Ethical Cultural Analysis on Wal-Mart

Robbin Riavez

February 15, 2013

Ethical Cultural Analysis

Wal-Mart

The first Wal-Mart store was opened by Sam Walton in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012).Mr. Walton’s vision was to bring great opportunity and value to his customers (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012). Wal-Mart operates both retail and online stores under 69 separate banners in 27 countries (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012). In the year 2012 Wal-Mart had sales of approximately $444 billion (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012). Wal-Mart employs 2.2 million associates worldwide (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012). It is expected that such a large global company will face its share of ethical dilemmas, but the amount of litigation involving Wal-Mart far outweighs that of other companies of equal stature. An estimated 5000 lawsuits are filed against Wal-Mart each year for issues regarding discrimination, wages, coercion and many others (Van Riper, 2005). Wal-Mart states that “saving people money so they can live better” (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012) is a driving force behind the business. With so much ethical controversy surrounding the company and most of it do to its employment practices I chose to research Wal-Mart to determine if the company is reaching their goal of helping people live better, or if they are perhaps achieving the exact opposite.

Wal-Mart states it has “always been a value-based ethically led company” (Wal-Mart Stores, 2012). The company’s core beliefs are as follows

Respect for the individual

Service to our customers

Striving for excellence

These beliefs are based on integrity and responsibility. The company’s ethical policy requires all employees to report all ethical violations, even if the employee is not sure if a violation exists at all (Wal-AMart Stores, 2012). All employees are also told to lead by example and follow the law at all times (Wal-AMart Stores, 2012). According to its ethics policy and company overview Wal-Mart takes pride in treating every customer, supplier, and individual...