Walmart employee discount policy case study

¶ … Wal-Mart: But We Do Give Them a 10% Employee Discount discusses the issues that Wal-Mart faces everyday in their course of doing business. The author identifies the major ethical and moral issues that can be seen in the way that Wal-Mart chooses to do business. The author discusses both sides of the argument that surrounds this way of doing business. One Wal-Marts side they are just trying to sell products to their customers at the cheapest prices possible while making as much profit as possible. The employees on the other hand often feel as if they are being taken advantage of because they make low wages, have very expensive health insurance benefits and are unable to form unions.

Ethical Issues Facing Wal-Mart

The things that Wal-Mart often does that people perceive as being unethical include asking employees to work off-the-clock, not promoting women based upon their sex, not providing or making it near impossible for employees to obtain health benefits and not allowing employees to form unions. These are all things that are basically taken for granted in other companies, but always seem to be in the spotlight when it comes to Wal-mart and their business practices. Wal-marts biggest concern is their bottom line and they do whatever they need to do to keep their expenses down and their profits up.

Questions for Thought

1. What are the moral and ethical issues confronting Wal-Mart? Discuss in detail.

Wal-Mart is the place where everyone shops. They are the market leader in low cost merchandise (Corporate Facts: Wal-mart by the Numbers, 2010). Wal-Mart is thought to be the largest retailer in the U.S. (Supreme Court Hears Wal - Mart Gender Bias Discrimination Case, 2011) and employs more people than any other company in the United States other than the Federal government, yet the preponderance of its workers with children live below the poverty level (Store Wars: When Wal-Mart comes to town, n.d.). Wal-Mart is a non-union organization that feels it does not need third party involvement. So, as an alternative to unions, Wal-Mart has an open door policy that persuades workers to take their grievances beyond management (Wal-Mart Workers Speak Out, 2011). But this policy appears to do little to help its workers but gives the company the power it needs to fire not needed non-compliant people. Wal-Mart has also been charged with discriminating against women (Supreme Court Hears Wal - Mart Gender Bias Discrimination Case, 2011).

2. Wal-Mart officials have stated that they don't feel women are interested in management positions at the company. Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons to support your answer.

I feel that women are just as interested in management positions at Wal-mart as men are. The women that work Wal-mart are no different than the women that work at all the rest of the companies across the country. There are many companies today that are being run very successfully, by women. Women are just like men they want to succeed in the workplace and working at Wal-mart does not change this. Wanting to do well at a job is human nature and is not just reserved for the men of the world.

3. Wal-Mart is continually criticized for its health-care policy. Is this really a controversy in the area of business Ethics? Why or why not?

The fact that Wal-Mart does not provide affordable insurance for their employees is not really an issue in the area of business ethics. Even though health care is a hot issue around the country today, it is not really one rooted in ethics. With the new health reform that is coming down the pike though this might change as people are going to be forced to buy health insurance (Sebelius, 2011), which then might hurl this issue into the area of ethics, because people will not feel that they should be made to buy something by the government