Wal Mart's Ethical Issues

This article is written using an enlightened self-interest approach. The author describes Wal-Mart behaving in a way that increases its own benefits, with the outcome of their actions being the most important consideration. An example of this is the author’s notion that Wal-Mart’s low prices are due to “the exploitation of its workers” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), “systematic use of ‘maquiladoras’ in conditions of extreme exploitation” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), and Wal-Mart’s threat to move production to China to obtain lower prices. In this article, the author implies that Wal-Mart’s actions demonstrate that they are not concerned with finding the most ethical behaviour; they are merely interested in the action(s) that most closely achieve their goal to remain the “biggest chain of direct sales to the consumer in North America”. (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289)

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 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”

Discuss: Laws are set rules that may help guide our conduct but they do not always agree. Some ethical issues are not legally required, but ethically warranted. We have recently seen a prime example of someone standing by their ethics, but breaking the law in the recent case of the Kentucky woman refusing to provide a certificate of marriage to a gay couple. There is a connection between ethical behavior within an organization and its chances of long-term survivability. Any unethical issues will come to light at some point and they will destroy the company. Although some unethical behaviors may not be unlawful, they can destroy a brand. Kathy Lee Gifford did not do anything illegal by allowing children in other country to sew her clothing

It is said that “The only social responsibility that there is, is to obey laws and pay taxes,” but according to Milton Friedman, “social responsibility is to increase profits.” This kind of responsibility also a form of giving back. Many people believe that the future of Wal-Mart is sustainability. Wal-Mart Stakeholders are the associates, otherwise known as employees, the suppliers, and the investors of this company. I believe that Wal-Mart is doing enough to become more sustainable both locally and globally by the resources, its key stakeholders.

After analyzing the video on whether or not Jim's actions were ethical by not reporting the injury incident, I would have to imply that his dilemma was not only morally unethical, but lawfully unethical as well. By utilizing the deontology model that states to uphold certain underlying principles whether right or wrong and regardless of the circumstances, it is clear this ethical stand-point of "rule-based" approaches has been breached and a company's standard operating procedures were not met. This scenario and terrible decision could possibly result into a world of trouble for Wal-Mart Corporation that can be timely, expensive, and disruptive. Whether illegal or not, because the proper steps were not taken, the injured employee can legally

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

In the early ‘80s the Johnson & Johnson company was a very successful brand. So successful, that some of their most popular brands were able to corner more than a third of their market. However, all of their accomplishments were threatened when a series of unfortunate murders tarnished one their most popular names: Tylenol.

If Wal-Mart has such little regard for their own employees, it would make it difficult for a company to have minimal regard to where their merchandise is coming from. On the documentary, The High Price of Low Cost, informs of the countries and Wal-Mart’s effects on these countries, including its presence for manufacturing in China. The workers work in conditions of extreme temperatures from morning until dawn and provided boarding, which is shared with several others and lined with bunk beds. The board and utilities are deducted from their wages even if the workers choose not to stay on the facilities the board is still deducted from their pay. These workers that are looking for employment to make a better future for their families are

Although prices at Walmart considerably reasonable they continue to have issues with the public relation due to ethical issues, unethical practices consists of consumers were complaining about how they were not getting what they have paid for when shopping at the store. Walmart used many unethical practices to cover up what they were doing to customers the advocate group followed by the Food Chain Workers Alliance in order to analyze the problem in the outsourcing of the ethical systems. Walmart worker’s throughout the world are complaining about how they are not being treated fairly because they are overworked and under paid employees they are not receiving enough pay based on their skills and qualifications that should be determine how qualified their employees are for the job of their choice .

     When you talk about Wal-Mart the first thing that you have to remember is that they are the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart employs more people in the United States than any other company and is second only to the federal government in the number of employees that they have on the payroll. These are important facts to consider in that due to their tremendous size, Wal-Mart has an enormous

Wal-Mart, the big giant, the place where a lot of people usually do their shopping for the low prices and the variety of products were founded by Sam Walton. Walton was an entrepreneur with an innovative vision started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing that it is today. In fact, Wal-Mart is considered to be the biggest company in the U.S. and it has stores worldwide. According to PBS, “Wal-Mart employs more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government, yet the majority of its employees with children live below the poverty line.”(www.pbs.org) In addition, Wal-Mart likes to portray itself as a seller of U.S. manufactured goods

Wal-Mart was founded by businessman Sam Walton in 1962 as a small retail store in Arkansas, USA. From there it has grown to become the largest retail giant in the world. Ranked by Forbes 2000 list for 2011 as the 18th largest public corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating public entity in the world as of 31st January 2011, with gross revenue of 422 billion US Dollars (Walmart Annual Report, 2011). It is also noted for being the largest private employer in the world having just over 2 million employees serving in 8500 stores, in 15 different countries, under 55 different names, worldwide. (Daniel, 2010)

Walmart, one of the largest retailers in the world, was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. The first Walmart opened in Rogers, AR. It has since grown to over 10,300 stores all over the world. Employing over 2 million, it is hard to imagine the largest private employer in the world would ever be accused of being an unfair employee practices. Walmart has seen its share of litigation over the years. Litigation over off the clock work, sexual discrimination, health care benefits, unions, and unfair labor treatment have plagued the 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.