1. What impact does the Wal-Mart policy of keeping stores open 24 hours per day have on employee relations? Why is the effect of the 24-hour service policy on employee relations different in urban areas such as Las Vegas than it is in smaller towns in rural areas?

2.  Some countries, such as Germany, actually have laws that restrict retail stores from being open on Sundays, and regulate the weekday evening hours a store can remain open. The idea behind these laws is to protect employees’ time with their families. Do you agree or disagree with this rationale? What is the basis of your agreement or disagreement?

There is a variety of additional material available on the Web site that accompanies this text. You can access this information by visiting the Web site at www.prenhall.com/gomez. Emerging Trends Case 1 YOU MANAGE IT! Coping with the 24-Hour Service Economy at Wal-Mart jobs remain unfilled in Las Vegas stores, making it difficult to provide the level of service expected by Wal-Mart customers. Furthermore, Wal-Mart has recently had to deal with union organizing drives in Las Vegas, which it never experienced in its rural markets. Wal-Mart management has always strived to avoid unions so that its special culture of informality and rural friendliness to the customers is preserved. Strikes and formal contracts, often associated with unions, pose a threat to this culture. This situation in Las Vegas and other urban stores is troubling to Wal-Mart managers because future planned expan- sion of the company is focused on serving other urban markets where the opportunities for growth reside. Some 1,400 Wal-Mart stores are now open 24 hours a day up from no more than 300 several years ago. Careful managers, with the aid of computer tracking, make sure that at any hour of the day a Wal-Mart has no more staff than is absolutely needed. Daytime shifts from 7 A.M. to 4 P.M., which are the most desirable ones, are allocated on the basis of employee seniority. The third shift is the nighttime one, and most new employees start to work at Wal-Mart on the third shift or the second shift, which runs through the late afternoon and evening. The night work schedule has slightly higher pay than the day schedule, but it has all the disadvantages of nighttime work. These drawbacks include the difficulty of learning to sleep during the day and being out of phase with the lifestyles of family and friends so that it is more difficult to spend time together. Moreover, new Wal-Mart employees assigned to an evening or night shift receive minimum contact with their supervisors and managers who usually work on a daytime schedule. Ironically, it is the new employees who have the est need for feedback from supervisors as they learn how to do their jobs and how to fit into the Wal-Mart culture, which places a high priority on giving excellent service to customers. Wal-Mart stores traditionally have been located in smaller, rural cities not very different from Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart headquarters is found. The company's progres- sive human resource policies, such as its "open-door" policy (empowering employees to bring their concerns to managers at any level), profit-sharing bonuses, retirement benefits funded with Wal-Mart stock, and time and a half pay on Sundays, were greatly appreciated by employees in these rural areas. For these employees, night shift work was tolerated because of the scarcity of alternative employers that provided the same benefits that Wal-Mart could give. However, as Wal-Mart expanded to new markets, many stores opened in larger cities and urban areas such as Las Vegas and Dallas. For example, in the Las Vegas, Nevada, stores Wal-Mart is experiencing challenges it never faced in its stores in rural America. Wal-Mart in Las Vegas competes with hotels and gambling casinos for service workers, and the unionized casino pay is considerably more. Wal-Mart stores have suffered high turnover rates and have difficulty retaining employees who have attractive job alternatives not available to those who work in small town stores. Consequently, sometimes Critical Thinking Questions 1. What impact does the Wal-Mart policy of keeping stores open 24 hours per day have on employee relations? Why is the effect of the 24-hour service policy on employee relations different in urban areas such as Las Vegas than it is in smaller towns in rural areas? 2. Some countries, such as Germany, actually restrict retail stores from being open on Sundays and regulate the week- day evening hours a store can remain open. The idea behind these laws is to protect employees' time with their families. Do you agree or disagree with this rationale? What is the basis of your agreement or disagreement? great- Team Exercise With a group of four or five other students assume you have been asked for advice by Wal-Mart management to recommend some changes in human resource policies for stores located in urban areas to achieve the following goals: (1) improve reten- tion rates of Wal-Mart employees and (2) improve the employee relations climate in Wal-Mart stores. Assume that Wal-Mart wants to retain its 24-hour service policy in those stores. Be able to justify your recommendations. You may want to visit the Wal- Mart Web site at www.walmart.com for additional information about the culture, policies, and recent news about Wal-Mart. Experiential Exercise The purpose of this experiential exercise is to learn about nighttime work from people who have done it, because it is becoming more commonplace in the 24-hour service economy. 20