Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment
Ethics in management
PRADEEP KUMAR
ROLL NO –
NO – 43
MIB
BATCH 2010-2012
Ethics in Management
All persons, whether in business, government, a university, or any other enterprise, are
concerned with ethics. In Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
Dictionary,, ethics is defined as “the discipline
dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.”
o bligation.” Thus, personal ethics has been
referred to as “the
“t he rules by which an individual lives professional conduct of accountants.” Business
ethics is concerned with truth and justice and has variety of aspects such as tthe
he expectations of society,
fair competition, advertising, public relations, social responsibilities, consumer autonomy, and corporate
behavior in the home country as well
we ll as abroad.
the utilitarian theory suggests that plans and actions should be evaluated by their consequences. The
underlying idea is that plans or actions should base on rights holds that all people have basic rights.
Examples are the rights to freedom of conscience, free speech, and due process. Third, the theory of
justice demands that decision makers be guided by fairness and equity, as well as impartiality.
impartiality.
Institutionalizing Ethics
Business ethics are increasingly addressed in seminars and at conferences.
conference s. Managers especially top-level
managers, do have a responsibility to create an organizational environment that fosters ethical decision
making by institutionalizing ethics. This means applying and integrating ethical concepts with daily
actions. Theodore Purcell and James Weber suggest that this can be accomplished in three ways
1). By establishing an appropriate company policy or a code of
o f ethics,
compensation and rewards to ethical behavior. Managers should also take any opportunity to
encourage ethical behavior and publicize it. On the other hand, employees should be encouraged to
report unethical practices (commonly
(commonly known as ‘whistleblowing’). Most important, managers must set a
good example through ethical behavior and practices.
Simply stating a code of ethics is not enough, and the appointment of an ethics committee,
consisting of internal and external directors, is considered
c onsidered essential for institutionalizing ethical
behavior. The functions of such a committee may include –
include –
The two factors that raise ethical standards the most, according to the respondents in one study, are
For ethical codes to be effective, provisions must be made for their enforcement. U
Unethical
nethical managers
should be held responsible for their actions. This means that privileges and benefits should be
withdrawn and sanctions should be applied. Although the enforcement of ethical codes may not be
easy, the mere existence
ex istence of such codes can increase ethical behavior by clarifying expectations. On the
other hand, one should not expect ethical
et hical codes to solve all problems. In fact, they can create a false
sense of security. Effective code enforcement requires consistent ethical behavior and support from top
management.
Another factor that could raise ethical standards is the teaching of ethics and values in business
and other schools and universities. The Harvard Business School has come under severe criticism by its
own president, Derek Bok, for the lack of teaching of human values. With the he
help
lp of business
executives, the school hired Dean John McArthur and faculty members trained to teach e
ethics
thics to give a
new direction to the school. While financial aspects received
rece ived less attention in the revised curriculum,
more emphasis was placed on people skills and ethical behavior. Since Harvard has one of the largest
numbers of B-school graduates who often hold top managerial positions, a somewhat greater
g reater
awareness of the ethical dimension in managing may be expected.