Analysis of Business Ethics in Wesfarmers: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of business ethics within Wesfarmers, a prominent Australian company. It explores the relevance of ethics in business decisions, emphasizing the importance of honesty, fairness, and integrity. The report examines how Wesfarmers incorporates ethical considerations into its decision-making processes, including its adherence to the 'Wesfarmers Way' framework and its commitment to corporate social responsibility. It evaluates the application of ethical theories such as individualism, Kantianism, utilitarianism, and virtue theory within the company's operations, particularly in areas such as supply chain management and employee welfare. The report also highlights the significance of maintaining ethics in both large and small businesses, concluding that Wesfarmers demonstrates a strong commitment to ethical practices, contributing positively to society and enhancing its reputation.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS IN WESFARMERS
BUSINESS ETHICS IN WESFARMERS
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Relevance of the ethics in the business ethics:.......................................................................2
Relevance of ethics in the business decision of Wesfarmers:................................................4
The way in which Wesfarmers indulges the ethics in the decision making process..............6
Relevance of maintaining ethics in small business:...............................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian company. Headquarter of this organization is in
Perth. This organization works with Chemical, retail, fertilizers, safety products and coal
mining. Currently, the organization is operating in Australia, New Zealand. By revenue this
company can be regarded as the largest company in Australia (Booth and Coveney 2015).
Wesfarmers overtook Woolworths and BHP. The number of employees currently working in
the Wesfarmers are 220, 00. With this large number of employees and the expansion of the
business, it is necessary for Wesfarmers to maintain the proper business ethics (Crane and
Matten 2016). With the proper business ethics, the clarity in the functions for the organization
can be maintained. As the products of the Wesfarmers are needed for the various purpose, the
quality of the product is needed to be maintained (Swanson and Frederick 2016). Application
of business ethics will help maintaining the sustainability in the business of the Wesfarmers
along with that it will also help to draw the consumers to the organization. The main aim of
this paper is evaluating the application of ethics in the business decision of the Wesfarmers.
The conclusion can be drawn on the basis of the factors discussed in the passage.
Discussion
Relevance of the ethics in the business ethics:
Usually organizations commit in making positive social, economic as well as
environmental contributions to the society, these contributions are consistent with the
principles of honesty, fairness, respect and integrity. As per Crane and Matten (2016),
decisions undertaken within an organization can be done by an individual or a group of
individuals. The decision making process is influenced to great extent by the culture of the
organization especially when the organization deals with serving customers with their
products or services. Ethical concerns must be included while undertaking a decision; it must

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be considered that the decision that is being taken is the right course of action. According to
Pearson (2017), ethical decision making as well as corporate behavior would bring about
significant benefits to the business (Jie and Gengatharen 2018). Decision making process
must be aligned with ethical practices because they help in attracting target customers to the
products manufactured by the firm, this as a result would boost the profits and sales of the
organization. The employees get more connected with the organization, reduction in labor
turnover and hence increase the productivity of the organization (Trevino and Nelson 2016).
According to Trevino and Nelson (2016), the alignment of ethics in the process of decision
making helps an organization in attracting more employees which aspire to work for that
particular business which also reduces the recruitment cost along with enabling the company
to get hold of talented employees.
The chosen organization, Wesfarmers aim at its primary objective being able to
delivery satisfactory returns to their stakeholders with the help of financial discipline as well
as exceptional management of the diversifies portfolio of the business (Mea and Sims 2018).
This is done by implementing ethics within their decision making. Wesfarmers Way is a
specific framework that is followed by the organization for carrying out its business and take
ethical decisions. This framework comprises their core values of openness, integrity,
entrepreneurial spirit, accountability and some more. According to Siedel (2016), the
Westfarmers Way along with their code of conduct and some more policies, guide the
behavior of employees along with their process of decision making. These guidelines and
code of conduct is followed by all the departments functioning within the organization
(Wallace and Sheldon 2015). These codes of conducts and ethical guidelines have been
designed in order to fulfill their primary objectives (Jie and Gengatharen 2018). They
implement ethics in their working principles in order to approve their strategic direction of
the group for guiding as well as monitoring the management of the Wesfarmers and their

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businesses. They also commit in ensuring that the composition of the Board include the
directors that help in bringing on proper mix of ethical behavior and effective decision
making. The ethical decision making undertaken by the organization also help their
framework of risk management, the ethical decision making has helped them in reducing the
number of risks faced by their business (Jie and Gengatharen 2018). The organization and its
employees follow certain principles that help them in implementing ethics in decision making
process, these principles include acting with honesty, fairness and integrity and be
accountable for their decisions, observe their responsibilities to the stakeholders as well as
financial markets.
Relevance of ethics in the business decision of Wesfarmers:
There are certain rules and regulation present for the Wesfarmers which has to be
maintained by the employees working in this organization (Zentes, Morschett and Schramm-
Klein 2017). Apart from that different there are certain rules and regulations for resolving the
legal issues of the organization. The evaluation for the relevance of ethics in Wesfarmers can
be done through the application of ethical theories in the organization.
Individualism: Individualism states that during making the profit the organization
should concern about the sustainability and maintaining the ethical practices in the
organization. In this situation, Wesfarmers I concerned about maintaining the ethical practice
and human rights while manufacturing their products. Maintaining human rights also includes
the welfare of the employees in the organization (Biddle 2016). The supply chain of this
organization is complex as the resources are delivered from different parts of the word. While
the transportation of the resources, the management of the Wesfarmers are concerned that no
human right is violated and all the suppliers are getting the proper benefits (Chell et al. 2016).
The decision of maintaining this human rights and ethics while doing the business has put the
Wesfarmers in a different level regarding the business between the Wesfarmers and suppliers.

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Kantianism: Kantianism is the ethical theory that indicates the rightness or wrongness
of the action. In general the rightness or wrongness of the action is determined on the basis of
certain parameters. It has been seen that the application of the business ethics in the
organization will generate the right actions which has positive effects on the consumers (Sage
and Goodman 2016). The Group-wide ethical Sourcing policy developed by Wesfarmers sets
the minimum standards for the selling of the products and goods manufactured by the
organization. This is a right initiative, as it will ensures that the products produced by the
Wesfarmers are of standard level.
Utilitarianism: Utilitarianism indicates that a rule or an act can be regarded as ethical
if the consequences of that rule or act poses a great happiness for the most of the people in
the society (Schmidt 2017). The presence of this element for the business ethics is important,
as conglomerate companies are aimed to serve the people in the society through their
products.
In case of Wesfarmers, the quality of the products is standard. People using those
products re satisfied as these products are helping to fulfil their basic requirements (Pearson
2017). From this point of view it can be said that the Utilitarianism is present in the business
decisions of Wesfarmers.
Apart from Wesfarmers are concerned about the utility of the corporate social
responsibility. Through various initiatives under the corporate social responsibility
Wesfarmers causing the greater good for the people (Campbell and Cowton 2015). Apart
from that through this initiative this organization can reach to the large number of consumers.
The organization is concerned about the employee and it has been seen that the cases
of injuries during the working hours has reduced at a rate of 15% (Jie and Gengatharen
2018). Apart from that the organisation has taken steps for maintaining the sustainability of

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the environment. Three percent reduction is done in the scope 1 and scope 2 carbon
reduction, on the other hand the intensity of the emission has been reduced up to six percent
which is mitigation of a significant amount of carbon emission.
Wesfarmers are also concerned about the daily life of the homeless people (Campbell
2017). A web competition initiated by the Wesfarmers will help the homeless people to learn
communicate and inspire.
Virtue theory: Virtue theory defines if the person has required virtue or attributes that
will make the entity a better one. In this context, the management of the Wesfarmers should
choose the leader who will able to define the right goals and objectives for the organization
(Amos and Sullivan 2017). In order to do this the selected leader of the organization should
have the proper leadership quality and visions to take the business of the Wesfarmers to a
new dimension.
The way in which Wesfarmers indulges the ethics in the decision making process.
The Wesfarmers is the largest company in Australia based on the revenue. It has been
seen that the reputation of the organization is based on the standard of products and services
manufactured by the Wesfarmers.
The decisions taken by the management of Wesfarmers are concerned about different
things. The first thing that is needed to be taken care of is that maintaining the fair business
deal with the suppliers (Zentes, Morschett and Schramm-Klein 2017). The resources of the
organization are supplied by different supplier from the different parts of the world for
Wesfarmers. In this context, the management is needed to be concerned that all the suppliers
are getting the fair price.

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Apart from that the management of the organization is concerned about the quality of
the products. In this context, the management and the operation department of the
organization improves the technology used for the manufacturing of the products.
Relevance of maintaining ethics in small business:
It has been seen that many small and emerging companies are doing well in the
industry. It may seem that there no need of maintaining the ethics for the business of the
small organizations. However, this concept is not true (Jie and Gengatharen 2018). The
goodwill of the business is dependent on the performance of organization and clarity in the
business for the organization. In case, if the small business organizations are making the
profit along with maintaining the goodwill, it can be expected that the expansion of the
business can be happened (Grimmer 2018). In order to maintain the goodwill of the
organization the small business firms are needed to be concerned about the certain things like
product and service quality and the other activities regarding corporate social responsibility
taken by the organization (Foo 2017). Apart from that the organization is needed to be
concerned about the business laws and regulations of the respective country (Jie and
Gengatharen 2018). In order to maintain all these things there is a need that the organization
has to indulge the ethical theories in the business planning. Apart from that with the corporate
social responsibility the small organizations can serve to the society along with that the
marketing of the company and the products can be achieved which is an important factor for
the small organizations.
Conclusion
The discussion is regarding the application of the ethical theory in the business
functionality of the Wesfarmers. It has been seen that the functionality of the organization is
vast and this organization is dealing with various products and diverse base of consumers. It
can be said from the discussion that the Wesfarmers is maintaining the business ethics in is

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functionality. Apart from that different corporate social responsibility programs taken by this
organization has done greater good for the people of the society. The type of the work this
business organization is doing is philanthropic in nature. It can be said that the company is
gaining profits from the selling of the products as it is the largest company in Australia. So it
can be said from the discussion that Wesfarmers is maintaining the profit along with
maintaining the sustainability. This is a desirable quality of the organization maintaining the
ethical aspects of the business. Apart from that the products manufactured by the organization
maintain the quality standard, so it can be said that the Wesfarmers is investing right amount
of funds on manufacturing the products.

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