What is the status of ethics in management? This is a very hard question to address in a two to three page .
paper because there is no definite answer. As with many society-wide concerns, ethics runs the entire .
spectrum of behaviors; from Wal-Mart being very customer oriented and a friend of charity to those fly-by- .
night repair scams that tend to prey on the elderly. .
When does a business cross the line from making a profit to stealing a profit? That is a hard line to gauge. .
Laws are designed to make that line a little clearer but laws can't out think the mind of man. If a way can .
be thought of to make money it already has been or is being thought of. It's where people are taken .
advantage of that we need to worry. There are many business in place that simply prey on the people who .
don't know any better. Whether its the feature on Prime-Time that shows elderly people tricked into phony .
home repairs or the local business that offered a friend of mine a computer at an inflated price with an .
outrageous financing plan, some business practices are unethical. What I will focus on today is not the .
clearly right or the clearly wrong but that vast amount of items that are in the middle. .
Looking at more of a gray area, Wal-Mart is generally viewed as an ethically company but even they have .
a reputation for unfair competition. Wal-Mart has a marketing plan that targets smaller cities with large- .
volume discount stores. While this may not appear to be unfair on its face, many people have felt it's .
negative effect. When Wal-Mart moves into a market, many of it's smaller competitors go out of business. .
Small business in small towns can't compete with the prices, availability, or selection of a huge .
conglomerate like Wal-Mart. People in the towns don't have much of a choice. Pay more for less or pay .
less for more? Not are hard decision. But the ultimate effect is that many small business can't survive the .
