Walmart Case Study
I believe the viewpoint of the author is that he believes the founder of Wal-Mart’s beliefs are still visible but due to the demand to be more profitable it has lead them to many problems. The author lists several lawsuits that Wal-Mart was found guilty which include child and labor laws, sexual discrimination, off the clock work, use of unions, health benefits, and use of illegal aliens which many stem around Wal-Mart trying to cut cost. I also fell the author believes that with as much income/profit that Wal-Mart generates, they could provide better benefits to employees such as health insurance and income.
The ethical issues Wal-Mart is facing with off the clock work is that Wal-Mart managers alleges they do not allow employees to work off the clock but through investigations and lawsuits this has been found to be untrue. Wal-Mart is not treating the employees fairly by compensating them for work they performed in order to keep cost down and to show a profit.
Wal-Mart faces sexual discrimination issues which are unethical due to using personal opinion on the judgment that women do not want to be managers. They are not treating women equally in the areas of pay, respect, and equality.
While it is important for a company to manage cost to be profitable, the health care benefits that Wal-Mart provides could be considered unethical because their cost for benefits were more than other companies. In order to reduce health care cost, it was recommended to hire more part time workers and less unhealthy individuals.
Wal-Mart’s unethical solution for addressing unions in the workplace was to either eliminate the department that tried to unionize to deter the employees or in some cases terminate employees if they supported unions. Another unethical situation was when Wal-Mart tried to leverage employees bonuses against them becoming unionized. One of the larger ethical issues was when Wal-Mart agreed to allow its Chinese stores to be unionized but they still fight the
The ethical issues Wal-Mart is facing with off the clock work is that Wal-Mart managers alleges they do not allow employees to work off the clock but through investigations and lawsuits this has been found to be untrue. Wal-Mart is not treating the employees fairly by compensating them for work they performed in order to keep cost down and to show a profit.
Wal-Mart faces sexual discrimination issues which are unethical due to using personal opinion on the judgment that women do not want to be managers. They are not treating women equally in the areas of pay, respect, and equality.
While it is important for a company to manage cost to be profitable, the health care benefits that Wal-Mart provides could be considered unethical because their cost for benefits were more than other companies. In order to reduce health care cost, it was recommended to hire more part time workers and less unhealthy individuals.
Wal-Mart’s unethical solution for addressing unions in the workplace was to either eliminate the department that tried to unionize to deter the employees or in some cases terminate employees if they supported unions. Another unethical situation was when Wal-Mart tried to leverage employees bonuses against them becoming unionized. One of the larger ethical issues was when Wal-Mart agreed to allow its Chinese stores to be unionized but they still fight the
References: Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2009) Understanding Business Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall.