Essay Walmart Case Study

Before walking into Walmart, the customers are guaranteed the lowest prices on every item. How can that possibly be? How can this corporation knock out its competition in every department? The answer is quite simple: Walmart is able to drop the ethics of society, pay the lowest wages, and cut the largest crucial corners to offer items for cheaper. In "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Wages", Robert Greenwald offers a completely valid argument. As a community, state, country, or world, is society educated and aware of what Walmart does to create products for dollars less? In the movie, Greenwald explains the impacts of Walmart on its employees, on farmers, on business owners, on factory workers, and, most importantly, on families. Through the use of the three rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, and pathos), Greenwald was able to grab his audience and, ultimately, show the devastation brought to global society through the development of the Walmart Corporation.

On the other hand, Sebastian Mallaby cares for the customer and the profits of the company, rather than the worker and their working conditions and wages. He suggests that Wal-Mart actually saves people money and is “a progressive story” (620). Their discount on food alone increases the welfare of the shoppers by fifty billion dollars a year. If you were to count all of Wal-Mart’s products into that same estimate, it would increase ten times. “This is very good news for poor and middle class families,” says Mallaby, because in this situation the customer really comes first. Even though the workers are not treated the best, they still have an advantage over the shoppers. They have less pay, but receive discounts on all of Wal-Mart’s merchandise whenever they shop there, which should be a plus for them. Compared to most companies Wal-Mart

Former bureau chief for the Economist, Sebastian Mallaby writes in defense of a large retailer in his essay, Progressive Wal-Mart. Really. Through his essay he explains that through the continual campaigns against the large corporation, Wal-Mart has been and still remains a benefit to working Americans seeking affordable goods. He elaborates on the crusade of Anti-Wal-Mart campaigns looking to paint the business as a detestable parasite, when all the company has done is keep costs low and earnings for its shareholders high while trying to defeat competitors, just as any company would.

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)

Business practices, in addition to guidelines on the matter of probable controversial impediments are a component of organizational ethics. This type of ethics is frequently motivated by the law; a copious amount of organizations practice ethics in order to be accepted by the community, not to mention in order to ensure a successful business. Ethical values can have a focal point on organizational concerns which assist the company in adhere to respectable practices within their establishment or corporation.

Yet, there is a limit to what reinventing can do. Consumers are rather price sensitive and in this area, due to economies of scale, it is impossible for the small merchants to compete. As Wal-Mart purchases its goods in large quantities, it can enjoy bulk discounts unavailable to small merchants. Thus, by virtue of size, Wal-Mart can force these merchants to fold up. However, just like there is no glory in a large man beating a small child at arm wrestling, it is unethical for such a big player in the industry to come in and give the small fry no space carve a niche. Thus, the company has an ethical responsibility to help these small merchants survive alongside their store/s.

A corporation as wealthy and powerful as Wal-Mart should invest in the communities and environments that it inhabits, but because it isn’t profitable for them Wal-Mart, the company that claims to be in the interest of the American people, neglects them.

Ethics, in business, refers to moral principles and standards that define acceptable behavior in the world of business. Ethical decisions foster trust among individuals and in business relationships. Recognizing ethical issues is important in the workplace. An ethical issue is an identifiable problem requiring a person or organization to choose from among several actions that may be evaluated as ethical or unethical. When you’re determining is a situation is ethical or not, there are three factors to take into consideration. Individual factors, organizational factors, and opportunity. Individual factors are sets of principles that describe what a person believes are the right way to behave. Organizational factors include the influence of managers, coworkers, and the work group. Opportunity is a set of conditions that punish unfavorable behavior or reward favorable behavior. “Target thrives on competing to win in the marketplace. We compete and negotiate actively, but always with integrity. Taking advantage of anyone by manipulating or concealing

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and who’s article appeared in Mother Jones, introduces her article through the perspective of a Wal-Mart worker. She focuses on the negatives of Wal-Mart by telling the real life struggles of different Wal-Mart employees. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” by Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for the Washington Post, focuses his article on what Wal-Mart critics say and attempts to defend Wal-Mart by comparing Wal-Mart to other retailers. Even though Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both examine the negative effects of Wal-Mart, Olsson berates Wal-Mart’s unfair treatment towards employees and the unlivable wages that the world’s largest retailer provides while Mallaby

Whether it's a brand new 59” LCD widescreen television or merely a pack of gum, each purchase you make from a Walmart store inadvertently results in a higher price paid; both within your community as well as the greater world around you. Relying entirely upon you-the ever consuming scavenger – to fuel the bustling utopia of the manufacturing industry, exists Walmart. More importantly, Walmart relies upon the oblivion towards matters outside of our own lives that we as society generally project. However, by looking past our own greed in a world full of price cuts and sales, we can expose Walmart for what it truly is; an entirely corrupt corporation feeding off of countries' vulnerabilities and reaping the benefits.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. The position Wal-Mart holds gives the company a large responsibility to contribute to the community that supports the stores. As an organization Wal-Mart owes its success to the stake holders of their business. Wal-Mart requires the community to continue business operations, Trevino and Nelson state that “a major stakeholder in business must be the communities of which corporations and other organizations are a part” (2011). Wal-Mart must consider the community happiness with their business decisions to remain profitable.

Sam Walton started Wal-Mart in 1962. The first store was in Rogers Arkansas. Daft (2008) have a statement to Wal-Mart that, “Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States” (p. 129). Wal-Mart’s website and financial statements disclose that the key values and beliefs include Wal-Mart’s claim to keep costs low for the customer and to build trust in its customer base (“Wal-Mart 2010 annual report”, p. 16). Walton built Wal-Mart on three core values, including respect for the Individual, service to Our Customers, and striving for Excellence (“Wal-Mart statement of ethics”, 2010 p. 5). Definitely, Wal-Mart has created a positive image through its several years’ contributions. The paper will dis-cuss Wal-Mart’s work in following

Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the

Over the past twenty years one company has dominated the discount retailer market. It has been hailed as the most admired company in America twice in the past five years by Fortune magazine. As of 2006 the company employed 1.6 million people that worked in one of their 6200 facilities worldwide. Despite this company’s unmatched success, it has been demonized by many in American culture, often being depicted as a destroyer of small business and the symbol of corporate greed. The company that I am referring to is Wal-Mart. No matter if you are an advocate or adversary of Wal-Mart and their business model, one thing must be mutually understood: They have mastered

1. What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case ? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it ?