Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study

Case Title:

Wal-Mart's 'Corporate Citizenship' Initiatives

Abstract:
Wal-Mart, established in 1962, has grown to become the world's largest retailer by 2005, with a gross profit of $76.7 billion. It has expanded to more than 6,000 stores across the world and is known to offer 'everyday low prices' for its products. But, of late, the retailer has been criticised for its corporate practices. However, Wal-Mart has initiated steps for projecting an image of a good corporate citizen.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To debate whether the criticisms levelled against Wal-Mart are well-founded or is it that size does attract such criticisms naturally
• To discuss corporate citizenship initiatives taken up by Wal-Mart to refurbish its 'bad corporate citizen' image
• To debate whether the initiatives undertaken were sufficient to project the image of a good corporate citizen
• To highlight the importance of corporate citizenship initiatives by companies for their own benefit.

Keywords : Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study Wal-Mart, Corporate citizenship initiatives, Need for corporate citizenship, Corporate responsibility, Wal-Mart's employment practices, Criticisms against Wal-Mart, Human rights standards, Poverty-level wages, Lawsuits against Wal-Mart, Class action lawsuit, Sex discrimination, Health insurance plans, Negative publicity, Rapid response PR (public relations) team, Environmental initiatives