CORPORATE ETHICS IN TELE COMMUTATION

Meaning of ETHIC:
Ethics The inner-guiding moral principles, values, and beliefs that
people use to analyze or interpret a situation and then decide what
is the right or appropriate way to behave
What can be better than a hot cup of tea and a newspaper on a bright
pleasant morning? But what do we read in the paper, news about greed,
corruption, discrimination, robbery, injustice and many similar incidents. This
often leaves us worried about our security and safety. India has always been
regarded as a country of high moral and ethical values. Have we lost our
value system or is it just a phase that we as a nation are going through?
Doesnt it set you thinking about the changes happening in our society,
country and ourselves?
All of us imbibe the same set of ethics and yet some of us discover unjust
and unethical shortcuts to success. Is it always important to be ethically
right?
Example:
The basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. It
includes study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men
and women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land, concern
for health and safety and, increasingly, also for the natural environment. See
also morality.
Lets take another example: finding Pocket of someone with the full of money
on the street. What will you do? If it is pocket change, do you just put it in
your pocket? Or , do you look around for someone who may have dropped
it? Do you go to the nearest store and ask if someone had reported losing
any money? Do you figure that you have lost money in the past, and this is
just payback time? Do you figure that you have had a bad day, and this was
some deitys way of rebalancing your karma? Do you give that money to the
next homeless person you see or donate it to your favorite charity?
Why are these small ethical decisions so hard? Why do we question
ourselves as to the right thing to do?
Take one more Example,

Asif was a taxi driver in a city. One day a passenger left his briefcase in the
car. Asif noticed it only when he was going home for lunch. He did not know
what to do. He thought of opening it to see if the name and address of the
owner was given. When he opened the briefcase he was surprised to find
many valuable documents and cash in it. He found a card with a name and
address of the owner on it. He drove straight to the owners house and
returned the briefcase. The owner was grateful and rewarded Asif for his
honesty. This is a very rare quality. He could have kept the cash and thrown
away the documents. It was his conscience that did not approve of this act
and made him make the right decision. Honesty is the value that Asif holds.
You must be wondering what are values? Where do they come from? Are
values different from ethics and so on? You will get answers to your
questions.
Now you know that Asif is an honest taxi driver. Apart from being honest, he
was also truthful and responsible. He was known not to have cheated his
passengers. So, we can say that value is something which an individual holds
to be an important one and its helps in the development of his conscience.
Your conscience is your internal policeman. This policeman helps you to
choose the actions that are guided by your value system. Suresh was Asifs
colleague holding a different set of values. He would often behave
unethically and cheat his passengers. He would take them from a longer
route or fix the meter reading to charge more. Many times, he would argue
with Asif about his honesty. Asif would often tell Suresh that one should
always follow the path of truth in personal and professional life. Every work
place and profession has its own sets of ethics which should be followed by
all. So we can conclude that it is on the basis of the values we hold, that we
can understand the ethics of the workplace. Values are ideas and beliefs we
hold and are learnt from childhood. They are imbibed from our parents and
immediate surroundings. Caring for others, for example, is a value. Whereas,
ethics test our values, it is the way we behave in difficult situations.

What is CORPORATE ETHICS?

The broad area dealing with the way in which a company behaves
towards,
and
conducts
business
with,
its
internal
and
external STAKEHOLDERS, including employees, investors, creditors,
customers, and regulators. In certain national systems minimum
standards are required or recommended in order to eliminate
potential conflicts of interest or client/employee mistreatment

Here are 12 principles that form the basis of business ethics, and are what
you need to hold yourself accountable to:
Honesty
You need to be honest in all of your actions, and every communication you
make. When people see you making honest decisions, they start to trust
your company because youre not only being truthful, youre being upfront
and candid. People appreciate the fact they can take you at your word, as
customers only ever do business with those they trust. Being an ethical
executive means you do not deceive others by misrepresenting the facts,
overstating and exaggerating or only giving partial truths. If youve
inadvertently given the wrong impression, provide the relevant information
to your customers and correct their misunderstanding as soon as possible.
Integrity
Being ethical in business means maintaining a high level of personal
integrity. This is how you earn the trust of others, whether they are your
customers, team or your superiors. In this definition integrity means having
a consistent character that is demonstrated by an alignment of your
thoughts, words and action. Sometimes it requires you to have moral
courage to do the right thing, and it takes inner strength to live up to
mistakes and admit when a fault has been made. Despite a great pressure
to do otherwise, ethical business managers live by a moral code they
believe in, principles to maintain and they fight for their beliefs without
sacrificing their honor for the sake of just getting a job done.
Keeping Your Promises
Your word is one of the most important tools in your arsenal as a business
manager. Keep every promise that you make, and always fulfill a
commitment. The trust you build as an ethical executive means people like
doing business with you, as you take every reasonable effort to fulfill not
only the letter, but the spirit of the promises and commitments you have
made. You can learn more about building trust in a business in this course . Dont
every twist your words to rationalize or get out of contracts, or justify why
its okay to not comply to a commitment. Just do what you said you were
going to do.
Loyalty

You need to be loyal to both your company, your team and yourself, while
operating within a strong moral compass. If you demonstrate your loyalty it
builds trust, and shows that you place a high value on advancing the
interests of both the company and your colleagues. You should not ever
place loyalty above your other principles, or use it as an excuse for
unethical behavior. Demonstrate your loyalty but always make an
independent judgment, and never use information that you have gained in
confidence for your own personal advancement. Steer clear of conflicts of
interest, and if you ever decide to leave your company do it on the best of
terms. Give reasonable notice, respect any information that was gained in
your former employer, and never engage in activities that take advantage
of a previous position that was held.
Fair
In all of your actions, you must strive to be fair and just. An ethical
executive is committed to fairness in all that they do, and do not seek to
exercise their power for an unfair advantage or use indecent methods to
gain a competitive edge. They also never take undue advantage of another
persons difficulties and mistakes. Being an ethical executive means that
you are committed to being fair, employ justice in your decisions and treat
all people equally, with tolerance and acceptance of diversity. Being fair
also means being open minded, admitting when they have made a mistake,
and adjusting their beliefs and positions when it is appropriate.
Caring
This involves having a genuine concern for others, as well as a sense of
compassion. An ethical business manager is caring, benevolent and kind to
both customers and staff, and seeks to reach their goals while causing the
least amount of harm and the greatest amount of good. Being caring means
understanding that there will be an impact on every stakeholder following a
decision, and they always consider the financial, emotional and long term
business consequences of an action. They dont simply discount the needs
of others.
Respect
Being ethical means treating everyone with respect, demonstrating this by
being courteous and having an equal treatment of people regardless of who
they are. Respect is given because everyone deserves dignity, privacy and

rights, and they adhere to the rule that you must strive to treat others the
way you would like to be treated.
Obeying the law
An ethical executive always obeys the law, and never breaks the rules,
regulations or laws surrounding their business activities.
Excellence
Being ethical in business is also about pursuing excellence in everything
that you do. Delivering the highest quality of service or products makes
business sense, especially if there is a constant endeavor to always
improve.
Being a Leader
You need to demonstrate the principles and ethics you want your team to
live by, and take an active role as a leader to be a positive role model. The
best way you can enforce an ethical mentality is to lead by example, and
creating an environment within your business that values decisions made
on principles and standards of ethics. You can learn more about the ways
you can approach being a leader in this recent post .
Morale
Ethical business managers enhance the good reputation of a company,
which at the same time boosts the morale if its employees. The company
reputation is very important, as well as the pride and morale of their
employees. As an ethical business manager you need to avoid taking
actions that undermine this respect, and they take action to correct any
inappropriate behavior of others.
Accountable
Being ethical means holding yourself accountable, and acknowledging and
accepting personal accountability for their decisions, and any
consequences. Not just personally, but an ethical manager will stand up
and take accountability in front of their colleagues, their company, and the
community.

Holding yourself and your business to these standards will ensure youre
not only covered against any wrongdoings, (if you follow these principles
you cant do anything wrong), but youll impress customers and staff alike,
and build a strong sense of trust with all of your stakeholders. This is the
foundation that takes your company to the success that it deserves to reach

VALUES OF LIFE it is important

VALUES AT
forWORKPLACE
each one of Itusisto
very
possess
important
a set for
of values
an employee
in ordertotopossess
maintain
a
Honesty and loyalty Honesty and loyalty for the organization
Respect for work
Respect for the work assigned
Punctuality, regularity
Punctuality,
and discipline
regularity and discipline
Courtesy and politeness
Judicious
with others
use of resources
Judicious use of resources
Courtesy and politeness with coworkers
Taking initiatives
Efficiency in completing tasks
Efficiency in completing
Willingness
tasks
to take up new tasks

Case Study

Telecom Industry

Business Ethics & 2G Scam

Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or
professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical
problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of
business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and business
organizations as a whole. Applied ethics is a field of ethics that deals with
ethical questions in many fields such as medical, technical, legal and
business ethics.
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the
demand for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism)
is increasing. Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve
business ethics through new public initiatives and laws (e.g. higher UK road

tax for higher-emission vehicles). Businesses can often attain short-term

gains by acting in an unethical fashion; however, such behaviours tend to
undermine the economy over time.
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a
corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily
normative. In academia descriptive approaches are also taken. The range
and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business
is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically,
interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and
1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example,
today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on commitment to
promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g.
ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have
redefined their core values in the light of business ethical considerations
(e.g. BPs beyond petroleum environmental tilt).
Overview of issues in business ethics
General business ethics
This part of business ethics overlaps with the philosophy of business, one of
the aims of which is to determine the fundamental purposes of a company. If
a companys main purpose is to maximize the returns to its shareholders,
then it should be seen as unethical for a company to consider the interests
and rights of anyone else.
Corporate social responsibility or CSR: an umbrella term under which
the ethical rights and duties existing between companies and society is
debated.
Issues regarding the moral rights and duties between a company and its
shareholders: fiduciary responsibility, stakeholder concept v. shareholder
concept.
Ethical issues concerning relations between different companies: e.g. hostile
take-overs, industrial espionage.
Leadership issues: corporate governance. Political contributions made by
corporations.

Law reform, such as the ethical debate over introducing a crime of corporate
manslaughter. The misuse of corporate ethics policies as marketing
instruments.
2G Scam
Introduction:
Indian telecommunications industry has witnessed unprecedented growth in
recent years. The rapid expansion of the mobile telephony market has been
simultaneously accompanied by allegations that the government
manipulated its rules and policies and selectively interpreted the
recommendations of the regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) to benefit a few firms, some of which had no prior industry experience.
Former Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology
Andimuthu Raja is accused for this fiasco. The former minister deliberately
ignored recommendations to ensure a transparent and fair system of
spectrum allocation that had been made from time to time not only by senior
officials within the DoT but also by officials of the union ministries of law and
finance.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has contended that
(a) By underpricing second generation (2G) spectrum,
(b) By allowing companies to use two competing technologies the global
system of mobile (GSM) communications and the code division multiple
access (CDMA) technology with the same license, and
(c) by allocating more spectrum to companies than what their licences
specified, the total presumptive or notional losses incurred by the

country

would

be

in

excess

of

Rs

1,76,000

crore.

Highlights of the Issue:

On 10 January 2008, an announcement gets posted on the DoTs website
stating that letters of intent for issuance of licences bundled with the
electromagnetic spectrum would be given to private companies between
3.30 pm and 4.30 pm. The announcement added that application fees would
have to be paid immediately by demand draft, along with supporting
documentation. It was made clear that the Letter of Intent (LoI) would be
issued to those who deposit their fees first i.e. on First Come First Served

basis. It has been pointed out in the report by CAG that many applicants had
advance information about the issue of this notification by the DoT, which
enabled them to take appropriate advance action to draw the DDs (demand
drafts) and prepare other relevant documents for complying with the LoI
conditions in spite of the changed time limit for compliance from 15 days to
about half a day.
The importance of (the) date of submission of (the) application was
altogether removed by giving precedence to the date of compliance to the
LoIs. As a result, applicants who had submitted the applications even a year
later were given the chance of getting precedence over earlier applicants if
they could comply with the LoIs conditions earlier. Thus, a company like
Swan Telecom, which had submitted its application on 2 March 2007, was
given a licence with spectrum for the Delhi service area on 28 August 2008,
while Spice Communications which had submitted its application in August
2006 has still not been given spectrum for the same Delhi service area.

Some of the Major Issues were as follows:

Some applicants had advance information about the issue of the notification
by the DoT.
Letter of Intent (LoI) was issued to those who deposited their fees first i.e. on
First Come First Served basis, which was not desirable.
The importance of (the) date of submission of (the) application was
altogether removed by giving precedence to the date of compliance to the
LoIs.
The arbitrary manner in which the DoT changed its cut-off date for
applications was highly controversial.
In Section 17 of the guidelines, the DoT curiously dropped the word
acquisitions and retained only the word mergers which allowed the DoT
to permit operators to sell their stake to certain multinational companies.
The CAG found that as many as 85 licences out of the 122 new licences
issued to 13 companies in 2008 did not satisfy the eligibility conditions
prescribed by the DoT.

Ethical Issues

With the outbreak of the 2G spectrum scam, the following ethical issues on
the part of the Government, Regulatory bodies, media and industry came
into the forefront.

Governance

Spirit of Collective responsibility not conserved

Too much power in hands of very few
Seemed like a throwback to License Raj era

Industry

Spirit of fair competition not observed

Middle men used for access to those in power
Pure pursuit of profit from companies Uninor & Swan
Profit was the main driving force no intention to serve consumers
Neutrality of media questionable

Regulation

Toothless with only advisory powers

Appointment process aids conflict of interest
Insufficient manpower worsens the situation

Personal greed puts business ethics at stake: Raja was the mastermind
of this whole scam and his personal greed made him do all the corrupt
things. The 2 fundamentals of business i.e. fair dealing and transparency was
completely kept aside to enjoy the false fruits.
Transparency and objectivity of DOT was put to question because of
some corrupt officials: Few senior officials supported the moves by Raja,
some due to their willingness and some by the force of the higher authority.
Many of the rules and policies of TRAI were violated in order to benefit the
few.
Wrong use of power leads to a great turmoil: Raja being the Telecom
minister, tried to influence the senior officials of DOT by all means. Those
who didnt get influenced were either transferred or removed from their
posts.

Measures for Improvement

Democracy by governance than by coalition

Precedence to fairness rather than precedent
More accountability of govt departments to regulators
Regulatory bodies equipped with more resources
Separation of Duties and Conflict of Interest to be noted in public
appointments
Internal control measures from the media industry to preserve
credibility.

Real Life Example Faced by Many Peoples.

Lets take a Case of Subodh Sharan Gupta.
She was using post-paid scheme of reliance broadband for more than one
year, for which she was paying INR 1157/- per month. A few months back,
she came to know that that the prepaid service for reliance broadband would
cost much less and she decided to shift to it. There was delay as she was told
that shifting from postpaid to prepaid service would mean discontinuation of
broadband service for 2 4 weeks, which was difficult for her. In between,

she visited a Reliance Communication Center twice and called helpline

several times to ask if there is a plan in postpaid connection which is
cheaper. She also searched the internet for this purpose.
Finally, one day she went to a Reliance Communication Center with request
to shift from Postpaid to Prepaid plan. The Reliance employee on the service
desk was very hesitant to shift me from Postpaid to Prepaid. When she
insisted, he called a senior staff who explained to her that as she was using
the postpaid service for more than a year, she was among their Gold
Customers, and for the Gold Customers they have a special scheme which
would cost only INR 500 a month + taxes (please note that as per their
brochure, the same service costs INR 849 + taxes). she asked them if there
was such a scheme why she was not informed about it when she qualified as
a Gold Customer. Another senior staff appeared immediately and informed
her that this is part of their retention policy (i.e. this scheme is offered only
to those customers who want to discontinue their postpaid scheme). She was
surprised and frustrated to listen this and decided to terminate the Reliance
broadband connection.
See the wrong practice here. Till, one remains a loyal Reliance
Communications Postpaid Customer, Reliance Communications will be happy
to provide costly plans. But, when one want to discontinue postpaid plan,
Reliance Communications will lure with very attractive postpaid plans.
Tthere had been lots of hue and cry regarding corruption in the public sector.
But, now when the role of government is changing and lot of service
provision is moving to the corporate sector, it is important that corporate
sector observes transparency and ethical practices.
Reliance Communications and all internet service providers should be made
to observe the utmost transparency in their schemes.