Unethical Practices in Organization Article 2022

Running head: UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
The Article:
Woolworth, one of the major organization of the country down under, has often been
faced with situation of their indulgence into unethical practices. There had been plenty of
incidents where the organization had to face a lawsuit. This particular article, has talked about
one of the recent unethical indulgence that the organization had involved. The country had a
chain in South Africa, where they were supposed to be exporting articles, manufactured at the
head office of the country (Knowler, 2019). The item mentioned in the article, the link of
which is attached in the appendix section, was the baby carrier bags. Therefore, the following
are the points that the article had reflected upon.
o First, the organization, did not send the genuine Woolworth products to the country,
rather thee products which were sent were made by some manufacturing hub of china.
o Second, there was no difference in the stage on e and stage two items of the same
product.
o Third, knowing that there was no difference between the stage one and stage two
products, the organization did not keep the prices of the products same, rather, there
was a price difference between the two.
o Fourth, the organization did not accept the fact that they sent wrong and cheap
products, rather, they stated that they did not send the products, it was not their fault,
rather stated there was a breach of some kind, and the products were sent by some
other company.
o Lastly, this act had effectively affected the situation and the market position of
Ubuntu Baba, risking the job positions of the employees, but the organization, though
had personally apologised to Shannon McLaughlin, the founder of the company
Ubuntu Baba, but did not apologise to the entrepreneurs of the country, for

2UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
underestimating or undermining the position and the understanding of the employees
(Knowler, 2019).
Ethical Practices of Woolworth:
To understand the unethical grounds of the company, it is essential to understand the
ethical principles that the organizations says to have incorporated into practice. According to
the utilitarian theory of ethics, it can be said that Utilitarianism is a different type of
normative ethics, which focuses on the wrong, and right to be on the consequences of
selecting one policy or action over other actions. It further moves beyond people’ scope to
the individual’s own interests ate the same time considering the others’ interests. The
utilitarian theory of ethics identifies the basic importance of pain and pleasure in human lives
particularly (Knowler, 2019).It also approves human actions based on percentage of pain or
pleasures such as consequences. The major ethical understandings and the ethical guidelines
that the organization involves, includes the following,
 Build a system of awareness and capacity, building around the ethical codes of the
organization (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).
 Ensuring a shared business and organizational value structure with the organizational
partners and the shareholders (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).
 Incorporating the WHL best practice to plan for solutions of an issue, risen within the
organizational structure. They align their process of finding solution with the WHL
practices.
 The supply chain management and system, involved by the organization, includes the
social and environmental approaches and consequences into its organizational
practice (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).

3UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
 The organizational also includes an ethical approach and code of behaviour within the
organizational behaviour system and in the monitoring or supervising the work of the
employees.
 The organization also includes the stakeholders of the organization into the
management of the ethical principles (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).
 The organization also aims to practice a transparency within the communication
structure of the organization and the within the management system. They believe it is
their driving force (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).
 Lastly, the organization includes an integration system within the organizational
conduct and behaviours and also, they employ a rigorous innovation system into the
organizational orientation (Woolworthsholdings.co.za, 2019).
The Ethical Principles Provided by United Nations:
United Nations are effectively including measures and approaches into its system in
order to ensure, ethicality in the business approaches of the organization. The United Nations
Compact, has developed the following ten guiding ethical principles for all the organizations.
Rules related to Human Rights:
 Businesses should promote, support and respect the human rights, internationally.
 Businesses should ensure that there are not any form of abuse related to human rights,
in the business structure.
Therefore, if any business house practice the exploitation of the human rights, and if there is
an abusive environment within the organizational structure, then it will be said that the
organization is breathing this particular ethical code of conduct.
Rules related to Labour:

4UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
 The business houses uphold the freedom of association and the rights of bargaining.
 No forms of forced or compulsory labour will be practiced.
 The child labour must be eliminated and not practice.
 There will be no forms of discrimination with respect to the employment and
occupation.
If any business house involves forced labour and practices discrimination among the
employees, then the organization is likely to breach this particular code of ethics and they are
likely to face consequence for the same.
Rules Related to Environment:
 The business houses must put into use precautionary practices for environmental
challenges.
 The business house must include environmental responsibility into its orientation.
 The technologies to be used must be environment friendly.
The rule of the United Nations to practice an environmentally sound approach, is to be
included into the organizational process, by every organization, irrespective of its size and
area. All the organizational conducts must be environmental friendly, and there had been
many instances where the organization had to face lawsuits for not practicing environmental
friendly practices.
Rules for Anti- Corruption:
All the business houses practice anti-corruption approach and attitude and exclude extortion
and bribery from its orientation (https://www.unglobalcompact.org, 2019).
This particular guideline states that no organization will involve in any forms of
corruption. With respect to the mentioned case study, it is observed that Woolworth dies not

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follow prr4n include the Anti- Corruption approach into its orientation. The cheap material
that is used and copying the same model in both the stages of baby carrier, and the denial of
the deed that has been performed by the organization, all are example of, breaching the Anti-
Corruption policy.
Ethics Related to Corporate Social Responsibility:
According to the Normative Stakeholder Theory, it is suggested that the managers
must play extra attention to the key stakeholder relationships. This perspective shows that
managerial relationship along with the stakeholders is founded on the moral commitments
and normative commitment. An organization should also use the stakeholders beyond the
purpose of making profits. In simple words, an organization establishes few basic moral
principles. These are the principles which provide guidance on the way an organization
should do business. It also respects the stakeholders and utilizes these principles based on
proper decision-making. It further suggests that the decisions of an organization leaves
impact on the results and the stakeholders (Kahreh et al. 2014).. The business ethics refer to
the right practices that the business houses must include into their approach, and also, it refers
to the wrong practices that the corporate houses must not employ or practice. The corporate
and social responsibility approach included by the organizations are regarded as the business
ethics. Rather the practice of the corporate social responsibilities are aligned with the
business ethics. The business ethics of Woolworths have already been mentioned and
focusing on them it can be said that the organizations does not follow the ethical structures of
the ethical code of conducts which they have proposed. Wu et al. (2015), has mentioned that
to become successful organization all the business house must include the corporate social
activities seriously, and the present article shows that the organization was effectively
involved into unethical practices. The organization not only sending duplicate and copied
products made with cheap labour, but also they were charging a higher price claiming that the

6UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
products are genuine (Devin, and Richards. 2018). Moreover, such a deed on the part of the
organization, affected the employee base of the company Ubuntu Baba and at the same time
the job of the employees were at stake. The business ethics are governed by the approaches of
the Utilitarianism and Deontology, which states that the organizational conducts must be
approached towards the greater good, and the practices must be morally correct. The business
ethics also states that they must be secular, and must practice diversity (Kahreh et al. 2014).
Therefore, if the organizational behaviour and conducts of Woolworths are observed tee it
can be seen that the organization is not following any of the two approaches.
Recommendations for the Organization:
In the light of the discussion, it is important to make certain recommendations for the
organization, Woolworth. Considering the ethical breach that had been made by the
organization, the following two recommendations can be made.
First, the organization must follow the ethical aspects that they have included into their
orientation. For example, from the article, we have seen that the organization had jeopardized
their integration and innovation approach (Brown and Gama. 2019). Therefore, they must
essentially include these two approaches into their organizational conducts (Dos Santos,
Svensson and Padin. 2013). They did not employ any form of innovation, and the work
manufactured was just a copy.
Secondly, the organization lacks an orientation towards the long term goals planning and in
their integrity (Humayun. 2016). They are essentially involved into an ethical breach, which
they were not likely to accept. This shows a lack in their integrity. At the same time, the
organization failed to have understand the fact, ,that the deed the involved, made the
customers lose their faith on the organization and at the same time, no other organization is

7UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONS
likely to associate with the organization for the same reason (Berning. 2014). The anti-
corruption breach made by the organization, lost the organization their place in the market.
References:
Berning, A., 2014. Sustainable supply chain engagement in a retail environment: the case of
Woolworths food suppliers (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).
Brown, S. and Gama, M., 2019. Houseview. finweek, 2019(19 July), pp.16-17.
Devin, B. and Richards, C., 2018. Food waste, power, and corporate social responsibility in
the Australian food supply chain. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(1), pp.199-210.

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Dos Santos, M.A., Svensson, G. and Padin, C., 2013. Indicators of sustainable business
practices: Woolworths in South Africa. Supply Chain Management: An International
Journal, 18(1), pp.104-108.
https://www.unglobalcompact.org. (2019). The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.
[online] Available at: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles
[Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].
Humayun, S.H., 2016. Merchandising operation of Woolworths Global Sourcing.
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gender differences on the corporate social responsibility (CSR). Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 109, pp.664-668.
Knowler, W. (2019). Woolworths 'behaved totally unethically': baby carrier designer.
[online] TimesLIVE. Available at: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-01-
10-woolworths-behaved-totally-unethically-baby-carrier-designer/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].
Woolworthsholdings.co.za. (2019). Ethical – Woolworths Holdings Limited. [online]
Available at: https://www.woolworthsholdings.co.za/ethical/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].
Wu, L.Z., Kwan, H.K., Yim, F.H.K., Chiu, R.K. and He, X., 2015. CEO ethical leadership
and corporate social responsibility: A moderated mediation model. Journal of Business
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