The Ethical Issues Wal-Mart Faces - Case Study Example

People are supposed to be able to relax and properly feed their bodies during the lunch break. “Lunch is really important for us to have a recharge of energy and just take a break” (Luckerson, 2012).

The premise of Wal-Mart’s management that women are not interested in managerial positions is completely false. Women have the same goals and desires as men of moving up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately Walmart, its corporate culture suffers from the glass ceiling effect. “The popular notion of glass ceiling effects implies that gender disadvantages are stronger at the top of the hierarchy than at lower levels and that these disadvantages become worse later in a person's career” (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, Vanneman, 2001). Women at Walmart are viewed as second-class citizens that do not have the same opportunity for career growth as men. Women were systematically discriminated against by Walmart. Female workers accounted for 65% of the workforce, but only 33% of managerial positions. The company has not been able to truly take advantage of the virtues of diversity because of its discriminating stance against women.

The position of Walmart of not offering health care coverage up to par with the benefits other employees receive in the industry can be considered an ethical issue because Walmart is not attending to the health needs of its workers. Walmart has been hiding behind the excuse that it offers some health care coverage to part-time employees which many companies don’t justify their extremely poorly designed health care benefit coverage. The reason that Walmart’s medical plan is so poor is that Wal-Mart has been looking for every way to save money on medical coverage for its employees. Walmart pays $3,500 yearly on health coverage per employee which is over 40% lower than the industry standard.

I do not think that Walmart should be concerned with the unionization of stores based on what occurred in the Chinese marketplace. In China the government strongly supports unionization and the ACFTU organizes union activity in China. This organization has the full support of the communist regime. To achieve entrance into the highly profitable Chinese marketplace Walmart had to adjust its strategies to adapt to the culture of China. In the U.S. Walmart has effectively persuaded its employees to unionize. At times the company has acted unethically in the strategies that it has used to deter union activity. “With many Americans out of work and struggling to find work, organized labor groups' missions may not seem appropriate or even fair as they might have when jobs are more plentiful” (Voorhis, 2010). American workers are not seeking unionization as much as their workers of the early part of the 20th century.