As I was reading the posts on the blog I was reminded of a case I worked on. We were studying Wal-Mart (yes I know we study Wal-Mart every semester!) and its success as a company. It is no news to us that Wal-Mart is embroiled in literally thousands of law suits for a whole range of issues including discriminatory employee practices, less than standard health care benefits to its employees, effect on the community, non eco-friendly practices, unfair business practices etc. The biggest is the class action law suit being brought up against the company for discriminatory practices. Not to mention Michael Moore’s film that cast Wal-Mart in a new light. As true are these facts as is the success of Wal-Mart as the biggest employer in the United States with revenue larger than the GDP of some countries and even larger than some others. They also experienced continued growth even during tough economic times (net sales rose 9.5% $312.4 billion, and net income rose 9.4% to $11.2 billion in 2006).
What is happening here? Despite several Ethical controversies, Wal-Mart manages to attract consumers who are responsible for the company’s growth. So the question here is, are we really socially responsible or do we only force our corporations to be?
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