and around the world.

Walmart is also well known for its long history of opposition to unionization within its employee population. There have been a few attempts to unionize Walmart stores in Canada, most notably in Quebec and Saskatchewan. These attempts have not been successful to date, and have resulted in a continued commitment by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada (UFCW Canada) to try to have Walmart employees represented by their union.

UFCW Canada is affiliated with UFCW International, which is one of North America’s largest private sector unions with over 1.3 million members. Even with these significant numbers, the union has not been able to breach the Walmart fortress of resistance to unionization in Canada, across North America, or at an international level.

Does the absence of unionization mean that the employee workforce is content?

Apparently not.

Continued media reports chronicle the dissatisfaction of Walmart workers in relation to their wages and working conditions. In the absence of a formal union, some employees have formed an ‘association’ called OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect) at Walmart in an attempt to continue the fight for changes to working conditions.  However, this association, while backed by the UFCW, is not a formal union, and as such, does not have the ability to represent the workers through the power of a collective bargaining process. It does, however, provide the opportunity to exercise more power for employees by expanding these associations across the global Walmart chain.

Recently, the American component of OUR Walmart was able to join with its Chinese counterpart in an attempt to increase its power base. The American and Chinese workers wanted to impose a coordinated ‘strike’ action at an international level on the retailer in order to stop a scheduling system change.

Click here to see a clip on OUR Walmart’s progress at an international level.

As we note in this clip, the expansion of the collective voice through the power of association is a critical element in an attempt to force the employer to change its practices. However, the clip also identifies the key weaknesses of a non-unionized employee association. This weakness is the lack of real, legal status and power.

Without the protection of a formal union, employees at Walmart have no legitimate power that is provided by the legal parameters of the right to association and to bargain collectively. Walmart, as an employer, is under no legal obligation to recognize any informal employee association. It can choose to listen to employee concerns or it can choose not to. If employees decide to leave their work for a day, the employer can decide not to have them back at work the next day. In Canada, in the absence of a collective agreement, the employer is bound by the provisions of common law and legislated employment standards and has the power to run the workplace as it sees fit.

Until there is a shift in power through the establishment of legitimate union authority, it seems that the status quo between employer and worker relations at Walmart will continue to be maintained.

For an extensive exploration of the labour-management struggles between Walmart, UFCW and OUR Walmart, click here.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What benefit does Walmart gain from having non-unionized workers?
  2. Identify how an employee group could gain power through unionization.
  3. As an HR practitioner, identify five key steps that you would recommend to an employer who was facing the possibility of unionization within its workforce.

Do We Need Unions in Order to Manage Effectively?

In our study of Industrial Relations, it is natural that we look at the management perspective within a unionized context.  The typical perspective in this setting is that the union represents the voice of the workers in the necessary fight for equality, transparency, and the breaking down of traditional hierarchical barriers.  Management, on the other hand, is represented as the ‘master’ in the ‘master-servant’ relationship.  In this type of traditional hierarchical paradigm, management is seen as unbending, unwilling to listen, and unable to connect with employees.

Source: Stankovic/Shutterstock
Source: Stankovic/Shutterstock

There is no doubt that these types of relationships continue in varying degrees in all of our Canadian workplaces.   There is, however, a significant shift in executive leadership and management style that is now starting to change this polarized perspective.

Peter Aceto is the CEO for Tangerine Banking Services in Canada.  In a recent interview, Mr. Aceto describes his non-traditional approach to effective leadership.

Click here to read the artcile.

It is interesting to note that Mr. Aceto’s approach to working with employees and breaking down hierarchical barriers seems more like that of a traditional union leader than that of the traditional CEO.  It presents a fundamental opportunity for change.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify two management practices that the CEO of Tangerine has implemented that would typically be fought for by a union.
  2. What benefits would a union bring to this type of a workplace environment?
  3. What are the risks to this type of management style in a non-unionized workplace?
  4. How does this non-traditional leadership style appeal to you?

Who Says Management Training Can’t Be Fun?

What a great time it is to be a leader!  There are so many different training techniques and programs for management and leadership development.  Where once there were only traditional management programs focusing on the serious, hard side of business leadership, now the menu of options includes unconventional approaches for much needed leadership development of soft skills.

Source: Kues/Shutterstock
Source: Kues/Shutterstock

A fresh approach on the scene is improvisational training for organizational managers and leaders.

Click here to read the article.

One of the more intriguing leadership tools that this type of training promotes is the practice of saying ‘yes, and’ instead of ‘yes, but’, which is, according to the article, just ‘no, in a tuxedo’.  When leaders  promote a ‘yes’ approach it opens the door to possibilities and opportunities. Does this mean that a leader needs to agree by saying yes to everything that is put in front of them?  Probably not.  What it does mean, is that it is important for leaders to learn how to shape their reactions in a positive way instead of just shutting ideas, and the people with those ideas, down.  This skill takes a lot of development and practice.

Management training should offer the opportunity to develop  positive reactive and responsive skills for effective organizational leadership.  Improv training might be an effective way to get this done.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you benefit from improv training in a leadership role?
  2. From all of the management and leadership training programs discussed in your course of study, which one would be the most effective?
  3. Do you think improv training is just a trend or is it a program that will find a sustainable future?
  4. If you had to recommend a particular manager for improv training, who would that be and why would you recommend them?

 

Why Aren’t We Sharing What We Learn?

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Source: Lightspring/Shutterstock

In our Human Resource studies related to Training and Development, we read and hear about collaborative learning and systems thinking as key concepts and drivers for the learning organization.  Systems thinking, in particular, brings forward the need for understanding organizational and management issues in context with each other. Research and analysis are all part of systems thinking which allow for organizations to learn and to grow using evidence based methodologies. It seems, however, that there is a continuing divide between the learning that business organizations achieve based on management research and the learning that is produced in post-secondary communities, based on purely academic research.

This divide is explored in an interesting article, by Fiona McQuarrie.

  Click here to read the article

Isn’t it time for research that results in management learning and research that results in academic learning to come together and be shared in order to be truly collaborative?  Ms. McQuarrie’s article speaks very clearly to the need for all of us to start communicating about what we have learned, so that we move out of a silo-based mentality that hoards information and into a collaborative, shared learning community that benefits all members of our respective academic, management, and Human Resources related constituencies.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How will you apply what you have learned through research in your HR studies into practical application as an HR professional?
  2. What benefit does academic research bring to the Human Resources profession?
  3. How should organizations share research based learning inside and outside their respective communities?
  4. Where can you access current Human Resources related research that provides leading edge learning?

Learning to Listen

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Source: Tumblr. The above content constitutes a link to the source website.

Effective transfer of training for all employees is easier when there is a culture of learning.  Creating a culture of learning must come with clear support from the top of the organization through the office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  As we have learned through our studies, two additional key strategies recommended for the effective transfer of training for employees into productive performance behaviours include, management support and on-going performance coaching.  So how does the CEO become more effective in their own performance as a cultural role model for the learning organization?

They too need management support and on-going performance coaching.

Click here to read the article.  

According to this article, there is a 65.4% increase in management productivity due to one-on-one coaching when compared to the transfer of learning that comes from attending a three-day management training session.  Further, most of us forget a significant portion of what we have heard within 8 hours!   So, it is particularly interesting to note, that for the CEO, the focus of performance coaching in this example relies on the continued development of their own listening skills in order to become better communicators.

If the CEO learns to listen more, then employees are more likely to be heard.  If employees feel like they are being heard, then they are more likely become more productive.  If there is more productivity, then there is likely to be an increase in organizational value as a result of employees feeling valued and listened to.

Does it matter?  If the transfer of training by the CEO makes for better listening practices and effective communication, then a positive chain reaction throughout the organization could occur.  This result makes it obvious that it does matter…a lot!

Discussion Questions:

  1. What advice would you give the CEO where you work (or have worked) in order to increase their communication effectiveness?
  2. What types of performance coaching would you benefit from in your current work situation?
  3. How much do you remember from past training sessions that you were able to implement into your daily work routines?
  4. Who would benefit from on-going performance coaching in your current workplace and why?