BUSINESS ETHICS

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
 MEANING OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST
In 2005 THERE was an interesting case
The issue was that the finance minister wife had joined
the income tax department which was under her
husband charge . The implication was that she was
misusing her husband position of political and
government power

When a person’s personal concerns stand to benefit

from the professional ones , a case is made for
conflict of interest ( A manager sanctioning loan to
his relative)
 Kinds of conflict of interest
>Public –Private conflict
>Outside employment
>Receiving gifts from vendors to the company
>When an organization is asked to investigate its own affairs
it will make exceptions to suit itself ( Audit)
>The purchase manager buys only from those suppliers who
are friends or relatives
>Revolving door: It is where officials quitting public offices get
into some corporation and pass insider information
 METHODS TO AVOID CONFLICT OF INTEREST
 Prevention
 Disclosure
 Recusal
 Third party evaluation
 Code of ethics
 . any position in the
1 Prevention : Before occupying
department one should carefully examine all the policies of
that department so in order to prevent COI

2. Disclosure : In INDIA the rule is that every body has to

disclose his assets which he posses Ex. POLITICIAN,
Financial statements(true profit)

3.Recusal : In order to make a free and fair transaction , there

may be withdrawal of ones position EX. There are 5 BOD
who have to give an order to 1 supplier among the list and
1 BOD knew some of the parties so in order to avoid COI he
should not participate
 . party evaluators are
4. Third party evaluation : Third
called when any transaction involves people from
within the company eg To fix a price of product

5.Code of ethics : Well established COE help in avoiding

the conflict of interest
 .
Ways to solve conflict of interest
1. Admit possible conflict of interest
If you are upright person and you know that you have done
nothing wrong and yet are being accused of conflict of
interest , then be open to investigation
It is natural to resist in order to defend your image

2. Determine conflict of interest

You must begin the process of identifying the nature of
conflict as most of the conflicts may be determined easily
and rectified by disclosures and recusals
3. Take immediate action .
Action should be taken immediately once COI is identified
Ex If a politician holding a minister post is charged against
COI than it is morally advisable to resign from public post
until cleared all charges

4 Create a code of conduct

COI will always teach you regarding creation of a personal
code of conduct
Make effort to re create and re work on it

5.Apply
After a bad experience of COI one should always try to apply
a new code of conduct
 .

DISCRIMINATION
MEANING OF DISCRIMINATION .
>It is the opposite of equality
>It may be understood as BIAS , FAVOURITISM , UNFAIR ,
INEQUALITY, INJUSTICE and IMBALANCE etc
>It is an unfair means of treating others
>It refers to the unequal treatment of people on the basis of
race , color , religion etc
>The law prohibits all such discrimination in employment ,
housing education and all public facilities
 Types of discrimination
1. Cultural Discrimination : INDIA is a pluralistic society with
different religion, region, language, races , custom and
tradition

a) RELIGIONS: India is a place where several religions and

cultural minorities exist . At the workplace the religion
discrimination is very common

b)Languages: In India people often use different language to

address someone . If the person is elder than we use Ji / sir
and if the person belong to different caste than no equal
treatment
 .
c) FOOD: What you eat determines the culture of that religion
or community as food in INDIA is a labeller of culture

2. AGE DISCRIMINATION
It occurs at the workplace when decisions about employment,
promotion and retirement are made .A competent person
may be left behind because of the age factor , due to the
principle of seniority to be followed for promotion
a) Adultism : It is discrimination against young people and is
generally practiced at recruitment. The employer does not
offer job to them as they are young or assign them more
work to exploit
 . growing old or the fear of
b) Gerontophobia : It is a fear of
elderly. As the employee gets old and near the retirement
age the employer becomes of apprehensive of decrease in
their productivity and waits for an opportunity to dispense
them . Such employees become target of lay off
Many older employees who are of forties and fifties get
stressed of being transferred and retrenched because if
they loose the job then they might not get another one due
to their age
3. Gender discrimination .
It is often seen in the organization when male and female are
not treated equally
Sometimes unequal salaries for equal work done e.g salaries
of labour
The ethical aim is to bring gender parity i.e to treat men and
woman equal at the workplace and give them equal
benefits to enjoy
So now women are seen in politics , defence forces and
corporations
It can be seen in 2 areas a)Recruitment
b)Remuneration
4. Caste discrimination .
>It is a sort of division of labour by birth
 It was abused since one could not cross the
boundary of caste
 Acc to UNICEF over a quarter of a billion people are
affected by it
 Mostly it is found in Asian countries
 Today all law abiding countries have constitutionally
declared that any form of discriminatory human
classification is illegal and against the fundamental
rights of the people
 Beside all these workplaces in India are still not free
from caste system
WAYS WHICH WILL HELP A MANAGER . TO REMAIN ABOVE
CASTE SYSTEM IN DEALING WITH EMPLOYEES
a) Remove the idea of discrimination from your psyche
b) The color of the skin should not matter
c) Make human dignity a cornerstone of your workplace
d) Respect is an ethical value so respect your employees
 OTHER FORMS OF WORKPLACE . DISCRIMINATION
A)Migrant workers : workers from states like Bihar and Orissa
move to other states in order to escape hunger , poverty or
political and social unrest and the migrants are usually
discriminated when it comes to hour of work , pay and
housing facilities

B)Language : When people work in states other than their

native one communication becomes a problem . Despite
learning the local language they are made fun of because
of their different accent , food habit or dress style
C)Racism : In INDIA it is very. common as the people are
mistreated which is subject to racial discrimination
and humiliation

D)Colors: Indians are very color conscious

Ex. The matrimonial columns for BRIDES WANTED is the
best proof of it

E) Ideology : Political and religious ideologies strongly

divide people . Sometimes people of particular
communities are accepted for interviews
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