Essay on Organization Ethics

There are lots of Unethical Actions that occur in a company. In September 2016, Wells Fargo was involved in a scandal that involved over 5,000 employees had made fake accounts and were eventually fired. There are 269,100 employees in the Wells Fargo organization, 2%, which is 5,300employees of the organization were let go. The Wells Fargo scandal had started in January of 2009 to September of 2016 and more fake accounts are still being made by Wells Fargo. There was so many employees involved in this scandal, therefore making it really bad for the company Wells Fargo. One of the reasons why the employees were fired from the scandal was because the people were feeling pressured to meet hard to reach performance goals. As the employees felt more anxiety, their ethical behavior became

Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 9,826 retail units under 60 different banners in 28 countries. With their fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Walmart employs 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, with the opening of the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Ark. The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., on Oct. 31, 1969. The company's shares began trading on OTC markets in 1970 and were listed on the New York Stock Exchange two years later. In this term paper I will be discussing the different ethical questions that arise about Walmart and some of the ethical concerns that people have about

The board of directors is also highly influential to a corporation and should therefore also be held accountable for supporting a corporation’s ethical code of conduct. The board of directors is responsible for looking out for the best interests of shareholders (Cross & Miller, 2012). The board of directors was designed to monitor executives, however in practice this is not always the case (Cross & Miller). Obviously this is monitoring is a necessary duty. A proposed change to ensure that the board of directors is monitoring the corporation’s top executives is to require that the board submit quarterly a report on the financial information of the corporation as provided to the board by the CEO and CFO. If this information does not

Companies need good employees and good employees do not want to work for an unethical company. Employee turnover will be high, increasing training time and expense and decreasing the functionality of an organization. Employers will experience low morale, more sick days, and employees will not be motivated. Investors do not want to invest in an organization that lacks ethics.

In today’s global society, a Code of Ethics policy is used to label established, acceptable behaviors among that industry’s business associates, potential investors, and the corporation’s executive officers and employees, and most important, the consumer (Ethics Resource Center, 2003). In an attempt to promote an increased efficiency and productivity potential level, among employees and prospective clients, a corporation’s standard Code of Ethics should guide its members toward a more in-depth examination of their personal moral activity, and how these actions affect the people or acquaintances they encounter. A company should utilize this strategy as a model for the professional behaviors and responsibilities of its constituents,

Therefore, creating an ethical system in an organization is of paramount importance and could be among the vital pillars that drive the business forward and create a positive repute. It should revolve around honesty and fair dealings, so that the organization can maintain a positive image of itself which will help to create a good standing for the company. An organization plagued with disrepute and a negative image due to lack of ethics and moral values cannot be very healthy or successful in the

Economic - Wal-Mart’s economic performance has been outstanding and its goal of providing quality merchandise at low cost to consumers fits well within this objective. Its stakeholders expect continual improvement to its bottom line, which is especially important to its shareholders, as they are the ones sharing in that return. “…2013, Walmart increased net sales by 5% to $466.1 billion and returned $13 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases” (573). As we will discuss later on, the struggle comes when the company tries to do this in a sustainable and ethical way. Further, the company must provide fair paying jobs and profit to shareholders with as little impact as possible to local merchants. This can be done by purchasing from U.S. manufacturers whenever possible.

With today’s constant media coverage of unethical decisions and their violators, it can be easy for many to people to assume that ethics codes are “just for show”. A prime example of the unethical culture that exists in business today, is the recent Wells Fargo Bank scandal. The company was fined $185 billion dollars, for allegedly opening more than 2 million bank and credit card accounts to unknowing customers who did not grant permission1. Employees, clients, and stakeholders alike, were committed fraud by the company that was contractually obligated to have their best interest in mind.

An ethical organization can focus greater attention on improvement and growth. When a company has an ethical basis, there is an established pattern for the way work gets done and issues are handled. It is incredibly freeing to know you can count on your coworkers and be valued by your employer. Practiced ethics in the workplace can make the difference between having a job you hate and having a rewarding career you look forward to each day. Employees who care about their work are considerably more productive and more likely to meet the goals of the company.

Having a reputation as an ethical employer can contribute to attracting the best talent in an industry as job seekers try to find the most advantageous employment affiliations they can. If job applicants see an organization as an unethical employer, the most talented, qualified, resourceful and candidates are expected to look somewhere else.

Wal-Mart seems to address the fact that there should be a code of ethics. The application of corporate ethical behavior needs to be dealt with on a personal and professional level. The key for Wal-Mart is to help their associates indentify if their actions are right or wrong. They rely on a system of training and business practices started by its founder, Sam Walton (“The NEW Age of Walmart”).

There is a fine line between what is ethically right or wrong with an action committed by an organization. According to Audi, “sometimes ethics is compromised without dishonesty but by deficiencies in clarity or candor or both” (Audi, 2009). Being dishonest and not telling the entire truth are examples of ethical dilemmas.

“According to a global survey of almost 500,000 employees, efforts to promote ethics are associated with better business performance. In high-integrity company cultures, employees were far less likely to see significant business misconduct. And at companies where employees were encouraged to speak up about wrongdoing, financial returns to shareholders were higher” (Bateman and Snell 174).

The stockholder and stakeholder theories are two popular frameworks used to examine the purpose of business and its ethical obligations. With reference to the quote above, both theories seem rational and enjoy strong support. However, a common failing of both is typically how humans interpret and implement the theories in contemporary business environments. For instance, Enron was so focused on the raising the price of their stock that they “cooked the books to produce fake profits”1. This paper will provide a description of each theory and, analyze ethical justifications and major objections to each theory. The ethical justifications will be based on pertinent examples - policies and actions, of businesses such as Wal-Mart. Based on this

     The modern theory of the firm, which is central to finance and corporate law, views the corporation as a of contracts among the various corporate constituencies. Upon this foundation, finance theory and corporate law postulate shareholder wealth as the objective of the firm. Research in business ethics has largely ignored this contracts theory of the firm except to reject the financial-legal model as normatively inadequate. Philosophers generally bring philosophical theories of ethics to bear on problems of business, and they regard the contractual theory of the firm primarily as a subject for criticism using the resources of philosophical