Walmart Business Ethics Literature & Language Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Walmart’s Unethical Behavior
Student’s Name
Institution
Walmart’s Unethical Behavior
“Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.” We see in many cases that ethics and laws do not always match up. Most laws are not ethical but ethics dictates that they ought to be. In the case of ethical law, the result may have an unethical outcome. Even though the terms law and ethics are often used side by side, they are not in any way co-extensive. Currently, there are many acts that people consider unethical. For example, when a friend betrays another or emotionally hurts another by lying to them. In this particular instance, many people will see the act as unethical. However, since betraying a friend is not illegal, it may not be subjected to lawful scrutiny. On the other hand, some things could be considered illegal but some people find it ethical. For example, smoking marijuana is considered illegal in some parts of the world. However, some still smoke marijuana but never have any ethical conflict in them. Big organizations have been found guilty of using the disparity of these two terms to benefit their cause. Even though their activities appear to be within what is allowed by law, some can be deemed unethical. Nevertheless, organizations have in place policies to ensure their practices are ethical. In this paper, the focus is on a large corporation, Walmart, which continues to toe the line as it tries to balance between remaining within the bounds of the law and acting ethically.