Management Information System: Wal-Mart - Case Study Example

Case Study: Management Information System Table of Contents Key Facts Related to the Case 3 Question 3 Question 2 4 Question 3 5 s 6 Key Facts Related to the Case Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retail company recently implemented a flexible scheduling information system developed by Kronos (STOA, Flexible scheduling at Wal‐Mart: good or bad for employees?, no date). The scheduling system prepares a schedule for both part time and full time associates on the basis of the shift viability information provided by the workers. The underlying rationale behind the implementation of this technology was to reduce the world load on store managers who were previously responsible for scheduling the working hours of the store representatives. The system developed by Kronos is induced with latest technology that takes into account several factors such as sales in individual Wal-Mart stores, customer traffic during peak hours, number of units sold, average time taken to sell a television as well as average time taken to unburden a truck full of shipment. All this information is logged onto the system with an increment of 15 minutes and the data is then measured against the information logged in the previous year. This allows the system to anticipate the requirement of workers at a particular time and thereafter a flexible schedule is prepared. However, this new system has met with severe criticism from employees as many of them have expressed their concern about the decreasing stability of their jobs which in turn may create financial adversity for them. In light of these facts, what follows is a case study regarding the ethical dilemmas facing the company and its employees as well as the consequences of implementing this system. Question 1 What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it? The flexible scheduling system developed by Kronos may lead to unpredictable scheduling of work hours which may jeopardize the work life as well as personal life of employees. The system may entail an employee to be present on call during rush hours or may also require an employee to be present during the night shift in the 24 hours Wal-Mart outlet in spite of the employee’s inconvenience. The underlying problem in this case is that employees have no choice other than complying with the system as non compliance may result in the termination of their employment contract. In fact, many of the Wal-Mart associates have expressed their concern regarding the fact that this system is being used by senior managers in order to pressurize the workers to work for more hours without even considering about the impact that such pressure may have on the lives of the worker. Therefore the ethical dilemma that is being faced by Wal-Mart is the fact that the system is in one way, employing an authoritative leadership style where emphasis is only being provided on the productivity of the company and not on the well being of the associates. This is widely evident from the fact that a substantial number of associates have complained regarding delay of payment as well as incorrect payment of wages. It has been reported that the system developed by Kronos has led to a significant enhancement in Wal-Mart’s productivity. Nonetheless, such improvement came at a great cost in the form of highly unsatisfied workforce and severe criticism of the flexible scheduling system. Therefore, Wal-Mart faces an ethical dilemma as they are entirely liable for the conflicts that arise in the work life as well as the personal life of the employees. Wal-Mart employees also face an ethical predicament as majority of them may choose to adopt unethical means while filling up their availability forms in such a way that they get the favorable working hours. Moreover, part time employees can reap the maximum benefit out of this system as they may make themselves available at all working hours. Consequently all of their shifts may get allotted to them through the system thereby leaving no shifts available for the associates who provided their availability according to their convenience. Therefore it becomes unfair for mainly the full time workers who are on salary. Part time workers who have been recruited on hourly pay may get all their shifts allocated to them. This in turn will benefit the company as they will get most of their work done at a cheaper cost of labor as part time wages are considerably lower than full time salaries. Due to such rigorous work schedules followed by the part time workers the full time workers may suffer from loss of pay. Question 2 What ethical principles apply to this case? How do they apply? The ethical principles that apply to this Wal-mart issue are the Golden rule and Utilitarian Principle belonging from the Candidate Ethical Principles. The Golden rule of the Candidate Ethical Principles says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Bubblews LLC, Ethics: Six Candidate Ethical Principles, August 19, 2014). This means that a person may have the propensity to treat others in the way that they feel they have been treated. Empirical studies done in the context of human resource have highlighted that a worker’s way of dealing with the customers is heavily influenced by the way the worker is treated by the superiors as well as by the work environment. In the case of Wal-Mart, the workers who have heavily suffered from the introduction of the flexible scheduling system developed by Kronos many not present themselves well in front of the customers. Their treatment of the customers might not be affected by the conflicts that they face in their work life as well in their personal life due to the unpredictable scheduling system. Such ill-treatment of customers may result in their dissatisfaction which in turn may deplete the customer base of Wal-Mart. Therefore, the question still remains as to what extent Wal-Mart will go to enhance its productivity by implementing such scheduling mechanism. The utilitarian principle states that, “take the action that achieves the higher or greater value” (Bubblews LLC, Ethics: Six Candidate Ethical Principles, August 19, 2014). This means that a person or an entity will always take those actions that will fetch greater benefits regardless of the consequences. This principle exactly defines the actions that have been taken by Wal-Mart managers. In the case, the underlying reason behind the introduction of the flexible scheduling system was to enhance productivity within the company. Therefore, enhancement of productivity became the goal of achieving a higher or greater value and introduction of the scheduling system became the action that was set to achieve the goal. However, what Wal-Mart managers failed to consider was the impact that the unpredictable scheduling system may have on the lives of the employees. As a consequence employees may be dissatisfied and this may increase the attrition rate for the company. Question 3 What are the potential effects of computerized scheduling on employee morale? What are the consequences of these effects for Wal-Mart? The computerized scheduling system implemented by Wal-Mart may severely affect the morale of the company’s employees. This is precisely because the experienced employees with higher salaries feel that they can be easily pressurized by the senior managers to quit the job since they are not enthusiastic to work in the night shifts or the weekend shifts. This will allow the company to replace the highly paid employs with a staff base with lower salaries of hourly wages. This in turn will allow the company to save a lot on the operating expenses. Therefore, employees fear that they might lose their job, and this negativity affects their quality of work. The implementation of the flexible scheduling system may result in both customers as well as employee dissatisfaction. Therefore, not only may Wal-Mart suffer from a depleting customer but they may also suffer from a depleting base of experienced and highly skilled employees. This in turn may affect the quality of operations that is conducted within the company. Moreover, if Wal-Mart indeed chooses to pressurize the highly paid employees to quit and replace them with lower wage employees then it will increase the employee attrition rate in the company which in line will not only have an effect on the quality of work but will also hamper the company’s productivity in the long run. Notes 1. Bubblews LLC, “Ethics: Six Candidate Ethical Principles,” Bubblews LLC, accessed 20 November 2014, http://www.bubblews.com/news/5869586-ethics-six-candidate-ethical-principles 2. STOA, “Flexible scheduling at Wal‐mart: good or bad for employees?” STOA, accessed 20 November 2014, http://disciplinas.stoa.usp.br/pluginfile.php/120368/mod_resource/content/1/casoWallMart.pdf Read More