Current business ethics issue
This paper seeks to analyze, synthesize, and provide recommended for the situation using the relevant theory in ethics that would govern any unethical behavior in the news article entitled “Lawyer: Trampled NY worker lacked crowd training” by Eltman (2008). This would also involve looking into a theory in ethics that would allow the unethical behavior and the consequence of using such theory. The events described in the article is about a Wal-Mart incident where a man got trampled and died when the store as opened for shoppers because of a bargain sale.
There was a sudden big flow of customers storming the store after and Damour, the worker just got stepped upon by people. Since there were about 2,000 people who had to respond to the marketing promotion and, there are about hundreds of persons who may have to step over the worker who was declared to have died of asphyxiation due to trampling (Eltman, 2008). Reports said that Damour had been working at the Wal-Mart only about a week and was actually hired via an employment agency providing temporary staffing.
Since the victim was not trained for any security arrangements and no background on crown control, there appears to be negligence on the part of the agency who hired him and Wal-Mart management which was in charged of deploying him to work (Eltman, 2008). Wal-Mart called the situation tragic and it represented to have tried to prepare the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers and outside security workers by putting up barricades and consulting police.
However, it may be observed that the explanation of Wal-Mart is not supported with out actually happened as there is in fact basis to charge the company for negligence as could be gleaned from result of police investigation (Eltman, 2008). The falsity of the claim of Wal-Mart is confirmed by the statement of the police that the security or organized inside the store and not both inside and outside as claimed by Wal-Mart. The ethical issue here involved is whether to make false statements to the press by Wal-Mart just to protect the company from the possible liability caused by.
That Wal-Mart is negligence may be circumstantially proved by a consensus among retailers on how the situation should have been settled as by distributing vouchers or organizing sales in order to cut ways to cut down on the “tsunami of shoppers entering the store all at once” (Eltman, 2008). To resolve the ethical issue involved, several ethical theories are available which are grouped into teleological and deontological theories.
Under the first is ethical universalism which encompasses the Mill’s utilitarianism that supports what will maximize the benefit for more number of people (Henderson, S. et al. , 2005). Wal-Mart may therefore argue that the death of the worker was an accident because more peoples’ needs will have to be served by invoking social responsibility (Friedman, 1970) which may form part of utilitarianism. The company would state that the interest of the stockholders should be protected firsts along with customers’ first and accordingly use false statement of having provided preparation for contingency.
Another group of ethical theory is deontological perspective which includes the Rawls social contract theory which argues for the equal right of each person in the community (Henderson, S. et al. , 2005)that need not be trampled just to please the majority. It can be concluded the theory of corporate social responsibility may be used to justify the act of Wal-Mart in trying to make statements that are not supported by evidence as found by the police for the purpose of avoiding liability for the death the worker trampled in stampede in the store.
Although the said theory may be used to allow the unethical behavior of making false statement, a better ethical theory as that of Rawls theory of ethics must be used where the corporation must really act in accordance with what is dictated by the truth for its failure to respond may result to its loss of credibility to the general customers and the general public which may eventually affect its whole business like the case of Enron (Sickmiller, 2002). Reference: Eltman, F. (2008) Lawyer: Trampled NY worker lacked crowd training, Associated Press, {www document} URL, Accessed December 9, 2008
Friedman, M. (1970) The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits, The New York Times Magazine, {www document} URL, Accessed December 9,2008, Henderson, S. et al. (2005), Issues in financial accounting, 12th edn, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW, pp. 958–83. Sickmiller, D. (2002), Business ethics: What does ethical behavior actually involve? , {www document} URL, http://david. sickmiller. com/cribs/LS489/Seminar%20Paper. doc, Accessed December 9, 2008
