PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL ETHICS

Personal values are the conception of what an individual or a group regards as desirable.
Personal ethics refer to the application of these values in everything one does. Personal ethics
might also be called morality, since they reflect general expectations of any person in any
society, acting in any capacity. These are the principles we try to instil in our children, and
expect of one another without needing to articulate the expectation or formalize it in any
way.2 The principles of personal ethics are:

1. Concern and respect for the autonomy of others.

2. Honesty and the willingness to comply with the law.
3. Fairness and the ability not to take undue advantage of others.
4. Benevolence and preventing harm to any creature. ...

PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL ETHICS

A profession is a vocation or calling, especially one that involves a specific branch of

advanced learning or a branch of science, for example, the profession of a doctor, advocate,
professor, scientist or a business manager. A professional is one who is engaged in a
specified activity as one’s paid occupation like a salaried business manager who is paid for
his specific skill in managing the affairs of the business enterprise he is engaged in.

There are certain basic principles people are expected to follow in their professional career.
These are the following:

 impartiality: objectivity;

 openness: full disclosure;

 confidentiality: trust;

 due diligence/duty of care;

 fidelity to professional responsibilities; and ...

WHAT IS BUSINESS ETHICS?

Ethics is a conception of right and wrong behaviour, defining for us when our actions are
moral and when they are immoral. Business ethics, on the other hand, is the application of
general ethical ideas to business behaviour. Ethical business behaviour is expected by the
public, it facilitates and promotes good to society, improves profitability, fosters business
relations and employee productivity, reduces criminal penalties from public authorities and
regulators, protects business against unscrupulous employees and competitors, protects
employees from harmful actions by their employer, and allows people in business to act
consistently with their personal ethical beliefs. Ethical problems occur in business for many
reasons, ...

WHAT IS NOT BUSINESS ETHICS?

It is also equally important to clarify what is not ethics.

ETHICS IS DIFFERENT FROM RELIGION

Though all religions preach high ethical/moral standards generally, they do not address all the
types of problems people confront today. For instance, cyber crimes and environment-related
issues are totally new in the context of most religions. Moreover, many persons today do not
subscribe to religious beliefs and have turned agnostics. But ethics applies to all people,
irrespective of their religious affiliations.

ETHICS IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH LAW

Generally, a good legal system may incorporate many moral/ethical standards. However,
there are several instances where law deviates from what is ethical. Legal systems may
vary ...

CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICS FOR MANAGERS

Having gone through the definitions of what is and what is not ethics, let us see now how
ethics and values should form the bases of the code of conduct that ought to govern the
behaviour of business managers. In the exercise of their duties and responsibilities, managers
must observe the following ethical values:

 Integrity: Integrity is the cornerstone of all values. A business manager

should be morally upright. It is this characteristic that distinguishes a
professional manager from a mercenary.

 Impartiality: A manager should look at and treat all aspects of an issue

in a fair and unprejudiced manner.

 Responsiveness to the public interest: Though a manager is paid to

serve the interests of the stockholders ...

EVOLUTION OF ETHICS OVER THE YEARS

If we trace the history of ethics in business, we would realize that ethics had been a part of
theological discussions prior to 1960. Before the 1970s, there were a few writers like
Raymond Baumhart who dealt with ethics and business. Ethical issues were mostly discussed
as part of social issues. Men of religion and theologians continued writing and teaching on
ethics in business. Professors in B-schools wrote and continued to talk about corporate social
responsibility (CSR), the handmaid of ethics. However, the catalyst that led to the field of
business ethics was the entry of several ‘philosophers, who brought ethical theory and
philosophical analysis to bear on a variety of issues.’6 Norman Bowie7 dates the ...

IMPORTANCE AND NEED FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethics is closely related to trust. Most people would agree on the fact that to develop trust,
behaviour must be ethical. Ethical behaviour is a necessity to gain trust. Trust will be used as
an indicator variable of ethics. Basically, trust is three-dimensional, that is, trust in supplier
relationships, trust in employee relationships and trust in customer relationships. In such a
situation, the entire stakeholders of the company are taken care of. If the company is able to
maintain this trust-relationship with the internal as well as external stakeholders, then we can
call that company as an ethical company.

Trust leads to predictability and efficiency of business. Ethics is all about developing
trust ...

SIGNIFICANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Events in corporate America, Europe, and in many emerging economies at the beginning of
the new millennium and more recently in the fag end of 2008, have demonstrated the
destructive fall-outs that take place when the top management of companies do not behave
ethically. Lack of ethics has led highly educated, resourceful and business savvy
professionals at mega corporations like Enron, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom and
Adelphia Communications to get themselves into a mess. In India too, we have had several
instances of highly successful corporations like ITC and Reliance getting into severe
problems when the top brass misled them to unethical practices. Recently, the chairman of
the South Korean automobile giant, ...

HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY ARE THE TOUCHSTONES OF BUSINESS

ETHICS

Ethical corporate behaviour is nothing but a reiteration of the ancient wisdom that ‘honesty is
the best policy’. The dramatic collapse of some of the Fortune 500 companies such as Enron
and WorldCom or the well-known auditing firm Andersen showed that even successful
companies could ultimately come to grief, if their managers did not practise the basic
principles of integrity. For every profession ‘we would think of a code of conduct or a set of
values, which has a moral content and that would be the essence of ethics for that
profession’.13 There should be transparency in operations leading to accountability, which
should ensure safety and protect the interest of all ...

VALUES AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS

Business ethics are related to issues of ‘what is right’ and ‘what is wrong’ while doing
business. The constituents of business ethics include adherence to truth, a commitment to
justice and public integrity. What values are to individuals, ethics are to business.

Personal values as we have seen earlier, refer to a conception of what an individual or

group regards as desirable. A value is a view of life and judgement of what is desirable that is
very much part of a person’s personality and a group’s morale. Thus, a benign attitude to
labour welfare is a value which may prompt an industrialist to do much more for workers
than what the labour law stipulates. Service-mindedness is a value which when cherished in
an ...

VALUES, ETHICS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY

Personal values and ethics are important for all human beings. They are especially important
for business managers as they are custodians of the immense economic power vested in
business organizations by society. However, can managers prevent their personal values from
affecting business strategy formulation and implementation? This is a tricky question.

It is often observed from failed corporations that management executives while working
out their business strategy are guided generally by what they personally want to do, rather
than what they have been directed to do by the board, or the company policy in the absence
of any direct supervision. As a result, somewhere down the line, the right connection between
...

DISTINCTION BETWEEN VALUES AND ETHICS

At this point, it is necessary to differentiate between values and ethics. Values are personal in
nature (e.g., a belief in providing customer satisfaction and being a good paymaster) while
ethics is a generalized value system (e.g., avoiding discrimination in recruitment and
adopting fair business practices). Business ethics can provide the general guidelines within
which management can operate. Values, however, offer alternatives to choose from. For
example, philanthropy as a business policy is optional. An entrepreneur may or may not
possess this value and still remain within the limits of business ethics. It is values, therefore,
that vary among managers in an organization and such a variance may be a ...

WHY SHOULD BUSINESSES ACT ETHICALLY?

An organization has to be ethical in its behaviour because it has to exist in the competitive
world. We can find a number of reasons for being ethical in behaviour, few of them are cited
below: Most people want to be ethical in their business dealings. Values give management
credibility with its employees. Only perceived moral righteousness and social concern brings
employee respect. Values help better decision making.

There are a number of reasons why businesses should act ethically:

 to protect its own interest;

 to protect the interests of the business community as a whole so that the

public will have trust in it;

 to keep its commitment to society to act ethically;

 to meet stakeholder expectations;

 to prevent ...

ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING
Ethical decision-making is a very tough prospect in this dog-eats-dog world. However, in the
long run all will have to fall in and play fair. The clock is already ticking for the unscrupulous
corporations. In this age of liberalization and globalization, the old dirty games and unethical
conduct will no longer be accepted and tolerated.

Norman Vincent Peale and Kenneth Blanchard20 have prescribed some suggestions to
conduct ethical business.

 Is the decision you are taking legal? If it is not legal, it is not ethical.

 Is the decision you are taking fair? In other words, it should be a win-
win-equitable risk and reward.

 The Eleventh Commandment—‘Though shall not be ashamed when

found’, meaning when you are hauled up over ...