Corporate Ethics

Introduction :

Ethical orientation is not theory, not simply a formulation of ideas, but a practice undertaken with understanding Management, especially under pressure, seeks understanding in shorthand. Impatient for results, executives want workable models that have worked in other places to apply to what are assume to be similar situations in their own companies. There is of course much to learn by exploring the experiences of others and there is a rich validity to many of these solutions. However, to borrow a solution from another company simply does not provide the depth of learning that comes from originating a solution from within. The seven levels of ethics are :

1.         Individual human being

2.         Individual in the corporation

3.         Corporation

4.         Business World

5.         Corporation in society

6.         Spirituality and business

Source of ethical values :

1) Family (Parents, Grandparents etc.)

2) Peers (Playmates, Schoolmates, Friends)

3) Institutions (Church, Temple, School etc)

4) Previous experience (Success, Status, Disappointments etc)

5) Media (Television, Radio, Books, Newspapers, Magazines)

6) Professional roles and models (Job expectations, Leadership in the company etc.)

7) Company policies.

8) Personal code of ethics (Developed after extensive experience with ethical conflict

and pressure).

Ethics is matter of Ethos, participation in a community, a practice, a way of life. Business Ethics is a function of the business ethos. Ethics are the norms that a community defines and institutionalizes to prevent individuals from pursuing self interest at the expense of others. An assumption of ethics is that persons will not usually self regulate - that without the opprobrium of society, and threatened punishment for non - conformance people will slip into behaviour that maximizes personal advantage. The high level of improbity, in different cultures and in societies reflecting a variety of religious traditions confirms that human beings are essentially similar. People will yield to temptations particularly when the payout is rich.

Companies will become ethical and deepen their ethical orientation by practicing ethical behaviour. Each by necessity will do this in different ways to varying degrees and with their own unique set of success and failures. It will take time to gain the experience to become truly wise about ethical issues. This should not be discouraging, but rather should be another reason for getting started right away.

Operating Myths about Ethics:

Dilema         Delusions

1) 'If I don't, someone else will' Business is taught, often ruthless sometimes, to not pay a bribe risks losing the project. Losing the project means losing jobs and firing people. The bribe thus can be justified as the lesser of two evils.         'Corruption functions like an addition'If resources and profits are maintained through an illegal or immoral act, chances are more such cut corners will be required in future.

2) 'When in Rome do as the Romans do'Different countries have different traditions and expectations about how to do business. In some situations what seem like unhealthy practice in one part of the world, it is 'the cost of doing business' in another world.         'A wired world is increasingly seamless.' The institutions global development viz. IMF, World Bank are increasingly adding their pressure to criminalise corruption. The tide of ...