Ethical Dilemmas Faced By Walmart, McDonald's, And Betaseron In Essay.

Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom

Describe about the Business Walmart for Several Ethical Dilemmas.

Walmart has faced several ethical dilemmas in context with the employees as the key stakeholders. The labor practices of Walmart have been questioned on a continuous basis. The organization has underpaid the workers in comparison with the work they used to perform. The wages were highly squat and the company used to make the workers work overtime and for that there were provide no additional payments and the structure of the wages was too low that the workers were unable to meet their daily needs also. There were several allegations which were charged over the company for misconduct towards the employees. There were cases and situations where Walmart found involved in women discrimination as the female workers were not getting equal opportunity as well as there were cases where Walmart found to be involved in violation of child labor policies as in the Bangladesh site of Walmart there were found minors involved in the sewing process and other work of the site. These issues related to employees and the unfair conduct towards them give  rise to several ethical dilemmas for the company and thus the image started drowning as well as number of suits were filed against the company.

To come out from these ethical dilemmas and to resolve the issues the company strives hard to incorporate ethical practices which can aid Walmart in saving its business and the drowning image. The ethical practices were the senior executives were sent to the stores of Walmart so that they can take the responses and feedback of their workers on several things such as the environment at the workplace, behavior of the seniors etc. There were implemented a number of CSR practices is that the employees can avail various benefits and can have a safer and ethical workplace to work at. The wages were also revised as per the wages and labor law act. A number of health insurance policies were offered to the employees so that they can be secured from their future perspectives. All these practices were the initiatives of Walmart to operate its business ethically and to have a sustainable image in the eyes of its stakeholders. The company also incorporated a four part model of corporate social responsibility as per which it has followed number of responsibilities for the strengthening and development of four major aspects i.e. economic, ethical, legal and philanthropic.

McEthics in Europe and Asia: Should McDonald's Extend its Response to Ethical Criticism in Europe?

Impact over the various stakeholders:

Employees: They will raise their voice and will try to have legal supportand will ultimately leave the organization if the same continuous.

Consumers: The consumers will have a wrong perception of the company and will detach themselves and try to purchase from other stores.

 (McEthics in Europe and Asia: should McDonals’s extend its response to ethical criticism in Europe?) 

McDonalds is the world’s recognized food chain which offers various products that facilitate the youth and specially children. The increased publicity of chain has resulted in various negative implications over the health of the people. The children were suffering from obesity, diabetes and various other health problems because if the unhealthy food habits and in-take of high calories food items such as burgers, fries etc.

For resolving this ethical dilemma, the company has taken various initiatives such as introducing fresh salads and fruits. Bring into various healthy things in the food menu such as carrot sticks, grilled chicken flatbreads and porridge. Various sports campaign for young people was also introduced.

Impact over the various stakeholders:

Customers: Increased health issues to the customers because of the continuous consumption of fast food and majorly impact over the health of children. Increase response will decrease these issues.

 (The Betaseron Decision) 

In this case the Betaseron is a drug which helped the MS patients to cure and get recovered from the disease. The main ethical dilemma for the company manufacturing the medicine was that there were increased number of patients which were demanding for the medicine but the company used to manufacture it on small units and does not have the capacity to manufacture in large amount and thus the demands were not met. There was another ethical dilemma which related to the price. The prices were too high as the research and other things were also highly expensive that is why the price of the medicine was not affordable buy the average class people. This created huge dilemma for the company that in what way it work to provide medicine to large number of people.

Impact over the various stakeholders:

Consumers: They will not be able to get the treatment they needed and it can happen that the one who need the medicines very urgently may not get and which can make the patient suffer a lot.

For handling these issues the company tries to improve its logistics, prices and manufacturing systems. The medicine is not provided only to higher class people but through a computer lottery the medicines will be provided as well as there were direct supply of Betaseron to the patients through pharmacies and cutting down the time involved while passing it from the retailers.

The Betaseron Decision

Case1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom

In the case of Walmart, there were several ethical issues which were required to be addressed, the company was able to meet them with good initiatives but there are few theories which can still be relevant for Walmart to have more ethical approach towards its business operations. The theory is related to ethical rights and the ethical virtue. These theories can help the company in achieving ethical sustainability as by providing the employees with their ethical rights there will be elimination of issues related to employees and unethical working. As per the virtue theory there is a need that company must adopt the path of honesty and reliability in operating as by adopting these measures there will be increased customer base and retention rate of the employees.

Case2: McEthics in Europe and Asia: should McDonals’s extend its response to ethical criticism in Europe?

 In the case of McDonalds, there were several ethical issues which were required to be addressed; the company was able to meet them with good initiatives. There is required an ethical theory i.e. Kantian theory as per which the company must perform things for the right reasons as well as the organization must be inspired by good will. In this factor somewhere McDonalds does not completely fulfill all ethical behaviors as to buy the products it’s an individual decision as people know the nutritional as well as unhealthy food substances in the products. But as per this theory the company should not attract the kids by giving them a greed of toys which becomes the reason for parents to make the children buy the mini meals. Earlier McDonalds use this strategy in a good faith that is to bring fun for children but in the later time frame it became the face of the company. As well as the company can achieve more ethicality in its operations and working by replacing its few food articles in addition with the introduction of health food items. So that individuals who do not initiate to buy those introduced goods they are forced to have the replaced products. And thus more healthy option can be presented by the company.

In the case of Betaseron, there is extreme need of ethical decisions as the approaches taken by the manufacturer and suppliers are not so appropriate. The other ethical theories can be in place to resolve the ethical dilemma such as the need and the requirement based approach. The more critical case must be analyzed through the medical history of the patients or directly the medicines must be supplied to the hospitals so that the more severe cases can be handled at priority. For reducing the prices the Government must provide subsidies to the company so that more number if people can be benefitted with the medicine.

Relevant Theories Associated with Case Studies

Compare and Contrast the 3 Case Studies based on ethical issues and theories, justify your analysis: 

In this part there is a comparison present between the case studies and the theories. This part depicts that how ethical the companies are working as compared with the theories and what other factors have their significant role in the decision making.

Case1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom

After the comparison of the theories and the case study it has been analyzed that Walmart has proven to be successful in incorporating the ethical practices as the company offers number of benefits to the communities and to the employees which help the workers to have a better working place. As per the ethical theory of virtue, the company does not stand at a good position as there has been identified several cases where the company has found to be incorporating unethical and unlawful practices to develop its business. And this states that there is high need that the company works on the ethical virtues so that there can be no hidden and dishonest working operations which the company requires to hide from the employees, customers, government and other stakeholders.

After the comparison of the ethical theories and the case study it has been analyzed that McDonalds has adopted great initiatives and it can increase its ethical working just by improving and enhancing the approaches. There is a great impact over the health of the youths and the children and this create huge negative implications for the company as parents are very much concerned with the increase unhealthy food habits of their kids and the outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, increased cholesterol etc. if the company will try to reduce the fast food supplies and increase more healthy products and goods in their menu so that the customers have a less option of the fast food and a more choices in the healthy products and thus they are more emphasized to have healthy in-takes.

Case3: The Betaseron Decision

After the comparison of the theories and the case study it has been analyzed that the approaches adopted by the company is not effective as the computer lottery is not an adequate way to provide a medicine which can be a life saver for few people. Instead of such irrelevant approaches the company must try to increase its manufacturing unit and supplies so that the increased demands could be met and there remain no deficiency of the medicines. The prices quoted for the medicine is also very much high which creates a difference between the buyers and the people who are in much need are unable to buy because of the high prices. Thus in comparison it is clear that there are still much more initiatives left for the company to adopt.