http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2007/db20070612_548611.htm
This article involves a controversial ethical decision made by a vice president of corporate communications, Mona Williams, at Wal-Mart. The article states that when Chalace Lowry accept a job as an administrative assistant at Wal-Mart that ethics was very important to the company's mission and vision. With that being said, Lowry reported a suspicious incident about her boss and she could not disclose her name when filing the form; therefore, her boss, Williams, knew it was her that filled out the form concerning William's ethics. Lowry suspected that Williams had insider information about exercising her stocks before Wal-Mart planned a $15 billion stock buyback. Lowry did not have full proof, but "acted in good faith" because Wal-Mart emphasized the importance of proper ethics and to report an incident if suspicious. Now, Lowry has to look for a new job because Wal-Mart started to make her feel uncomfortable and rumors were started about her.
Based upon the article, some ethical questions come to concern about how the incident was handled. Our book states that ethics are morals and values that are found appropriate by members of society and individuals, it helps us decide what is right or wrong in any situation. Leadership ethics is based upon a leaders character, what they do, their actions and behaviors. This entire incident at Wal-Mart I feel was handled very wrong. Lowry did what she thought was right, even if it could have been a mistake, and it backfired on her. I don't understand how the human resources department can show complaints to the people that they were based on. I feel that since it was a senior executive who got complained on is why it was brought to their attention. This should not be allowed because senior executives should not feel that they can break the rules when other subordinates cannot. Also, Wal-Mart went so far as to make Lowry feel uncomfortable at the work place and when she asked for a transfer, they did not help her much and told her she needs to find a new position in Wal-Mart within 90 days or she had to look for a new job. I feel that Lowry did indeed catch William's in an unethical act because of the way Wal-Mart acted in order to get her to leave. Overall, I feel that Wal-Mart handled this situation in a very unethical way and go as far to make the worker feel uncomfortable and start rumors. I would not want to work with this organization if they insist on good ethics then act opposite to employees when senior executives get caught acting unethically. I felt that an investigation could have occured but clearly Wal-Mart was in no rush to get rid of the senior executive. And if they get away with it once, it will occur again and again.
Would you want to work for an organization like this? What are some thoughts about how the situation was handled?
-Dave Harbeck
Dave,
ReplyDeleteIf I were Lowry I definitely would've pushed forward with legal action. Not only was her Boss's (Williams) reaction, to finding out there was a complaint filed about her, discriminatory towards Lowry, but you are correct in bringing up that the HR department of Walmart should have never let this happen. I can understand if the name of the person filing the complaint is necessary, but these papers are confidential and whoever was responsible for not protecting those papers, or Williams for looking at them when she should not have, is the one at blame. It is incredibly unethical behavior to look at confidential papers such as these and there should have been disciplinary action for this detail itself. I think that it does appear quite obvious that Williams was behaving unethically when this event occurred. It is important for companies to communicate with their employees that ethical principles do adhere to how business is ran and there will be consequences if they are not. Williams obviously does not run her affairs by Walmart's standards and that is a huge problem considering she is a vice president of the company. I would not want to be in Lowry's position or be working for Walmart either.
-Faith Gephart Elmore
I agree with Faith on what she has to say. Also, I believe Walmart is an unethical company all together. I have seen movies and read articles about Walmart and how they treat their employees and this is a classic example. Walmart should be more secure with their important documents with who can see what so that the wrong people don't get their hands on the wrong papers. Faith mentions how it is important for companies to communicate with their employees and I completely agree with her. I feel Walmart kind of turned their back and didn't really care what was going on. In the long run it created more problems. If Walmart acted in an ethical way and treated their employees right and ran their whole organization in an ethical way this problem might have never happened. Everyone loves Walmart because they have everything for so cheap (I am one of those people) but I still feel it is wrong to shop at Walmart because of how they treat their employees. Employees are treated wrong and it is hard for them to do something about it because they are easily replaceable. Also, the worker can't afford getting fired and losing out on money with the economy the way it is so they just have to deal with how they are treated. Walmart is a great store and knows how to make profit but I wish they would treat their employees the right way.
ReplyDelete-Daniel Itami
I would have to agree with everything that all of you have brought up. Complaints, like the one Lowry made, should be welcomed by any company, especially one as large as Wal-Mart. This way any unethical behavior can be brought to their attention and fixed accordingly. Wal-Mart obviously has the funds and resources to fix a problem like this, and chose not to. This especially looks bad for the company as a whole, like Daniel stated. I believe that Lowry did the right thing in bringing Williams' unethical behavior to Wal-Mart's attention. How often do you think this has happened in the past though? If this is how Wal-Mart responded to the complaint, I would think that this is not the first time that it has happened. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's profits do not reflect the bad work environment they have for their employees. It is hard to protest an unethical company when their prices are so cheap. I hope that someday action will be taken for any further unethical behavior by Williams or any other employees, especially the top management team.
ReplyDelete-Danielle Huff
I feel like Wal-mart takes so many hits any more that this inappropriate behavior is almost unsurprising. I can't count on two hands the number of ways I feel like Wal-mart acts unethically. I know that not only would I not work there, but I would go as far as to say that I won't shop there. The constant abuse of their workers, both locally and internationally, is disgusting. Hour shaving and horrible pay does not sound appealing to me!
ReplyDeleteNatalie Hess