Marketing in Germany: Three Ethical Issues to Contemplate When Entering the German Market

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue (approximately four hundred and eighty billion dollars) and the largest private employer in the world with two point three million employees. Walmart is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. “One Nation Under Walmart” is a case about how Walmart has taken over the retail business and the effects of their market domination. The case also shows statistics of how much percentage Walmart is of many suppliers’ sales. According to the case Walmart has a 30% market share of all household items. Twenty-eight percent of Dial’s business and twenty-four percent of Del Monte’s business go through Walmart stores. It is also worth noting that Walmart imports ten percent of all United States imports from China. The case states that Walmart is able to offer cheaper prices because they put so much pressure on their suppliers to lower their prices. The case, “One Nation Under Walmart”, explains the problems that some people have with the massive retailer. One of these problems is how Walmart has forced numerous local businesses to close their doors through their extremely competitive pricing. They are able to purchase bulk goods at such low prices and thus pass the savings onto customers. As a result of these lew costs, rivals are driven out of business which results in a loss of jobs. Jobs are vital to the success of a community and with Walmart causing job

Walmart has the right to describe about the current benefits and job security they offer to their employees. They can also explain employees about how they are better than other unionised stores. They can also explain about the negative effects of unionising the store like strikes and job hour losses. They can inform them about the union fee employees has to pay if they join the unions. They can inform about the negative motives of people who run these unions. They can also explain them that the employees are treated as “associates” rather than just “employees” so it is duty of them to protect the best interests of the company.

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

As one of the top exporting countries in the world, Germany is not a stranger to international business. Obviously international trade and foreign business plays a major role in their economy. Germany’s innovation and ability to attract foreign direct investment allows them to be one of the world’s largest economies. In order for us to understand how German business is structured we must first learn about their culture and environment.

Wal-Mart founded in 1962 by Sam Walton is now the largest American retail corporation. With thousands of chains of stores and warehouses Wal-Mart monopolized the American retail industry. In addition, Wal-Mart is the second largest retail corporation in the world employing of two million employees world-wide. As one of the most valuable corporations in the world Wal-Mart continues to improve their sales annually while offering some of the lowest prices available. Wal-Mart’s famous low price guarantee, come at a high expense of the environment, the small businesses, education, the rights and safety of the consumer, but most importantly their employees. Although Wal-Mart has plays a dominate role in American economy, this “American”

As stated on the corporate website (2017), “Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, where 2.3 million associates meet the needs of more than 260 million customers every week.” These numbers are huge, and with so many locations around the globe, they have had allegations been made by employees regarding their dissatisfaction about poor work conditions, gender discrimination, low wages, poor benefits, and inadequate health care. Walmart has been criticized for its policies against labor unions and this issue has prompted public outrage, (Johansson, 2005) which is of great concern for the market. The company has also faced criticism for being anti-union, but it has claimed that it is rather pro-associate, whereby employees

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).

Most of Wal-Mart’s suppliers are from China and that means less American made products and more foreign products going around. This lack of American production is what causes American factories to shut down, leaving the employees without jobs. Even if these employees decided to work with Wal-Mart, they would make around half of their normal salary with no health care or the job security benefits that have been the normal in factory work. “Wal-Mart wants high turnover, so people won't become attached to the company, and make demands on it."-Glen Ford.

According to Pamela Prah, another reason workers are not seeking involvement in unions is that they are afraid of losing their jobs. In her article about the future of labor unions, Prah quotes Carol Pier, a labor rights and trade researcher for the Human Rights Watch, as saying, “U.S. labor laws contain weak penalties, are riddled with loopholes and are not effectively enforced.” This means that employers who fire workers for joining unions could either get away with it or only have to face a weak penalty. There has been a recent controversy over wrongful termination involving the retail giant, Walmart. Walmart is known for openly avoiding union organization and they have been accused of strategically firing union members throughout the country (Vrba). Walmart denies firing workers because of union involvement but the case will eventually go to court (Vrba). In cases such as this, workers could unjustly lose their jobs and so this prevents workers from acting and joining a union.

This case study analyzes the experiences of Courtland Kelley at General Motors (GM). Courtland Kelley a third generation GM worker put his job on the line by pushing the GM managers and executives to fully respond to the safety issues found while working as a safety inspector at the company. Kelley along with his supervisor Bill McAleer first discovered the issues while auditing GM cars at rail yards across the country, a spot check of vehicles before the cars were cleared to be delivered to the dealers. McAleer was taken off the audit as a result, who subsequently sued the company seeking whistle-blower protection. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge in favor of GM. The judgement only increased Kelley’s

Please read Barbara Ehrenreich's recent book, Nickel and Dimed. In her brilliant book she reveals the misery of working for a big box retailer and the impossibility of living in America on poverty wages. She spent time working at Wal-Mart in St. Paul, Minnesota and struggled to survive. Read her account of the anti-union propaganda that Wal-Mart espouses. Wal-Mart is no friend to the working poor.

Another cause is represented by the Manager’s idea that he can develop a well-established business in the Eastern German because of cheap labor and raw materials. His choice to expand on German marketplace was not based on rational facts or clear developed objectives.

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

From the beginning, Walmart did not have many threats. However, not only the competition is different, several global retailers such as Target, Carrefour, Costco, and Amazon, are working hard to keep efficiency. They are trying to work together to shrink the prices difference between them. Walmart has facing difficulties from every single angle. Not only the company has internal labor relation problems, but also it has some external threats from its competitors. The company must work hard to get possible solutions against its competitors, and to solve any internal problems regarding its labor relations. Even though Walmart does not have any problems

Mr. Fisher, President of Central Steel Door, made many mistakes in his efforts to hire a sales manager in Europe. First, advertising in the International Herald Tribune is only going to attract Americans who lack the intelligence and in-country expertise the company needs to successfully compete in unfamiliar markets. Second, he fails to make the most of these candidates that these ads generate by asking them for referrals and offering an incentive. He fails to use the limited success of the ads to successfully network into the international community. Third, the lack of sensitivity ot living costs in Belgium and Germany for sales manager led to them quickly resigning. Fourth, Mr. Fisher didn't coordinate with the Belgian government to ensure employment taxes were paid on time, leading to a bill for back taxes of thousands of dollars. Fifth, the hiring of ten local people to staff distribution centers and the firing of five of them not only had to be communicated months in advance to local government authorities, Central Steel Door is legally obligated to pay them for a full year of their salaries based on German law. Sixth, the ignorance of local, regional and national laws ends up costing the company more than it made on any sales in the region ruing the case study's timeframe. Seventh, Mr., Fisher neglected to consider how the cultural differences between the Untied