WalMart Are They Socially Responsible

10 Pages 2561 Words

Is Wal-Mart a socially responsible corporation? Discuss using Hall’s article as your starting point and the different views of corporate responsibility presented in class. (This essay should argue to a definitive conclusion).

Is Wal-Mart a socially responsible corporation? This essay will seek to answer that question. Firstly there will be an overview of what exactly Wal-Mart is, their size and profit. Moving onto what conditions have lead to this question being posed with insights from various authors such as Nelson Lichtenstein and the ways in which Wal-Mart have retorted. Two main theories of corporate responsibility will be put forth; the stockholder or narrow view presented by Friedman and the stakeholder or wider view presented by Freeman and Evans. It will be established which of these views is socially better and Wal-Mart’s current situation will be looked at against the appropriate criteria.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer and the largest company in the world based on revenue. It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and has grown to become one of the most successful and well known companies the world over. In the last financial year Wal-Mart had $256.3 billion in sales and net income of $8.9 billion. Forbes magazine points out that if Wal-Mart were its own economy, it would rank 30th in the world, with a GDP right behind Saudi Arabia and bigger than that of Switzerland, Sweden or Turkey. It's the largest private employer in the United States, in Mexico and in Canada, employing more than 1.5 million people world wide. It seems that Wal-Mart is an economy of its own with profound implications for its customers, workers and the communities where it operates. Wal-Mart contributes $US750 million to taxes in California alone and spends about $US4.2 billion a year nationally on employee benefits. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart)

Nelson Lichtenstein (2005), a strong unionist, believes that the size of Wal-Mart means ...