COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN BUSINESS AND ETHICS: REFLECTIONS ON IMPACT OF CODE OF CONDUCT ON WALMART

Abstract

Business ethics profoundly affects companies, especially stakeholders like customers, employees, shareholders, investors, and the business’s environment. This is because of the clash between ethics and business, which raises compatibility question. To that end, this study seeks to qualitatively show the compatibility between ethics and business, drawing evidence from the case of Walmart and some extant literatures on the subject matter. The study shows that despite the clash, ethics and compliance are essential and foundational determinants of sustainably successful business. When a business organization, such as Walmart, sets ethical standards and a strong foundation, it establishes the basis for success and ensures transparency and accountability. Ethical standards also guard against legal hurdles that may arise because of the absence of those standards adding to the cost of doing business. The paper concludes that ethical business practices, as demonstrated by Walmart through its code of conduct, help business organizations to achieve success, build trust and confidence, and win the hearts of a large number of the public, for which Walmart and such other organizations top on the competition chain in the market and thereby attain high level of organizational performance, productivity and profit maximization.