Walmart is one company whose ethics has been scrutinized over a long period of time. It was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. This was once the world’s largest retailer with stores all around the world and having a strong presence in the globe. In America, Walmart is one of the largest private employers. The influence of this company is also strong as it employs 2.2 million people (associates) around the globe. Of the number, 1.5 million are in the United States alone. This number shows that the company is big in size. It has invested about 2.7 billion US dollars in training, education, and higher wages for its employees. The presence of Walmart can be felt due to its achievements. It was one of the highest earnings about five years ago. The vastness of this company is also captured in the sheer number of stores that add up to 11,277 worldwide. According to Fortune Global 500, Walmart is the largest company by revenue which goes over 500 billion US dollars.
Despite its achievements and influence in the society, the company has continued to face harsh criticism and scrutiny into its ethical decision making. In September 2018, Walmart was sued for its unfair treatment of pregnant workers. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit which alleged that the company forced pregnant employees in their Wisconsin warehouse to go on an unpaid leave ( Wiessner, 2018) . The case also implied that Walmart denied the workers a chance to take lighter duties upon request. This is despite the company having light duty programs for the people who cannot do the heavy lifting. They exposed the women to tough jobs in their condition since 2014. According to federal law, the pregnancies of workers should be accommodated the same way physical disability is done.
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The case of Walmart can be explained by the concept of fairness. There are stipulated rules that show how pregnant employees are treated, but the management of the company decided to make other choices.
Corporate decisions are marred by the implications of fairness and ethics. The concept of fairness refers to the way people are treated by others (Bazerman & Moore, 2013). There is a tenet that every person be treated alike, without any significant difference between the parties. Fairness influence the decision-making process and the way individuals behave in an institution. The concept is contextual depending on the point of reference. For instance, a fair trial, a fair grade, a fair treatment in the workplace, a fair price, among others, are all from different perspectives. The effect of fairness can be appealed to how decisions are made or how the rules are applied, and the consequences that come about the application of the policies.
This covers the two concepts of fairness related to decision-making, known as procedural fairness and distributive fairness. The former addresses the laws that governed the decision making while the latter describes the outcome of such a decision (Bazerman & Moore, 2013). It is the responsibilities of the managers to constantly make decisions on how to allocate scarce resources. In most cases, the results are always such that neither the employee nor the manager likes. Despite their inability to control the outcome of a decision, the management can always have total control over the process. This brings up the issue of ethics in the decision-making process. Research shows that people can accept the undesired outcomes of a decision, provided they believe that the process employed was fair. With that said, it is essential to take an example of a company whose actions have been under scrutiny recently and apply the concept of fairness.
Sometimes, the decision-making process can override personal and business ethics. Research has shown that most of the unethical behavior results from unintentional actions. It is possible for people to have cognitive biases and this can affect their moral judgment and make them have ethical blind spots. When in these blind spots, the person can make the person making the decision to carry out an unethical choice because they are not aware of the results. Conventionally, businesses have encouraged ethical decision-making and conduct through training that focuses on the moral elements of choices and making the managers take the most ethical trajectory (Bazerman & Moore, 2013). It is important to note that the training always takes into consideration the bias that we have in making decisions. It is possible for people to cheat on their behalf or on that of their organization.
Walmart exemplifies the ethical decision-making bias. While there were several choices that the manager who denied the pregnant workers access to the light-duty program, he or she made the decision of taking a different path. It would have been ethical to make the women take these lighter responsibilities or provide paid maternity leave. However, the management opted to cheat on behalf of the company and make the pregnant workers continue in their current state. The case has happened over a long period of time. This means that there was a chance that the manager felt that this was now a business decision rather than an ethical one. This process is known as “ethical fading” where the ethical aspect of a decision is unconsciously scrubbed off the mind of the decision maker.
Walmart can improve its image by simply referring to what the federal law states. It should treat pregnancy the same way as a physical disability. This means that it should make sure that the pregnant women take lighter duties and avoid the consequences of the detrimental health effects of lifting heavy load while pregnant. Walmart can as well apologize to the women who have undergone this discrimination and offer compensation. This kind of action worked for General Motors, and it can work for Walmart.
References
Bazerman, M. H., & Moore, D. A. (2013). Judgment in managerial decision making (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Wiessner, D. (2018, September 21). U.S. agency accuses Walmart of pregnancy discrimination in lawsuit. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-lawsuit/u-s-agency-accuses-walmart-of-pregnancy-discrimination-in-lawsuit-idUSKCN1M125L