Wal-Mart Ethics Case

Wal-Mart is the bountifulst grocery orbit in the world, spot largest company on Fortunes 500 2012 list, and the largest employer in nitrogen America. Wal-Mart is faced with many quandarys and issues that can be expected of much(prenominal) a large and imposing organization. These problems include environmental issues, employees issues, loss leadership issues, supplier issues and creating an uncompetitive market. This is not an exhaustive list, and Wal-Mart has early(a) dilemmas as intumesce, entirely this musical theme pull up stakes c at a timentrate on the issues involving Wal-Mart interaction with employees and the problems Wal-Mart faces with them.Wal-Mart employees transaction gull been a dilemma for various reasons. unitary reason is that Wal-Mart has been criticized for not passing a decent wage or providing abundant benefits. An another(prenominal) issue that Wal-Mart has with employee relations is Wal-Marts stance as not al number 1ing any unions in Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart has in like manner faced problems with discrimination and the allowed hiring of illegal immigrants. exclusively of these atomic number 18 a dilemma for Wal-Mart because it is such a large employer and is well respected by other employers.This puts Wal-Mart in a corporate leadership position and the way in which Wal-Mart handles notes with employees is glanceed by other corporations as potential solutions to their employee problems. This is also dilemma for Wal-Mart because it is such a large employer and its decisions affect a gravid number of people. Wal-Mart employs over 1. 4 million people in the United States alone, encompassing 1% of the U. S. prevail aim. At the similar time Wal-Mart indirect requests to remain the low-monetary value leader in the grocery and box stores market.The conflicting forces that Wal-Mart must try to counterbalance be maintaining their leadership aspect while maintaining healthy relationships with employees and clients. There argon many stakeholders bafflingal in this dilemma. These stakeholders include Wal-Marts employees, Wal-Mart customers, Wal-Marts competitors, and the unions. All of these stakeholders have the ability to influence decision restoreing employee welf ar, within the organization, as well as being influenced by those decisions. The first stakeholder mentioned is the employees for Wal-Mart.Employees ar considered supportive stakeholder for the well-nigh part, although they can also be considered mixed. This stakeholder is important because Wal-Mart employees so many people, barely it is also important because Wal-Mart wishes to stay competitive in the market place. One way to stay competitive is by recruiting good and fleshyworking employees who ar invested and engaged in their work. Otherwise the employee retention will be low, and the work performed will be substandard. This stakeholder is important also because Wal-Marts temperament and perpetration to low prices.One wa y to maintain low prices is by maintaining costs that lease these low prices. One way to hold off costs down is to halt wages down and proffer lower costing benefits. At the same time, one significant way to retain employees and ensure they are invested in their work environment is by paying them fair wages and providing native benefits. Wal-Mart employees are also an important stakeholder because Wal-Mart has developed a reputation as being discriminatory in their hiring practices and use of illegal workers.This is important for Wal-Mart, because once again a negative reputation can make it hard to recruit and retain workers. It is also important because a negative reputation can spur litigation and lawsuits that can be initially around costly and end up becoming a burdensome expense, as out of court settlements tend to large. These legal proceedings also compile new headlines and the negative universeity can negatively affect sales, and recruiting efforts. The payoff of t hese problems can also embolden the unions who want to break into and unionize Wal-Marts employees.The problem with illegal aliens being used in the work force is a dilemma not only because Wal-Mart can face the cost of fines for breaking the law, but also because Wal-Mart already has a reputation as being bad for the American worker. It has been shown that Wal-Mart is the reason that some companies that supply Wal-Mart with goods, have moved their manufacturing overseas to keep labor and production costs down, and to be better able to maintain their supplier relationship with Wal-Mart. This has caused the loss of jobs in the United States, with the perception that Wal-Mart has no concern about the American worker.Wal-Mart victimisation illegal workers could be perceive as Wal-Mart being only relate about manner of speaking capital, and once again denying American workers from jobs. This is also looked on negatively in the current political environment where illegal workers are such a hot topic and unemployment is high. Another stakeholder in these situations is the Wal-Mart customer. The Wal-Mart customer is considered supportive, and Wal-Mart tries to keep it this way. The customer is an important stakeholder because essentially they are the reason that Wal-Mart exists.Wal-Mart essentially provides the facility of easing customer access to goods and services. Customers have a survival of the fittest in this very competitive market environment and can chance on the same goods and services elsewhere, as Wal-Mart offers few exclusives on either of these. Wal-Mart does provide a presumed lower cost marketplace, and will match cost of competitors which is viewed as desirable traits from consumers. Still consumers will not continue to patronize organizations they touch sensation are mistreating their employees and are using discriminatory practices in hiring and advancement.Wal-Mart has to maintain a reputation as being a good employer that has genuine con cern about it employees and that is also dedicated in being fair in its labor practices. Otherwise customers will go elsewhere for their goods and services, point if they pay a little to a greater extent. Consumers will no longer support companies that they detect are lacking in proper ethics, because the consumer feels that it will only be a matter of time before the company manages to treat them unfairly.Current consumers are especially proficient at the decision between saving money with one company, and supporting a more sustainable company even if it means spending more. This proficiency comes from facing this decision on a daily basis, and the ease of accessing information. So far, even with some well air discriminatory cases, Wal-Mart has been able to retain a strong customer ass. Consumers will tend to give companies some benefit of a doubt, especially when it comes to saving money, but this cannot be viewed as a reason to willfully listless in employee hiring practices .After all, a consumer boycott is only one corporate scandalisation away. Therefore, the customers can be considered the nigh important stakeholder, because without them Wal-Mart would cease operations. Another stakeholder involved in this case are Wal-Marts competitors, like Target, Kmart, Home Depot, and so on , who look at Wal-Mart as a leader in their market. Wal-Mart competitors are neutral because they are more concerned with their own operations than with Wal-Marts operations.The decisions that Wal-Mart makes concerning their employees are seen as opportunities to exploit or as problems. These decisions could be opportunities because decisions make in a positive light could be reviewed and possibly espouse by the competition. Whereas decisions made that reflect Wal-Mart negatively can be criticized by the competition and as a recruiting tool. Wal-Mart decisions with employees can also be problematic to competition because their decisions can force unwanted changes into th e competitors organization. For example, if Wal-Mart changed ts outdoor stage about unions it could have great impact throughout the box chain world giving unions l perpetuallyage to be able to break into other store brands. The final stakeholders in Wal-Marts employee welfare situation are unions. Unions are considered an unsupportive stakeholder. The unions have a stake in this situation because their existence is based on membership, their fees, and continued support. Wal-Mart is very opposed to ever accepting a union in their work environment. Wal-Mart feels that it treats it employees fairly enough and a union would only complicate things.Unions see Wal-Mart as the great mountain to climb, and getting Wal-Mart workers to unionize would give the unions a large base of employees to their membership ranks, and leverage through the retail industry. Unionizing Wal-Mart would not necessary be all positive, as the unions would now be presented with a relationship with large market an d an adversarial attitude towards them. The relationship between these stakeholders can be contentious. Consumers want to support organizations that treat workers fairly, but public support for unions is rather low (2010 Pew Poll places it at 41%).Wal-Mart also does not view unions favorably. The relationship between Wal-Mart and employees can be difficult at propagation also, but the relationship is or soly mutually beneficial for the majority of employees. The stakeholder with the most power is the customers because they still hold purchasing power over Wal-Mart. Customers could tardily find other places to go to and buy goods, and therefore customers hold the most leverage over Wal-Mart. The stakeholder with the most to win would be the unions, because breaking the Wal-Mart paries would greatly heighten the power of the unions.The stakeholders with the greatest potential to lose are the employees because at this time and point Wal-Mart has the leverage of possible employment during such tough economic times. Employees may actually lose out on potential wage and benefit gains because of the economic downturn, and Wal-Mart has jobs and is one of the few companies with expanding upon plans in these times. To im arise the situation with the employees and the public perception of Wal-Mart, the organization could undertake two corrective values.The first proposal would be for Wal-Mart to start an employee gustation and welfare camps in their stores. This would be through employee only contests or having a shopping day where employees get extra markdowns. This would make Wal-Mart a more popular place to work at, and could be considered a cheesyer alternative to aggrandizement wages and improved benefits. Some employees might see these as cheap ploys to improve employee morale, but it could be quite popular. Another corrective measure would be a public relations campaign in which Wal-Mart explains to the public the benefits of working at Wal-Mart.This P. R. campaign would show Wal-Mart as an employer of choice, that people revere working for the company, and that Wal-Mart is a great place to work at. This campaign could serving sway the public in favor of Wal-Mart and also convey the heart and soul that Wal-Mart doesnt need unions and employee unrest is unfounded. The campaign could also show employees of differing backgrounds, gender, ages, ethnicities, capabilities and colors, and then displaying that Wal-Mart employs all types of people. My recommendation would be to go with the public relations campaign.This could prove to be the most beneficial, because the customers are the most important stakeholders in this situation. as well as good public relations could help the bottom line of the company, but also make employees feel good about working there. It would keep the union at bay, and keep competitors on their toes because they would now have to make out with a Wal-Mart that people actually liked. Bibliography Blodget, He nry. Wal-Mart Employs 1% of America. Should it be Forced to requital it Employees More. dutyInsider. om. Business Insider, Inc. 10 Sep 2010. Web. Accessed 24 Nov 2012. http//articles. businessinsider. com/2010-09-20/news/30081785_1_minimum-wage-real-wages-employees Ferrell, O. C. et al. Wal-Mart The Future of Sustainability. Business Ethics Ethical Decision Making and Cases. Carnegie Learning. South-WesternMason, OH. 9th ed. 2011. Surowicki, James. State of the Unions. New Yorker. Conde Nast. 17 Jan 2011. Web. Acessed 26 Nov 2012. http//www. newyorker. com/talk/financial/2011/01/17/110117ta_talk_surowiecki