Problem: Propose a plan for revising the ethical standards and the communication of these standards in order to resolve the issue.
There are two issues going on in this article. The first is the misuse of corporate funds. In this case, it seems they were misused by using gift cards and expense accounts. Therefore, they weren't taken out straight from the company, but were taken out via otherwise legitimate means. However, $500,000 seems somewhat excessive even for that. The point is though that the funds were used in a way that was not legitimate. If the funds were really intended to be used for anti-union activity, that would have to be voted upon by the Board of Directors of the company. It seems here that the expense account did not have to approved by anyone as is not custom in most large corporations.
Therefore, the first ethical revision would be a specific code for the use of gift cards or an expense account. In this code, there should be an outline of what cannot be expensed. At the same time, the Board of Directors should reserve the right to vote upon expenses that go over a certain amount and that seem questionable as to their legitimacy. This may seem like an overly reactive stance but in this situation since this already did occure, it does not seem like going overboard either.
The second ethical issue here is the anti-union activity itself. Even though Wal-Mart would like to avoid unions, some of its activities in promoting that stance may not be within the proper limits of business and the ability of unions to operate. Therefore, the activity itself needs to be looked at and again in the Wal-Mart policy code, there should be a very specific outline of what activity can and cannot be allowed when dealing with the prospect of unions (or the lack there of). In this way, all the employees would know beforehand what is and is not allowed. This will also allow the Board of Directors to vote upon certain measures and indemnify themselves of certain activities when employees break the specific Wal-Mart ethical code.