Analyzing & Overcoming Unethical Practices at Walmart

This consultant's report examines the problem of unethical practices at Walmart, focusing on issues such as labor union opposition, wage discrimination, low wage rates, and employee health concerns. The report analyzes the causes and persistence of these problems, proposing solutions such as improving the open-door policy, increasing wages, promoting equality, and prioritizing employee health and safety. It further emphasizes the importance of monitoring and evaluation to prevent recurrence. The report concludes that Walmart, despite its success, must address these unethical practices to ensure long-term sustainability and social responsibility. Desklib provides access to similar reports and study resources for students.

Running Head: Unethical Practices at Walmart 0
wALMART
The problem of Unethical Practices
Student name
5/13/2019

Problem of unethical practices 1
Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Analysis of the problem:............................................................................................................2
Planning for addressing unethical practice:...............................................................................2
Reasons for unethical practice:..................................................................................................4
Reasons for constant unethical practice:....................................................................................5
Means for overcoming unethical practices:...............................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

Problem of unethical practices 2
Introduction:
Walmart is in the United States. It provides goods online to buyers and has set up
various stores in the country to reach people easily. It includes in its stock all type of goods
so that consumer can purchase everything from the same store only. It provides many
employment opportunities to people thus helps in reducing the poverty level. Its products are
environmental- friendly (Our Business, 2019). It has opened its stores in 50 states and runs
150 distribution centres for the U.S. It adds the new brands and provides services to the
customers. It has set up unique centres for satisfying its customers. In the year 1962, the first
store was launched by Sam Walton in Rogers. It has achieved success because of Mr Sam’s
principles (Our History, 2019).
In the following parts, the problem related to unethical practices in Walmart is
described. Ethics is concerned with the moral values and code of conduct and it builds trust
for the organization (Ferell, Faedrich, & Ferell, 2016). The problem occurs when the
organization is not able to fulfil ethical practices while conducting business. By this, it gives
an impact on the industry’s effectiveness (Gibson & Augsburger, 2019). In Walmart
problems related to discrimination, low wage rate, health factor, and opposition of labour
union are done in an organization.
Analysis of the problem:

Problem of unethical practices 3
Planning for addressing unethical practice:
Planning is the primary function of management. It helps in deciding what to do, how to
do and when to do to achieve desired results. It increases efficiency and reduces the risks of
business operations. (Samson, Donnet, & Daft, 2017)
a) Define the problem: Unethical practices in Walmart is that it employs many people in
the U.S.A. but still people are living in poverty line because wages paid to them is not
equal to the standard wage rate. It opposes the creation of labour union, as it has an
open door policy for solving the conflicts but it is not appropriate to solve the
problem. It makes a distinction on the basis of sex and pays low salary to women as
compared to male employees working in the organization. It also does not give salary
for overtime work done by workers. It does not give importance to the health of
employees. It also hires workers on the basis of contracts but not gives importance to
checking the background. Priority problems are opposing the labour unions,
discrimination in the workforce, low wage rate and health of employees. Thus,
unethical practices running in the organization. (10 reasons Walmart is theworst
company in America, 2018).
b) Causes of problem: It avoids the labour union because it does not want an external
agency to interfere in its affairs. Wage and health-related problem are because of the
low cost. Discrimination is happening because of their mentality. These Problems
exist because of a reduction in cost to serve its customers in the best way, by giving
maximum value to them.
c) The solution of the problem: It is done by selecting the best alternative out of various
alternatives, in order to get the solution of problems. For the problem of a labour
union, it is solved by hearing problems of workers so that the solution is solved well
and there is no need for union arises for the solution. For the problem of

Problem of unethical practices 4
discrimination, it has to increase the wage rate of women employees so that they do
not feel being discriminated and partiality is done. It has to give respect and dignity to
women employees and also provide top position to them, on the basis of their ability
not on the basis of gender. For the problem of low wage rate, it has to increase at least
such wage rate by which standard of living can be lived by workers so to uplift public
from the poverty line and also give wage rate in case overtime is done by them. For
the problem of health, it has to give priority on the health and safety of workers so to
safeguard them against unforeseen circumstances. It has to provide also appropriate
insurance to workers.
d) Implementing the plan: Implement the plan in time when action is required on it
(Ajunwa, Crawford, & Ford, 2016).
e) Monitoring and Evaluation process: It is done by checking principle, whether the
work has been performed as planned or not and if not, successful steps to be taken to
solve the problem, so that in future this problem not arise twice.
Reasons for unethical practice:
Unethical practices happen when it fails to follow a code of conduct for safeguarding
the interest of consumers, employees and for the social purpose (Minchao, 2015). Reason of
unethical practice related to labour union opposition, is that it does not want anyone to
interfere in its operations as it has set up open-door policy in place of unions to solve the
problems of workers and for any feedback relating to the work however it is not successful in
solving the problem of workers because of this some workers get angry. Reason of
discrimination among workers is generally done on the basis of sex and discrimination is
done by women is that they do not get equal wages as compared to men in the job and they
are also not poisoned to higher-level managerial job because of their mentality as they are not
capable to do work as compared to men and paid accordingly but actually reality is that they

Problem of unethical practices 5
perform work in the same way as done by men. (Cremer & Vandekerckhove, 2017). Reason
of low wage rate in Walmart is because of its goal to provide products at a low price to the
customers thus in order to provide, it tends to reduce cost so to increase productivity. It
provides employment to people but not gives an appropriate wage rate for the work done by
them. Reason for the health-related problem in this organization is that it provides cheaper
health insurance to employees. It also does not cares about pregnant employees’ health, and
they are forced to do work in that condition also (Carroll, Brown, & Buchholtz, 2018).
Reasons for constant unethical practice:
According to my opinion, unethical practices do not end at one step it has to gradually
reduce by taking steps to minimize its effect on organization effectiveness. It is constant
because of its ethics policy, code of conduct and harassment policy. The company offers a
wide range of products to customers and provide goods at a low price so to maximize the
value of customers. It also established at the international level. It is done majorly by the
strategy to reduce the cost to increase the productivity level of the company to earn a good
profit. It has a certain weakness also along with benefits such as labour-related problems such
as high turnover ratio because of low pay. The similarity of products as given by competitors
but offer in a low amount to consumers and it damages its image by giving bribe to
employees in order to keep their mouth shut related to creating labour union. These practices
impact on society. Labour union problem is also faced in the future, as it uses its own door
policy to solve the problems of workers it is incorrect to solve the problem in this way. As it
ignores the problem and feedback of employees to not to focus on them by pretending they
are listening but not gives its solution for removing the problem. The problem of
discrimination is happening to females and to physical handicaps in Walmart. This problem
can be solved by treating all employees to be the same which is not easy to accomplish as the
mentality of people is not change easily. The problem of wage rate cannot be solved easily

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because every company wants to pay less to workers in order to increase the profit of concern
and thereby to reduce cost. Wage rate given is also different to employees regardless of the
same work done by them. Child labour is also done by the company in order to get work done
with less cost, parents also involve the child to their workplace to help them (Gosling, Jia,
Gong, & Brown, 2016). Health is the major concern of the company because it affects not
only employee’s health but also gives an impact on company health. (Business and strategy,
2018).Companies treat employees merely as an asset who does work but it does not treat their
responsibility related to the health of an employee. Its supply chain includes wholesalers,
retailers, customers and manufacturers for fulfilling the demand of customers. It buys goods
in large stock so to minimize the cost of products (Barker, Cow-White, Mozafri, & Ha,
2016).
Means for overcoming unethical practices:
For solving the labour union opposition problem, it has to develop its open-door
policy in such a way as it can easily solve problems of workers so that there is no need of
union arise as problems are soughed out easily or if it is not possible then labour union
permission is to be granted to workers so that they form together in order to solve the
problems and for giving suggestions to the organization’s decisions (Kim, Collichia, &
Menachof, 2018). For the discrimination problem, it has to treat all employees to be the same
whether it is men or women and pay accordingly to both on the basis of capability of doing
work. It should not misbehave with a disabled person who is working in the company. It has
to give equality to everyone in order to become the success of the organization so that it lives
in the hearts of local communities’ people. For wage-related problem, it has to increase the
wage rate so that workers can live their life in an easy way and not fall in the poverty line so
to have a standard of living. Wages also to be given for those workers who work in overtime
hours for the company’s output. Wages paid to foreign workers also as they worked on the

Problem of unethical practices 7
basis of the contract created between them and the company. The health-related problem is
solved by providing insurance to workers and by putting health as the main priority for the
company. Health Factor is also for maternity mothers so that they do not feel any difficulty in
working in the company. It is done by providing support in their work. If they face any sort of
difficulty, while doing work then allowed maternity leave in case needed. Its working
conditions are not good as workers have to work for longer durations, without any safety
conditions adopted at work for employees and which is also not ethical to society and for
consumers who purchase company’s products (Khanka, 2014). Unethical practices have to be
solved in this way, in order to make the company more successful and competitive in market
so that new entrants and its competitors do not consume its market share and its customer
base (Burke, Martin, & Cooper, 2016).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be said that Walmart is a big and popular company in the U.S. as
it serves its customers in the best way by providing goods at less price and giving maximum
value to them. It is set up at national, international and Sam’s club level. It is following an
unethical business practice which is not good for the company and to society in the long run,
so it has to take steps in order to stop such practices. If these practices exist, it will give an
impact on its reputation in the market thus, they adopt ethics while conducting business by
treating all employees to be equal and there will be no discrimination. It has not to misbehave
with the disabled persons as well as to old persons in the organization. It has to fulfil social
responsibility for the local communities living in the society. It should also give importance
to employees who are working in an organization so that profit can be achieved by keeping
employees’ interest also. It has to focus on the health of employees to maintain an image in

Problem of unethical practices 8
the mind of employees so that more and more employees are attracted to doing work in this
organization.
References:
10 reasons Walmart is the worst company in America. (2018). Retrieved from Salon:
https://www.salon.com/2015/05/25/10_reasons_wal_mart_is_the_worst_company_in
_america_partner/
Business and strategy. (2018). Retrieved from Walmart:
https://stock.walmart.com/investors/our-strategy/
Our Business. (2019). Retrieved from Walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-
business
Our History. (2019). Retrieved from Walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-
history
Ajunwa, I., Crawford, K., & Ford, J. S. (2016). Health and Big Data: An Ethical Framework
for Health Information Collection by Corporate Wellness Programs. Journal of Law,
Medicine and Ethics, 44(3), 474-480.
Barker, J. F., Cow-White, P. A., Mozafri, M., & Ha, D. (2016). An emphirical study of the
rise of big data in business scholarship. International Journal of Information
Management, 36(3), 403-414.
Burke, R. J., Martin, G., & Cooper, C. C. (2016). Corporate Reputation: Managing
Opportunities and Threats. Routledge.
Carroll, A. B., Brown, J. A., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2018). Business & Society: Ethics,
Sustainability and Stakeholder Management. CENGAGE.
Cremer, D. D., & Vandekerckhove, W. (2017). Managing unethical behaviour in
organisations: The need for a behavioral business ethics approach. Journal of
Management & Organization, 23(3), 437-455.
Ferell, O., Faedrich, J., & Ferell, L. (2016). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making &
Cases. CENGAGE Learning.

Problem of unethical practices 9
Gibson, A., & Augsburger, D. (2019). Honarable in Business: Business Ethics From a
Christian Perspective. Wipf and Stock.
Gosling, J., Jia, F., Gong, Y., & Brown, S. (2016). The role of supply chain leadership in the
learning of sustainable practice: toward an integrated framework. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 137, 1458-1469.
Khanka, S. (2014). Business Ethics and Corporate Governance( Principles and Practice). S.
Chand And Company Limited.
Kim, S., Collichia, C., & Menachof, D. (2018). Ethical Sourcing: An Analysis of the
Literature and Implications for Future Research. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4),
1033-1052.
Minchao, L. (2015). Why are They Cheating: Mislabeling Pork in Conquing Walmart. Global
Journal of Management and Business Research, 15(3), 1-4.
Samson, D., Donnet, T., & Daft, R. L. (2017). Fundamentals of Management. CENGAGE.

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