Women vs Walmart

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 is defined as moral principles that administer a person’s behaviour. It is the basic perception and essential principle of decent human conduct. Issues concerning unethical approach are known as ethical issues.

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

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).

Walmart employees, customers, and suppliers have seen their fair share of Walmart’s bad side. While Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, claims to make their employees feel like they “are working for them” and that they care Walmart has done such a horrific job with the way they treat their employees that one day, the workers decided to walk out and go on strike. They walked out on the grounds that they “were emblazoned with the workers’ grievances: poverty wages, miserly benefits, dignity denied” (Eidelson 1). They felt like they weren’t only taking a stand against Walmart, but also taking a stand for the younger generations to come. Walmart’s employees are getting treated unfairly and are underpaid. The CEO’s, Michael Duke, annual salary gives him more money in an hour than an employee who works full-time would make in an entire year. In Bangladesh, over 100 workers “died in a factory without outdoor fire escapes, NGOs blame Walmart for pushing deadly shortcuts” (Eidelson 1). Not only are the employees being poorly paid by Walmart, but they are paying their life to Walmart just to make enough money to barely get by. Walmart even made a pregnant employee work around chemicals that eventually made her ill. After a trip to the doctor, Walmart allowed her to be put on a lighter duty, so they made her a door greeter; however, they

Ethics programs take the organization several steps above compliance when not only complying with the law, but adhering to the values of the organization and society by encouraging members to always do the right thing (Nelson, 2012). Values such as respect, integrity, and honesty help to guide business decisions (Ruddell, 2004). Ethics programs can be involved in conflict resolution when competing values cause an ethical dilemma (Nelson, 2012).

Ethics is the process of doing right or wrong. It assists a person in the deciding if something is moral or immoral or if it is socially desirable (Dess, McNamara, & Eisner, 2016, p. 368). A person can get his or her ethics from religious beliefs, heritage, family, the community, education and friends. Organizational ethics is the values, attitudes and behavioral patterns defined by the organizations culture. Organizational ethics determine what is acceptable behavior.

After reading Olsson’s long essay about employee’s treatment and pay-rate, I’m glad she began her essay by describing one of the worker’s life. By describing her life, Olsson gives the reader a chance to relate to the worker and to imagine this experience in their own life. By doing this, I easily picture her experience and immediately found myself agreeing that this treatment is unacceptable. Through starting the writing with the worker’s story, the writer later continue to quote other employees of Walmart to get their personal point of view, which unsurprisingly is similar to the first employee described in the introduction. Olsson requote McLaughlin words saying "It's stressful," she says. "They push you to the limit. They just want to see how much they can get away with without having to hire someone else." Through these words, Olsson immerge the reader in his situation and seek their compassion and justice to change this treatment, which is very effective. Mallaby began his essay accusatorily. He immediately put me in a defensive position because he said “Only by summoning up the most naive view of corporate behavior can the critics be shocked -- shocked! -- by the giant retailer's machinations”, he adds “Wal-Mart aims to enrich shareholders and put rivals out of business! Hello?

The role of ethics in organizational behavior is the underlying factor to the success and longevity of any organization. A set of rules and guidelines focusing on promoting safety, trust, and responsible practice within the workplace must be established internally. Organizations develop code of ethics that center upon the promotion of good. Ethics are vital in developing trusting relationships between employees and administration within.

In American society, individuals are constantly subjected to discrimination and gender bias, which pollutes our education systems, military, and individuals in executive business roles. Women are more often subjected to these types of issues and have sought remedy for their issues by looking toward legal theoretical frameworks like Formal Equality, Substantive Equality, and a Non-subordination/Dominance theory approach, which set the guidelines for how to identify and dissect the problem.

Ethics is the application of one’s personal beliefs and the impact on how a person makes decisions regarding the relationships involving a company. The most common agents that involve a person’s decisions are owners, employees, customers, clients,

Discrimination continues to run rampant throughout organizations in both the United States and worldwide. The Supreme Court case, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., dealt with 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees that claim that they had been a victim of gender discrimination. The ensuing pages will discuss the specific issues that the plaintiffs encountered, followed by suggestions from a human resource manager’s stand point in rectifying adverse impact within the Wal-Mart organization.

One case that is receiving a lot of attention is Phipps, et. Al v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. which challenges sex discrimination in pay and promotional practices. The suit in question alleges that the Company denied female employees advancement and training opportunities, lower compensation than men for the same work or persuaded female employees to take lower wage jobs. Therefore, while the Company is considered the largest retail corporation in the world, they have many strides to make to improve their advancement of female employees and creating an overall inclusive and fair work

For example, female employees at Wal-Mart are being treated less than male employees, they have less rights, more responsibilities, and they don’t qualify for an

CSR plans are often born out of company conflict and can be used to repair a company’s image. Such is the case for Wal-Mart and it devotion to hiring, training and promoting the female workforce. In recent years, Wal-Mart has become embroiled in a massive class action gender discrimination lawsuit. In fact Meeks et. al. (2011) points out, “Wal-Mart is also facing the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in U. S. history with Dukes Vs. Wal-Mart”. It is because of this very large, very public lawsuit that Wal-Mart is attempting to repair their image. This CSR plan has both domestic and global implications. Meeks et. al. (2011) also states, “Wal-Mart must focus on repairing its damaged image while ore than one million women claim that the chain engages in a “corporate policy of discrimination”. So it leads to the next question as to what have been the results of the aforementioned CSR plans, and have conditions for women improved in the fallout of Dukes Vs. Wal-Mart.