Current Ethical Issue in Business

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).

The women in this case felt discomfort when they felt mistreated from their male managers in the form of sexism along with unfair pay and lack of promotions. In this case, a woman was told to doll up and to wear makeup in order to advance which is a perfect example of one’s boundaries being pushed while making them feel uncomfortable. The next conflict event was annoyance. According to the Huffington Post article regarding the case, there was a significant difference between the level of experience between male and female workers along with their opportunity for promotions. The male workers with less experience got promotions compared to the female workers with years of experience and positive performance reviews. Male workers were also paid more compared to their female coworkers. Being passed over for jobs was evident to the women identified in this case which lead to the awareness of gender discrimination, the next conflict event, in a diverse workplace with men and women with their only similarity being that they are Wal-Mart employees. The awareness of gender discrimination faced by thousands of female employees led to conflict, the last conflict event where a class-action lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart despite them saying that they were a diversity encouraging, fair treatment, and nondiscriminatory company (Shapiro,

This paper is composed for the individual assignment for week 2 of the MBA 633 Legal Issues in the Workplace course. The topic for this assignment consists of the differences between ethical and legal business issues. This paper will provide answers to questions related to employee behavior away from the office, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and bribes. Both topics have been presented in the form of video cases (video 93 and 98) found in the Cengage digital video library.

The term “ethics” is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior. When speaking of business ethics, one is referring to the study, and examination of moral as well as social responsibility relating to business practices, also including its application to the four functions of management as well as the decision-making process in business (Batesman, pg.167). This internal factor can easily influence the how an organization goes about accomplishing the four functions of management. Wal-Mart, like most businesses believe they uphold ethical standards in their business practice. According to Wal-Mart’s statement of ethics, leading with integrity in a workplace is key to running a business (Wal-Mart Ethics pg.10). Leading with integrity, and expecting teammates to work with integrity is one of their main focuses- Wal-Mart’s original founder Sam Walton said,” that it has always been an ethically led company” (Wal-Mart Ethics pg.4). They follow their three basic beliefs: respect for individuals, service to the customers, and striving for excellence (Wal-Mart Ethics pg.5). Although organizations may have their code of ethics, they still come across the occasional ethical problem in the company. Wal-Mart for example, had an issue with an employee named, Chalace Epley Lowery. Lowery believed that another

There is currently a group of women trying to bring a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. The case was originally filed in 2001 by six women who claimed that Wal-Mart discriminated against them by paying men more money and promoting them faster inside the company. It has turned into a group that could be as many as 1.5 million current and former Wal-Mart employees, who’s jobs ranged from greeter to manager.

an action can't be right if the people who are made happy by it are outnumbered by the people who are made unhappy by it.

Today, executives are having a rough time juggling between the demands of the workplace and those of their families and other personal responsibilities. In a bid to meet targets and other organizational goals and objectives, business executives in addition to traveling extensively also tend to dedicate long hours to office work.

While working at Wal-Mart for six years, Betty Dukes realized that she was never presented with the opportunities that other male employees did. In 2001, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had a lawsuit filed against them by 1.5 million female employees for sex discrimination. All of these employees claimed that Wal-Mart was discriminating through the use of salary and promotion which in result was violating Title VII and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964.

Discrimination continues to run rampant throughout organizations in both the United States and worldwide. The Supreme Court case, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., dealt with 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees that claim that they had been a victim of gender discrimination. The ensuing pages will discuss the specific issues that the plaintiffs encountered, followed by suggestions from a human resource manager’s stand point in rectifying adverse impact within the Wal-Mart organization.

1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer

2. Ethical Issues in Business. It seems that every day in the news we are hearing of new company that has acted at least unethically and possibly illegally in the operation and financial reporting of their company's business dealings. There are many ethical issues in business. One major issue that we see is over and under reporting net income. Companies like to show that every quarter the net income of the business has an increase or profit. In order to show this they adopt unethical or illegal means in the operation and financial reporting. One such method is the indiscriminate use of stock options for employees that enable companies to take employment costs off balance sheet and inflate earnings. With the recent ethical issues we have

The first way Walmart shows gender discrimination is by giving the female workers reduced amount salary compare to the male workers. Remember these male workers do a similar or the same job as the female workers who work at Walmart. A good example of this is a male cashier who works at Walmart gets about fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty-five dollars a year. On the other hand a female cashier at Walmart gets thirteen thousand eight hundred thirty-one dollars a year. These salary allocation system by the middle management of Walmart shows that they don’t care about the female workers. This gender salary discrimination is unethical from a moral standpoint. It is morally unethical because Walmart is stealing money directly from the female workers who really deserve it. On the other hand this is also legally wrong because there is law put in place by

Wages and benefits are not the only complaints Wal-Mart is now facing. Recently, Wal-mart was accused of denying women equal pay and opportunities for promotion (Bianco, 2003). Wal-Mart attempts to distract from their past and present diversity issues by devoting an entire section of their webpage to this subject but until Wal-Mart can show statistical proof reflecting their claims of fair wages, good benefits, and equal treatment, the complaints by the unions and consumers will continue. These upper level management decisions are having a negative impact on the company and providing an unhealthy organizational culture for the organization.

Wal-Mart has been accused of discriminating against women. Women had been denied training and promotion opportunities that are offered to men. In addition women are underpaid. That is, men are paid more than women. According to Hoover’s handbook of American business, “in June 2001 a group of six current and former female Wal-Mart employees filed a sex discrimination lawsuit (seeking to represent up to 500,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers) against the company.”(Hoover’s Handbook, pg.907) The suit was filed because Wal- Mart failed to provide equal employment for women. In fact, there are over 70 percent of women working at Wal-Mart, but only a small amount of those women are managers. So, men are

Consequently, this has potential implications for the investment on the next generation; if parents view daughters as less likely to earn market wages or take paid work, they may be less inclined to invest in their education, which is woman’s fastest route out of poverty. Also, in a job market dominated by men who monopolize the most important positions, the male faction generally retains the opportunities for success, for advancement or for higher wages. In fact, a recent class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 1.6 million women employed by Wal-Mart stores alleges the retailer’s sexual discrimination has led to women losing out on pay, promotions and other advances; women are paid less than men in every department of the store. According to the study named in the lawsuit, two-thirds of Wal-Mart’s employees are female and less than one-third of its managers are female Until recently, social development, by design has guaranteed women limited growth in the employment ranks by the standard curriculum path recommended for the female gender; typical high school and junior colleges required home economics and other domestic-related courses to be completed by female students. Thus, the woman high school or junior college graduate enters the world without adequate training to compete in the business world beyond basic trade or “blue collar” worker positions.