Ethical Case Study Wal Mart vs Petco

Employees and Managers in RSPCA set marketing objectives in order to create awareness of their products and services to public, to increase their sales in stores, promoting their products and services, launching new products services and brand image. One of their market objectives is “To work for the welfare of pet animals”. This organisation is set up to improve the welfare and support animals from cruelty and provide loving home for them. Another objective is “To raise standards of regulation in animal welfare and ethical journal across the world”. This objective is set by the business to ensure support animals from cruelty and to stop brutality to animals and ensure it applies across the world. On the other hand, another objective for RSPCA is “To improve the lives of animals by putting an end to suffering of animals”. This business aims to stop the suffering of animals when used in experiments that can affect them negatively and kill them.

Ethics has been around for a long time. Merriam-Webster defines ethics as rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. It is an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior. Ethics has much to do with feelings and beliefs. If you feel deep down in your heart that something is not right, then it you should not do it. The Bible says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17 English Standard Version). Ethical business procedures include guaranteeing that the main legality is in place. Also, the company observes moral standards in its relationships with the people in its business community, which includes the most important people in their business, who are the customers. This report will discuss ethics in business, ethically transformed organizations; organizations preparation to make ethical decisions, ethical danger signs, and organizations that does business globally.

Ethics, ethical values, and social responsibility should all work in unison in a corporate business structure. These key traits are better defined as maintaining overall good business morals, obtaining employees who possess personal ethical values, and finally to behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. For a business to better ensure these quality business traits a code of ethics should be adopted by the business. In the cases of Bernie Madoff and Enron, the most well-known financial scandals in history, I feel, gave a major hand in pushing business all across America to have and enforce the code of ethics.

The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.

Considering your company already faced a class action lawsuit for peddling unhealthy puppy mill dogs all the way back in 2009 and you still haven’t taken action to solve the problem really surprised me. Thankfully starting in 2010, dogs that came from puppy mills were no longer aloud to be sold at Petland. Even though the puppy mill problem was solved, that does not mean there weren’t any other problems that needed to be addressed.

Petco has a very strong personnel policy and code of ethics which put animals first. They focus on hiring animal lovers first regardless of their retail experience. Hiring animal lovers first gives the employee a better opportunity to establish a relationship with the customer. Then they have a great employee training program focusing on animal care then on customer relations. Their strategy is one that focuses on both customer and employee engagement. Employee engagement is very important in this process because an employee who has a voice and is treated well is more likely to treat the customer better.

PetSmart has been in operation since 1987 with a mission to serve pet owners, termed "pet parents" by the company across multiple product and service platforms (PetSmart.com.PetSmart Corporate: Company Overview. 2012). PetSmart's goal is to capture an ever increasing share of the dynamic pet market, which has 62% of households in the United States owning a pet, equating to more than 71 million homes" (PetSmart.com. Investor Relations. Annual Report. 2010); by providing pet owners differentiated choices and value across key categories: "food and treats, supplies and

Petsmart is a specialty retailer of pet products and services. They provide food and products, and offer services such as grooming, boarding, doggie day damp, day care, training and adoptions. The company employs about 53,000 associates and operates 1,477 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. (Company Information, 2010). Petsmart also does their part in the area of sustainability. The following will discuss what the company is doing in the areas of social sustainability and environmental sustainability. Then will discuss how their mission statement and website tie into their sustainability efforts. And finally, the following will give suggestions on how to improvement their sustainability effort.

Business Ethics is a set of moral principles applied in the commercial world. Business ethics provide guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in both their strategy formulation and day-to-day operations. An ethical approach is becoming necessary both for corporate success and a positive corporate image. Following pressure from

Business ethics refers to the consideration of moral decisions and responsibilities in the process of operating a business. Business ethics, practiced throughout the deepest layers of a company, become the heart and soul of the company 's culture and can mean the difference between success and failure. Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions. Ethical business environments are created with foundations of integrity, accountability and commitment.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world 's largest retail enterprise, with total revenue of $421.8 billion and a net income of $16.4 billion in 2011. 1 It is also the world 's largest employer, with 2.1 million employees worldwide in 2010 2, not including workers hired by its providers. In my opinion, Wal-Mart provides a clear illustration through which to look at how many multinational companies (MNCs) take part in an illegal and unethical behavior. They use their bargaining power and market control to pressure countries to overlook environmental degradation and violation of national labor laws. They dictate expected pricing for products, particularly through imports from overseas countries. Labor is fulfilled mostly by underage and underpaid employees. In the United States, since 2005, Wal-Mart has paid about $1 billion in damages to U.S. employees in six different cases related to unpaid work. 3 Furthermore, Wal-Mart opposes any form of collective action, even when employees are not seeking unionization, but simply more respect. 4 The fact that Wal-Mart opposes unions exist. The company has a long history of fighting them, to the point of closing stores after employees organize. Managers have been instructed to talk to their teams about why unions are so unwanted in their business. Overseas, the company was involved in a series of scandals, including multiple cases of bribery. In April 2012, The New York Times published a story that

(Panza & Potthast, n.d.) Ethics is very important to a company’s success. Ethical behavior can bring benefits to a business. They can attract customers, which can lead to a boost in sales and profits. It can attract the right employees and increase productivity. It can also attract investors and keep the company’s share price high. Unethical behavior on the other hand can damage a company’s reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. It could also result in lower profits.

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)

In this paper, we will look at the business ethics controversy that was caused by Volkswagen and the company had to pay up to $15 billion dollars to settle a civil court case. The controversy was caused when it was found out that Volkswagen had installed a device in their diesel engine cars. This device reduced pollution caused by the engine when it was being tested for emissions. This resulted in cheating the authorities and promoting Volkswagen as an environmentally friendly car when it was not actually one. It had these devices installed on most of its car models. The company initially had an increase in sales but then was eventually caught and had to pay a large sum of money as mentioned above to settle a lawsuit.

“As a branch of ethics the field of business ethics is interested in how judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, moral obligation and responsibility, rights and duties, and the like, are made and justified” (Gill, David). As a descriptive enterprise, business ethics is an analytical exercise in understanding and explaining how people and businesses make their ethical judgments and decisions. If your business does not carry the proper ethics it cannot thrive. It takes the necessary steps within the business management to enforce these ethics upon their business. The field of business ethics is interested in more than just social and environmental responsibilities but those are certainly critical component areas.