In a factory in Bangladesh 112 workers lost their lives in a factory fire because the owner failed to address code violations or provide lack of fire equipment; then they locked the escape doors. In the clean up afterwards products for American stores were found. These included products for Wal-Mart. The American companies spoke out against the factory. Wal-Mart made it particularly clear that it had severed ties with the factory before the fire. However they could not deny that their products were on the premises so they traced the order back through a chain of suppliers to establish how their order placed with another factory came to be in that facility. .
While tracing the order was the correct business decision, going public with the information went a step beyond economic good sense. When they did that they showed that they, like their customers were horrified at the conditions and established a sense of shared values. Shared value emphasizes the connection between economic and social values, this is something that more corporations are paying attention to. When companies establish shared social values they acknowledge that society and its needs are what defines the market..
This falls in with an adherence to five tradition traditional theories of ethics. Utilitarianism balances the costs versus the value. Since there was no additional cost in going public this was not an issue. Second is rule-based morality and in the case of the fire Wal-Mart was distancing itself from the rule breaker. The third has to do with human rights and once again Wal-Mart was establishing itself as different from the factory that violated the human rights of its workers. By doing this it was attempting to present itself as virtuous and on the side of social justice without adding any additional costs to its own economic bottom line.
While business almost universally publish a code of conduct now more business are making it a point to use it to motivate employees and establish a common ground with the greater business community. Although it at times may seem counter intuitive to enforce standards above profits the far reaching benefits pay off. .
Works Cited
Alam, J., 2012. Bangladesh Factory Fire: Disney, Sears Used Factory In Blaze That Killed More Than 100 Workers. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/bangladesh-factory-fire_n_2203614.html
LRN, 2006. The impact of codes of conduct, Los Angeles, CA: LRN.
Proter , M. E. & Kramer, M. R., 2011. Creating Shared Value. Harvard Business Review.
