Business Ethics Case Study Walgreens

In a state analysis, the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services found that in 2003, Wal-Mart covered only 52% of total health care premium costs compared to K-Mart which covered 66%, Target which covered 68%, and Sears which covered 80%. Wal-Mart takes advantage of their employees and suckers them into their costly healthcare plans. But, if something happens to an employee, lets say two months after their hire date, they will not be covered by any healthcare plan whatsoever. "Part-timers—anybody below 34 hours a week – must wait 2 years before they can enroll. Moreover, part-time employees are ineligible for family health care coverage. Full-time hourly employees must

While Walgreens is exposed to all the general ethical conundrums of the business world, the highly regulated “Pharmacies and Drug Stores” industry does not give much room for them to act unethically.

The CEO and all senior financial officers also have an additional code of ethics. They are responsible for full, accurate, and timely disclosure in reports required to be filed by the SEC. Each member is also required to report any material untrue fact that comes to their attention or any deficiency in the design/operation of internal controls. Each member must report any violation of their code of ethics or any violation of other laws, rules, or regulations (Walmart 9). This additional codes of ethics is important because it holds all of the executives accountable for their actions. This should aid in preventing fraudulent reporting by management because this code can be cited when looking at disciplinary action.

I spoke to the store manager, and according to the manager, this employee opened/ created a lawsuit against the Walgreens. According to the manager, there was an agreement for settlement between the employee and employee relationship lawyer. Once the settlement passed it was agreed that they employee would leave the company.

In the United States Walmart effects negatively retail worker wages as well as retail employment. In addition, University of California researchers found that workers in Walmart earn on average 12.4 % less than retail workers as a whole (UNI Global Union, 2012). Walmart’s workers demonstrated thier dissatisfaction with working conditions and low wages by protesting on Black Friday 2012, which is the day the company is making the biggest profit. Walmart workers stood up and more than 1,000 demonstrations in a hundreds encouraging Walmart to act ethicaly towards them. For workers protesting it was a huge risk as they are oficially not protected by any labour union (Progress, 2012). Another evidence that Walmart treats its employees unfairly are discrimination claims. Women workers in California pursue discrimination claims saying that Walmart systematically treats them unfairly. According to women workers retail giant denied to pay raises and promotions due to gender bias (Levine & Gupta, 2011).

In this essay, I will be explaining about the history of Walgreens and what it has to offer to its customer. This will include the services and merchandise that has made them a successful company for over one hundred years. My mission for writing this essay, is to give the reader some more insight on what they may of not know about this nation wide store. I also want to provide the reader with confidence to rely on Walgreens as their number one trusted pharmacy and drugstore.

Since 1901, Walgreens has had a strong passion for customer service. The founder, Charles Walgreens, goal was to create a drugstore that was like no other. He said that for as many drugstores as he had worked at, he had never worked for one that had a focus for good customer service and low prices. Walgreens has grown by leaps and bounds since 1901 and is now recognized as the leader in the market with over 7000 stores. Charles Walgreen had an eye for good managers. He said he was able to pick people that he knew were smarter than him so to promote them and make them the heads of his drugstores. As a store manager, not only is it your job to run a store which includes ordering, customer care, and inventory control, but also it is your

Walgreen’s drugstore was located in Barrett’s Hotel at Cottage Grove and Bowen Ave on Chicago’s Southside. The neighborhood was prospering but Walgreen’s wasn’t. Mr. Walgreen decided to add brighter lights, expand the aisles (since the other pharmacies were dull and cramped), and add variety like pots and pans (unheard of in a drugstore. The quality of Walgreen’s pharmaceutical compounds met the very highest standards of purity and freshness. Efficiency was increased. But the most dramatic change Mr. Walgreen instituted was a lever of service and personal attention unequaled by virtually any other pharmacy in Chicago. And this was exemplified by Walgreen’s famous “Two Minute Drill” (Walgreen, n.d., p. 3).

Today I made a visit to Walgreens #4319. I was greeted by the store manager, Oscar Rios. He told me that all is well, and the participants are doing a great job. He also informed me that participant, Islam, no longer reports to work. The store was kept clean and hazard free. The participants were scheduled to work later in the evenings. Overall, management follows DYCD rules and regulations appropriately.

It is imperative that a firm uses it own tools, however, there are times that the firm relies on the efforts of their associate to problem solve, focus on the goals and get the job done as accurately as possible (Nassar, 2007). The following experience is written from several situational experiences as floating/shift manager that needed to resolve an issue not for the sake of making a few dollars for the Rite Aid/ Walgreens company, but rather to gain the trust of the community we work within (Nassar, 2007). The following testimony while working at two different location repeatedly occurred with slight variation of why the customer needed a certain prescription or a certain over the counter drug/product; the locations were in Rite Aid/Walgreens’

Potential Solutions The Carlson Company has two potential solutions for their dilemma of whether or not to expand. The first one being they can reject the expansion and let this business opportunity slip away from them. Obviously, there was some conflict internally between the board and higher executives at the company which would lead to a tough expansion. When a business opportunity is this advantageous and consequential there needs to be cohesion among executives to ensure smooth expansion.

If Wal-Mart has such little regard for their own employees, it would make it difficult for a company to have minimal regard to where their merchandise is coming from. On the documentary, The High Price of Low Cost, informs of the countries and Wal-Mart’s effects on these countries, including its presence for manufacturing in China. The workers work in conditions of extreme temperatures from morning until dawn and provided boarding, which is shared with several others and lined with bunk beds. The board and utilities are deducted from their wages even if the workers choose not to stay on the facilities the board is still deducted from their pay. These workers that are looking for employment to make a better future for their families are

A Wal-Mart photo lab associate, Claude is facing a difficulty concerning attending his father’s major birthday dinner.( Brotheridge, C. 2005) Claude comes from a tight family, and he didn’t want to miss the celebration. However, there is a conflict between his working schedule and the dinner plan. Owing to the inflexibility of the auto scheduler program and his manager’s non-negotiable management style, he was sure that his manager wouldn’t give him the time off. Additionally, he didn’t want to call a sick day, not wanting to bend the truth. He also couldn’t feel there was a cold coming. Yet, the main problem is Wal-Mart’s organizational management. Managers do not treat their employees with dignity and respect

While researching this topic, so many things were found to be eye opening. One in which is the way that Wal-Mart conducted themselves when they had to manage their employees. How they dealt with promoting them and demoting them. Last year Wal-Mart started a new management style and wanted to promote more family time and create a less workload on each of the managers and employees. Therefore, they changed the schedule to becoming 3 days on and 3 days off which created more room for managers to fall into the field. Managers would be thrown into the position of an area of the store they knew nothing about and expected to understand each thing and help customers find exactly what they

1. What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case ? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it ?