COLLEGE OF VOCATIONAL STUDIES

(University Of Delhi)
Triveni (Sheikh Sarai Phase II, New Delhi 110017)

PROJECT REPORT
Ethics
And
Employee Rights
IN THE GUIDANCE OF: MS JYOTI CHAUHAN

(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)

SUBMITTED BY: GAYATRI

ROLL NO: 2K17/HRM/142

DR INDERJEET DAGAR

PRINCIPAL

COLLEGE OF VOCATIONAL STUDIES

NEW DELHI
 Review Of Literature
Ethics and Employee Rights

 An organization's ethical philosophy can affect the organization in many ways including
its reputation, productivity, and the bottom line of the organization. Higher productivity
improves the efficiency of the organizations and increased employee retention reduces
the cost of replacing employees. Organizations that lack ethical practices as a
mandatory basis of their business structure and corporate culture, have commonly been
found to fail due to the absence of business ethics. Organizations focusing on
encouraging ethical practices are commonly viewed with respect by their employees, the
community, and corresponding industries. Ethical business practices of organizations
have resulted in a solid financial bottom-line. This has been seen through greater sales
and increased revenue by companies retaining talented personnel and attracting new
skilled employees.

Attention to business ethics is critical during times of fundamental change — times much like
those faced now by businesses, both nonprofit and for-profit. During times of change, there is
often no clear moral compass to guide leaders through complex conflicts about what is right or
wrong. Continuing attention to ethics in the workplace sensitizes leaders and staff to how they
want to act — consistently.

Ethics programs align employee behaviors with those top priority ethical values preferred by
leaders of the organization. Usually, an organization finds surprising disparity between its
preferred values and the values actually reflected by behaviors in the workplace. Ongoing
attention and dialogue regarding values in the workplace builds openness, integrity and
community — critical ingredients of strong teams in the workplace. Employees feel strong
alignment between their values and those of the organization. They react with strong motivation
and performance.

Attention to ethics in the workplace helps employees face reality, both good and bad — in the
organization and themselves. Employees feel full confidence they can admit and deal with
whatever comes their way.

Organizations are constantly striving for a better ethical atmosphere within the business climate and
culture. Businesses must create an ethical business climate in order to develop an ethical
organization. Otherwise said, companies must focus on the ethics of employees in order to create an
ethical business. Employees must know the difference between what is acceptable and
unacceptable in the workplace. These standards are found in the written code of ethics or may be
referred to as the employee handbook. These standards are a written form of employee conduct and
performance expectations.

The function of developing and implementing business ethics into an organization is difficult. Due to
each organization's culture and atmosphere being different, there is no clear or specific way to
implement a code of ethics to an existing business. Business ethics implementation can be
categorized into two groups; formal and informal measures. Formal measures include training and
courses pertaining to ethics. Informal measures are led by example from either the manager or the
social norm of the company.

 Much is currently being written about the need to encourage employees to share
knowledge in order for companies to maintain a role as an intelligent organization in a
technologically sophisticated environment. However, there is little written of the
relationship between employee rights to satisfactory employment conditions, employee
responsibilities in decision-making, and employee willingness to share their knowledge
collaboratively. This Project seeks to redress this gap by discussing the importance of
the relationship between employee rights and responsibilities and employee
willingness to share knowledge. The reaction of a group of employees employed in an
Intelligent Organization, their rights and responsibilities are discussed in order to
design a framework of employee rights and responsibilities required for knowledge
sharing in intelligent organizations.

State and local laws that address labor issues often provide employee rights that extend beyond
federal protections. For example, some states restrict the ways employers can use background or
credit checks to make employment decisions. Some cities have laws that make it illegal to
discriminate against a job applicant due to their physical appearance, including height and weight.

Research the laws and ordinances in the area where you plan to seek work: Knowing the law
regarding hiring criteria, discrimination, and what constitutes a hostile workplace can be
advantageous while job hunting or developing your career prospects.
Many workers encounter a range of violations of laws, regulations and ethics in the workplace.
Federal and state governments both provide protections to whistleblowers depending on the
nature of the violation and the circumstances under which an employee files a report.

On a federal level, this means your employer cannot take an adverse action against you, such
as firing you, demoting you, restricting your hours or harassing you, for a period of time after
you file a whistleblower claim. State municipalities may have additional laws providing other
types of protection.

Bullying and harassment continue to be problems in many workplaces. It should be noted,

however, that federal law provides limited protection against workplace bullying: Bullying and
harassment only violates federal law when it creates a hostile work environment and the nature
of the harassment involves one of the seven protected classes under anti-discrimination laws.
Workers are also protected against harassment if they are whistleblowers.

State and local laws may provide additional protections to bullied or harassed workers.

If you believe that your rights have been violated, you should address these issues directly with
your employer. Most workplaces have a process for grievances which is listed in the employee
handbook. The human resources department will often be responsible for opening an
investigation.

In situations where the discrimination continues or your rights are still violated, you may want to
contact an attorney. The lawyer can advise you on your rights and review your case. In some
instances, you may be advised report an employer to the labor board. An attorney may also
advise pursuing litigation.
 Synopsis
Objectives of Project
Ethics, broadly, is concerned with the meaning of all aspects of human behavior. The Project’s
main motive is to give a detailed description of ethics aims to differentiate right from wrong. An
organization's culture sets standards for determining the difference between good and bad
decision making.

Business ethics are, therefore, the moral principles that underpin business behavior. Whether
actions carried out by organizations and their employees are morally acceptable must, however,
be judged in the context of the society and the times in which they operate.

An ethical business is one which applies a set of moral principles to all interactions with
stakeholders, such as its treatment of employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders. Being
ethical means a business goes beyond merely complying with laws and regulations, but makes
choices about what it is prepared to do, and what it will not. Therefore, an ethical business
strategy may exclude behavior, which is legal, but conflicts with the businesses ethical policy.

Setting ethical objectives is the process by which organizations apply ethical values to their
targets and the actions by which they will achieve them. These ethical values should cover all
the actions of the organization from tactical to strategic.

The Project also highlights the Employee Rights in an organization. It states the Labor laws
that aim to protect employees from discrimination pertaining to race, color, religion, gender and
national origin. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 deals with issues such as discrimination
in hiring, promotion, discharge and job training and provides for a reasonable accommodation of
religious practices.

Small business owners often struggle with meeting the regulatory and labor requirements for their
businesses. While these requirements can require extra paperwork and time, proponents of labor
laws argue they serve the important objective of protecting workers and ensuring fair, safe and
healthy workplaces, leading to increased productivity.

The Project has also described the ways by which Employees and applicants can object to unfair
labor practices by filing a complaint. For example, claims of discrimination can be filed with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission. Employers aren't allowed to retaliate or take adverse actions
such as firing, demoting or harassing employees who file unfair labor practice claims.

Research Methodology
This project is based on many years of reviewing journal submissions and discussions with
business ethics scholars on a range of themes regarding methods. The validity and reliability of
research methods in business ethics research is discussed in terms of legitimate methods to
employ in the discipline, the epistemic challenges in the discipline, the debate between
qualitative and quantitative methods, and some considered comments on ‘researching well’ in
this discipline. Within each theme, we attempt to convey our distilled thoughts in the hope that
methods employed in future studies will avoid some of the failures we have observed in the
past.

An attempt was made to locate all published studies that empirically investigated ethical beliefs
and behavior in organizations. Three computerized data bases were searched: Management
Contents, the Social & sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and the Business Periodicals Index
(BPI). The following key words were searched: ethical conduct, ethical decisions, and ethical
situations. Among the range of journals in which business ethics research is published, there is
an approximately agreed hierarchy, even if details are contested.

A statistical test implicitly assumes that the numbers being processed represent meaningfully
what they claim to represent. In many cases, the variables involved are themselves proxies, and
often soft proxies at that. It is ironic that exclusively – or, rather, exclusivist – quantitative
researchers bring to their work a set of values and commitments, about what is important to
research and how to research it, which are essentially qualitative in nature while they advocate
a supposedly value‐free, neutral position.

It has become increasingly common, in addressing these constraints, to use elements of a

range of approaches in research methods: the so called ‘mixed method’ approach. Partly driven
by the structures of PhD projects and arising in part from those, mixed methods papers are
often more intelligent in their approaches that those employing a single method

In conclusion, business ethics matters, but we have a concern that business ethics research
doesn’t matter as much as it should because the range and balance of research methods being
employed are not what they could or should be.

.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered
in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Reliance owns businesses across India engaged in energy,
petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. Reliance is one of the
most profitable companies in India the largest publicly traded company in India by market
capitalization, and the largest company in India as measured by revenue after recently surpassing
the government-controlled Indian Oil Corporation On 18 October 2007, Reliance Industries became
the first Indian company to breach $100 billion market capitalization.

The company is ranked 148th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations
as of 2018. It is ranked 8th among the Top 250 Global Energy Companies by Platts as of 2016.
Reliance continues to be India's largest exporter, accounting for 8% of India's total merchandise
exports with a value of Rs 147,755 crore and access to markets in 108 countries. Reliance is
responsible for almost 5% of the government of India's total revenues from customs and excise
duty. It is also the highest income tax payer in the private sector in India.

Shareholding

The number of shares of RIL is approx. 3.1 billion. The promoter group, Ambani family, holds
approx. 46.32% of the total shares whereas the remaining 53.68% shares are held by public
shareholders, including FII and corporate bodies Life Insurance Corporation of India is the
largest non-promoter investor in the company, with 7.98% shareholding.

In January 2012, the company announced a buyback programmer to buy a maximum of 120
million shares for ₹104 billion (US$1.5 billion). By the end of January 2013, the company had
bought back 46.2 million shares for ₹33.66 billion (US$490 million).

Listing

The company's equity shares are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE)
and the BSE Limited. The Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) issued by the Company are listed
on Luxembourg Stock Exchange. It has issued approx. 56 million GDRs wherein each GDR is
equivalent to two equity shares of the company. Approximately 3.46% of its total shares are
listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Its debt securities are listed at the Wholesale Debt
Market (WDM) Segment of the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE).[37]
It has received domestic credit ratings of AAA from CRISIL (S&P subsidiary) and Fitch. Moody's
and S&P have provided investment grade ratings for international debt of the company, as Baa2
positive outlook (local currency issuer rating) and BBB+ outlook respectively. On the 28th of
December, 2017, RIL announced that it will be acquiring the wireless assets of Anil Ambani-led
Reliance Communications for about ₹23,000 crores.

Major subsidiaries and associates

 Reliance Retail is the retail business wing of the Reliance Industries. In March 2013, it
had 1466 stores in India. It is the largest retailer in India. Many brands like Reliance
Fresh, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Time Out, Reliance Digital, Reliance Wellness,
Reliance Trends, Reliance AutoZone, Reliance Super, Reliance Mart, Reliance iStore,
Reliance Home Kitchens, Reliance Market (Cash n Carry) and Reliance Jewel come
under the Reliance Retail brand. Its annual revenue for the financial year 2012–13 was
₹108 billion (US$1.6 billion) with an EBITDA of ₹780 million (US$11 million).
 Reliance Life Sciences works around medical, plant and industrial biotechnology
opportunities. It specializes in manufacturing, branding, and marketing Reliance
Industries' products in bio-pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clinical research services,
regenerative medicine, molecular medicine, novel therapeutics, biofuels, plant
biotechnology, and industrial biotechnology sectors of the medical business industry.
 Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (RILS), established by Dhirubhai Ambani
Foundation, is an institution offering higher education in various fields of life sciences
and related technologies.
 Reliance Logistics is a single-window company selling transportation, distribution,
warehousing, logistics, and supply chain-related products, supported by in-house
telematics and telemetry solutions. Reliance Logistics is an asset based company with
its own fleet and infrastructure. It provides logistics services to Reliance group
companies and outsiders. Merged content from Reliance Logistics to here.
 Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS), a contract research organization (CRO)
and wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Life Sciences, specializes in the clinical
research services industry. Its clients are primarily pharmaceutical, biotechnology and
medical device companies.
 Reliance Solar, the solar energy subsidiary of Reliance, was established to produce
and retail solar energy systems primarily to remote and rural areas. It offers a range of
products based on solar energy: solar lanterns, home lighting systems, street lighting
systems, water purification systems, refrigeration systems and solar air conditioners.
Merged content from Reliance Solar to here.
PROJECT CONTENTS

1. Business Ethics
 Introduction
 Origin of Business Ethics
 Scope of Business Ethics

2. Importance of Ethics
 Source of Business Ethics
 Basic Workplace Ethics for Organization
 Importance of Workplace Ethics
 Role of Management In Inculcating

3. Tips to promote Workplace Ethics

 Importance of Code of Conduct
 Reliance: About The Company
 Business Ethics of Reliance

4. Ethics In HRM
 Ethics in Market System
 Ethical Issues in HR
 Employment Issues

5. Ethics In Sales & Marketing

 Ethics & Production
 Case Study: Coca Cola
 Ethics & Technology
 Myths Of Business Ethics
 Resolving Ethical Dilemma
 Ethics in Management Programs
 Difficulties in Ethical Decision Making

6. Insider Treading & Strategies

 Insider Trading
 Role of Compliance & Ethics

7. Employee Rights
 Basic Rights of employee in India
 Data Analysis of RTI

8. Indian Labour Law

  History
 Constitutional Rights
 Contracts & Rights
 Employment Contracts
 Workplace Participation

9. State Laws
 Prohibitive Labour Laws
 Laws Relating to Employment & Training

10. Enforcement of Labour Laws by CIRM

 Workplace Laws your Employer Can Violate
 Rights & Responsibilities Of Workers
11. Conclusion
12. Bibliography