GWU Issues Management

A blog established for the George Washington University School of Political Management's Issues Management course.

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Location: Washington, D.C., United States

A middle aged white guy, who likes to think, talk and, too infrequently, write about politics, religion and gadgets.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

What Would Wal-Mart Do....?

Actually, the question is, "What would you do?"

First there was this story, a week or so ago, about a brain damaged woman (a Wal-Mart employee) sued by Wal-Mart to recover medical expenses paid by them. This is a fairly routine practice known in the legal community as subrogation. No matter, the facts here are grim.

Then Wal-Mart reversed course.

What do you think of Jeff Jarvis' take, found here?

- Posted by Pat Cleary

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I agree mostly with his take on the story. Wal-Mart definitely didn't need to appear unsympathetic to its employees over a preventable situation. The fact that they have to undo each mistake only draws more attention to the mistake in the first place.

Where I tend to depart with his view is when he blames the PR agency. Their role is to encourage Wal Mart to do better but they can only put out the fires that come up, it's Wal Mart's responsibility to prevent them. It doesn't and shouldn't reflect poorly on them because they are doing a job. For all we know, they could have encouraged Wal Mart to give up the suit.

1:01 PM  
Blogger Fi5hburn said...

I sincerely believe their problems are an

2:54 PM  
Blogger Fi5hburn said...

...extension of a deeper problem in their corporate culture. I don't think I'd goes as far as to say they're evil, but these are definitely AWFUL stories stemming from an AWFUL manner of conducting business.

Not every decision should be determined by the net profit or net loss- which does appear heartless (not quite evil).

2:59 PM  

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