Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction:
Values are expectations about human behaviour. Some values are good and positive and
some others are bad and negative. A good business should be driven by positive values.
Values can be created through goods, services, transactions and fair treatment.
The Sanskrit equivalent for the word 'value' is 'Ishta' which means 'the object of liking'.
Hence the word 'value' means that which is desired. Values can be objective and
subjective. Value can be obtained from a tangible object. Value can come from the
subjective or psychological satisfaction.
Value is always associated with a feeling of pleasure.
Certain things can be called instrumental value. For example, a TV is an instrument with
the help of which one gets some pleasure through entertainment.
Indian philosophy is essentially a philosophy of values. There are many types of values.
Of these values, ethical values are of utmost importance.
Ethical values deal with moral truth and practice of virtues. Concern to others is a virtue.
In a mutually interrelated society, ethical values are based on the concept of obligation.
Ethical behaviour is a function of context, content, culture and time. That is why even
learned people sometimes tend to act unethically. The modern world is facing the
problem of values and perspectives. Knowledge and skills are rewarded but human
values bring sufferings. In fact knowledge and skills should be accompanied by human
values.
Basic human nature is self-interest. All the business companies are made up of all and
hence moral mistakes are increasing. Arthur Anderson made the same mistakes at Waste
Management, Sunbeam, Baptist Foundation and finally at Enron. The audit partners of
Anderson manipulated the system in order to accumulate wealth for themselves. Acting
in self-interest is not bad. But it was done at the cost of other stakeholders.
People are involved in a collection of social, cultural and spiritual roles, each of which
makes moral demands. This overlap creates problems. Individuals should use the same
tools of common morality for judging institutions.
Norms:
Norms are the specific expectations about concrete behaviour. Norms are serving as a
criterion for judging the quality of human behaviour. The individuals are expected to
behave in a particular norm.
Norms differ from place to place and time to time.
Example: providing hospitality to your guests.
Beliefs:
The beliefs are standards of thought. These beliefs are gradually evolved over a period of
time by the senior executives.
Example: "our most important person in business is customer".
Indian students bow to foreign professors and it is the belief that elders have to be
respected. The American students on the other hand shake hands with professors, a belief
that students should be friendly with the faculty.
Moral standards:
Moral standards contain a normative appeal.
Example: I want to maintain good health.
All moral standards deal with matters of serious consequence for human well being.
These norms condemn certain activities like child labour, fraud and cheating.
Moral standards cannot be established by the decisions of certain authorities. People have
to give their co-operation and support for the moral standards.
All moral standards are prevailing over self-interest. The self-interest is relegated to the
background.
All moral standards are based on impartial norms and values. It believes that all human
beings have equal rights.
All moral standards are closely associated with special emotions. When the labourers are
given low wages, the labourers are bound to be agitated.
Business ethics is concerned with business policies, business norms and values. It
prescribes moral standards related to business.
Business is an autonomous part of modern society. Business has its own inner logic such
as 'maximize corporate profits, reduce corporate costs'. Private enterprise is integrated
into the sphere of moral society through market constraints, legislation and personal
commitment of managers.
Moral behaviour provides a free choice to people. A sane and sound person integrates
education and life experiences. Our life is not completely determined by external factors
and depends on personal initiatives also. These personal initiatives can be called internal
factors. Human beings are capable of conscious behaviour.
In 1972 there was an aeroplane crash in the Andes Mountains of Chile. Some passengers
survived but found themselves without food supplies. Cold snow slopes with no fear
except the dead bodies of other passengers was the environment available to them.
Some dead bodies were including their dead friends or relatives. These survived
passengers faced a terrible dilemma.
They had a clear choice, either starve to death or eat the dead bodies of relatives and
friends. They selected the latter option with remorse and utter hatred. People have to
choose when options are limited.
It is wrong to think that business is consisting of fraud, cheating and bribing. A good
business system should promote trust, high quality of work, healthy competition and
impartial procedures.
The term 'higher performance' can be discussed with reference to three basic ethical
requirements.
(a) Meeting corporate goals.
(b) Ethically motivated job satisfaction for all the employees.
(c) The growth of durable partnership.
The safe and satisfactory functioning of a product is not the only objective. Reduction of
health risks is considered as one of the modern objectives. The quality commitments are
to be made in moral terms. Many consumers are also concerned with environmental
values. In fact, the modern requirements combine a mix of environmental and social
concern.
Summary
Values are expectations about human behaviour, values can be created through goods,
services,transactions and fair treatment.
There are many types of values. There are some reasons for the good people doing bad
things.
Norms are the specific expectations about concrete behaviour.
The beliefs are standards of thought.
A good business system should promote trust, high quality of work, healthy competition
and impartial procedures.
Contract theory, due care theory and social cost theory are the modern business ethics
theories.
Review Questions
1) What are values?
2) What are the types of values?
3) Define norms.
4) Define beliefs.
5) What are moral standards?
Section 'A'
Section 'B'
1) Discuss the importance of values in business.
2) Discuss the special areas of studies in business ethics.
3) Examine the six spheres of life as suggested by Huiberts.
4) What is moral corporate excellence?
5) What is contract theory?
6) Explain due care theory?
7) Outline social costs theory?
Section 'e'
1) Examine the importance of values in modern business.