Wal Mart

What are the potential effects of computerized scheduling on employee morale? The first one is that this gives more flexibility to the store managers. They can now work more effectively because the system favours productivity and customer satisfaction. Therefore from a managerial point of view, managers are more satisfied with the new system. However, the system generates a schedule that gives more flexibility to workers but less pay checks. Indeed, the workers are no more stable because their working schedule can fluctuate at any time. Therefore, job insecurity increases and the worker cannot feel at ease because he cannot plan his week.

Besides, the irregular working hours put the workers in more difficulty in their social life. Moreover, the system gives opportunities for the managers not to give overtime or full-time wages to the workers. These ones will be tensed because they will need more working hours in other to put bread on the table in their households. We can assume that Wal-Mart, being the company that gives the lowest wage rate in the US, people that work for this company need money in order to survive in society. So this system turns out to be not at all beneficial morally for the employees.

Finally, we can assert that this system gives more power to the managers to fire employees who do not fit into the computerized system. Therefore, the level of employee satisfaction goes down. What are the consequences of these effects for Wal-Mart? The first consequence of this effect is that it gives very bad publicity to Wal-Mart. Indeed, Wal-Mart was known to be the company that gives the lowest wage rate in the US. Moreover, from a social point a view, it was observed that the workers were mainly people from the low class and were from Hipic origin.

So before the new computerized system, Wal-Mart was not a renowned company for its social ways of doing. Now, people will know that the company has given even more insecurity to its cheap labour. The second consequence is that the company might have more difficulties to find workers because people will know that the job insecurity has increased. For instance, a company like Walt Disney also gives a low level of wages but the firm gives social benefits (medical aid and social security). This company will therefore be more attractive although it has a computerized system to schedule the workers’ hours.

Therefore, Wal-Mart will have competitive disadvantages to find cheap labour because they do not consider the worker’s point of view The last consequence is that from a legal point of view, the company has been criticized. Indeed, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 says that workers cannot be used as an article of commerce. Therefore, people are now saying that the company is using its workers as objects. This goes against Human rights and it gives an awful image to the firm. This gives a lack of credibility to the company and shame to its shareholders.