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Wal-Mart Group Case Study
Team A
Westley Bisson, Leah Bond, Ken Chrapkowski, Lisa Cochran, Christopher Cooper
MGMT560PA – Ethics in a Global Marketplace
June 17, 2012
Dr. Roger Fuller
Southwestern College Professional Studies

Wal-Mart Group Case Study
Team A’s paper will provide an in-depth review of Wal-Mart’s ethical challenges at home and abroad along with how Wal-Mart continues to make corporate social responsibility a priority in its business across the globe. The teams review begins with the history of Wal-Mart, which can be traced back to the 1940s when Sam Walton began his career in retailing. In May of 1950, Walton purchased a store in Bentonville, Arkansas and opened Walton 's 5 & 10 (Tribble, 1990). The company steadily grew throughout the 60’s and 70’s through a combination of underselling the competition at the expense of a smaller profit and by acquiring ownership of small regional chains to expand their brand. To the present, where Wal-Mart has annual revenue near $387.69 billion and employs over 2.1 million people and maintains more than 6,200 facilities around the world, including over 3,800 stores in the United States and 3,800 international units. In fact, their U.S. presence has grown so rapidly that there are only small pockets of the country that remain further than 60 miles away from the nearest Wal-Mart (Zook & Graham, 2006).
Despite Wal-Mart’s huge successes, there also have been many detractors who point to disadvantages that have come along with their rise to prominence. Over the last decade or so, Wal-Mart has become involved in thousands of lawsuits for a variety of reasons. The majority of these suits are class action lawsuits in which Wal-marts employees claimed ethical violations and sued for unpaid wages, race, age and gender discrimination among many other issues which have been brought to light.
U.S. Ethical Challenges
Wal-Mart has faced numerous ethical lawsuits and issues over the years that have caused much



References: Birchall, Johnathan (2011) Obama Boosts Wal-Mart Expansion Plans, FT.com, FT Clifford, Stephanie (2012) Wal-Mart’s U.S NY Times CNN (2003) 250 Workers Arrested at Wal-Mart, CNN.com, CNN Freidman, M. (July 28, 2008). Wal-Mart’s own audit documented constant violation of labor laws Friedrichs, D. O. (2009). Exorbitant CEO compensation: Just reward or grand theft? Crime, Law and Social Change, 51(1), 45-72. doi:10.1007/s10611-008-9144-2 Geller, Adam (2005) As Union Nears Win, Wal-Mart Closes Store, CommonDreams.org, CommonDreams GlobalEthics.org (2005) Lawsuit Claims Wal-Mart Condones Overseas Sweatshops, Martin, Andrew (2012) Wal-Mart Vows to Fix It’s Controls, NYTimes.com Mui, Ylan (2011) Wal-Mart works with unions abroad, but not at home, WashingtonPost.com Ortega, Bob. (1995, July 3). Broken rules: Conduct codes garner goodwill for retailers, but violations go on --- factories in latin america still hire minors illegally and unionists get Mart_CaseStudy.pdf Smith, Robert (2011) New York City Officials to Wal-Mart: Keep Out, NPR, NPR Stone, Ralph (2009) Dead Peasants Insurance Policies, Fogcityjournal.com, FCJ Stone, K understanding of public problems and policies. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/faculty/stone/10yrstudy.pdf Top 10 unethical business actions. (2011, September 13). Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://listverse.com/2011/09/13/top-10-unethical-business-actions/ sept 13, 2011 top 10 TheClinic (2011) Indignación por placa de Pinochet en sede de Wal-Mart, TheClinic.cl Trimble, Vance H (Dutton, 1990) Unknown Wal-Mart Corporate. (unknown). About us. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.walmartstores.com/AboutUs/ Webteam (2007) Ethical Problems Remain at Wal-Mart, Makingchangeatwalmart.org, Zook, Matthew & Graham, Mark (2006)

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