organizational culture and diversity

Walgreens began life as a single, stand-alone drugstore. Over time, Walgreens built more stores around the country. CVS also began as a stand-alone drugstore; however, instead of just building CVS stores around the country, it also expanded its business umbrella over other drugstores and in conjunction with grocery stores during a long period of acquisitions. The benefit of this type of M&A is that customers who are used to going to a drugstore with a specific name will continue to go there. At times, some of the customers will not even realize the store is part of the CVS empire.

Walgreens and CVS drugstores have both changed over the years since their inceptions. Long after CVS entered new areas of business, Walgreens finally began to branch into new areas, including the acquisition of several other drugstores. CVS was the first of the two companies to create a walk-in health facility within its stores–the Minute Clinic–which handles non life-threatening illnesses and injuries. Eventually Walgreens also included a non life-threatening medical facility inside its stores, the Walgreens Healthcare Clinic.

Walgreens’ mission is to be America’s most-loved pharmacy-led health, well-being, and beauty retailer. Its purpose is to champion everyone’s right to be happy and healthy. Its pharmacists and technicians are focused on building closer relationships with their patients in the communities they serve. Diverse employees at Walgreens score the company 64/100 across various culture categories, placing Walgreens in the bottom 45% of companies in the United States with 10,000+ Employees for Comparably’s diversity score. The Diversity score provides insights into how diverse employees feel and rate their work experience at Walgreens across various culture dimensions. Walgreens ranks in the bottom 45% of other companies in the U.S. with 10,000+ Employees for Diversity Score (Comparably, n.d.).

CVS’s corporate vision and mission statements embody business aims in helping target customers maintain optimal health. CVS’ mission is to improve the lives of their customers “by making innovative and high-quality health and pharmacy services safe, affordable, and easy to access” (Comparably, n.d.). CVS’ vision statement is, “We strive to improve the quality of human life.” CVS’s organizational culture has an emphasis on corporate citizenship, in terms of support for stakeholders. Through its corporate culture, the company enhances its corporate image, as well as health care and retail pharmacy branding.

Do some background reading on the cultures behind Walgreens and CVS Health or two other companies who are competitors in their industry. Here are some articles and video to get you started on your research that will give you some background about the cultures of Walgreens and CVS Health:

Bells, S. (2019, October 13). Walgreens vs. CVS: Comparing pharmacy giants. Market Realist. Retrieved from https://marketrealist.com/2017/10/walgreens-versus-cvs-comparing-pharmacy-giants/. Market Realist Terms of Use grant you revocable license to access and use the Site for your own non-commercial use.

CVS. (2014, February 6). CVS’ quitting cigarettes marks a culture change. USA Today. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Rosenthal, H. (2012, December 1). CVS continues to embrace the culture that got it started. Chain Drug Review, 34(21), 42. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Top 100 markets. (2017, August 14). It’s WBA vs. CVS. MMR. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Tyler, J. (2018, June 18). We shopped at a Walgreens and a CVS to see which was the better drugstore, and there was a clear winner. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/walgreens-cvs-what-is-the-best-drugstore-2018-6#the-store-felt-spacious-compared-with-cvs-though-theyre-roughly-the-same-size-everything-was-more-spread-out-and-instead-of-gray-and-red-signage-was-light-blue-and-white-which-made-it-feel-cheery-19.Business Insider Terms of Use grant you revocable license to access and use the Site for your own non-commercial use.

Walgreens. (2019, July 23). Walgreens gets best place to work in 2019 disability equality index. Close–Up Media. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Walgreens Annual Report. (2015). Walgreens transformed by megamerger. MMR, 32(7), 55. Available in the Trident Online Library.

Walgreens Boots Alliance. (2017). New kind of corporate culture energizes Walgreens. Chain Drug Review, 39(7), 148. Available in the Trident Online Library.

WorldatWorkTV. (2010, February 16). Successful organizational cultures [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSZ3IPDmqCg.Standard YouTube License.

Case Assignment

Prepare a 5-page (not including title page and references) critique per the following format:

Title Page. Be sure to include 5 components of relevant information (e.g., Name, Class, Professor, Assignment, Date) on this title page.

Introduction. Discuss the topic of the paper and how you will approach it. It is best to write this section after you have written the rest of the paper. The title of this first section of the paper is NOT the word Introduction; it is your name for this assignment, such as Walgreens vs. CVS Health. (The heading for each of the other sections of the paper are in bold in the following four subtopics.)

The History and Culture of Walgreens. Describe the history and key elements of the culture of Walgreens and explain why these cultural elements are essential to Walgreens’ success. Be sure to apply the background material by supporting your writing with high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles found in the Trident Online Library.

The History and Culture of CVS Health. Describe the history and key elements of the culture of CVS Health and explain why these cultural elements are essential to CVS Health’ success. Be sure to apply the background material by supporting your writing with high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles found in the Trident Online Library.

CVS Health Should or Should Not Purchase Walgreens. Make an argument that CVS Health should or should not purchase Walgreens. Discuss the specific differences between the cultures of Walgreens and CVS Health in support of your position. Be sure to use the background material by supporting your writing with high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles found in the Trident Online Library.

Conclusion. Discuss the key points in your analysis that demonstrate the importance of understanding that organizational cultures are not easily changed and why culture should be a primary consideration when organizations contemplate an acquisition or merger.

Reference List. List all references that you cited in the paper using APA or other standard formatting. References include materials from the required background readings as well as any outside high-quality, peer-reviewed library sources you used in researching and writing your paper.

Note: A URL (website address) is NOT a reference. A reference always contains four parts: author, publication date, article title, and the source of the article. Sometimes there is no author, but the APA manual tells you what you can put in that spot instead, such as the first few words of the article title. The source for a high-quality peer-reviewed journal article is the journal!