Cultural Diversity and Walmart

Cultural Diversity and Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is a multinational corporation that has faced many difficulties expanding in other countries. The corporation should learn from their cultural mistakes and work to improve their acceptance of other cultures. Cultural relativism is the sociological concept that requires people and businesses to have an open mind about other cultures (Editorial Board, 2011). Multinational corporations can apply the concept of cultural relativism to expanding and maintaining their business in other countries. In order to successfully establish a corporation in a foreign country, the corporation must be able to coexist with the other businesses and citizens in society. Often there are many barriers to overcome because citizens see the new corporation as an intruder and are not accepting of the changes. Wal-Mart should learn how to tolerate other cultures and accept their values and traditions before making the decision to expand in those countries.

There are various definitions of culture and sociologists stress the idea that culture ultimately connected to production, social institutions and methods of communication in society. The Introduction to Sociology textbook defines culture as a combination of ideas, practices and symbols that unite a group of people by creating shared customs, values and beliefs (Editorial Board, 2011).There is no standard culture as each culture is shaped by the history, politics, religion, economics and geography of the society.

Cultures are challenged in their ability to understand the point of view of individuals from other cultures because they are accustomed to their own traditions and way of life. For example, people that live in China are encouraged to have a collectivist attitude while people in America live in an individualist culture. Americans are concerned with how their individual actions impact their lives while the Chinese care about how the actions of groups change society. People who live in collectivist cultures are often interdependent and value relationships and social obligations. In contrast, people who live in individualist cultures work to be independent and value their own goals and achievements (Harms, 2007). When Wal-Mart first expanded to China, they did not appreciate the collectivist culture and faced problems hiring and keeping employees. They eventually overcame cultural differences by offering products that appealed to the Chinese and valuing employment relationships (Harms, 2007).

American corporations are particularly vulnerable to making errors in regards to communicating with other countries because their society is much different than that of other countries. This can be a disadvantage when it comes to expanding a corporation globally because Americans need to break the communication barrier and be able to understand the needs of people in other countries. Studies of both children and adults reflect