The Sad State of Business Ethics
After reading the blog post “Business-As-Usual” in Mexico? by fellow Comm 101 student Joey Luo my attention was drawn to the startlingly poor state of business ethics used within major corporations (such as Luo’s example of Walmart Mexico), particularly in underdeveloped countries. I disagree with Luo’s claims in this post that “it may be the way things are done in Mexico” and that the corporation should “consider ethical relativism.”
In my opinion ethics and morals for a company should be a universal part of it’s brand identity and not be dependent on geographical location and cultural norms. Behaviours such as bribery, unfair treatment of employees and breaking the law are inexcusable and should not be tolerated by such major companies, much less swept under the rug as it appears Walmart Mexico tried to do with this latest scandal. Luo’s blog post made me realize how easy it is for these corporations to engage in unethical business practices abroad. There needs to be a call for action here. If the corporations won’t hold their own employees accountable for their morally wrong actions, who will?