Preview

Costco Ethics

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1321 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Costco Ethics
| Costco Warehouse | | Ethics |

| Costco Warehouse | | Ethics |

June 5, 2011
Authored by: Barbara Esslinger
MGT 430
Professor Lindauer

June 5, 2011
Authored by: Barbara Esslinger
MGT 430
Professor Lindauer

Overview:
Today ethics has become such a controversial topic. It would seem as though corporate fraud and breaches of fiduciary responsibility, coupled with greed and selfishness plague every aspect of our corporate environment; therefore, a simplified model of ethics which implies choices are either right or wrong, or that ethical decision making depends solely on personal character or values is too simple. Ethics in a broader sense, is a matter of carefully and responsibility managing the things which are entrusted into our care. For Costco their code of ethics is simple: “Obey the law, take care of its members, take care of its employees, respect its suppliers and reward its shareholders.” (Cascio)

Corporate Culture:
“In Southern California, a crazed motorist recently attempted to commit suicide by driving his car onto railroad tracks. At the last moment, he thought the better of it, abandoned the car, and ran home. Unfortunately, seconds later a full commuter train crashed into the car, leading to terrible loss of life and to severe injuries to hundreds of people. The accident occurred directly in the back of a Costco Warehouse store. Almost immediately, the blue-collar Costco employees organized themselves into an emergency brigade, and, armed with forklift trucks and fire extinguishers, set out to rescue trapped passengers, and to deliver first-aid to the wounded.” (O 'Toole)

It is said the ethics of an organization are displayed in the corporate culture of the organization and that the leaders have a huge influence on or actually creating the values of the company by what they believe are important. In turn, these leaders will bring on other’s who honor or value the same things. This leadership model will



Bibliography: Cascio, Wayne F. "Decency Means More than "Always Low Prices": A cojparions of Costco to Wal-Mart 's Sam 's Club." Academy of Management Perspectives (August 2006): 26-37. —. "The Economic Impact of Employee Behaviors on Organizational Performance." California Management Review 2006: 41-59. Desjardins, Doug. Culture of Inclusion: Where top executives lead by example and honesty and frugality are valued virtues. 19 December 2005. June 2011 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_23_44/ai_n15969651/>. Goosen, Rick. Costco, Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage: Exclusive interview with Richard Galanti. 4 June 2010. June 2011 <http://www.makegood.com/blog/2010/06/04/costco-social-responsibility-part-i-exclusive-interview-with-richard-galanti-cfo/>. Hattel, Alvin. Corporate Case Study: Costco insits is is simply giving back. n.d. June 2011 <http://www.angelfire.com/wa3/josh_teter/AlvinHattal/Costco.htm>. Keller, Kenneth. The Signal.com:Eight Lessons to Learn from Costco. October 2008. June 2011 <http://www.the-signal.com/archives/5311/>. O 'Toole, James. "The Ethics of Human Capital." 2005. Santa Clara University. 3 June 2011 <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/human-capital.html>. Thomas, Terry, John Schremerhorn and John Deinhart. "Strategic leadership of ethical behavior in business." Academy of Management Executives 2004.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Ethics in Costco

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages

    “Our business is to give the customer the best value we can. We’re going to be a company that is on first name basis with members. Strategic gives customers the best value, at the best price.”…

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jose dresses in a neat, clean, and Professional manner. Jose needs to focus this year on the “5 Rights of the Member Service” Eye Contact, Smile, Greet and acknowledge each member, Appreciate and thank every member, Be accountable and take responsibility for any action. Jose provides excellent member service for most members but, he must provide that same excellent member service for every member. Jose must understand that member service is job #1. Our Costco Code of Ethics is to “Care for our members” and “Care for our Employees” Jose must put this to practice on a daily basis with every member and co-worker.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Costco Ethics

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Costco wholesale follows a very strict code of ethics, which are strongly enforced with their compliance program. Costco’s ultimate mission is to provide their members with quality goods and services at the lowest price possible. In order for Costco to achieve their mission, they must abide by their simple code of ethics which consist of, obeying the law, taking care of their members, taking care of their employees, and respecting their suppliers. Upon success of these four codes, they have the ability to reward their shareholders, which is their ultimate goal.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chief elements of Costco’s strategy were low prices, limited selection, and a treasure-hunt shopping environment. The ultra-low pricing strategy includes a mark-up capped at 14% and Kirkland, a Costco brand designed to be of equal or better quality than national brands. Product Selection is limited to 4,000 items within a wide variety of categories. Costco does however include ancillary businesses to increase member alternatives. The loss of sales from customers who refuse to purchase large amounts is considered “Intelligent loss of sales.” Treasure-Hunt Merchandising consists of a constantly changing selection of 1,000 luxury items on the floor enticing shoppers to spend more than they might otherwise by offering irresistible deals. To make Treasure-Hunt shopping profitable, Costco’s buyers purchase these items from the grey market such as wholesalers, or distressed retailers rather than manufacturers.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Implementation Plan Paper

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Marsh, Catherine (2013). Business Executives’ Perceptions of Ethical Leadership and Its Development. J Business Ethics, 114:565-582. Doi10.1007/s10551-012-1366-7…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leadership styles and habits promote an organization ethical climate. Leadership styles include coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, and coaching elements. Transactional leaders negotiate or barter with employees while transformational leaders strive for a share vision and common leaning experience. The strong ethical leaders have a strong personal character, have a passion to do the right thing, are proactive, forcus on stackholders’ interests, are role models for the organization’s values, make transparent decisions, and take a holistic view of the firm’s ethical culture.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Todays as we live in a global economy, the common knowledge of ethical culture provides identifying characteristic and values for organizational members to recognize and become informed. Cultures can be distinguished by artifacts, values, and basic traditions. On the other hand profit maximization according to (Jensen 2002: 240). Firm taking inputs out of the economy and putting its output of goods and services back into the economy increases aggregate welfare if the prices at which it sells the goods more than cover the costs it incurs…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    So what's behind Cokes’ success? I thought by Management that it's the unique culture that shared at Coca-Cola and that’s nurtured in all that they do. For their employees’ it’s based on one thing: passion.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The quality of ethical leaders is important to maintain the good order, and discipline of our culture. Effective leadership can be found at the lowest level of an organization, and there are many characteristics involved in leadership. The role of a leader has to be flexible due to the fact you will be dealing with many problems, and different personalities. Confidence is a key element that every leader must possess to be effective and approach each situation with a unique style. The role of leadership should be like a parental role, and provide the qualities to exhibit to their subordinates. The mentoring process should be implemented from orientation, but the progress should be gradual to unsure that it will stay effective. Leadership skills and ethical behavior are essential to policing a society, but the application of those skills can differ between societies. Cultural differences can be difficult to apply certain ethical behavior, because people opinions will differentiate in different regions. (Olsen…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Costco: Join the Club

    • 1945 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Organizational culture has been described as shared values and beliefs that underline a company’s identity. A strong culture that encourages employees from the top to the bottom in adaptation and change can increase organizational performance by energizing and motivating employees, shape behaviors, unify personnel in the goals / objectives and align employee’s actions with the priorities of the company (Daft, R., 2013). Creating a constructive culture should be a manager’s top priority because the right culture will propel a company into a top performer in its industry.…

    • 1945 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    populations have. It is safe to say that generally, the more cultured a person is, the…

    • 7109 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Levine, M., & Boaks, J. (2014). What does ethics have to do with leadership?. Journal Of…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethical Leadership

    • 2234 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The Leader has always been an essential part of a society or community or a country at all…

    • 2234 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethical leadership is the process of influencing employees through standards, philosophies and beliefs that are based on established standards in the organizational behavior ( Hasan, 2013; Buble, 2012). Additionally, it holds the responsibility of dealing conflict of followers by directing them right (Frank, 2002: Hesselbein & Goldsmith, 2006). Contrastingly, Cumbo (2009) focuses on leader when defining ethical leadership thus consider a leader ethical when inner virtues direct the leader’s decision making process. However, the complexity of ethical leadership is not in adhering law or doing things right but rests in the grey areas which determines the accountability of individuals dealing with problems (Plinio, Young & Lavery, 2010). Accordingly, researchers agree ethical theories reveal the significance of ethical leadership when it is associated to varied leadership styles (Dion, 2012). Building on from that idea the below table 1 presents different ethical theories.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oliver, F & Stephan, H. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good Business Horizons, Volume 50, Issue 3, May–June 2007, Pages 247-254…

    • 996 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays