So the topic which we will discuss now is: values and ethics in business..

These
days while recruiting companies not only want your better IQ but also a sound
EQ i.e. emotional quotient

Let me introduce this concept by highlighting a significant case study based on

one major issue that almost every organization deals with on daily basis. No
subject ever stirs so much confusion as this one and that is: sexual
harassment.

In a company, there was held a conversation with the managers and

employees, and few things that come up are: is it okay if I compliment a
female employee that I liked her dress, or take her to lunch to discuss about
the project or should I just stop touching anybody even if it is supposed to be
a congratulatory pat on the back?

All these reflect why there is a need to have well aware human resources in
the organization to ensure proper behavior and inculcate the much needed
ethics and values.

Formally speaking, values are beliefs that affect an individual's judgmental

ideas about what is good or bad. The ethics is the way the values are acted
out.

When we talk about businesses, the types of values required are:

achievement, concern for others, honesty and fairness.

Now values could be either terminal which are basically the desired state
which we wish to persue like freedom, comfort, security,
Or values could be instrumental, which are the means of behaviour which we
use to reach these goals, like being honest, being polite, or responsible

When we talk about values, they could be

social, about human relationsips,
aesthetic about beauty and art,
political about power and influence,
religious about God, or just
theoretical about reasoning and systematic thinking of an individual.
there are two principal approaches here:

utilitarianism which in 3 words is simply: ends justifies means. i.e. if an action

produces the greatest good outcome by whatever means, it is morally right
The other approach is universalism which is more of a duty based approach
which involves taking humane values and consideration of their needs also.

Do you know there are some ethical theories also developed

Like consequential theories emphasise that how right/wrong, good/bad is
something is all decided by the result of your behaviour
Then there is rule based theory which focusses on the character of the action
itself, not its results. Like moral/legal rights
Then there are cultural theories, which say that there are no universal
principles or standards to be imposed, rather local standards should guide tge
behavior like they say, when you’re in rome, do what the romans do.

Now coming to ethical issues, lets take some examples:

Co A for eg, providing quality products at a not so fair price and the higher
price charged is given as bonus to employees.
Here, company although is kind to its employees, but is not following ethical
behavior towards its customers

Lets take example of Co B which is providing quality products at fair price, but
cuts down the salary of its employees to make sure of it. Here company is
although ethical towards customers, but not following ethical behavior
towards its employees.

and what determines the application of these ethical behavior, depends on a

number of factors, which could be political, legal, competitors, values of top
management, or sometimes even culture!

Now let us look at some of the findings of a major management thinker Archi
B Carroll, notes that three major levels of moral or ethical judgement
characterize every management: moral, immoral, and amoral mgt
1. moral management aims to perform all activities within the parameters
of ethical standards and the ideals of fairness, justice, and due
process.
2. Immoral management or cutting corners type approach: this is
characterized by principal or exclusive concern for company gains,
emphasis on profits and company success at virtually any price, lack of
concern about the desires of others to be treated fairly, views of laws as
obstacles to be overcome
3. The amoral management approach is neither immoral nor moral but,
rather it ignores ethical considerations. There are two types of amoral
management:
Now this could be Intentional where they do not include ethical
concerns in their decision-making because they basically think that
general ethical standards are more appropriate to other areas of life
than to business.
Or this could be unintentional: now they also do not think about ethical
issues in their business dealings, but their reason is different. These
managers are basically inattentive to the moral implications of their
decision-making,
Overall amoral managers pursue profitability as a goal but intentionally
or unintentionally they pay little attention to the impacts of their
behaviours on others.

Let us now conclude our discussion with what we started from… After all
we say that business runs on three objectives of survival , profit and
growth, so why are we do companies need to be so concerned about
values?
Well to achieve these objectives in long run, we definitely cannot ignore
important factors like reputation of our business, the morale motivation of
our human rrsorces, gaining the investor’s confidence and also customer
satisfaction. And all these factors are influenced majorly by values and
ethics. Hence we say that values are those key element that rules, or I
should say, should rule all the activities that take place in an organization
for achieving the objectives in longer run.
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