ETHICS
Ethics is a set of
moral principles that help to differentiate between ‘good and bad’ or ‘right
and wrong’. Ethics is a such of modern principles that helps
differentiates b/w good or bad and right or wrong. The word ethics is derived
from greek word “ethos” which means a “character”. It is a matter of facts
which deals with certain standard of conduct & moral. It directs the human
behaviour and differentiate b/w “proper and improper”, “right or wrong”, “fair
or unfair” human actions. Therefore ethics refers to a system of moral
principles a sense of rights or wrong & goodness and badness of action and
their motives.
BUSINESS ETHICS
The term business ethics refers to the system of moral principle
& rules of conduct applied to business. The business should be conducted
according to certain self -recognized moral standard. Business ethics is a form
of applied ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines principles &
moral or ethical problem that arise in a business environment. It is
applied to all aspects of business conduct and the relevant to the conduct
individuals & business organisation as whole.
DEFINITION:-
Acc. to Webster – “Ethics is the discipline dealing with that which
is good or bad and with moral duties and obligations .
According
to carter Mc Nomara :-
According to charter Mc Nomara ethics is “knowing what is right or wrong in a workplace
and doing what is right”.
General
definition:-
“Written and
unwritten codes of principles and values that governs decision and action
within a company”.
Business
ethics
As compared to social
responsibility which has long history, ethics in mgt is a comparatively recent
origin. Now business organisation throughout the world are incorporating ethics
in their process. Mere social responsibility is not just sufficient concept for
serving the society, inculcating ethics in all aspects is also important. It is
also important for the functioning of organisation. Therefore business ethics
refers to a set of moral principles which play a significant role in guiding the
conduct of personnel in operation of any business organisation.
FEATURES OF
BUSINESS ETHICS:-
1. It
is concerned with what is right or wrong in human behaviour.
2. It
involves in all type of human behaviour organization-wide.
3. It
contains personal and professional conduct and prescribes what is ethical and
unethical conduct.
4. It
is a social phenomena.
5. It
does not rest on feeling of approval or disapproval but on the careful
examination of the reality of society.
For example:-
It may be unpleasant to fire an employee but ethics may demand just
that.
Need/shift to
business ethics:-
In 21st century there is a
greater focus on the consciences of business, houses & the demands for
ethically clean business process & actions(ethicism) is increasing.
Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics
through new public initiatives & laws.
The need for ethics to mgt in today’s
society is due to following reasons:-
1. Environment pressure –
Environmental pressure or factor such as customer, supplier, financier, trade
unions & governments put pressures on organisation to behave ethically.
Because of this in-build control mechanism of the society, There are more
chances ofethical behavior & less chances of unethical behaviour.
2. Credibility –
Ethical behaviour helps in increasing credibility of an organisation. It
protects organisational identity. Credibilityof the organisation depends on
trust worthiness, transparency & honesty. For an organisation building credibility
is a long-run process but its tarnishing is a short one. High credibility can
be maintained through continuous ethical behaviour.
3. Legal pressure
-
Ethical behaviour is evolved from the social system. In this evolution
process, there is possibility that, sometime it may be clear to people whether
a particular behaviour is ethical or unethical. In order to avoid this dilemma,
most of the society exact laws which defines ethical & unethical behaviour.
4. Moral consciousness
– Every individuals is morally conscious.
Since an organisation is collectively of individuals for certain specified
objectives. It tends to behave ethically even if there is a pressure from
external force to behave unethically. Organisation tends to feel that there
long-term survival depends on ethical behaviour & any unethical behaviour
is a short term abbreviation.
Tools
of business ethics:-
Ethical
business practices are relevant for both business organisation and society.
Therefore ethical practices should be adopted by business organizations. For
putting business ethics in practice, an organisation may use variety of tools
& for making these tools effective there is a need for the top mgt
commitment toward ethics. The top mgt must show strong commitment for putting
business ethics in practice.
Tools
of business ethics are :-
1) Values-
Values
are the moral believes held by an individual, an organisation & society.
“values are the relatively permanent change in the behaviour”. Values are the
conviction & a frame work of philosophy of an individual on the basis of
which he judges what is valuable or unvaluable ,good or bad, desirable or
undesirable, ethical & unethical.
Therefore, when an organisation has values
organisational members behave according to those values & their behaviour
tends to be ethical.
2) Rights and duties:- Right is a claim that entitles a person to
take particular action.
Duty is ones obligation to obey the
law . Right are co-related with duties.
whenever someone has right, someone else has duty to respect it.
For example-
every citizen of India enjoy certain rights under the countries constitutions
& every citizen has to duty to follow the countries law.
3) Moral rules:- It governs people’s behaviour in the
organisation that often become internalized in organisational process. Moral
rules guide people to take ethical action in situation where competing interest
collide. In order to make moral rules more explicit many organisation have code
of conduct for their employee.
4) Human relationship:-
Every human being is connected to other in a web or relationship. These
relationship exist because people need one other for mutual support & to
achieve common goal. These relationship govern human behaviour including
ethical behaviour.
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