55 Committing to an Ethical View
Professional values and ethical reasoning are traits valued by all good employers. In fact, we have seen throughout this book that employees’ sound ethical decisions lead to higher profits in the long run. How do we develop the ability to make such decisions? We will see in the coming paragraphs that it takes discipline, commitment, and practice. Strong work and personal relationship matters, too.
Relationships Matter
Workplace research indicates that employees are more likely to be unethical when they are dissatisfied with their jobs or see their superiors acting unethically.
How do relationships influence this equation? A good example set at the top and the freedom to determine a comfortable work-life balance for oneself—all influenced by the organization’s positive relationship with its employees—lead to a more ethical workplace. Consider Walmart’s relationships with its many employees.
With annual revenues of almost half a trillion dollars (2017), 2.3 million employees, and nearly twelve thousand stores worldwide, Walmart is the largest private employer on the planet ((Figure)).
In fact, it is bigger than many national economies, including some in the developed world. In 2007, it replaced its longstanding slogan, “Always Low Prices,” with “Save Money. Live Better.”
Walmart attempts to demonstrate virtuousness by holding itself out as a responsible corporation, concerned especially for the lower-income families that make up the majority of its customers.
But the company has experienced problems over the years, including lawsuits over illegal firing of employees, withholding of overtime pay and benefits, violations of foreign workers’ rights, wage violations, violations of child labor laws, and failure to provide health coverage where and when applicable.
Thousands of Walmart’s U.S. employees are also reported to be receiving public assistance to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the Walton family, operators of the retailer that purports to help people “live better,” recently made $12.7 billion in a single day.
Critical Thinking
- If you were an upper-level manager at Walmart, what kinds of decisions would you expect to make regarding the company’s challenges?
- As a Walmart manager, how would you view the company’s relationships with its stakeholders, including its employees? How would that view guide your decision-making?
- As a company executive, would you try to increase employee benefits? Why or why not?
Where does a case like Walmart’s leave us? If a corporation with 2.3 million employees globally has reason to be concerned that at least some are dissatisfied with the job and may have witnessed some degree of unethical management behavior, the firm might also need to assume that some of those employees could choose to act unethically in the course of any business day. Of course, no job is perfect, and most of us experience some Monday mornings when we do not necessarily want to go into the office or exert the ene