Case Study Of Wal-Mart

The values and attitudes in Walmart’s business situation deals with a lot of the overall ethics. This paper will discuss some situations that comes in walmart .ethics. This paper will include clear definitions of organizational values and a description of the organizational values of Wal-Mart. This research is conducted to understand the success of Walmart’s employment rate. The values and attitudes will be related to some examples of other companies and how Walmart was successful. Some arguments that will be addressed in this research paper is basic and common.

Wal-Mart had been criticized for its record in employee relations. Wal-Mart had no unions, despite

Nike started to open up manufacturing factories in countries like Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. Due to the wants of Nike to increase their revenue they tried to outsource the labor of their products since labor work in the US is very high and expensive. This was a bad idea due to that Indonesia pays their workers extremely low wages. Pakistan doesn’t have an age limit for them to be able to legally to work so many children in Pakistan were making

Legally the company has done no wrong doing, and the types of environments that these sweatshops are located in are normal within the countries cultures. The main issue in this case is the ethical responsibility of Nike to ensure that the workers work in humane work environments, and are paid wages that they are able to survive on (Vann, n.d.).

There are sometimes consequences of trying to lower costs to the consumers. One such consequence is that Wal-Mart has been under fire for their employee treatment. They were criticized for low wages and lack of benefits. After it became public about the handling of employees, they suffered a severe decrease in their stocks. In 2006, to help improve relations, Wal-Mart raised pay tied to performance and expanded and improved their health benefits package. They have also been accused of not sticking to proper workplace conditions, discrimination and employing illegal immigrants. In these three cases, Wal-Mart instead of actively addressing these issues, responded by deflecting that they were at fault.

The company Nike operates in over 50 different companies. This makes them a very large global company. Nike makes all kinds of products including gym shoes, clothing and apparel, equipment and accessories. “In 2004, Nike products were manufactured by more than 800 suppliers, employing over 600,000 workers in 51 countries” (Locke, Kochan, Romis & Qin, 2007, p. 6). Nike came under fire because of their workers that work outside the United States. In other countries, labor laws are unlike those within the United States. Large corporations often exploit the fact that they can pay laborers significantly less outside of the United States. Companies may also provide less than favorable working conditions to its labor force outside of the United States.

Should Nike be held responsible for working conditions in foreign factories that it does not own but where subcontractors make products for Nike?

The organization is also known to not use the American workforce but to outsource production to other countries. According to an article dated 2007, Nike had suppliers in 51 countries across the world (LOCKE, FEI & BRAUSE, 2007). Nike is subject to ethical concerns because they are a well-known organization that produces

With around 5000 retail outlets worldwide, operating in more then a dozen countries and with over US$286 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart is the top retail chain and number one fortune 500 company in the world. Wal-Mart is the top employer in the U.S. with 1.3 million employees, “the company accounts for 9 cents of every US retail dollar and sells around 20 per cent of the nation’s groceries and pharmaceuticals.” (Times News Network).

For years, Nike has been sourcing from factories that seek to meet the company 's minimum standards for good labor performance. The policy of Nike is to evaluate potential contracted factories before they enter the supply chain. Throughout their business relationship with Nike to assess compliance with high standards of social and environmental performance, including country-related risk for issues including forced labor, human trafficking and slavery Nike (n.d).

Nike is a worldwide global corporation that has its shoes manufactured on a contract basis in places like Asia, China, and Vietnam. Although it does not actually own any of the manufacturing locations, it has long been accused of having its products manufactured in facilities that exploit workers. Although Nike admits some wrongdoing in the manufacturing facilities of its contractors, it claims to have started a commitment to improve working conditions in those facilities.

Ragan Fretwell - Case 23: Walmart: But We Do Give Them a 10% Employee Discount

Wal-Mart now has to rebuild their images, procedures on how they conduct business nationwide and how the use ethical business practices. The New York time article reported, “Wal-Mart announces new ethical and environmental principles complete by 2012”. (Robinson, 2008)

They should be responsible for the legal, social and philanthropic aspects of its subcontracted factories. They are not paying their employees the legal minimum wage, caring about the working conditions and welfare of these employees and just not taking into consideration the well-being of others. Ten years ago, the company had been subjected to negative press, lawsuits, and demonstrations on college campuses alleging that the firm’s overseas contractors’ subject employees to work in inhumane conditions for low wages. With the introduction of the fair labour association and worker rights consortium, Nike is slowly trying to improve the working conditions on subcontracted factories and hopefully in 10 years, they would be able to re-establish themselves as a morally acceptable company.

Wal-Mart is certainly credited with changing the retail world as we know it with its low prices and big stores with huge selections but it has come at a price. They have struggled with issues that question the ethics as a company and legal issues that question how they manage people. These issues will continue to hurt their organization unless a complete change in management thinking and actions are changed. As a socially responsible organization, their management planning in this area is second to none. Lets hope they take the same effort in improving their image when it comes to ethics and legal issues.