Introduetion

to Business Ethics : Z

1.6

Ethical Performance

Business frequently demonstrates a high level of ethical performance toc. Ethical business performance means adhering to society"5basic rules that define right and wrong behaviour. The following examples reveal the same. (i) Johnson and Johnson protected its customers by recalling stocks of l)lenol capsules twice within 5 years period when poison was found in some Tylenol bottles on store shelves. (ii) Parker Brothers voluntarily withdrew its all time best selling toy whgn it found that trvo children were choked to death by swallowing some of its parts which they never anticipated. (iii) Bven in India, HMT Ltd., a reputed public sector undertai.riirgf withdrew all its milk separators supplied through its dairy machinery unit, Aurangabad, when it found that one of the milk separators'lid at the custorners end flew off rvhile running and hit the roof. No major accident took place. Owing to this, it withdrew all the separators supplied to the custorners for re-checking and to make design changes for some time, so that the same should not be repeated. Later on, HMT replaced new separators to its customers. All this was done only to regain the customers confidence in them. by incurring heavy expenses. By doing jugglery like this, the companies have to spend millions of rupees or dollars on recalls/resupply etc. One of the major social challenges faced by business is to balance ethics and economics. Society wants business to be ethical and (:oonomically profitable at the same time., The three terms used to define ethics are: . Right . . Proper Just

and the question is "what is right, proper and just?" These are highly important terms in the future, compared to the as 1t:tst, our economy is more competitive, the society is becoming more rrowcled and technology is becoming more complex. These terms and t;ttt:stions are important for any business executive who has to take rrrrrlti-decisions ways that are beyond his own control. in 'fhe ethics of management is coined with the above three terms ;rrrrlthe determination of what is 'right,' 'proper' and Just' in the rlt't'lsionsand actions that affect other people - goes farbeyond simple ( l r r ( ' s l i o n so f b r i b e r y , t h e f t a n d c o l l u s i o n . C o l l u s i o n i s a s e c r e t rtflt'r:r)nlent deceive. to