Introduction
The main goals for every business, firm or company is to increase profit. Human resource, the staff working for the organization is a very crucial resource, which needs to be guarded, respected and given first priority. They are the people who can either make the company to stand and be profitable or fail depending on whether they are motivated or not. Most companies have been just putting their focus on money neglecting the staff and this has led to decline in their sales and consequently decrease in their profits margin. Wall-Mart is an example of such companies, which has ignored workforce ability in transforming the company.
Different groups of persons have criticized Wal-Mart. The grassroots organizations, religious groups, environmental and even the customers are the people groups who have not been happy over how the company treats them. The company is also reported be lowering the prices of its products with an effort to attract the customers however, this is another problem which has been created between it and the community members running the same of business. In 2005, the company came up with working families for Wal-Mart to counter the effects of the much criticism of different people groups. It had to look for ways of reacting to concerns raised by the press and the social media because the realized that it threatened to tarnish its name. Looking across organizations, single individuals, other community groups, and even its workforce it is evident that it does not have good rapport with any side.
Reports show that the company has experience several workforce related lawsuits because of discriminations such as paying low wages, poor working conditions, and policies targeted at eradicating workers unions and inadequate provisions of healthcare. It is so strange that as it the profits margin increases the staff continues to be discriminated. Many staff does not even complete a one-year term working in the company and this decreases employees, as workers are just frustrated to leave and look for jobs somewhere else. Much of the lawsuits filed against the company by the staff majorly touched on complain of poor working conditions for instance, working extra time and during lunchtime without an extra pay. In other parts the payment of staff were being determined by amount of sales that an employee make a move contrary to the original agreements made before being employed.
Gender discrimination of the employees is another issue, which has grieved the emotions of other people. Some employees reported of being discriminated by their fellow colleagues by the mere fact that they are from a particular gender. The high cases of gender discrimination reported by the staff denote that most workers were not happy with the existing working conditions and how the company treated cases regarding gender discrimination. Either another issue concerns much opposed policies including cutting full time hours, attendance, payment policies and other policies, which made employees to be available for any shift day or night, or corporate executives at the headquarters were doing these by use of computers. In addressing such problems, the company started holding talks with its workers to deal with any queries.
Other fault seen in theses includes locking staff inside during nighttime, which made them feel like being imprisoned. Reveals that that these policies were discriminative in that they went against child-labor laws and the state regulations that demands that breaks and meals within the course of work, their weekly timetable did have suck kind of provisions. Allowing undocumented immigrants was another move that raised eyebrows among various stakeholders and the whole working fraternity. Operation Rollback rolled out this issue.
The company has also faced criticism due to environmental concerns that it was not environmental friendly. Reports show that the furniture ware made from logged trees from the surrounding forest and there were no plans to compensate them. The quality of its products declined due to staff discrimination and massive production. The customers were at first happy with the company because of the reduced prices of goods but the moment most of them realized that they were being supplied with low quality products, they were unhappy with the company.
Stakeholder Orientation (Q2.)
Complying with both the letter and spirit and letter of the state laws should be the core thing for each company. Although not all employees do not know certain provisions of the law, all of them are expected to exercise good judgment and seek advice and direction from the senior staff whenever there are contradictions. Generally, Apple has demonstrated a good example in complying with the labor laws and setting policies that comply with such laws. The company also has a good record of paying its taxes according to the rules of the country that is operating in that country where any of its branches operates. It does a yearly financial audit reflecting the profits that it makes for each year and thereafter the amount of tax to be paid is calculated from the total turnover. The kind of transparency that the company has been having of making its documents available for the government to scrutinize is what makes it better placed in term of compliance with the state laws on taxation. There are some private companies which decides to hide its documents from the government and only manipulate figures to come up with the minimum amount of tax to be paid. It is however, worth noting that it is illegal when a company fails to disclose its original documents for audit by government agencies.
Apple has been outsourcing for a long period and supplies have been impressive though with some challenges here and there. The company for instance has been majoring on iPhone, iPod, iTunes among other services while outsourcing of personal computers from other firms and companies. There are a few moments in which supply failed the company but generally, supply has been and consistently good.
Generally, the company has been receiving quality supply of quality products to meet the need of the customers. Features of computers and other information technology devices are usually being updated and reviewed regularly with the aim of improving the quality of the products. When iPhone was invented for instance, it was performing very slowly but due to changes in their versions has always made it faster and better to use. A product with the latest version is faster and allows user to better use of the device.
Majority of the customers are happy and satisfied with the services offered by Apple because it offers a wide range of services and product to meet the needs of customers. Given that most of its products are of good quality and acceptable across the board, the customers have, expressed satisfaction with the way the company is doing and all they hope is sustainability. The innovative nature of the company is what has made it acceptable and competitive in the market. The business communities have not complained of any unfair competition especially of pricing which is usually common in most companies. The company has operated and believed in the spirit of fairness in business environment knowing that all businesses are dependent on each other. Therefore, the religious groups, business community, private and governmental institutions take the company with high expectation.
References
Business Ethics Quarterly. Chicago, Ill: Society for Business Ethics, 1991. Internet resource.
De, George R. T. Business Ethics. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co, 1982. Print.
Business Ethics Quarterly: The Journal of the Society for Business Ethics. Bowling Green, OH: The Society, 2011. Print.
"Apple fans: Company is more than Steve Jobs." AP Online [California] 24 Aug. 2011: 6. Print.
"Business Ethics Issues Remain for Corporate America.." Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News [New York] 1 Dec. 2002: 8. Print.
Fishman, Charles. The Wal-Mart effect: how the world's most powerful company really works-- and how it's transforming the American economy. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Print.
Gavai, A. K.. Business ethics. Rev. ed. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House, 2010. Print.
Soderquist, Don. The Wal-Mart way: the inside story of the success of the world's largest company. Nashville: T. Nelson, 2005. Print.
"Wal-Mart appoints new managing director and plans expansion.." South American Business Information [New Mexico] 29 June 2003: 4. Print.
