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Eth 316 Organizational Ethics

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Organizational Ethics

Alisa King

ETH/316

9/16/14
Professor Shannon Rivers

Organizational Ethics

Each and every organization that exist have or should have a code of ethics in which they follow. The ethics of an organization governs how they will reply to both an internal and external stimulus. Walmart is one of the largest organizations in the world, that’s why it was chosen for this essay. Furthermore, they deal with lots of external social pressures that influence their ethics. They have had more than their fair share of lawsuits because they was sued 4,851 times in the year 2000 alone Willing, R. (2001, August 13). Lawsuits a volume business at Wal-Mart. USA Today. Whenever an issue arises they always fall back on their code of ethics in order to figure out the best possible solution. These issues are relevant to organizational and personal decisions and it will be explained how later in this paper. The relationship between legal and ethical issues will also be covered.
External Social Pressures Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and private sector employer. They employ over 2.2 million employees. With tons of money, locations, and power, they have been the target for thousands of law suits. As we all know, Walmart has replaced thousands of mom and pop businesses by carrying the same items at much lower prices. They not only made businesses shut down due to undercutting competitor prices but they also made lots of people lose well-paying jobs in the process only to pay employees poverty wages and benefits and encouraged them to seek government assistance in order to supplement their incomes (Logan 2014). Walmart experienced many external social pressures but the one that’s being addressed in this paper focuses on the external social pressures they received do to their effect on the economy. Since Walmart plays

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