Ethical issues are reflection of immoral practices in organizations. Organizations where low values and low moral integrity often indulge in unethical practices like gender discrimination, race discrimination, safety and security of employees, hazard to environment, information leakage etc which become ethical issues. All the organizations should function as per the law set by the government. If organizations do not obey the law and perform illegal activities it leads to legal issues.
Ethical issues are closely related to legal issues. Ethics and values that need to be followed by the organizations, are n the cognizance of the law hence ethical issues when get resolved through legal system became legal issues. A very fine example of ethical issue is a sexual discrimination case which was filed against Wal-Mart by three women employees. Women employees mentioned that company sexually discriminate with their female employees in terms of pay and appraisal. Though the case was settled in favor of Wal-Mart but if any organization follows such type of unethical practices will end up paying a huge cost for the same. To avoid such situations companies should have practice clear compensation policy and salary structure based on justifiable criteria’s like skills, experience, qualification etc.
Another example of legal issue is a case between Apple and China government for not allowing Apple to sell their iPad tablet in two cities of China. As per the ruling of Chinese court, the iPad name is not own by Apple in China hence company can not sell its product in China. For any company it is not possible to register their brand globally hence before entering into a new country it is better to check the availability of brand name and get it registered.
References
Quigg, B. (2011, June 22). Compensation Today. Retrieved February 18, 2012, from www.blogs.payscale.com: http://blogs.payscale.com/compensation/2011/06/walmart-lawsuit.html
Swyers, M. (2012, February 17). Inc. Retrieved February 18, 2012, from www.inc.com: http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/protect-your-brand-globally-lessons-from-apples-ipad-woes.html
