Professional Ethics (PFE701)

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Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility for
Sustainability
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© Amity University Press
All Rights Reserved
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No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without the prior permission of the publisher.
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Advisory Committee
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Chairman : Ms. Monica Agarwal
Members : Prof. Arun Bisaria
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Dr. Priya Mary Mathew
Prof. Aindril De
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Mr. Alok Awtans
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Dr. Coral J Barboza
Dr. Monica Rose
Mr. Sachit Paliwal
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SLM Review Committee

Mr. Gaurav Agarwal
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Ms. Nitika Khanna

Ms. Rashmi Saxena
Ms. Renu Singh
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Ms. Mona Chaudhary

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Published by Amity University Press for exclusive use of Amity Directorate of Distance and Online Education,
Amity University, Noida-201313
Contents
Page No.
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Module - 1: Name of Module: Philosophy and Ethics 01
1.1 Introduction To Ethical Philosophy
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1.1.1 What is a Philosophy
1.1.2 Nature of Philosophy
1.1.3 Few Important Aspects of Philosophy
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1.1.4 Branches of Philosophy
1.2 Basic Theories
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1.2.1 Deontology
1.2.2 Utilitarianism
1.2.3 Virtue Ethics
1.2.4 Theory of rights
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1.2.5 Casuist Theory
1.3 Moral, Values, And Ethics
1.3.1 What is Ethics?
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1.3.2 The Origin of Ethics
1.3.3 Moral Philosophy
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Moral Issues, Moral Dilemmas & Moral Autonomy
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1.4.1 Moral Issues
1.4.2 Moral Dilemma
1.4.3 Moral Autonomy
1.5 Basic Ethical Principles
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1.5.1 Truthfulness and Confidentiality

1.5.2 Autonomy
1.5.3 Informed consent
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1.5.4 Beneficence and Non-maleficence

1.5.5 Justice
1.6 Contemporary Philosophy
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1.6.1 Philosophy of Action

1.6.2 Philosophy of Responsibility
1.7 Linking Philosophy And Ethics & Its Implications
1.7.1 Relationship between Ethics and Philosophy
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1.7.2 Ethics Vs Philosophy
Module - 2: Name of Module: Ethics at Work place 30

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2.1 Professional Code of Ethics

2.1.1 What is a Professional Code of Ethics?
2.1.2 Why is a Code of Ethics Important?
2.1.3 The Components of the code of Professional Ethics:
2.1.4 Recognizing Unethical Business Activities:
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2.2 Workplace Rights and Responsibilities

2.2.1 What is a Right and What is a Responsibility
2.2.2 Classification of Rights and Responsibilities:
2.2.3 How Organizations Influence Ethical Conduct
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2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility
2.3.1 What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
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2.3.2 Understanding Social Responsibility
2.3.3 Trends in CSR
2.4 Conflict Of Interest
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2.4.1 What Is a Conflict of Interest?
2.4.2 Understanding Conflict of Interest
2.4.3 Common Types of Conflicts of Interest
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2.5 Managing Boundaries And Multiple Relationships
2.5,1 What are Personal Boundaries?
2.5.2 What are Professional Boundaries?
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2.5.3 Consideration for Maintaining Professional and Personal Boundaries
2.5.4 Socializing at a Work with Clients
2.6 Organizational Loyalty
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2.6.1 What is Organization Loyalty?
2.6.2 A Duty of Loyalty
2.6.3 Antecedents of loyalty
2.6.4 Loyalty and Confidentiality r
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Module - 3: Ethical Considerations 56
3.1 Basics of Intellectual Property
3.1.1 What is an Intellectual Property?
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3.1.2 Types of Intellectual Property

3.1.3 Objectives of Intellectual Property
3.1.4 Why promote and protect Intellectual Property?
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3.1.5 Nature & Characteristics of Intellectual Property Rights

3.2 Confidentiality
3.2.1 About Confidentiality
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3.2.2 What is confidentiality in an Organisation?

3.2.3 Why is confidentiality important for an Organisation?
3.2.4 Principles of Confidentiality
3.2.5 Employee Consequences for Breach of Confidentiality
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3.2.6 Unintentional Breach in Confidentiality

3.3 Principles of Natural Justice
3.3.1 About Natural Justice
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3.3.3 Exceptions to Principles of Natural Justice:

3.3.2 Bias
3.3.4 Types and concept of Natural Justice
3.4 Working With Minors
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3.4.1 Business and Engagement of Minors:

3.4.2 Using Minors Effectively
3.5 Organizational Complaint Procedure
3.5.1 Employees Grievances:
3.5.2 Defining Employee Grievances
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3.5.3 Causes of Employee Grievances:
3.5.4 Redress Mechanism - Steps To Handle Employee Grievances Most Effectively:
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3.6 Legal Aspects of Professional Ethics
3.6.1 What are Ethics and Professional Responsibility?
3.6.2 Relationships Among Law, Licensure, and Ethics
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Module - 4: Global Issues in Different Sectors 83
4.1 Globalization of MNCs and International Trade
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4.1.1 Growth of Global Corporations
4.1.2 Factors Facilitating Globalization
4.1.3 Doing Business in a Diverse World
4.1.4 Role of Multinational Corporations
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4.1.5 Multinational Corporations — Current Issues
4.1.6 Key Global Issues for Business
4.1.7 Examples of MNCs Dilemma
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4.1.8 Ethical issues in International Trade
4.1.9 Improving Global Business Ethics
4.2 Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
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4.2.1 What is Business Ethics?
4.2.2 Importance and Need for Business Ethics
4.2.3 Code of Conduct and Ethics for Managers
4.2.4 Definitions of Corporate Governance
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4.2.5 Issues in Corporate Governance

4.2.6 Relevance of Corporate Governance
4.3 Environmental Ethics
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4.3.1 What are Environmental Ethics?

4.3.2 Ethical Decisions w.r.t the Environment
4.3.3 Types of Environmental Ethics
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4.3.4 Managing Environmental Issues

4.3.5 Business Responses to Environmental Regulations
4.4 Sustainable Development Goals
4.4.1 Understanding the UN Development Agenda
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4.4.2 Loopholes in MDGs 2000-2015

4.4.3 Sustainable Development Goals 2030
4.4.4 Initiatives by Corporates
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4.5 Manufacturing Ethics and Marketing Ethics

4.5.1 Role of Marketing
4.5.2 Define Marketing Ethics
4.5.3 Marketing Ethics in the Context of Indian Economy
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4.5.4 Areas in Marketing Ethics

4.5.5 Ethical Marketing Example: TOMS
4.5.6 Due Care Theory of Firm’s Duties to Customer
4.6 Ethics Pertaining to Disciplines
4.6.1 What is Bioethics?
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4.6.2 Ethical Issues in Bioethics
4.6.3 Ethics in Journalism and Media
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4.6.4 What is Ethical Hacking?
4.6.5 What are Legal Ethics?
4.6.6 Common Breaches of Ethics
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4.6.7 What is a Corporate War?
4.6.8 Introduction to Teaching Ethics
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Module - 5: Name of Module: Research Ethics and Academic Integrity 111
5.1 Best Practices in Research / Standards Setting Initiatives and Guidelines
5.1.1 Best Practices
5.1.2 Committee on Publication Ethics (Cope)
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5.1.3 Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ):
5.1.4 The World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
5.1.5 Open Access Scholarly Pulbishers Association (Oaspa)
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5.2 Academic Misconduct
5.2.1 Research misconduct
5.2.2 Fabrication
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5.2.3 Falsification
5.2.4 Plagiarism
5.2.5 Why should an author avoid plagiarism?
5.3 Redundant Publication
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5.3.1 Redundant Publication

5.3.2 Salami Slicing
5.3.3 Redundant Publication and Salami Slicing: the Significance of Splitting Data
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5.4 Violation of Publications Ethics, Authorship, And Contributor Ship

5.4.1 Authorship
5.4.2 Four Criteria Must all be met to be Credited as an Author
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5.4.3 Guidelines for Authorship and Contributorship

5.4.4 Unacceptable Authorship
5.4.5 Authorship and Disputes
5.5 Using Plagiarism Software
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5.5.1 Plagiarism
5.5.2 Plagiarism Detection
5.5.3 Uses of Plagiarism Tools
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5.5.4 Advantages of using Plagiarism Checker

5.5.5 Plagiarism Detection Tools
5.6 Complaints and Appeals
5.6.1 Case 1: Multiple Submission
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5.6.2 Case 2: Author displays bullying behavior towards handling editor

5.6.3 Case 3: Editor and Reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work.
5.6.4 Other Case:
Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility for Sustainability 1
Module - 1: Name of Module: Philosophy and Ethics

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Structure:
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1.1 Introduction To Ethical Philosophy
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1.2 Basic Theories
1.2.1 Deontology
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1.2.3 Virtue Ethics
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1.3 Moral, Values, And Ethics
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1.4 Moral Issues, Moral Dilemmas & Moral Autonomy
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1.4.1 Moral Issues

1.4.2 Moral Dilemma
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1.5 Basic Ethical Principles
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1.5.2 Autonomy
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1.5.5 Justice
1.6 Contemporary Philosophy
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1.7 Linking Philosophy And Ethics & Its Implications
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Amity Directorate of Distance & Online Education

2 Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility for Sustainability
Unit - 1.1: Introduction To Ethical Philosophy

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Learning Objectives:
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At the end of the course, the learner will be able to -
●● Define what is Ethical Philosophy
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●● Explain the nature and scope of ethical philosophy
●● Understand the scope of theories of Deontology, Virtue theory, rights theory etc
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●● Define moral, values and ethics and the issues associated with them
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As used originally by the ancient Greeks, the term “philosophy” meant the pursuit
of knowledge for its own sake, and comprised ALL areas of speculative thought,
including the arts, sciences and religion.
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At its simplest, philosophy (from the Greek or phílosophía, meaning ‘the love of
wisdom’) is the study of knowledge, or “thinking about thinking”, although the breadth of
what it covers is perhaps best illustrated by other alternative definitions:
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the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what
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sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics);
what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct
principles of reasoning (logic) (Wikipedia)
●● The American Heritage Dictionary states it profoundly that Philosophy is the
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investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or

values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods.
●● It is seen as the study of the ultimate nature of existence, reality, knowledge
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and goodness, as discoverable by human reasoning (Penguin English

Dictionary),
●● It is the basis for the search for knowledge and truth, especially about the
nature of man and his behavior and beliefs (Kernerman English Multilingual
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Dictionary),
●● It states the rational and critical inquiry into basic principles (Microsoft Encarta
Encyclopedia)
To summarize with various definition across literature, Philosophy is
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●● a study of the most general and abstract features of the world and categories
with which we think. This include: mind, matter, reason, proof, truth, and other
related areas.
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●● It is careful thought about the fundamental nature of the world, the grounds
for human knowledge, and the evaluation of human conduct within specified
parameters.

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Based on the definitions, the beliefs, and the practices, the dispositions of
philosophy are discussed herewith.

●● Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe, which are
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often held uncritically.
●● We refer to this meaning as the informal sense of philosophy or “having”
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a philosophy. Usually when a person says “my philosophy is,” he or she is
referring to an informal personal attitude to whatever topic is being discussed.
●● Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most deeply held
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conceptions and beliefs.
●● The two senses of philosophy— “having” and “doing”— cannot be treated
entirely independent of each other. This is because, if we do not have a
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philosophy in the formal, personal sense, then we could not do a philosophy in
the critical, reflective sense.
●● Having a philosophy, however, is not sufficient for doing philosophy. A genuine
philosophical attitude is searching and critical; it is open-minded and tolerant,
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willing to look at all sides of an issue without prejudice.
●● To philosophize is not merely to read and know philosophy; there are skills
of argumentation to be mastered, techniques of analysis to be employed,
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and a body of material to be appropriated such that we become able to think
philosophically. Philosophers are reflective and critical.
●● Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole.
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Philosophy seeks to combine the conclusions of the various sciences and
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human experience into some kind of consistent worldview.
●● Philosophers wish to see life, not with the specialized slant of the scientist
or the businessperson or the artist, but with the overall view of someone
cognizant of life as a totality.
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●● Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of the

meaning of words and concepts. .
●● Certainly, this is one function of philosophy where in nearly all philosophers
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have used methods of analysis and have sought to clarify the meaning of
terms and the use of language.
●● Some philosophers see this as the main task of philosophy, and a few claim
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this is the only legitimate function of philosophy.

●● Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people and for which
philosophers always have sought answers.
●● Philosophy presses its inquiry into the deepest problems of human existence.
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Some of the philosophical questions raised in the past have been answered in
a manner satisfactory to the majority of philosophers.
●● Many questions, however, have been answered only tentatively, and many
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problems remain unsolved.

●● “What is truth?”
●● “What is the distinction between right and wrong?”
●● What is life and why am I here?
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●● Why is there anything at all?


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Let us see few important aspects related to Philosophy, which will enhance our
understanding of philosophy.
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●● Philosophical questions (unlike those of the sciences) are usually foundational
and abstract in nature. Philosophy is done primarily through reflection and does
not tend to rely on experiment, although the methods used to study it may be
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analogous to those used in the study of the natural sciences.
●● In common usage, it sometimes carries the sense of unproductive or frivolous
musings, but over the centuries it has produced some of the most important
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original thought, and its contribution to politics, sociology, mathematics, science
and literature has been inestimable. Although the study of philosophy may not
yield “the meaning of life, the universe, and everything”, many philosophers
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believe that it is important that each of us examine such questions because an
unexamined life is not worth living.
●● It also provides a good way of learning to think more clearly about a wide range
of issues, and its methods of analyzing arguments can be useful in a variety of
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situations in other areas of life. Philosophy augments cognitive learning and plays
very vital role in exploring self and the allied systems that may impact us and the
society at large.
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Philosophy is such a huge subject that it is difficult to know how to break it down
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into manageable and logical sections. Perhaps the most basic overall split at
the highest level is geographical, between Eastern Philosophy and Western
Philosophy (with, arguably, African Philosophy as a possible third branch at this
level).
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●● There are 4 common ways in which Philosophy can be usefully broken down or
organized:
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●● By Branch / Doctrine
●● By Historical Period
●● By Movement / School
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●● By Individual Philosophers

Time and again we keep asking the questions to self , the establishments,
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systems, and society on what is right and what is wrong, on our own existence, the way
we work, the regulations specified by the systems, the values in roped by the socieities,
and so on. All these Philosophical questions can be grouped into various branches.
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These groupings allow philosophers to focus on a set of similar topics and interact
with other thinkers who are interested in the same questions.
These divisions are neither exhaustive, nor mutually exclusive. Furthermore, these
philosophical inquiries sometimes overlap with each other and with other inquiries such
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as science, religion or mathematics.

1. Aesthetics
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Aesthetics is the “critical reflection on art, culture and nature.” It addresses the
nature of art, beauty and taste, enjoyment, emotional values, perception and the
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creation and appreciation of beauty.
It is more precisely defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values,

sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. Its major divisions are art theory,
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literary theory, film theory and music theory. An example from art theory is to discern the
set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement such as
the Cubist aesthetic.
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2. Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, studies what constitutes good and bad
conduct, right and wrong values, and good and evil.
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Its primary investigations include how to live a good life and identifying standards of
morality.
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It also includes investigating whether or not there is a best way to live or a
universal moral standard, and if so, how we come to learn about it.
The main branches of ethics are normative ethics, meta-ethics and applied ethics.
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The three main views in ethics about what constitute moral actions are:
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Consequentialism, which judges actions based on their consequences. One such
view is utilitarianism, which judges actions based on the net happiness (or pleasure)
and/or lack of suffering (or pain) that they produce.
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Deontology, which judges actions based on whether or not they are in accordance
with one’s moral duty. In the standard form defended by Immanuel Kant, deontology
is concerned with whether or not a choice respects the moral agency of other people,
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regardless of its consequences.
Virtue ethics, which judges actions based on the moral character of the agent who
performs them and whether they conform to what an ideally virtuous agent would do.
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3. Epistemology
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge.
This is very important branch especially in today’s reference as we are living in the
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knowledge economy.
Epistemologists examine putative sources of knowledge, including perceptual

experience, reason, memory, and testimony. They also investigate questions about the
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nature of truth, belief, justification, and rationality.
There are three central questions in this field:
●● What are the sources of knowledge? Where does genuine knowledge come
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from or how do we know? This is the question of origins.

●● What is the nature of knowledge? Is there a real world outside the mind, and if
so can we know it? This is the question of appearance versus reality.

●● Is our knowledge valid? How do we distinguish truth from error? This is the
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question of the tests of truth, of verification.
This is very important. We as humans have biased approach with the knowledge
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we possess. We generally tend to understand that the version of our knowledge
is the only correct version and we does debate or critically analyse our intellectual
possession. This turns hazardous and the outcome of application of this knowledge
result in utter failure.
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Traditionally, most of those who have offered answers to these questions can be
placed in one of two schools of thought—rationalism or empiricism.
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●● The rationalists hold that human reason alone can discover the basic
principles of the universe. Humans are at the centre everything else revolves
around humans.
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●● The empiricists claim that all knowledge is ultimately derived from sense
experience and, thus, that our knowledge is limited to what can be
experienced.
Our conception of reality depends on our understanding of what can be known.
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Conversely, our theory of knowledge depends on our understanding of ourselves in
relation to the whole of reality.
4. Metaphysics r
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Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality, such as existence,
time, objects and their properties, wholes and their parts, events, processes and
causation and the relationship between mind and body.
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Metaphysics includes cosmology, the study of the world in its entirety and ontology,
the study of being.
As Metaphysics deals with the topic of identity and the relationship of mind and
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body, a major point of debate comes from realism, which holds that there are entities
that exist independently of their mental perception and idealism, wherein Metaphysics
holds that reality is mentally constructed or otherwise immaterial.
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Metaphysics deals with the topic of identity. Essence is the set of attributes that
make an object what it fundamentally is and without which it loses its identity while
accident is a property that the object has, without which the object can still retain its
identity. Particulars are objects that are said to exist in space and time, as opposed
to abstract objects, such as numbers, and universals, which are properties held by
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multiple particulars, such as redness or a gender. The type of existence, if any, of

universals and abstract objects is an issue of debate.
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5. Logic
Coming to the next point, Logic is the study of reasoning and argument.
Deductive reasoning is when, given certain premises, conclusions are unavoidably

implied. Rules of inference are used to infer conclusions such as, modus ponens,
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where given “A” and “If A then B”, then “B” must be concluded.
Because sound reasoning is an essential element of all sciences, social sciences

and humanities disciplines, logic became a formal science. Sub-fields include

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mathematical logic, philosophical logic, Modal logic, computational logic and non-
classical logics are practices in the world.
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A major question in the philosophy of mathematics is whether mathematical
entities are objective and discovered, called mathematical realism, or invented, called
mathematical antirealism.
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6. Mind and language
Philosophy of language explores the nature, origins, and use of language.
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Philosophy of mind explores the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body,
as typified by disputes between materialism and dualism.
In recent years, this branch has become related to cognitive science.
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7. Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science explores the foundations, methods, history, implications
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and purpose of science.
Many of its subdivisions correspond to specific branches of science. For example,

philosophy of biology deals specifically with the metaphysical, epistemological and
ethical issues in the biomedical and life sciences. r
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8. Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals
(or families and clans) to communities including the state.
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It includes questions about justice, law, property and the rights and obligations of
the citizen.
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Political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are traditionally linked subjects, under
the general heading of value theory as they involve a normative or evaluative aspect.
9. Philosophy of religion
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Philosophy of religion deals with questions that involve religion and religious ideas
from a philosophically neutral perspective (as opposed to theology which begins from
religious convictions).
Traditionally, religious questions were not seen as a separate field from philosophy,
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the idea of a separate field only arose in the 19th century.
Issues include the existence of God, the relationship between reason and faith,
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questions of religious epistemology, the relationship between religion and science, how
to interpret religious experiences, questions about the possibility of an afterlife, the
problem of religious language and the existence of souls and responses to religious
pluralism and diversity.
The debate on atheist, an agnostic, a deist, and a deity will fall in this category.
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An atheist does not believe in a god or divine being. An agnostic neither believes
nor disbelieves in a god or religious doctrine. A deist believes in God, but believes that

while God created the universe, natural laws determine how the universe plays out. All
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have their own belief and their justification are their philosophy of religions.
10. Meta-philosophy
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Meta-philosophy explores the aims, boundaries and methods of philosophy itself.
The term Meta
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It is debated as to whether Meta-philosophy is a subject that comes prior to
philosophy or whether it is inherently part of philosophy.
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Unit - 1.2: Basic Theories

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1.2.1 Deontology
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It is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong. It is an
approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves,
as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions. It
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argues that decisions should be made considering the factors of one’s duties and
other’s rights. The Greek deon means an obligation or duty).
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Deontology is often associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant believed
that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t
cheat.” Deontology is simple to apply. It just requires that people follow the rules and
do their duty. This approach tends to fit well with our natural intuition about what is or
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isn’t ethical. Unlike consequentialism, which judges actions by their results, deontology
doesn’t require weighing the costs and benefits of a situation. This avoids subjectivity
and uncertainty because you only have to follow set rules.
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Despite its strengths, rigidly following deontology can produce results that many
people find unacceptable. For example, suppose you’re a software engineer and
learn that a nuclear missile is about to launch that might start a war. You can hack
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the network and cancel the launch, but it’s against your professional code of ethics
to break into any software system without permission. And, it’s a form of lying and
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cheating. Deontology advises not to violate this rule. However, in letting the missile
launch, thousands of people will die. So, following the rules makes deontology easy to
apply. But it also means disregarding the possible consequences of our actions when
determining what is right and what is wrong.
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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on

outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical
choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. It is the
only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. It is also the most
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common approach to moral reasoning used in business because of the way in which it
accounts for costs and benefits.
Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values such as justice and individual
rights. For example, assume a hospital has four people whose lives depend upon
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receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and a liver. If a healthy person
wanders into the hospital, his organs could be harvested to save four lives at the
expense of one life. This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest
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number. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let alone the most
ethical one. So, although utilitarianism is arguably the most reason-based approach to
determining right and wrong, it has obvious limitations.
1.2.3 Virtue Ethics

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It is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks. It is the quest

to understand and live a life of moral character. This character-based approach to

morality assumes that we acquire virtue through practice. By practicing being honest,
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brave, just, generous, and so on, a person develops an honorable and moral character.
According to Aristotle, by honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice
when faced with ethical challenges.
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The Rights Approach focuses on respect for human dignity. This approach holds
that our dignity is based on our ability to choose freely how we live our lives, and that
we have a moral right to respect for our choices as free, equal, and rational people, and
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a moral duty to respect others in the same way.
Some of these rights are articulated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights such
as life, and freedom, which include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, property
ownership, and contractual agreements to name few. Other rights might include the
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right to privacy, to be informed truthfully on matters that affect our choices, and right to
health, that is, to be safe from harm and injury, and similar other rights.
This approach asks us to identify the legitimate rights of ourselves and others, in
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a given situation, as well as our duties and obligations. Consider how well the moral,
legal, and contractual rights of everyone are respected and or protected by the action,
and assess how well those affected are treated. As such, the ethical action would be
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the one we have a moral obligation to perform, that does not infringe on the rights of
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others.

Casuistry, in ethics, is a case-based method of reasoning. It is particularly
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employed in field specific branches of professional ethics such as business ethics and
bioethics. Casuistry typically uses general principles in reasoning analogically from
clear-cut cases, called paradigms, to vexing cases. Similar cases are treated similarly.
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In this way, casuistry resembles legal reasoning. Casuistry may also use authoritative
writings relevant to a particular case.
Practitioners in various fields value casuistry as an orderly, yet flexible way to think
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about real-life ethical problems. Casuistry can be particularly useful when values or
rules conflict. For example, what should be done when a business executive’s duty to
meet a client’s expectations collides with a professional duty to protect the public?
Casuistry also helps clarify cases in which novel or complex circumstances make
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the application of rules unclear. Should email receive the same privacy protection as
regular mail? If someone develops an idea while working for one employer, is it ethical
to use that idea to help a subsequent employer?
)A
Casuistry seeks both to illuminate the meaning, and moral significance of the
details in such cases, and to discern workable solutions. Some practitioners classify
casuistry as a subset of applied ethics, or practical ethics. It is considered as the branch
of ethics that is concerned with the application of moral norms to practical problems.
Others restrict the term applied ethics to deductive reasoning from principles to cases.
(c
Accordingly, the philosophers view casuistry as an alternative to applied ethics.

Unit - 1.3: Moral, Values, And Ethics

Notes
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Invariably, the first question that arises is What is Ethics?
The term ethics may refer to the philosophical study of
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1. The concepts of moral right and wrong and moral good and bad, to any
philosophical theory, and
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2. Any system or code of moral rules, principles, or values.
The last may be associated with particular religions, cultures, professions, or
virtually any other group that is at least partly characterized by its moral outlook.
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The second question that comes to the mind is Why does Ethics Matter?
Ethics matters because:
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1. it acts as the basis for the individuals and groups to define themselves and
thus build the identity of their own or the individual members,
2. because values in most ethical systems reflect and foster close human
relationships and mutual respect and trust, and r
ve
3. it could be “rational” for a self-interested person to be moral, because his or
her self-interest is arguably best served in the long run by reciprocating the
moral behaviour of others.
This is supported by various ethical and philosophical theories.
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When did ethics begin and how did it originate?
If one has in mind ethics proper—i.e., the systematic study of what is morally right
and wrong—it is clear that ethics could have come into existence only when human
beings started to reflect on the best way to live.
ity
This reflective stage emerged long after human societies had developed some kind
of morality, usually in the form of customary standards of right and wrong conduct.
The process of reflection tended to arise from such customs, even if in the end it
m
may have found them wanting. Accordingly, ethics began with the introduction of the
first moral codes.
Virtually every human society has some form of myth to explain the origin of
)A
morality. In the Louvre in Paris there is a black Babylonian column with a relief showing
the sun god Shamash presenting the code of laws to Hammurabi (died c. 1750 BCE),
known as the Code of Hammurabi. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) account of
God’s giving the Ten Commandments to Moses (flourished 14th–13th century BCE) on
Mount Sinai might be considered another example. In the dialogue Protagoras by Plato
(c
(428/427–348/347 BCE), there is an avowedly mythical account of how Zeus took pity
on the hapless humans, who were physically no match for the other beasts. To make up

for these deficiencies, Zeus gave humans a moral sense and the capacity for law and
Notes
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justice, so that they could live in larger communities and cooperate with one another.
The concepts of Bhagwat Geeta, where Lord Krishna guided Arjun towards building a
better society even on the cost of loosing ill-minded peer relatives, is an EPIC that acts
in
as a testimonial of what is right and what is wrong in the civic society. Same is with
Ramayana.
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That morality should be invested with all the mystery and power of divine origin is
not surprising. Nothing else could provide such strong reasons for accepting the moral
law. By attributing a divine origin to morality, the priesthood became its interpreter and
guardian and thereby secured for itself a power that it would not readily relinquish. This
O
link between morality and religion has been so firmly forged that it is still sometimes
asserted that there can be no morality without religion. According to this view, ethics is
not an independent field of study but rather a branch of theology (see moral theology).
ty
There is some difficulty, already known to Plato, with the view that morality was
created by a divine power. In his dialogue Euthyphro, Plato considered the suggestion
that it is divine approval that makes an action good. Plato pointed out that, if this were
si
the case, one could not say that the gods approve of such actions because they are
good. Why then do they approve of them? Is their approval entirely arbitrary? Plato
considered this impossible and so held that there must be some standards of right or
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wrong that are independent of the likes and dislikes of the gods. Modern philosophers
have generally accepted Plato’s argument, because the alternative implies that if, for
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example, the gods had happened to approve of torturing children and to disapprove of
helping one’s neighbours, then torture would have been good and neighbourliness bad.
Problems of divine origin

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A modern theist (see theism) might say that, since God is good, God could not
possibly approve of torturing children nor disapprove of helping neighbours. In
saying this, however, the theist would have tacitly admitted that there is a standard of
U
goodness that is independent of God. Without an independent standard, it would be

pointless to say that God is good; this could mean only that God is approved of by
God. It seems therefore that, even for those who believe in the existence of God, it
is impossible to give a satisfactory account of the origin of morality in terms of divine
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creation. A different account is needed.
There are other possible connections between religion and morality. It has been
said that, even if standards of good and evil exist independently of God or the gods,
divine revelation is the only reliable means of finding out what these standards are.
m
An obvious problem with this view is that those who receive divine revelations, or
who consider themselves qualified to interpret them, do not always agree on what is
good and what is evil. Without an accepted criterion for the authenticity of a revelation
)A
or an interpretation, people are no better off, so far as reaching moral agreement is

concerned, than they would be if they were to decide on good and evil themselves, with
no assistance from religion.
Traditionally, a more important link between religion and ethics was that religious
(c
teachings were thought to provide a reason for doing what is right. In its crudest form,
the reason was that those who obey the moral law will be rewarded by an eternity of
bliss while everyone else roasts in hell. In more sophisticated versions, the motivation

provided by religion was more inspirational and less blatantly self-interested. Whether
Notes
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in its crude or its sophisticated version, or something in between, religion does provide
an answer to one of the great questions of ethics: “Why should I be moral?” (See below
Ethics and reasons for action.) As will be seen in the course of this article, however, the
in
answer provided by religion is not the only one available.
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The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.
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Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into given general subject areas:
1. Meta-ethics - Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and
what they mean. Are they merely social inventions? Do they involve more than
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expressions of our individual emotions? Metaethical answers to these questions
focus on the issues of universal truths, the will of God, the role of reason in ethical
judgments, and the meaning of ethical terms themselves.
si
Meta Ethics is concerned primarily with the meaning of ethical judgments, and
seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and
judgments, and how they may be supported or defended. A meta ethical theory, unlike a
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normative ethical theory, does not attempt to evaluate specific choices as being better,
worse, good, bad or evil. Rather it tries to define the essential meaning and nature of
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the problem being discussed. It concerns itself with second order questions, specifically
the semantics, epistemology and ontology of ethics. The major meta ethical views are
commonly divided into two camps: Moral Realism and Moral Anti Realism.
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●● Moral Realism – Also called Moral Objectivism, holds that there are objective
moral values, so that evaluative statements are essentially factual claims, which
are either true or false, and that their truth or falsity are independent of our beliefs,
feelings, or other attitudes, towards the things being evaluated. It is a cognitivist
U
view since it holds that ethical sentences express valid propositions, and are
therefore truth apt.
●● Moral Anti-Realism – It holds that there are no objective moral values, and comes
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in one of three forms, depending on whether:

o Ethical statements are believed to be subjective claims supporting Ethical
Subjectivism,
o Not genuine claims at all, which is called Non Cognitivism, Or,
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o Mistaken objective claims which is termed as Moral Nihilism, or Moral

Scepticism.
)A
2. Normative ethics: Normative Ethics, or Prescriptive Ethics, is the branch of ethics

concerned with establishing, how things should or ought to be, how to value them,
which things are good or bad, and which actions are right or wrong. It attempts to
develop a set of rules governing human conduct, or a set of norms for action.
Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral
(c
standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. This may involve articulating the good

habits that we should acquire, the duties that we should follow, or the consequences of
Notes
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our behavior on others.
Normative ethical theories are usually split into three main categories, namely
in
Consequentialism, Deontology, and Virtue Ethics.
●● Consequentialism - Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges whether or

not something is right by what its consequences are. For instance, most people
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would agree that lying is wrong. But if telling a lie would help save a person’s life,
consequentialism says it’s the right thing to do. Two examples of consequentialism
are. Utilitarianism, and, Hedonism.
O
o Utilitarianism - Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from
wrong by focusing on outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarianism
holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest
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good for the greatest number. It is the only moral framework that can be used
to justify military force or war. It is also the most common approach to moral
reasoning used in business because of the way in which it accounts for costs
and benefits.
si
Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values such as justice and
individual rights. For example, assume a hospital has four people whose
lives depend upon receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and
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a liver. If a healthy person wanders into the hospital, his organs could be
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harvested to save four lives at the expense of one life. This would arguably
produce the greatest good for the greatest number. But few would consider it
an acceptable course of action, let alone the most ethical one. So, although
utilitarianism is arguably the most reason-based approach to determining right
ni
and wrong, it has obvious limitations.

o Hedonism - Hedonism is the belief that pleasure, or the absence of pain, is
the most important principle in determining the morality of a potential course
U
of action. Pleasure can be things like “party, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll,” but it
can also include any intrinsically valuable experience like reading a good
book. Hedonism is a type of consequentialism, and it has several forms. For
example, normative hedonism is the idea that pleasure should be people’s
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primary motivation. On the other hand, motivational hedonism says that only
pleasure and pain cause people to do what they do.
Egotistical hedonism requires a person to consider only his or her own pleasure
in making choices. Conversely, altruistic hedonism says that the creation of pleasure
m
for all people is the best way to measure if an action is ethical. Regardless of the type
of hedonism, critics fault it as a guide for morality because hedonism ignores all other
values, such as freedom or fairness, when evaluating right and wrong.
)A
Coming back to Consequentialism, it is sometimes criticized because it can

be difficult, or even impossible, to know what the result of an action will be ahead of
time. Indeed, no one can know the future with certainty. Also, in certain situations,
consequentialism can lead to decisions that are objectionable, even though the
consequences are arguably good.
(c

●● Deontology - It is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong.
Notes
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It is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions
themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of
those actions. It argues that decisions should be made considering the factors of
in
one’s duties and other’s rights. The Greek deon means an obligation or duty).
Deontology is often associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant believed
nl
that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t
cheat.” Deontology is simple to apply. It just requires that people follow the rules and
do their duty. This approach tends to fit well with our natural intuition about what is or
isn’t ethical. Unlike consequentialism, which judges actions by their results, deontology
O
doesn’t require weighing the costs and benefits of a situation. This avoids subjectivity
and uncertainty because you only have to follow set rules.
Despite its strengths, rigidly following deontology can produce results that many
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people find unacceptable. For example, suppose you’re a software engineer and
learn that a nuclear missile is about to launch that might start a war. You can hack
the network and cancel the launch, but it’s against your professional code of ethics
si
to break into any software system without permission. And, it’s a form of lying and
cheating. Deontology advises not to violate this rule. However, in letting the missile
launch, thousands of people will die. So, following the rules makes deontology easy to
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apply. But it also means disregarding the possible consequences of our actions when
determining what is right and what is wrong.
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●● Virtue Ethics - It is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks.
It is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character. This character-
based approach to morality assumes that we acquire virtue through practice. By
practicing being honest, brave, just, generous, and so on, a person develops an
ni
honorable and moral character. According to Aristotle, by honing virtuous habits,

people will likely make the right choice when faced with ethical challenges.
U
Approaching the Normative Ethics back, to illustrate the difference among three
philosophies of Normative Ethics, ethicists Mark White and Robert Arp refer to the film
The Dark Knight, where Batman has the opportunity to kill the Joker.
●● Utilitarian, White and Arp endorse killing of the Joker by Batman. By taking this
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one life, Batman could save multitudes.

●● Deontologists, on the other hand, would reject killing the Joker simply because it’s
wrong to kill.
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●● But a virtue ethicist would highlight the character of the person who kills the Joker.
Does Batman want to be the kind of person who takes his enemies’ lives” No, in
fact, he doesn’t.
)A
3. Descriptive ethics - Descriptive Ethics is a value free approach to ethics, which

examines ethics from the perspective of observations of actual choices, made by
moral agents in practice. It is the study of people’s beliefs about morality, and implies
the existence of theories of value or of conduct , rather than explicitly prescribing
them.
(c
It is more likely to be investigated by those working in the fields of evolutionary

biology, psychology, sociology, history, or anthropology, although information that

comes from descriptive ethics is also used in philosophical arguments. Descriptive

Notes
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Ethics is sometimes referred to as Comparative Ethics. It is because so much activity
can involve comparing ethical systems, comparing the ethics of the past to the
present, comparing the ethics of one society to another, and comparing the ethics
in
which people claim to follow with the actual rules of conduct, which do describe their
actions. It is not designed to provide guidance to people in making moral decisions,
nor is it designed to evaluate the reasonableness of moral norms.
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4. Applied ethics - Finally, The fourth branch of moral philosophy is Applied Ethics
which is a discipline of philosophy, that attempts to apply ethical theory to real-life
situations. Strict, principle based ethical approaches often result in solutions to
O
specific problems, that are not universally acceptable or impossible to implement.
Applied Ethics is much more ready to include the insights of psychology, sociology,
and other relevant areas of knowledge in its deliberations.
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The following would be questions of Applied Ethics.
o Is euthanasia immoral.
o Is affirmative action right or wrong.
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o What are human rights, and how do we determine them. And
o Do animals have rights as well?

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Medical Ethics, Bioethics, Legal Ethics, Business Ethics, Environmental Ethics,
Information Ethics, Media Ethics, falls under the discipline of applied ethics. Thus,
applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues, such as abortion,
infanticide, animal rights, environmental concerns, capital punishment, or nuclear war.
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ity
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)A
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Unit - 1.4: Moral Issues, Moral Dilemmas & Moral

Notes
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Autonomy
in
1.4.1 Moral Issues
A moral issue can be understood as an issue to be resolved not only by
nl
considering the technical stuff but also by keeping moral values in mind. “Moral issue
is a working issue of moral concern with the potential to help or harm anyone, including
oneself.”
O
●● Moral issues are those which involve a difference of belief and not a matter
of preference - a moral dispute would involve a factual disagreement (or a
disagreement in belief) where one or the other or neither belief is correct. It would
not involve a disagreement in attitude (or a disagreement in feeling).
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●● Moral issues are those, which involve the experience of a special kind of feeling -
This feeling is said to differ intuitively from other kinds of feelings such as religious
or aesthetic feelings. (E.g., some people think these feelings arise from arise from
si
conscience.) Such feelings can be those of satisfaction, shame, or guilt.
●● Moral issues are those actions which have the potential to help or harm others or
ourselves - is a version of consequentialist ethics and has a number of objections.
r
very few human decisions or actions are not of some moral concern since very
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few, if any, decisions have no consequences helping or harming ourselves or
others. On this view, only decisions with no possible consequences helping or
harming would qualify as nonmoral actions. Decisions such as the latter are
difficult to imagine. Thus, it may well be that any decision made and any action
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performed is of some ethical concern.
1.4.2 Moral Dilemma

U
What is common to the two well-known cases is conflict. In each case, an agent
regards herself as having moral reasons to do each of two actions, but doing both
actions is not possible. Ethicists have called situations like these moral dilemmas. The
crucial features of a moral dilemma are these: the agent is required to do each of two
ity
(or more) actions; the agent can do each of the actions; but the agent cannot do both
(or all) of the actions. The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no matter
what she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do something that she ought to
do).
m
A moral dilemma is an irresolvable moral conflict, i.e. no fully satisfactory resolution

is possible since all possible options for action leave behind a remainder that does not
cease to be morally binding.
)A
Moral dilemmas are often used to help people think through the reasoning for their
beliefs and actions, and are common in psychology and philosophy classes. Some
examples of moral dilemmas include:
●● The classic “lifeboat dilemma”, where there are only 10 spaces in the lifeboat, but
(c
there are 11 passengers on the sinking ship. A decision must be made as to who
will stay behind.

●● A train with broken brakes is speeding towards a fork in the tracks. On the left,
Notes
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there is a woman crossing with her two children; on the right, there is a man doing
routine maintenance on the tracks. The engineer must decide which side to aim
the speeding train towards.
in
●● A husband learns he has a terminal illness and he decides to ask his wife for
assistance in ending the pain before it gets too bad.
nl
Moral dilemmas also provide interesting social topics for students to examine in
position and research papers. Common topics for such assignments often include:
●● The Death Penalty
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●● Doctor-Assisted Suicide
●● Ending the Drug War
●● The Draft
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●● Government Spying
●● Prison Reform
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●● Legalizing (or decriminalizing) Marijuana
●● Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy
Steps in confronting moral dilemmas - In order to face/overcome the above said
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moral dilemmas, one can follow one or more of the following steps.
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●● Step 1: Identifying the pertinent moral factors and reasons. It involves addressing
solutions for conflicting responsibilities, opposing rights, and incompatible ideals
involved.
●● Step 2: Collecting all the available moral considerations, which are relevant to the
ni
moral factors involved.

●● Step 3: Ranking the above collected moral considerations on the basis of
importance as applicable to the particular situation.
U
●● Step 4: Making factual inquires. In other words, finding alternative courses of

actions to resolve the moral dilemmas and following the complete implications of
each.
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●● Step 5: Inviting discussions, suggestions from colleagues, friends, and other

involved persons to critically examine the moral dilemmas.
●● Step 6: Taking the final decision i.e. selecting the more reasonable solution by
weighing all the relevant moral factors and reasons.
m

)A
Moral Autonomy is the philosophy which is self-governing or self-determining, i.e.,

acting independently without the influence or distortion of others. The moral autonomy
relates to the individual ideas whether right or wrong conduct which is independent of
ethical issues. The concept of moral autonomy helps in improving self-determination.
Moral Autonomy is concerned with independent attitude of a person related

(c
to moral/ethical issues. This concept is found in moral, ethical and even in political
philosophy.

Moral Autonomy – Skills Needed:

Notes
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●● Ability to relate the problems with the problems of law, economics and
religious principles − It is essential to have the ability to analyze a problem
in
and finding the relation with the existing law or the topic of issue with the
existing principles on that topic. The ability to distinguish between both of
them and finding the moral reasons.
nl
●● Skill to process, clarify and understand the arguments against the moral
issues − If the issue is against some moral values or the ethical values to be
followed in the society, then clarity should be maintained about the differences
O
and similarities. Both of these differences and similarities are to be judged
based on why they are a matter of concern and in what aspect.
●● Ability to suggest the solutions to moral issues on the basis of facts − If the
moral issues are not fulfilling and needs to be, then the solutions are to be
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suggested according to the moral issues based on the facts and truths of the
issue. These suggestions must be consistent and must include all the aspects
of the problem. No partiality is to be allowed in any such aspect.
si
●● Must have the imaginative skill to view the problems from all the viewpoints
− After having known about the facts and illusions of the issue, a clear
understanding is attained in viewing the problem in all kinds of viewpoints.
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This enables one to be able to suggest a proper alternative solution.
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●● Tolerance while giving moral judgment, which may cause trouble − When the
whole analysis is made considering all the viewpoints of the issue, the final
output might be or might not be pleasing to the persons involved. Hence while
declaring the judgment or the decisions taken, a detailed description of the
actions done should be given, while the actions ought to be done should be
ni
presented in a better way, to ensure others that the decisions have been taken
without any partialities towards any party.
●● Tolerance while giving moral judgment, which may cause trouble − When the
U
whole analysis is made considering all the viewpoints of the issue, the final
output might be or might not be pleasing to the persons involved. Hence while
declaring the judgment or the decisions taken, a detailed description of the
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actions done should be given, while the actions ought to be done should be
presented in a better way, to ensure others that the decisions have been taken
without any partialities towards any party.
m
)A
(c

Unit - 1.5: Basic Ethical Principles

Notes
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in
Introduction
The expression “basic ethical principles” refers to those general judgments that
serve as a justification for particular ethical prescriptions and evaluations of human
nl
actions. Given below are the basic principles, among those generally accepted in our
cultural tradition, and are particularly relevant to the ethics in business organizations:
O
Two concepts that you may commonly face in your day-to-day practice are
truthfulness and confidentiality. Truthfulness is about telling the truth to someone who
ty
has the right to know the truth. The concept of confidentiality urges you to keep a secret
of the knowledge or information that a person has the right or obligation to conceal.
If the management knows that an employee is always going to work with the ethical
principle of confidentiality in mind, then they will be able to talk freely about sensitive
si
issues. The professional obligation to keep a secret arises from the fact that harm will
almost certainly follow if the information is revealed.
●● r
There are three types of secrets:
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●● Natural secret: information, which, if revealed, is harmful by its nature. Such
revelations may lead to embarrassment or endangering the existence.
●● Promised secret: information that we have promised to conceal which, if
broken, leads to public mistrust.
ni
●● Professional secret: knowledge, which, if revealed, will harm the client,

the profession and the society, that obtain services from the profession. A
professional secret is the most serious of all secrets, because its violation can
U
cause the greatest harm.
1.5.2 Autonomy
ity
Autonomy is another ethical principle that you may already be aware of, but not
know by that name. The term refers to every individual’s right of self-determination,
independence and freedom to make their own choices. In the context of a corporate,
the concept of autonomy is most concerned with the ethical obligation of an
organization or stakeholder to respect the clients’ right to make decisions about
m
their own well being. However, there are conditions in which the personal choice or
autonomy may be restricted because of concern for the wellbeing of the community.
The term autonomy is commonly referred as ‘Respect for Persons.’
)A
Respect for persons incorporates two ethical convictions:
●● That individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, and

●● That persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection.
The principle of respect for persons thus divides into two separate moral
(c
requirements:
●● The requirement to acknowledge autonomy, and

●● The requirement to protect those with diminished autonomy.

Notes
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To respect autonomy is to give weight to persons’ considered opinions and choices
while refraining from obstructing their actions unless they are clearly detrimental to
in
others.
This principle leads to the requirement of informed voluntary consent.
nl
Informed consent is the process in which a service provider educates a client about
the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a given procedure or intervention. The client is
O
assumed to be competent to make a voluntary decision about whether to seek a service
or not. Informed consent is both an ethical and legal obligation of the organizations.
Implicit in providing informed consent is an assessment by the client based on the
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documentation of the matter. The legal system requires documentation of all the
elements of informed consent “in a form, progress notes, instruction manuals, and
terms and conditions.”
si
The following are the required elements for documentation of the informed consent
discussion:
●● The nature of the procedure,

●● The risks and benefits and the procedure, r
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●● Reasonable alternatives,
●● The risks and benefits of alternatives, and
●● Assessment of the client’s understanding of elements 1 through 4.
ni
It is the obligation of the service provider to make it clear to the client and avoid
making the client feel forced to agree to with the provider. The provider must make a
recommendation and provide their reasoning for said recommendation.
U

The term “beneficence” is often understood to cover acts of kindness or charity
that go beyond strict obligation. Beneficence is defined as an act of charity, mercy, and
ity
kindness with a strong connotation of doing good to others including moral obligation.
All professionals have the foundational moral imperative of doing right. In the context of
the professional-client relationship, the professional is obligated to, always and without
exception, favor the well-being and interest of the client. Stakeholders are treated in an
m
ethical manner not only by respecting their decisions and protecting them from harm,
but also by making efforts to secure their well-being.
The term beneficence tells you about ‘doing good’ for your client, while the concept
)A
of nonmaleficence tells you to ‘do no harm’ either intentionally or unintentionally to your

clients.
Two general rules have been formulated as complementary expressions of

beneficent actions in this sense:
(c
●● Do not harm, and

●● Maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms.

All stakeholders must be protected from harm and their well being must be
Notes
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secured. This principle leads to the requirement that the benefits to subjects or to
humanity generally must be judged to outweigh the risks to the associates.
in
1.5.5 Justice
Justice is a complex ethical principle and it entails fairness, equality and
nl
impartiality. In other words, it is an obligation to be fair to all people. The risks and
benefits of a service must be distributed fairly without creating demographical
differences among the stakeholders based on defined classes. The justice is pursued
O
from two perspective:
●● Distributive justice - means that individuals have the right to be accepted

equally regardless of ethnic group, gender, culture, age, marital status,
medical diagnosis, social standing, economic level, political or religious
ty
beliefs, or any other individual characteristics. Everyone should be treated in
the same way.
●● Social justice - is based on the application of equitable rights to access
si
and participation in all aspects of goods and services provided in a society,
regardless of their individual characteristics. Everyone should have access to
the identical resources that might improve their standards.
r
As a Corporate, one should carry out distributive and social justice by enabling the
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inclusion and empowerment of all stakeholders who are affiliate of the organization to
exercise their rights.
An unfair treatment to the affiliates while practicing the profession, will impact
gaining the public trust which will negatively affect the brand value.
ni
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ity
m
)A
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Unit - 1.6: Contemporary Philosophy

Notes
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in
The action as a concept is one of the major sub-disciplines in contemporary
philosophy. Philosophy of action is chiefly concerned with human action, intending
to distinguish between activity and passivity. The understanding is further elaborated
nl
to action being voluntary, intentional, culpable, and involuntary actions. The theory
of action is pertinent to legal and ethical questions concerning freedom, intention,
belief, responsibility, and so on. It is related to the mind-body problem, the concept of
O
causality, and the issue of determinism. Action has ties to central human concerns such
as responsibility and autonomy.
Action & Mere Behavior:
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There is to be more involved in a person’s doing something than merely the fact
that his body moves in a certain way. This ‘something more’ separates the Action from
Mere Behavior.
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A convulsion of one’s leg doesn’t appear to be an action in any sense, but
nervously tapping one’s foot certainly is an action.
r
Host of terms for capturing such distinctions had been proposed by the
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philosophers. The most common terms are “mere behavior,” “activity,” “action,” “full-
blooded action,” “intentional action,” “intentional movement,” and so on.
The Meta-Physics of Actions:

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1. Causalism vs. Non-causalism:

Desires, beliefs and intentions provide explanation of the action, but there is a
question as to whether that is a causal explanation.
U
●● The bell rang because someone pushed the button.

●● The bell rang because it was time to eat.
ity
In 1, it is quite clear that one is explaining the bell’s ringing by pointing to the cause
of that event (someone pushing some button). In 2, by contrast, one is explaining the
bell’s ringing by pointing to something that cannot have been its cause.
2. The Individuation of Actions:

m
If a task is performed, how many actions are involved? And what is their relation?
This remains the key observations.
)A
In the previous example, the button is pushed that rings the bell. How many actions
are involved here? And what is their relation? It’s quite clear that a ringing of bell is a
very different thing than pushing a button but it was the pushing of button that rang the
bell. The current issue concerns the actions involved – are these two actions or a single
action?
(c
When someone does something X by doing something Y, there is only one action
involved. In the example, pushing a button and ringing of bell is a single action.

3. Action and Determinism:

Notes
e
The issue of determinism is frequently posed with respect to freedom in human
action. The theory holds that a person’s reasons for acting are the cause of his action.
in
This entails that the agent was caused to act so.
In principle, one could hold that when the reasons cause the action, this just
amounts to the agent causing the action.
nl
All that is needed for a free action is that the action be guided by the agent in a
certain way. Such a guided action could well be one that was unambiguously causally
determined.
O
The Epistemology of Actions
The actions of individuals are guided by the theory of knowledge, especially with
ty
regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief
and opinion.
It is understood that we have knowledge of our own actions “without observation.“
si
A project director might be able to schedule the project accurately without having
reports on it, provided that his subordinates carry out his orders.
This is described as a case of ‘practical knowledge,’ and it is accepted that our

r
knowledge of our own actions is of the kind that produces the action. ‘Practical
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knowledge’ holds for more than just our knowledge of our actions, and extends to our
own beliefs based on a passive knowledge.

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People and groups are evaluated as responsible or not, depending on how

seriously they take their responsibilities. Often this is done informally via moral
judgment. On the other side, this also is done formally through legal judgement.
U
The moral philosophy has tended to ask two simple questions about responsibility:
●● “What is it to be responsible?” and

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●● “What is a person responsible for?”

The first question is usually taken while enquiring about moral agency.
What features of (normal, adult) human are involved in our holding one another
responsible? The second as a question is used in case of holding people accountable
m
for their actions. It is a question most often asked in connection with causation and
accountability.
These two apparently simple questions (“What is it to be responsible?” and “What

)A
is a person responsible for?”) about individual responsibility points to the previously

stated four points:
1. Moral agency.
Normal human adults represent our paradigm case of responsible agents. What is
(c
distinctive about them, that we accord them this status?

●● Human beings have free will, that is, distinctive causal powers or a special
Notes
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metaphysical status, that separates them from everything else in the universe;
●● Human beings can act on the basis of reason(s);
in
●● Human beings have a certain set of moral or proto-moral feelings.
The above points are principally concerned with evaluation of the self.
nl
A rational/moral agent chooses to act in the light of principles – that is, he
deliberate among reasons. Therefore standards of rationality apply to all adult humans,
and when they fail to act rationally, it is simply and crudely considered as a Bad Thing.
O
2. Retrospective responsibility.
In assigning responsibility for an outcome or event, we may simply be telling a
causal story. The responsibility attribution is concerned with the morality of somebody’s
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action(s).
Among the many different causes that led to an outcome, an specific action is
identified as the morally salient one. Example:
si
●● If we say the captain was responsible for the shipwreck, we do not deny that all
sorts of other causes were in play. But we do single out the person which we think
ought to be held responsible for the outcome.
r
Philosophers sometimes distinguish this usage, by speaking of “liability
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responsibility.” Retrospective responsibility usually involves a moral judgment of the
person responsible.
This judgment typically pictures the person as liable to various consequences: to

ni
feeling remorse (or pride), to being blamed (or praised), to making amends (or receiving
gratitude), and so forth.
3. Prospective responsibility.
U
This form of “responsibility” is as a synonym for “duty.” When we ask about a

person’s prospective responsibilities, we are concerned with what he ought to be doing
or attending to. The term describes a particular person’s duties or used to single out the
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duties, or “area of responsibility,” that somebody has by virtue of their role.
This bears at least one straightforward relation to the question of retrospective

responsibility. We will tend to hold someone responsible when he fails to perform the
duties. Hence, referring to the ship examples, a captain is responsible for the safety of
m
the ship; hence he will be held responsible if there is a shipwreck.
In terms of prospective responsibility, then, we may think that everyone has a duty
to make certain amends when certain risks of action actually materialize – just because
)A
all our actions impose risks on others as well as ourselves. The duties assigned to an
individual shall also encompass the ‘rights’ to make necessary amendments in case of
a foreseen risk. In this case, retrospective responsibility is justified, not by whether the
person controlled the outcome or could have chosen to do otherwise, but by reference
to these prospective responsibilities.
(c

4. Responsibility as a virtue.
Notes
e
While theories of moral agency tend to regard an agent as either responsible
or not, with no half-measures, our everyday language usually deploys the term
in
“responsible” in a more nuanced way. As just indicated, one way we do this is
by weighing degrees of responsibility, both with regard to the sort of prospective
responsibilities a person should bear and a person’s liability to blame or penalties.
nl
A systematic arrangement is desired to overcome the nuanced way of weighing the
responsibility and making the meaning of responsibility more clear.
O
Once clarity is established,
●● The responsible person can be relied on to judge and to act in certain morally
desirable ways;
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●● In the case of more demanding (“more responsible”) roles, a person can be
trusted to exercise initiative and to demonstrate commitment; and
●● When things go wrong, such a person will be prepared to take responsibility
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for dealing with things.
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ve
ni
U
ity
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)A
(c

Unit - 1.7: Linking Philosophy And Ethics & Its

Notes
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Implications
in
There is no one opinion about the relation between ethics and philosophy.
nl
Hegel and Green, believes that ethics is based upon philosophy. Rahall believe that
philosophy is based upon ethics. This is a debatable opinion. Be it what it may, it is
definite that the two are closely related. The relation is based upon the following factors:
O
●● Ethical ideals are founded in the moral order of the universe. Being a normative
science, ethics details ethical ideals. These ethical ideals are founded in the moral
order of the universe. Thus their study takes ethics into the field of philosophy.
ty
●● Ethical ideals are based upon the nature of objects. Ethical judgments are
categorical imperatives. They are themselves based upon the nature of objects for
which ethics has to go to philosophy.
si
●● Philosophy expounds ethical assumptions. The three self-evident postulates of
ethics arc God, freedom of will and the immortality of the soul. The description of
their nature and the analysis of their validity is the subject of philosophy.
●● r
Philosophy details the relation of man to the world. Ethics treats man as a self-
conscious being, not a natural fact. Thus, for the discussion of the relation
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between man and God, world and society, ethics has to turn to philosophy.
●● Philosophy systematizes both facts and values. Ethics being a science of values is
related to philosophy because the latter systematizes both facts and values.
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●● Many philosophical problems come under ethics. Ethics has to explain many
philosophical problems.
U

Ethics Philosophy
Moral Principles a person can follow. Study of the fundamental nature of knowledge,
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reality, and existence as an academic discipline.

Comprise of moral guidelines and advice Contains theories and ideologies postulated
a human can follow in his lifestyle. by philosophers concerning specific subject
matter in life.
There is o specific origin; has a strong There are specific founders or several
m
relation to religions and morality in pioneering figures known as philosophers.

human society.
Cannot be separated according to Has varied branches according to period
)A
period, country and subject matter since school, movement, country, subject matter, etc.
they are universally considered moral
principles.
(c
Summary
Philosophy includes all fields of speculative thought, including arts, sciences, and
religion, and was defined as the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. It is a system of
ideas or points of view about life and the cosmos that are commonly maintained without
Notes
e
question. The term ethics can apply to any philosophical theory, or any system of moral
laws, principles, or values, and philosophical study of moral right and wrong. Even if
such conventions were ultimately judged deficient, the process of reflection tended to
in
emerge from them. As a result, the establishment of the first moral rules marked the
beginning of ethics.
nl
Systematizing, defending, and endorsing conceptions of good and bad behaviour
are part of moral philosophy. A moral issue is one that must be handled not just by
analysing technical details, but also by considering moral ideals. It is a current moral
matter having potential to benefit or damage anybody, including oneself. Ethics
O
encompasses a wide range of philosophical issues. Many philosophical issues must be
explained through ethics.
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Multiple choice Questions
1. Ethical philosophy is involving?
a. Systemizing the concepts of right or wrong
si
b. Defending concepts of right or wrong
c. Both
d. None
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2. Which of the following statement is true?
a. Ethics is a science of character
b. Ethics is not a practical science
c. Ethics is not an art
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d. Above all
3. Which of the following is the correct scope of Ethics?
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a. In non-moral sphere
b. In non-social sphere
c. In moral sphere
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d. In non-religious sphere
4. What are the branches of ethical philosophy?
a. Non-Descriptive Ethics
m
b. Normative Ethics
c. Both
d. None
)A
5. Deontology is the word come from?

a. Latin word
b. Greek word
(c
c. Indian word
d. Portuguese word

6. Which of the following statement is correct regarding virtual theory?

Notes
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a. It treats the concept of moral virtue as non-central to ethics.
b. It treats the concept of non-moral virtue as central to ethics.
in
c. It treats the concept of moral virtue as central to ethics.
d. None
nl
7. What are morals?
a. Moral values are relative values that does not protect life and are respectful of
the dual life value of self and others.
O
b. Moral values are relative values that protect life and are non-respectful of the
dual life value of self and others.
c. Moral values are relative values that protect life and are respectful of the dual
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life value of self and others.
d. None
si
8. What are moral issues?
a. Any issue with the potential to help or harm anyone, not including oneself
b. Any issue with the potential to help or harm anyone, including oneself
r
c. Any issue with the non-potential to help or harm anyone, including oneself
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d. None
9. Which of the following statement is correct?
a. The moral dilemmas cannot easily be addressed or resolved always
ni
b. The moral dilemmas can easily be addressed or resolved always

c. The dilemmas cannot easily be addressed or resolved always
U
d. None
10. What are the links between philosophy and Ethics?
a. Ethical ideals are founded in the moral order of the universe. Being a
ity
normative science, ethics details ethical ideals. These ethical ideals are
founded in the moral order of the universe. Thus their study takes ethics into
the field of philosophy.
b. Ethical ideals are based upon the nature of objects. Ethical judgments are
m
categorical imperatives. They are themselves based upon the nature of

objects for which ethics has to go to philosophy.
)A
c. Both
d. None
Answers:
1. c 2. d 3. c 4. b
(c
5. b 6. c 7. c 8. b
9. a 10. c

Notes Module - 2: Ethics at Work place
e
Structure:
in
2.1 Professional Code of Ethics
nl
O
2.2 Workplace Rights and Responsibilities
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si
2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility

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2.3.3 Trends in CSR
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2.4 Conflict Of Interest
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2.5 Managing Boundaries And Multiple Relationships
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2.5.3 Consideration for Maintaining Professional and Personal Boundaries
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2.6 Organizational Loyalty
m

)A
2.6.4 Loyalty and Confidentiality

(c

Unit - 2.1: Professional Code of Ethics

Notes
e
in
●● Define ethical codes and why they are required
nl
●● Understand the principles and codes of professional ethics
●● Learn about workplace rights and responsibilities
O
●● Understand the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
●● Learn about managing boundaries and organizational loyalty
Intorduction
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A professional code of ethics provides the employees with a set of guidelines they
can use to make good decisions in the workplace.
si
It allows you to set a baseline expectation for what is socially acceptable and how
professionals should approach problems.
Creating a professional code of ethics takes some time, but it can help your
r
organization’s employees work honestly and with integrity, which may create a more
ve
harmonious work environment.

ni
A professional code of ethics is a set of principles designed to help professionals

distinguish right from wrong to govern their decision-making.
Often referred to as an ethical code, these principles outline the mission and values
U
of an organization, how the professionals within the organization are supposed to

approach problems and the standards to which the employees are held.

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A professional code of ethics is designed to ensure employees are behaving in a

manner that is socially acceptable and respectful of one another.
It establishes the rules for behavior and sends a message to every employee that
m
universal compliance is expected.
It also provides the groundwork for a pre-emptive warning if employees break the
code.
)A
A code of ethics can be valuable not just internally as a professional guide but also
externally as a statement of a company’s values and commitments.

(c
The below given categories are based on the business code of ethics and common
principles of ethics that are listed in various organizations.

●● Respect for others. Treat people as you want to be treated.

Notes
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It’s mandatory to respect everyone you interact with. Be kind, polite and
understanding. You must respect others’ personal space, opinions and privacy. Any kind
in
of violence is strictly prohibited and may result in withdrawal from job. Any one is also
not allowed to harass or victimize others.
What constitutes harassment or victimization? If someone, be it customer,
nl
colleague or stakeholder, is offensive, demeaning or threatening to a person, the code
of ethics guidelines shall be referred for support.
●● Integrity and honesty. Tell the truth and avoid any wrongdoing to the best of
O
your ability.
Employees should always keep in mind the organization’s mission. All employees
work together to achieve specific outcomes. An employee’s behavior should contribute
ty
to the organizational goals.
Be honest and transparent when you act in ways that impact other people (e.g.
taking strategic decisions or deciding on layoffs). Organizations don’t tolerate malicious,
si
deceitful or petty conduct. Lies and cheating are huge red flags and, if someone is
discovered, he may face progressive discipline or immediate termination depending on
the damage.
r
Stealing from the company or other people is illegal. If someone is caught, he will
ve
face repercussions depending on the severity of his actions.
●● Conflict of interest – Align your action with organizational objectives.

Conflict of interest may occur whenever your interest in a particular subject leads
you to actions, activities or relationships that undermine our company. This includes
ni
situations like using your position’s authority for your own personal gain or exploiting
company resources to support a personal money-making business. Even when you
seemingly act to the company’s advantage, you may actually disadvantage it. For
U
instance, if an employee uses dubious methods to get competitor and raise their sales
record, their action will have a positive impact on the company’s revenue, but it will put
us at a legal risk and promote unhealthy business practices.
ity
●● Justice. Make sure you’re objective are fair and don’t disadvantage others.
Don’t act in a way that exploits others, their hard work or their mistakes. Give
everyone equal opportunity and speak up when someone else doesn’t. (What you call a
Whistle Blowing)
m
Be objective when making decisions that can impact other people, including when
you’re deciding to hire, promote or even fire someone. Be sure that you can justify any
decision with written records. Seek and use the most objective methods in any case.
)A
Also, don’t discriminate against people with protected characteristics, as this

is forbidden. If you suspect you may have an unconscious bias that influences your
decisions, take the psychometric tests.
When exercising authority, be fair. Don’t show favouritism toward specific

(c
employees and be transparent when you decide to praise or reward an employee.
If you need to discipline an employee, be sure to have prepared a case that you

can present. You must not retaliate against employees or applicants (such as in cases
Notes
e
when they’ve filed complaints) as this is forbidden by law.
Be just toward customers or vendors, too. If you think the company was wrong in
in
a specific instance, don’t try to cover it up or accuse the other side. Discuss with the
management to find solutions that can benefit both sides.
●● Lawfulness. Know and follow the law – always.
nl
An employee shall follow all laws which apply to the organization. Depending on
the role and profession, there might be various laws that one need to observe. For
example, accountants and medical professionals have their own legal restrictions and
O
they must be fully aware of them.
When you’re preparing contracts, clauses, disclaimers or online copy that may be
governed by law (such as consent forms), make sure to verify from the legal counsel
ty
before finalizing anything.
Organizations have confidentiality and data protection policy that cover the
employees. They must not expose, disclose or endanger information of customers,
si
employees, stakeholders or our business, and always follow the cybersecurity policy,
too.
Following laws regarding fraud, bribery, corruption and any kind of assault is a
given mandate within the legal envelop of the constitution r
ve
●● Competence and accountability. Work hard and be responsible for your work.
We all need to put a healthy amount of effort in our work. Not just because we’re
all responsible for the organization’s success, but also because slacking off affects our
ni
colleagues. Incomplete or slow working might hinder other people’s work or cause them
to shoulder the burden themselves. This creates conflict with the respect and integrity
principles of self and others.
U
Employees must take responsibility for their actions. All people make mistakes or
need to take tough decisions and it’s important they own up to them. Employees shall
be allowed to take responsibility and come up with ways to fix their mistakes wherever
possible.
ity
●● Teamwork. Collaborate and ask for help.

Working well with others is a virtue, rather than an obligation. Employees
will certainly get to work autonomously and be focused on their own projects and
responsibilities. But, they should also be ready to collaborate with and help others.
m
All members within an organization should be generous with their expertise and
knowledge. Be open to learning and evolving.
)A

All unethical business activities will fall into one of the following categories:
1. Taking things that don’t belong to you: The unauthorized use of someone else’s
(c
property or taking property under false pretenses is taking something that does not
belong to you. Even the smallest offense, such as using the postage meter at your

office for mailing personal letters or exaggerating your travel expenses, belongs in
Notes
e
this category of ethical violations.
2. Saying things you know are not true: Often, when trying for a promotion and
in
advancement, fellow employees discredit their coworkers. Falsely assigning blame
or inaccurately reporting conversations is lying. Although “This is the way the game
is played around here” is a common justification, saying things that are untrue is an
nl
ethical violation.
3. Giving or allowing false impressions: The salesperson who permits a potential
customer to believe that cardboard boxes will hold the customer’s tomatoes for long-
O
distance shipping when the salesperson knows the boxes are not strong enough has
given a false impression. A car dealer who fails to disclose that a car has been in an
accident is misleading potential customers.
4. Buying influence or engaging in a conflict of interest: A conflict of interest occurs
ty
when the official responsibilities of an employee or official are influenced by the
potential for personal gain. Suppose a company awards a construction contract to
a firm owned by the father of the provincial attorney general while the provincial
si
attorney general’s office is investigating that company. If this construction award
has the potential to shape the outcome of the investigation, a conflict of interest has
occurred.
r
5. Hiding or divulging information: Failing to disclose the results of medical studies that
ve
indicate your firm’s new drug has significant side effects is the ethical violation of
hiding information about the potential harm your product has to purchasers. Taking
your firm’s product development or trade secrets to a new place of employment
constitutes the ethical violation of divulging proprietary information.
ni
6. Taking unfair advantage: Many current consumer protection laws were passed
because so many businesses took unfair advantage of people who were not
educated or were unable to discern the nuances of complex contracts. Credit
U
disclosure requirements, truth-in-lending provisions, and new regulations on auto

leasing all resulted because businesses misled consumers who could not easily
follow the jargon of long, complex agreements.
7. Committing improper personal behaviour: Although the ethical aspects of an
ity
employee’s right to privacy are still debated, it has become increasingly clear
that personal conduct outside the job can influence performance and company
reputation. Thus, a company driver must abstain from substance abuse because of
safety issues. Even the traditional company holiday party and summer picnic have
m
come under scrutiny due to the possibility that employees at and following these
events might harm others through alcohol-related accidents.
8. Abusing power and mistreating individuals: Suppose a manager harasses an
)A
employee or subjects employees to humiliating corrections or reprimands in the

presence of customers. In some cases, laws protect employees. Many situations,
however, are simply interpersonal abuse that constitutes an ethical violation.
9. Permitting organizational abuse: Many firms with operations overseas, have faced
(c
issues of organizational abuse. The unfair treatment of workers in international

operations appears in the form of child labour, demeaning wages, and excessive
work hours. Although a business cannot change the culture of another country, it can

perpetuate—or stop—abuse through its operations there.

Notes
e
10. Violating rules: Many organizations use rules and processes to maintain internal
control or respect the authority of managers. Although these rules may seem
in
burdensome to employees trying to serve customers, a violation may be considered
an unethical act.
11. Condoning unethical actions: What if you witnessed a fellow employee embezzling
nl
company funds by forging her signature on a check? Would you report the violation?
A winking tolerance of others’ unethical behaviour is itself unethical.
O
ty
r si
ve
ni
U
ity
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)A
(c

Unit - 2.2: Workplace Rights and Responsibilities

Notes
e
in
Right - A right is something you are entitled to receive, e.g. to be treated in a fair,
ethical and legal way.
nl
Responsibility - A responsibility is a duty or something you should do, e.g. to treat
others with respect.
O
Rights and responsibilities can be classified as follows:
●● Legal: As set out by national, e.g. the right to be treated equally regardless of
ty
age, gender, marital status, etc.
●● Social: The treatment of workers by employers, e.g. payment of a fair wage,
prevention of bullying in the workplace, etc.
si
●● Environmental: A safe and healthy workplace. In addition, the employer must
ensure that they do not damage the local environment.
●● Ethical: Doing what is right, e.g. fair treatment of employees and suppliers,
r
engaging in fair trade.
ve
In practice, many of the rights and responsibilities are a combination of some or
all of the above. For example, discrimination in the workplace is illegal as well as being
both socially and ethically wrong.
ni
Rights of Employees - Employees are safeguarded by law in a number of

employment areas, and employees have the right to:
●● Receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

U
●● Receive at least the minimum wage.

●● Receive a contract of employment.
●● Adequate rest breaks.
ity
●● Holiday pay.
●● Work in a safe and respectful atmosphere, free from danger, bullying or
discrimination.
●● Join a trade union.
m
Responsibilities of Employees - Employees have the responsibility (either by law or

morally) to:
)A
●● Carry out their duties as stated in their contract of employment.

●● Arrive at work on time.
●● Be loyal to their employer and not disclose confidential business information.
●● Treat customers, co-workers and the employer with respect and ensure they
don’t bully or discriminate against other employees.
(c
●● Follow workplace rules and safety instructions.

●● Wear any protective equipment and uniform provided to them by the employer.
●● Attend all training provided by the business.

Notes
e
Rights of Employers - Employers have the right to:
●● Decide on the objectives of the business.
in
●● Hire suitable staff for their business.
●● Dismiss dishonest or unsuitable staff.
nl
●● Expect loyalty from their staff.
Responsibilities of Employers - The responsibilities of the employer are to:
●● Ensure the workplace is safe and has healthy working conditions.
O
●● Provide employees with adequate training and adequate gears, if necessary.
●● Provide employees with statutory holidays and leave, e.g. maternity / paternity
/ parental leave.
ty
●● Pay agreed wages. They must pay at least the minimum wage to their
employees and equal pay to men and women.
●● Deduct Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Tax Deduction at Source (TDS), Pay
si
Related Social Insurance (PRSI) and Universal Social Charge (USC) from
their employees’ pay and keep employment records including Revenue
payments for each employee.
The responsibility of employers also include: r
ve
●● Ensure all employees are treated equally in the business and that bullying/
harassment does not exist. They must not discriminate when advertising,
recruiting or promoting staff.
●● Comply with all employment law and give employees a written contract of
ni
employment.
●● Keep employee records which will help in making decisions about pay
rises, promotions and dismissals. The records shall include relevant
U
personal information, Job application form/CV, Employee’s behavior record,

Timesheets, Employee’s employment contract, Records of PAYE, Tax
deduction, PRSI, and USC paid, and similar information.
ity

People choose between right and wrong based on their personal code of ethics.
The ethical environment created by their employers also influences them.
m
Poor business ethics can create a very negative image for a company; can be
expensive for the firm and/or the executives involved.
Organizations can reduce the potential for the liability claims by leading through
)A
example, through various informal and formal programs, and by educating their
employees about ethical standards.
1. Leading by Example
(c
Employees often follow the examples set by their managers. Leaders and
managers establish patterns of behaviour that determine what’s acceptable and what’s

not within the organization. While Ben Cohen was president of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream,
Notes
e
he followed a policy that no one could earn a salary more than seven times that of the
lowest-paid worker. He wanted all employees to feel that they were equal.
in
2. Offering Ethics Training Programs
In addition to providing a system to resolve ethical dilemmas, organizations also
provide formal training to develop an awareness of questionable business activities and
nl
practice appropriate responses. Many companies have some type of ethics training
program. The ones that are most effective begin with techniques for solving ethical
dilemmas. Next, employees are presented with a series of situations and asked to
O
come up with the “best” ethical solution. According to a recent survey by the Ethics
Resource Center. Most of the modern organizations across globe provide some sort of
ethics training for employees.
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3. Establishing a Formal Code of Ethics
Most large companies have created, printed, and distributed codes of ethics. In
general, a code of ethics provides employees with the knowledge of what their firm
si
expects in terms of responsibilities and behaviour toward fellow employees, customers,
and suppliers.
r
Some ethical codes offer a lengthy and detailed set of guidelines for employees.
Others are not really codes at all but rather summary statements of goals, policies,
ve
and priorities. Some companies have their codes framed and hung on office walls,
included as a key component of employee handbooks, and/or posted on their corporate
websites.
ni
If senior management abides by the code of ethics and regularly emphasizes the
code to employees, then it will likely have a positive influence on behaviour.
4. Whistleblowing
U
A whistle-blower is a person who exposes any kind of information that reveals

illegal, unethical, or not correct activities within an organization that is either private or
public.
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Many whistle-blowers have stated that they were motivated to take action and
put an end to unethical practices after witnessing injustices in their businesses or
organizations. In addition to ethics, social and organizational pressures are also
motivating forces.
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Researches have shown that individuals are more likely to blow the whistle
when several others know about the wrongdoing, because they would otherwise fear
consequences for keeping silent.
)A
The motivation for whistleblowing isn’t always virtuous, and the outcome isn’t
always positive either. There are cases involving employees who blew the whistle as an
act of revenge against their employer or supervisor, for instance.
While it’s possible for the whistleblower to be viewed as a “hero” for his/her
(c
courage and truth telling, it’s also possible to be seen as a traitor or gossiper—as

just one of the many disgruntled employees who are simply trying to get even for a
Notes
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perceived but imaginary injustice.
One of the barriers to whistleblowing is the belief—widespread in the professional
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world—that individuals are bound to secrecy within their work sector. Accordingly,
whistleblowing becomes a moral choice that pits the employee’s loyalty to an employer
against the employee’s responsibility to serve the public interest. As a result, whistle-
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blower protection laws and regulations have been enacted to guarantee freedom of
speech for workers and contractors in certain situations.
Whistle-blowers have the right to file complaints that they believe give reasonable
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evidence of a violation of a law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste
of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and specific danger to public health or
safety.
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Unit - 2.3: Corporate Social Responsibility

Notes
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Acting in an ethical manner is the concern of businesses for the welfare of society
as a whole. It consists of obligations beyond those required by law or union contract.
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This definition makes two important points.
●● First, CSR is both voluntary and law abiding.
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●● Second, the obligations of corporate social responsibility are broad. They extend
beyond investors in the company to include workers, suppliers, consumers,
communities, and society at large.
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Peter Drucker, the late globally respected management expert, said that we should
look first at what an organization does to society and second at what it can do for
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society. This idea suggests that social responsibility has two basic dimensions: legality
and responsibility.
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The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility

(c
(Attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license.)

Any setup should understand the given responsibilities at attributes of CSR:

Notes
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1. Responsibilities to Stakeholders
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How do businesses meet their social responsibilities to various stakeholders? What
makes a company be admired or perceived as socially responsible? Such a company
meets its obligations to its stakeholders.
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Stakeholders are the individuals or groups to whom a business has a responsibility
to. The stakeholders of a business are its employees, its customers, the general public,
and its investors.
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2. Responsibility to Employees
An organization’s first responsibility is to provide a job to employees. Keeping
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people employed and letting them have time to enjoy the fruits of their labour is the
finest thing business can do for society.
)A
Beyond this fundamental responsibility, employers must provide a clean, safe

working environment that is free from all forms of discrimination. Companies should
also strive to provide job security whenever possible.
Enlightened firms also empower employees to make decisions and suggest

solutions to company problems. Empowerment contributes to an employee’s self-worth,
(c
which, in turn, increases productivity and reduces absenteeism.

3. Responsibility to Customers
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To be successful in today’s business environment, a company must satisfy its
customers. A firm must deliver what it promises, as well as be honest and forthright in
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everyday interactions with customers. Recent research suggests that many consumers,
particularly millennials, prefer to do business with companies and brands that
communicate socially responsible messages, utilize sustainable business processes,
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and practice ethical business standards.
4. Responsibility to Society
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A business must also be responsible to society.
A business provides a community with jobs, goods, and services.
It also pays taxes that support schools, hospitals, and better roads.
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Some companies have taken an additional step to demonstrate their commitment
to stakeholders and society as a whole by becoming Certified Benefit Corporations, or
B Corps for short.
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5. Environmental Protection
Business is also responsible for protecting and improving the world’s fragile
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environment. The world’s forests are being destroyed fast. Every second, an area the
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size of a football field is laid bare. Plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the
rate of 17 species per hour. A continent-size hole is opening up in the earth’s protective
ozone shield. Each year we throw out 80 percent more refuse than we did in 1960; as a
result, more than half of the nation’s landfills are filled to capacity.
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To slow the erosion of the world’s natural resources, many companies have
become more environmentally responsible. For example, Toyota now uses renewable
energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and water power for electricity to run
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its facilities. When its new $1 billion North American headquarters opened in Plano,
Texas, in May 2017, Toyota said the 2.1 million square-foot campus would eventually
be powered by 100% clean energy, helping the auto giant move closer to its goal of
eliminating carbon emissions in all of its operations.
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The organizations are abiding by the ISO 14001 standards and adopting rigorous
approaches in managing and maintaining the natural environment.
6. Corporate Philanthropy
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Companies also display their social responsibility through corporate philanthropy.
Corporate philanthropy includes cash contributions, donations of equipment and

)A
products, and support for the volunteer efforts of company employees.
The contribution is intended to uplift the society or overcome the distress of a

natural disaster and provide emergency relief.
American Express is a major supporter of the Red Cross. The organization relies
(c
almost entirely on charitable gifts to carry out its programs and services, which include
disaster relief, armed-forces emergency relief, blood and tissue services, and health

and safety services. The funds provided by American Express have enabled the Red
Notes
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Cross to deliver humanitarian relief to victims of numerous disasters around the world.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bayer sent 45,000 diabetes blood glucose
monitors to the relief effort. Within weeks of the disaster, Abbott, Alcoa, Dell, Disney,
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Intel, UPS, Walgreens, Walmart, and others contributed more than $550 million for
disaster relief.
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7. Responsibilities to Investors
Companies’ relationships with investors also entail social responsibility.
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Although a company’s economic responsibility to make a profit might seem to be
its main obligation to shareholders, some investors are increasingly emphasizing other
aspects of social responsibility.
The investors are limiting their investments that coincide with their beliefs on ethical
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and social responsibility. This is called social investing.
For example, a social investment fund might eliminate from consideration the
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securities of all companies that make tobacco products, liquor, weapons, or have a
history of being environmentally irresponsible. Not all social investment strategies
are alike. Some ethical mutual funds will not invest in government securities because
they help to fund the military; others freely buy government securities, with managers
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noting that federal funds also support the arts and pay for AIDS research. Today, assets
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invested using socially responsible strategies total more than $7 trillion.
Over the last several years, companies have tried to meet their responsibilities to
investors as well as to their other stakeholders.
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In current times, organizations are being held to higher standards by boards of

directors, investors, governments, media, and even employees when it comes to
corporate accountability and ethical behaviour.
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2.3.3 Trends in CSR

What are the trends in ethics and corporate social responsibility?
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Important trends related to ethics and corporate social responsibility are:
1. Changes in Corporate Philanthropy

Historically, corporate philanthropy has typically involved companies seeking out
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charitable groups and giving them money or donating company products or services.
Today, the focus has shifted to strategic giving, which ties philanthropy and
corporate social responsibility efforts closely to a company’s mission or goals and
)A
targets donations to the communities where a company does business.
The donations are targeted towards uplifting the social standards of the society at
large.
(c
2. A Social Contract between Employer and Employee

Another trend in social responsibility is the effort by organizations to redefine their
relationship with their employees. Many people have viewed social responsibility as a
one-way street that focuses on the obligations of business to society, employees, and
Notes
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others.
Now, organizations recognize that the social contract between employer and
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employee is an important aspect of the workplace and that both groups have to be
committed to working together in order for the organization to prosper.
The social contract can be defined in terms of four important aspects:
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compensation, management, culture, and learning and development.
3. The growth of global ethics and corporate social responsibility.
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When the businesses expand into global markets, they must take their codes of
ethics and policies on corporate social responsibility with them.
As a citizen of several countries, a multinational corporation has several
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responsibilities. These include respecting local practices and customs, ensuring that
there is harmony between the organization’s staff and the host population, providing
management leadership, and developing a solid group of local managers who will be a
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credit to their community.
When a multinational firm makes an investment in a foreign country, it should

commit to a long-term relationship. That means involving all stakeholders in the host
country in decision-making.r
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Finally, a responsible multinational will implement ethical guidelines within the
organization in the host country. By fulfilling these responsibilities, the company will
foster respect for both local and international laws.
Multinational corporations often must balance conflicting interests of stakeholders

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when making decisions regarding social responsibilities, especially in the area of

human rights.
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Questions involving child labour, forced labor, minimum wages, and workplace
safety can be particularly difficult in international operations and shall be dealt with
responsibility.
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4. Sustainability
Sustainability has become such an important concept that it is frequently
used interchangeably with CSR. Indeed, for some companies it seems that CSR
is sustainability. This is perhaps not surprising, given the growing media attention on
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issues related to sustainability.
Sustainability is a concept derived from environmentalism; it originally referred to

the ability of a society or company to continue to operate without compromising the
)A
planet’s environmental condition in the future. In other words, a sustainable corporation

is one that can sustain its current activities without adding to the world’s environmental
problems.
Sustainability is therefore a very challenging goal, and many environmentalists

(c
maintain that no corporation today operates sustainably, since all use energy (leading
to the gradual depletion of fossil fuels while emitting greenhouse gases) and all produce
waste products like garbage and industrial chemicals.

Whether or not true sustainability will be attainable in the near future, the
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development and promotion of sustainability strategies has become an obsession for
most large corporations today, as demonstrated by their websites’ inevitable reference
to the corporation’s sincere commitment to sustainability and responsible environmental
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practices.
No corporation or corporate executive today will be caught saying they do not
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really care about the environment. However, if we observe their actions rather than their
words, we may have cause for doubt.
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Unit - 2.4: Conflict Of Interest

Notes
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A conflict of interest occurs when an entity or individual becomes unreliable
because of a clash between personal (or self-serving) interests and professional duties
or responsibilities. Such a conflict occurs when a company or person has a vested
nl
interest—such as money, status, knowledge, relationships, or reputation—which puts
into question whether their actions, judgment, and/or decision-making can be unbiased.
When such a situation arises, the party is usually asked to remove themselves, and it is
O
often legally required of them.
●● A conflict of interest occurs when a person’s or entity’s vested interests raise a

question of whether their actions, judgment, and/or decision-making can be
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unbiased.
●● In business, a conflict of interest arises when a person chooses personal gain over
duties to their employer, or to an organization in which they are a stakeholder, or
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exploits their position for personal gain in some way.
●● Conflicts of interest often have legal ramifications.
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A conflict of interest in business normally refers to a situation in which an
individual’s personal interests conflict with the professional interests owed to their
employer or the company in which they are invested. A conflict of interest arises when
a person chooses personal gain over the duties to an organization in which they are a
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stakeholder or exploits their position for personal gain in some way.
All corporate board members have fiduciary duties and a duty of loyalty to the
corporations they oversee. If one of the directors chooses to take action that benefits
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them at the detriment of the firm, they are harming the company with a conflict of
interest.
One example might be the board member of a property insurance company who
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votes on the induction of lower premiums for companies with fleet vehicles—when
they, in fact, own a truck company. Even if the institution of lower premiums isn’t a bad
business move for the insurer, it could still be considered a conflict of interest because
the board member has a special interest in the outcome.
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In legal circles, representation by a lawyer or party with a vested interest in the

outcome of the trial would be considered a conflict of interest, and the representation
would not be allowed. Additionally, judges who have a relationship with one of the
)A
parties involved in a case or lawsuit will recuse themselves from presiding over the
case.

(c
Self-Dealing: Self-dealing is the most common type of conflict of interest in the

business world. It occurs when a management-level professional accepts a transaction

from another organization that benefits the manager and harms the company or the
Notes
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company’s clients.
Gifting: Gift issuance is also a very common conflict of interest. It happens when
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a corporate manager or officer accepts a gift from a client or a similar type of person.
Companies normally circumvent this issue by prohibiting gifts from customers to
individual employees.
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Insider Trading: Troublesome situations may also arise when, in the course of
professional duties, an individual collects confidential information. Any information
of this type used for personal gain by an employee is a huge conflict of interest. The
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financial industry constantly grapples with this type of conflict of interest in the form of
insider trading.
Nepotism: Finally, the hiring of, or showing favorable workplace treatment to, a
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relative or spouse—known as nepotism—can result in a potential conflict of interest.
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Unit - 2.5: Managing Boundaries And Multiple

Notes
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Relationships
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Personal boundaries are the physical, emotional and mental limits people use to
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protect themselves from being drawn too much into their clients’ lives and from being
manipulated or violated by others.
They allow professionals to maintain psychological safety for themselves and their
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clients, and make objective decisions about the therapeutic process to most effectively
assist clients to achieve their goals.
Without these personal boundaries, professionals can run the risk of getting too
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involved in clients’ issues and wanting to “rescue” their client from their situation. While
workers cannot “rescue” their clients, they can work with clients to help them achieve
their goals, which may include supporting them to change their situation.
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Professional boundaries are the legal, ethical and organisational frameworks that
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protect both clients and employees, or workers, from physical and emotional harm, and
help to maintain a safe working environment.
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Sometimes we encounter challenging situations in our therapeutic work, which can
make maintaining these boundaries difficult. For example, if a client:
●● Offers you gifts

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●● Invites you to a social function

●● Wants to extend your relationship beyond the service provided, e.g., be your
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friend
●● Divulges information, which is not relevant to the business goals.
Situations such as these require workers to have a clear understanding of their role
and ethical principles, and the organisation’s policies and code of conduct.
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It is also important for workers to be clear and assertive with clients about the
boundaries of their role. They should also be clear about what is appropriate behaviour
for conducting the business.
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2.5.3 Consideration for Maintaining Professional and Personal

Boundaries
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●● Expectations - Set clear expectations with clients at the beginning of the process
about what they can expect from you, as the professional, and what you expect
from them, as the client. This includes acceptable behaviours, mutual respect and
a commitment to the therapeutic process.
●● Your role - Be clear about your role and its limits.
(c
●● Assertiveness - Be assertive and let clients know if they are behaving

inappropriately.

●● Clear relationship - Only have one relationship at a time with a client, wherever
Notes
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possible. Having both a professional relationship and a personal friendship with a
client at the same time can make it difficult to maintain boundaries and a safe and
appropriate working environment.
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●● Personal information - Avoid disclosing your personal information to a client.
●● Unnecessary information - Do not seek unnecessary information from the client
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that is not relevant to the therapeutic process.
●● Objectivity - Maintain your objectivity with clients.
●● Triggers - Understand how to recognise and manage your triggers.
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●● Privacy and confidentiality - Maintain your clients’ privacy and confidentiality.
●● Critical reflection - Engage in regular critical reflection of your work.
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One should be very cautious when it comes to socializing with current or former
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clients. Socializing with colleagues, clients or bosses during and beyond work for
conducting a business can be challenging. There are certain actions that one can take
to make the right impression and to make the event enjoyable for all without challenging
the business protocols.
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●● Keep the conversation appropriate. Do not tell jokes at a party or gathering that
one would never tell in the office. Offending the team members may make them
uncomfortable, and could hurt their feelings and that is something they may not
forget anytime soon.
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●● Discuss non-work topics. Aim to keep the conversation away from business. Get
to know the team – ask them about their hobbies, families, and interests. Talking
about the report one just wrote, or discussing his recent promotion, can be boring
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or annoying!
●● Be a listener, not a talker. Most people feel special when someone really listens to
what they say. If you’re the one doing all the talking, people may perceive you as
selfish and self-centred. So listen first, and talk second.
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●● Spend time with new people - Company events are a great way to get to know
colleagues and clients, and bond as a group. Move around and get to know
people that are associated with the client which will make client think positive
about your abilities as a communicator.
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●● Relax... but not too much - Be yourself and have fun, but don’t relax so much that
you say or do something you’ll regret the next day. You may feel more comfortable
with your co-workers, but this doesn’t mean you can let go of all self-control. You
)A
still have to maintain your reputation and keep the respect of others. Remember
that you’re representing your company, so dress appropriately and be respectful of
everyone else.
●● Deal with inappropriate behaviour, appropriately - If you see a co-worker
(c
behaving inappropriately at the event, you should speak to person and make
him comfortable. Do not call out the misconduct publicly as this could start an
argument, which will not do you any favours.

Unit - 2.6: Organizational Loyalty

Notes
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The relationship between employee and employer is changing, especially our
understanding of commitment and loyalty.
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An ethical employee owes the company a good day’s work and his or her best
effort, whether the work is stimulating or dull.
A duty of loyalty and our best effort are our primary obligations as employees, but
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what they mean can change.
A manager who expects a twentieth-century concept of loyalty in the twenty-first

century may be surprised when workers express a sense of entitlement, ask for a raise
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after six months, or leave for a new job after twelve months.
Let us understand a wide range of issues from the perspective of what and how
employees contribute to the overall success of a business enterprise.
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Hard work and our best effort likely make sense as obligations we owe an
employer. However, loyalty is more abstract and less easily defined.
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Most workers do not have employment contracts, so there may not be a specific
agreement between the two parties detailing their mutual responsibilities.
Instead, the common law of agency in the state is often the source of the rules
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governing an employment relationship.
The usual depiction of duty in common law is the duty of loyalty, which requires that
an employee refrain from acting in a manner contrary to the employer’s interest.
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This duty creates some basic rules employees must follow on the job and provides
employers with enforceable rights against employees who violate them.
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In general terms, the duty of loyalty means an employee is obligated to render

“loyal and faithful” service to the employer, to act with “good faith,” and not to compete
with but rather to advance the employer’s interests.
The employee must not act in a way that benefits him- or herself (or any other third
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party), especially when doing so would create a conflict of interest with the employer.
The common law of most states holds a general rule that, without asking for and
receiving the employer’s consent, an employee cannot hold a second job if it would
)A
compete or conflict with the first job.

1. implicit social contract - The older workers are anticipated spending ten years or even
(c
an entire career with one employer, relying on an implicit social contract between
employer and employee that rewarded lifetime employment. Currently, about nine

in ten millennials (91 percent) say they do not expect to stay with their current job
Notes
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longer than three years,
2. Working for the current organization is the best option - The Loyalty Research Center,
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a consulting firm, defines loyal employees as “being committed to the success of the
organization. They believe that working for this organization is their best option . . .
and loyal employees do not actively search for alternative employment and are not
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responsive to offers.”
3. Organizational Care – If there is less a sense that the organization is going to look
after you in the way that it used to, the uncertainty would lead to expect a reduction
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in loyalty.
4. Loyalty is a two-way street – Loyalty is a feeling developed through the enactment
of mutual obligations and responsibilities between employer and employees.
However, most employers do not want to be obligated to their workers in a legal
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sense; they usually require that almost all workers are employees “at will,” that is,
without any long-term employment contract. So when a company says an employee
is employed at will, it is sending a message that management is not making a long-
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term commitment to the employee. Employees may naturally feel less loyalty to an
organization from which they believe they can be let go at any time and for any legal
reason.
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5. Emoluments and career decision – One of the major reason, the concept of loyalty to
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an organization seems to be changing at all levels, is the important role money plays
in career decisions. When subordinates see chief executive officers (CEOs) and
other managers leaving to work for the highest bidder, subordinates quickly conclude
that they, too, ought to look out for themselves, just as their bosses do, rather than
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trying to build up seniority with the company. Switching jobs can often be a way for
employees to improve their salaries.
6. Meaning in the work - beyond money, workers seek meaning in their work, and it is
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largely true that money alone does not motivate employees to higher performance.
For some employees, simply being acknowledged and thanked for their service and
good work can go a long way toward sparking their loyalty; for others, more concrete
rewards may be necessary. However, it is a mistake for managers to think money is
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not a central factor influencing employees’ job satisfaction. Money matters because
if employees are not making enough money to meet their financial obligations or
goals, they will likely be looking to for a higher-paying job.
7. The independent status - Many people work for themselves as freelance or contract
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workers in the new knowledge economy. They may take assignments from one or
more companies at a time and are not employees in the traditional sense of the
word. Therefore, it seems more reasonable that they would approach work as a
)A
certified professional and completing a professional job for a client, after which they
move on the next client, always keeping their independent status. These experts are
not expected to be bonded with the employer as they are not the employees.
2.6.4 Loyalty and Confidentiality

(c
In the competitive world of business, many employees encounter information in

their day-to-day work that their employers reasonably expect they will keep confidential.

Proprietary information, the details of patents and copyrights, employee records

Notes
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and salary histories, and customer-related data are valued company assets that must
remain in-house, not in the hands of competitors, trade publications, or the news media.
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Employers are well within their rights to expect employees to honor their duty of
confidentiality and maintain the secrecy of such proprietary material.
Sometimes the duty of confidentiality originates specifically from an employment
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contract, if there is one, and if not, the duty still exists in most situations under the
common law of agency.
Employers also want to protect their trade secrets, that is, information that has
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economic value because it is not generally known to the public and is kept secret by
reasonable means. Trade secrets might include technical or design information,
advertising and marketing plans, and research and development data that would be
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useful to competitors.
Often nondisclosure agreements are used to protect against the theft of all such
information, most of which is normally protected only by the company’s requirement
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of secrecy, not by the intellectual property law. The central law generally protects
registered trademarks (commercial identifications such as words, designs, logos,
slogans, symbols, and trade dress, which is product appearance or packaging) and
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grants creators copyrights (to protect original literary and artistic expressions such as
books, paintings, music, records, plays, movies, and software) and patents (to protect
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new and useful inventions and configurations of useful articles).
Registered trademarks and content covered by patents and copyrights are

protected by law, but trade secrets have no official status and so do not enjoy the same
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level of law protection. Thus, companies generally protect trade secrets internally,
usually with employment agreements or contracts.
The multinational companies have started using various agreements as a way

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to provide another layer of confidentiality, ensuring that employees with access to

sensitive information will not compete with the company during or for some period
after their employment there. The stated purpose of such agreements is to protect the
company’s intellectual property, which is the manifestation of original ideas protected by
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legal means such as patent, copyright, or trademark.
Common clauses found in employment contracts include those restricting

competition and solicitation upon termination of the contract, as well as requiring
confidentiality during and after employment.
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(c
Although employee’s and employers’ concepts of loyalty have changed, it is

reasonable to expect workers to have a basic sense of responsibility to their company

Notes
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and willingness to protect a variety of important assets such as intellectual property and
trade secrets.
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Current employees should not compete with their employer in a way that would
violate conflict-of-interest rules, and former employees should not solicit previous
customers or employees upon leaving employment.
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To summarize, it is reasonable to expect workers to have a basic sense of
responsibility to their company and willingness to protect a variety of important assets
such as intellectual property and trade secrets.
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Current employees should not compete with their employer in a way that would
violate conflict-of-interest rules, and former employees should not solicit previous
customers or employees upon leaving employment.
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Summary
Employees might utilise a professional code of ethics as a set of rules to help them
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make excellent judgments in the workplace. It enables you to establish a standard for
what is socially acceptable and how professionals should address issues. It takes time
to develop a professional code of ethics, but it can assist your organization’s workers
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operate honestly and with integrity, which may lead to a more peaceful workplace. A
right is something you have the legal right to, while responsibility is something you
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should do. Businesses care about the well-being of society as a whole when they act
ethically. It comprises of commitments that go beyond what is required by law or by a
collective bargaining agreement.
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The employee-employer relationship is evolving, as is our concept of commitment

and loyalty. As workers, we have a duty of loyalty and to give our best effort, but what
those terms mean might alter. Personal boundaries are the physical, emotional, and
mental boundaries that people set to safeguard themselves from being too involved in
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their clients’ lives, as well as from being deceived or abused by others. They enable
professionals to preserve psychological safety for themselves and their clients, as well
as make objective judgments regarding the therapy process in order to help clients
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reach their objectives more successfully.
Multiple Choice Questions

1. The three elements of fraud triangle are:
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a. Pressure, Weakness, Justification

b. Position, Opportunity, Rationalization
c. Pressure, Opportunity, Rationalization
)A
d. Position, Weakness, Justification

Answer- C
2. IMA’s Ethical Principles include:
(c
a. Honesty, Fairness, Objectivity, and Responsibility

b. Honesty, Truthfulness, Objectivity, and Accountability

c. Honesty, Fairness, Transparency, and Responsibility

Notes
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d. Honesty, Truthfulness, Transparency, and Accountability
Answer- A
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3. To be covered by whistleblowing, a worker must reasonably believe that the
disclosure should be
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a. Criminal offences, failure to comply with an obligation set out in law
b. Miscarriages of justice, endangering of someone’s health and safety
c. Both a and b
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d. None of the above
Answer -C
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4. Whistle blowing is not justified unless
a. The individual has exhausted all external channels for dissent
b. The individual has exhausted all public channels for dissent
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c. The individual has exhausted all government channels for dissent
d. The individual has exhausted all internal channels for dissent
Answer - D r
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5. Which of the following are the part of corporate social responsibility to consumers
are
a. Reasonable chances and a proper system for accomplishment and promotion
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b. To supply goods at reasonable price even when there is sellers market

c. Improving the efficiency of the business operations
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d. To provide an opportunity for being heard and redress genuine grievances

Answer - c
6. Boundaries are described as:
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a. Rules of behavior which guide interaction with others.

b. Limits that allow a patient and staff to connect safely in a therapeutic
relationship based on patients’ needs.
c. Help us control the impact others have on us as well as our impact on others.
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d. All of the above

Answer D
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7. Purpose of boundaries include all of the following except:

a. Protect client vulnerability
b. Provide legal protection for client and staff
(c
c. Keeps the focus on staff

d. Protect staff from becoming over-involved with the client

Answer- c
Notes
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8. A strong culture should increase employee loyalty because it results in ________.
a. a highly centralized organization
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b. narrow spans of control
c. cohesiveness and organizational commitment
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d. a highly formalized organization
Answer C
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9. Praveen is dissatisfied with his job but believes that his supervisor is a good man
who will do the right thing. Praveen has decided that if he just waits, conditions will
improve.
Praveen’s approach to this problem is termed as:
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a. Exit
b. Voice
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c. Loyalty
d. Neglect
Answer C r
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10. As per the Caroll model the four levels of corporate social responsibility are
a. Physical economic social and legal
b. Physical economical legal and ethical
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c. Philanthropic economic legal and ethical

d. Philanthropic economic social and ethical
Answer -C
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)A
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Module - 3: Ethical Considerations

Notes
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Structure:
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3.1 Basics of Intellectual Property
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3.1.2 Types of Intellectual Property
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3.2 Confidentiality
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3.3 Principles of Natural Justice
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3.3.2 Bias
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3.4 Working With Minors

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3.5 Organizational Complaint Procedure

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3.5.4 Redress Mechanism - Steps To Handle Employee Grievances Most
Effectively:
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3.6 Legal Aspects of Professional Ethics

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Unit - 3.1: Basics of Intellectual Property

Notes
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●● Define the legal aspects of professional ethics
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●● Understand intellectual property rights and confidentiality
●● Interpret principles of natural justice
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●● Understand the concept of working with minors
●● Explain the redressal mechanism
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Intellectual Property – refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary
and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images.
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Intellectual Property rights provide protection for creations and inventions, to
enable creators and inventors to earn recognition and financial benefit from their work.
3.1.2 Types of Intellectual Property r

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The Types of Intellectual Properties are stated herewith:
1. Copyrights
“Copyright” literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of
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exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work.
Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title,
principle, or discovery. Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original
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works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as
poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright is the
right to copy. This means that the original creators of products and anyone they give
authorization to, are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work. A
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Copyright is granted for 60 years.
What can be protected using copyright? - Broadly speaking, works commonly

protected by copyright throughout the world include:
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●● Literary works such as novels, poems, plays, reference works, newspaper

articles;
●● Computer programs, databases;
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●● Films, musical compositions, and choreography;

●● Artistic works such as paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculpture;
●● Architecture; and
●● Advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.
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Copyright protection extends only to expressions, and not to ideas, procedures,

methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Copyright may or may not

be available for a number of objects such as titles, slogans, or logos, depending on

Notes
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whether they contain sufficient authorship.
What rights does copyright gives the author? - There are two types of rights under
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copyright:
●● Economic rights, which allow the rights owner to derive financial reward from
the use of their works by others; and
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●● Moral rights, which protect the non-economic interests of the author.
Most copyright laws state that the rights owner has the economic right to authorize
or prevent certain uses in relation to a work or, in some cases, to receive remuneration
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for the use of their work. The economic rights owner of a work can prohibit or authorize:
●● Its reproduction in various forms, such as printed publication or sound

recording;
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●● Its public performance, such as in a play or musical work;
●● Its recording, for example, in the form of compact discs or dvds;
●● Its broadcasting, by radio, cable or satellite;
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●● Its translation into other languages; and
●● Its adaptation, such as a novel into a film screenplay.
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Examples of widely recognized moral rights include the right to claim authorship
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of a work and the right to oppose changes to a work that could harm the creator’s
reputation.
2. Patents
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A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a

process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution
to a problem. A patent protection is granted for a limited period, generally 20 years from
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the filing date of the application.
Protection offered through Patent - In principle, the patent owner has the exclusive
right to prevent or stop others from commercially exploiting the patented invention. In
other words, patent protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made,
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used, distributed, imported or sold by others without the patent owner’s consent.
3. Trademarks
A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one
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enterprise from those of other enterprises. The term trademark refers to a recognizable
insignia, phrase, word, or symbol that denotes a specific product and legally
differentiates it from all other products of its kind. A trademark exclusively identifies a
)A
product as belonging to a specific company and recognizes the company’s ownership

of the brand. A trademark is allotted for a period of 10 years.
What constitute a trademark - A word or a combination of words, letters, and

numerals can perfectly constitute a trademark. However, trademarks may also consist
(c
of drawings, symbols, three-dimensional features such as the shape and packaging

of goods, non-visible signs such as sounds or fragrances, or colour shades used as
distinguishing features – the possibilities are almost limitless.

Rights that trademark registration provides - a trademark registration will confer an

Notes
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exclusive right to the use of the registered trademark. This implies that the trademark
can be exclusively used by its owner, or licensed to another party for use in return for
payment. Registration provides legal certainty and reinforces the position of the right
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holder, for example, in case of litigation.
4. Trade Secrets
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In general, to qualify as a trade secret, the information must be:
●● Commercially valuable because it is secret,
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●● Be known only to a limited group of persons, and
●● Be subject to reasonable steps taken by the rightful holder of the information
to keep it secret, including the use of confidentiality agreements for business
partners and employees.
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The unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such secret information in a
manner, contrary to honest commercial practices by others, is regarded as an unfair
practice and a violation of the trade secret protection. A trade secret has an eligibility of
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20 years.
Information that is protected by a trade secret - In general, any confidential
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business information which provides an enterprise a competitive edge and is unknown
to others may be protected as a trade secret. Trade secrets encompass both technical
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information, such as information concerning manufacturing processes, pharmaceutical
test data, designs and drawings of computer programs, and commercial information,
such as distribution methods, list of suppliers and clients, and advertising strategies.
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A trade secret may be also made up of a combination of elements, each of which

by itself is in the public domain, but where the combination, which is kept secret,
provides a competitive advantage.
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Other examples of information that may be protected by trade secrets include

financial information, formulas and recipes and source codes.
Protection offered by Trade Secret - Depending on the legal system, the legal
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protection of trade secrets forms part of the general concept of protection against
unfair competition or is based on specific provisions or case law on the protection of
confidential information.
While a final determination of whether trade secret protection is violated or not

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depends on the circumstances of each individual case, in general, unfair practices in

respect of secret information include industrial or commercial espionage, breach of
contract and breach of confidence.
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A trade secret owner, however, cannot stop others from using the same
technical or commercial information, if they acquired or developed such information
independently by themselves through their own R&D, reverse engineering or marketing
analysis, etc. Since trade secrets are not made public, unlike patents, they do not
provide “defensive” protection, as being prior art. For example, if a specific process of
(c
producing Compound X has been protected by a trade secret, someone else can obtain

a patent or a utility model on the same invention, if the inventor arrived at that invention
Notes
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independently.
5. Industrial Designs
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An industrial design constitutes the ornamental aspect of an article.
An industrial design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape
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of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colour.
Protection through industrial designs - The owner of a registered industrial design

or of a design patent has the right to prevent third parties from making, selling or
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importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a copy, or substantially a
copy, of the protected design, when such acts are undertaken for commercial purposes.
What it covers? - Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of
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industry and handicraft items: from packages and containers to furnishing and
household goods, from lighting equipment to jewellery, and from electronic devices
to textiles. Industrial designs may also be relevant to graphic symbols, graphical user
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interfaces (GUI), and logos.
6. Geographical Indications
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A geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on products that have a specific
geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
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In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as originating in a given
place. In addition, the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the product should be
essentially due to the place of origin. Since the qualities depend on the geographical
place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its original place of
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production.
Rights provided by Geographical Indication - A geographical indication right

enables those who have the right to use the indication to prevent its use by a third
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party whose product does not conform to the applicable standards. For example, in the
jurisdictions in which the Darjeeling geographical indication is protected, producers of
Darjeeling tea can exclude use of the term “Darjeeling” for tea not grown in their tea
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gardens or not produced according to the standards set out in the code of practice for
the geographical indication.
However, a protected geographical indication does not enable the holder to prevent
someone from making a product using the same techniques as those set out in the
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standards for that indication. Protection for a geographical indication is usually obtained
by acquiring a right over the sign that constitutes the indication.
What is covered under Geographical Indications? - Geographical indications are

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typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, wine and spirit drinks, handicrafts,
and industrial products.

(c
The main objective of intellectual property law is to encourage innovation and

to provide incentives for innovation by granting protection to inventors that will allow

them to recover research and development investments and reap the benefits of their
Notes
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inventions for a limited period of time.
Why is IPR Important? Intellectual property protection is critical to fostering
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innovation. Without protection of ideas, businesses and individuals would not reap the
full benefits of their inventions and would focus less on research and development.
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There are several reasons for promoting and protecting intellectual property. Some
of them are:
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●● Progress and the good of humanity remain in the ability to create and invent
new works in the field of technology and culture.
●● IP protection encourages publication, distribution, and disclosure of the
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creation to the public, rather than keeping it a secret.
●● Promotion and protection of intellectual Property promote economic
development, generates new jobs and helps industries.
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●● Intellectual Property helps in balancing the innovator’s interests and public
interest, provide an environment where innovation, creativity and invention
can flourish and benefit all.
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1. Intangible property.
●● IP does not cover the created physical object but retains the conceptual
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development behind the physical object.

●● IP is about a person’s ability to produce a new idea and put it before the
public. he product does not have any property as such but the strength,
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judgment and initiative of the mind that is included in the product.
2. Rights & Duties.

The owner of the IP has the right to perform certain functions in relation to his
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work/product. He has the exclusive right to produce the work, make copies of the work,
market work, etc. There is also a negative right to prevent third parties from exercising
their statutory rights.
3. Creation of Statute.
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●● Intellectual property is derived from common law, and it is covered under

specific laws.
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●● In accordance with relevant legislation, IPRs are statutory rights.

●● Intellectual property, to put it differently, is statute formation.
●● The right holder is protected by proposals, technical solutions or any other
knowledge conveyed in a legally acceptable manner and subject in some
instances to registration procedures.
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4. Territoriality.
Notes
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●● Intellectual property laws are mainly territorial and apply only within the
relevant competence.
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●● Although the agreement sets the minimum standard in its respective municipal
laws for all nations, the IP laws around the world are not harmoniously united.
5. Assignable.
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●● They should obviously be granted (licensed), because they are privileges.
●● IP may be bought, sold or licensed, employed or affiliated.
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6. Dynamism.
●● The IPR is constantly changing.
●● The IP sector is also developing accordingly, as technology in all areas of
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human activities is changing exponentially.
●● In accordance with the demand for scientific and technological advancement,
the scope of its defence is being extended and new items are being added to
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the IPRs sector.
7. Subject matter of IPR Protection.

●● r
Intellectual property rights eligibility depends solely on the protection issue.
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The products specifically identified and acknowledged in the law as the
subject of protection are entitled to intellectual property rights.
●● While the minimum requirements laid down in law may be included, protection
may still be denied if it is expressly omitted from the subject matter entitled to
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protection.
8. Different rights’ co-exist

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●● In relation to a particular job, different types of IPR will coexist.

●● An invention can, for example, be patented and an innovation drawing may be
copyrighted.
●● Under the Design Law, a design can be covered and the design also
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incorporated into a logo.

●● There are many similarities and differences between different IP rights.
9. Exhaustion of rights
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●● The definition of exhaustion is usually regulated by intellectual property rights.

●● Exhaustion essentially means that the right is terminated after the first selling
by the right holder or his exhalation authorisation and he can’t stop moving
)A
goods further.
●● As a result, the subsequent resale of this product can’t be prohibited once the
IP right holder has sold the concept to which its IPRs are attached.
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Unit - 3.2: Confidentiality

Notes
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Confidentiality is the obligation and right not to disclose information to unauthorized
individuals, entities, or processes if it would harm the organization, its business
relationships, or an individual. It’s part of a duty of loyalty for the management.
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Confidentiality is the keeping of another person or entity’s information private.
Certain professionals are required by law to keep information shared by a client or
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patient private, without disclosing the information, even to law enforcement, except
under certain specific circumstances. The principle of confidentiality is most commonly
expected in the medical field, and the legal field.
Breach of confidentiality is a common law tort, which means it can be brought as a
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civil lawsuit against the individual who breached the agreement. Penalties that may be
handed down include monetary damages, which could be quite substantial, depending
on the damage done by the breach, as well as an injunction ordering the individual to
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stop disclosing protected information. If a breach of confidentiality occurs regarding
medical or legal information, the breaching individual may be subject to penalties by his
employer, or by the board that issued his professional license.
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Confidential information means personal communication or information relating to
an organisation’s business that is unknown to the public and only shared between a few
people. Workplace confidentiality refers to any confidential information that you come
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across in the course of business. This information comes into the possession of the
Organisation through its work. It is the crucial information about the stakeholders and
business processes used in specific decision making.
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There are three main types of information with any organization, leak of which
could lead to breach in confidentiality:
●● The personal information of customers.

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●● Employee information that managers collect, and

●● “Proprietary Information”

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Confidentiality builds trust between employer and employee and business owners
have an obligation to keep stakeholder’s information secure and trusted. To have their
information shared is not only a breach in privacy, but it will destroy employee trust,
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confidence and loyalty. It may cause a loss in productivity and legal repercussions.
Failure to protect and secure confidential information may not only lead to the loss
of business or clients, but it also unlocks the danger of confidential information being
misused to commit illegal activity such as fraud. A key element of confidentiality is that it
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helps build trust.


Notes
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Give below are the main principles of confidentiality which help in protection of
information:
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1. Justify the purpose(s) - Every proposed use or transfer of identifiable information
within or from an organisation should be clearly defined and scrutinised, with
continuing uses regularly reviewed, by an appropriate guardian.
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2. Don’t use identifiable information unless it is absolutely necessary
The identifiable information items should not be included unless it is essential for the
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specified purpose(s) of the work. The need for information use should be identified
and considered at each stage of work and should be used in case it is necessary to
use the information for completion of work.
3. Use the minimum necessary identifiable information
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Where use of identifiable information is considered to be essential, the inclusion
of each individual item of information should be considered and justified so that
the minimum amount of identifiable information is transferred or accessible as is
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necessary for a given function to be carried out.
4. Access to identifiable information should be on a strict need-to-know basis
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Only those individuals who need access to identifiable information should have
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access to it, and they should only have access to the information items that they
need to see. This may mean introducing access controls or splitting information
flows where one information flow is used for several purposes.
5. Everyone with access to identifiable information should be aware of their
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responsibilities
Action should be taken to ensure that those handling identifiable information – at
various levels of management – are made fully aware of their responsibilities and
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obligations to respect the subject’s confidentiality.

6. Understand and comply with the law
Every use of patient identifiable information must be lawful. Someone in each
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organisation handling patient information should be responsible for ensuring that the
organisation complies with legal requirements.

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1. Termination of Employment
The first and the most obvious consequence is termination. No employer will be
)A
willing to retain employees who maliciously or carelessly lose confidential information,

they’re no longer assets for the business. An employer is usually within his legal rights
to terminate the employment, even if there is no confidentiality clause signed up.
Breach of confidentiality is considered to be breach of employment agreement.
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2. Paying Civil Lawsuit Damages

The employer can even file a lawsuit and if successful, the employee will
be required to pay lawsuit damages. For instance, if some secret is revealed to
the competitor and the employer is able to prove the loss of business or image,
Notes
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the employee has to pay the same. Even if the employer is not able to prove the
quantitative damage, he is entitled to punitive damage.
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3. Standing Trial in a Criminal Case
In extreme information, a breach of confidentiality can even lead to criminal
charges against the employee. It may happen if the employee is involved in theft of
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proprietary data or Intellectual Property.
4. Loss of Reputation
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In a specialized industry where businesses are well-aware about the other
businesses such acts of breach can permanently tarnish an employee’s reputation. This
is a long term consequence wherein an employee’s future job aspects maybe doomed.
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Seen very commonly, the unintentional breach of confidentiality may occur due to
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Carelessness and for legal reporting.
There are various ways in which the confidentiality might be breached. Perhaps
the most obvious and common threat to confidentiality protection arises from simple
carelessness such as: r
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●● Not removing identifiers from the data files,
●● Leaving cabinets unlocked,
●● Not encrypting files containing identifiers,
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●● Talking about specific respondents with others not authorized to have this
information, and so on.
It is very important for the organizations to be alert to these issues, provide
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employee guidelines for appropriate data management, and ensure that the guidelines
are observed.
Some of the examples where breach in confidentiality is experienced are:

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●● Loyalty card – during billing, the executive asks your phone number in public.
●● Social Engineering, where people intentionally come close to fetch crucial
information.
●● Loss of phone and other electronic gadgets.
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●● Using information without removing the identifiers. People will come to know
the respondents of information in case of research.
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●● The collected information may be shared to unintended people, especially the

managers, since they are part of the organization.
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Unit - 3.3: Principles of Natural Justice

Notes
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Natural justice is identified with the two constituents of a fair hearing, which are the
rule against bias (nemo iudex in causa sua, or “no man a judge in his own cause”), and
the right to a fair hearing (audi alteram partem, or “hear the other side”).
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Essentially, natural justice requires that a person receive a fair and unbiased
hearing before a decision is made that will negatively affect them. The three main
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requirements of natural justice that must be met in every case are: adequate notice, fair
hearing and no bias. Sometimes, all three of these concepts are grouped together as
“the right to a fair hearing.”
●● The notice requirement means that the people affected by the decision must be
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told about the important issues and be given enough information to be able to
participate meaningfully in the decision-making process.
●● The fair hearing requirement means that the people affected are given a
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reasonable opportunity to present their point of view and to respond to facts
presented by others, and that the decision-maker will genuinely consider what
each person has told them when making the decision.
●●
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The no bias requirement means that the person making the decision must act
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impartially when considering the matter, and must not have any relationships with
anyone that could lead someone to reasonably doubt their impartiality.
Historically, obligations of natural justice were owed only in court and other very
formal legal proceedings, and today the specific procedures to be followed to ensure
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the principles of natural justice are upheld in courts are set out in detailed written
laws. However, it is now recognized that the broader concepts of procedural and
administrative fairness can give rise to less extensive procedural rights in other, less
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formalized types of decision-making.
The expressions “procedural fairness” and “administrative fairness” usually refer to

the set of rules and conventions that are used to ensure that the principles of natural
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justice are upheld, in a somewhat less formal manner, in the field of administrative
law or in other contexts where the power of the government or other authority may be
brought to bear against an individual or group.
The principles of natural justice have great significance in the study of

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Administrative law. It is also known as substantial justice or fundamental justice or

Universal justice or fair play in action.
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3.3.2 Bias
‘Bias’ means an operative prejudice whether conscious or unconscious in relation
to a party or issue. Therefore, the ‘Rule Against Bias’ strikes against those factors
which may improperly influence a judge in arriving at a deci-sion in any particular case.
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The requirement of this principle is that the judge must be impartial and must decide
the case objectively on the basis of the evidence on record. Therefore if a person, for

whatever reason, cannot take an objective decision on the basis of evidence on record
Notes
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he shall be said to be biased.
A person cannot take an objective decision in a case in which he/she has an
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interest for, as human psychology tells us, very rarely can people take decisions
against their own interests. This rule of disqualification is applied not only to avoid the
possibility of a partial decision but also to ensure public confidence in the impartiality
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of the administrative adjudicatory process because not only must “no man be judge in
his/her own cause” but also “justice should not only be done but should manifestly and
undoubtedly be seen to be done”.
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Minimal requirement of natural justice is that the authority must be composed of
impartial persons acting fairly and without prejudice and bias. A decision which is a
result of bias is a nullity and the trial is “Coram non-judice”. Inference of bias, therefore,
can be drawn only on the basis of factual matrix and not merely on the basis of
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insinuations, conjectures and surmises.
Bias manifests variously and may affect the decision in a variety of ways:
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●● Personal Bias - Personal Bias arises from a certain relationship equation
between the deciding authority and the parties which incline him/her
unfavourably or other-wise on the side of one of the parties before him/her.
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Such equation may develop out of varied forms of personal or professional
hostility or friendship.
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●● Pecuniary Bias - The judicial approach is unanimous and decisive on the
point that any financial interest, howsoever small it may be, would vitiate
administrative action.
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●● Subject Matter Bias - Those cases fall within this category where the deciding
officer is directly, or otherwise, involved in the subject matter of the case. Here
again mere involvement would not vitiate the administrative action unless
there is a real likelihood of bias.
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●● Departmental Bias - The problem of ‘departmental bias’ is something which

is inherent in the administrative process, and if it is not effectively checked,
it may negate the very concept of fairness in the administrative proceeding.
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The problem of ‘departmental bias’ arises when the functions of judge and
prosecutor are combined in the same department. It is not uncommon to find
that the same department which initiates a matter also decides it, therefore, at
times departmental fraternity and loyalty militates against the concept of fair
hearing.
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●● Preconceived Notion Bias - ‘Bias’ arising out of preconceived notions is a very

delicate problem in fair justice. On the one hand, no judge as human being is
expected to sit as a blank sheet of paper, on the other, preconceived notions
)A
would vitiate a fair trial.

Though the rule of natural justice have now a definite meaning and connotation in
(c
law, and their content and implications are well understood and firmly established, they
are nonetheless not statutory rules. Each of these rule yields to and changes with the

exigencies of different situations. They do not apply in the same manner to situations
Notes
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which are alike.
These rules are not cast in a rigid mould nor they be put in a legal straight-jacket.
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They are not immutable but flexible. These rules can be adopted and modified by
statues and statutory rules and also by the constitution of the tribunal which has to
decide a particular matter and the rules by which such tribunal is governed.
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There are exceptional situation that overtake the natural justice, which may be
excluded-:
●● Exclusion in Emergency - In exceptional cases of emergency where prompt
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preventive or remedial action, is needed; the requirement of notice and hearing
may be obviated. Such as, in situations where a dangerous building is to be
demolished, or a company has to be wound up to save depositors.
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●● Confidentiality – Exclusion of natural justice can also take place when
confidentiality is demanded and is necessary to be maintained.
●● Statutory exclusion – A ground on which hearing may be excluded is that the
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action of the Administrative in question is legislative and not administrative in
character.
●● Impracticability – Natural justice can be followed and applied when it is practicable
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to do so but in a situation when it is impracticable to apply, the principle of natural
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justice then it can be excluded.
●● Legislative actions – When the law making body itself propounds that this principle
will not be applicable in the said statute, the this principle is not applicable in the
cases which will come under the particular statute.
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●● Academic Evaluation – Where the nature of authority is purely academic, then no

right of hearing can be claimed. The academic administration can take any action
towards the students or the staff members if they feel that things are not working
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properly inside the institution. And it cannot be challenged until and unless the
contrary is proved.
●● Contractual Arrangement – In case of termination arrangement in contract,
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principle of natural justice are not applicable.

●● Inter-Disciplinary Action – In inter-disciplinary action like suspension etc, there is
no requirement ot follow the principle of natural justice.
●● Government Policy Decision – For developmental policy decision, there is no need
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to follow principles of natural justice.

●● No right of the person is infringed – Where no right has been conferred on a
person by any statute nor any such right arises from common law, the principles of
)A
natural justice are not applicable.

●● Interim Preventive Action – If the action of the administrative authority is a
suspension order in the nature of preventive action and not a final order, the
application of the principles of natural justice may be excluded.
(c
●● Public Interest – Any act or thing done against the interest of the general public will
be held void ab initio. As being a democratic country, the laws are made for the

benefit of the public. Hence, if there is a hidden interest of the public in any issue,
Notes
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then the principle of Audi Alterem Partem will be excluded.
●● Useless Formality Theory – ‘Useless formality’ is yet another exception to
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the application of the principles of natural justice. Where on the admitted or
undisputed facts only one conclusion is possible and under the law only one
penalty is permissible, the court may not insist on the observance of the principles
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of natural justice because it would be futile to order its observance. Therefore,
where the result would not be different, and it is demonstrable beyond doubt, order
of compliance with the principles of natural justice will not be justified.
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Whether these rules are grounded in human consensus or societal norms, they are
supposed to ensure that all members of society receive fair treatment.
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Issues of justice arise in several different spheres and play a significant role in
causing, perpetuating, and addressing conflict.
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Just institutions tend to instill a sense of stability, well-being, and satisfaction
among society members, while perceived injustices can lead to dissatisfaction,
rebellion, or revolution.
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Each of the different spheres expresses the principles of justice and fairness in its
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own way, resulting in different types and concepts of justice: distributive, procedural,
retributive, and restorative. These types of justice have important implications for socio-
economic, political, civil, and criminal justice at both the national and international level.
●● Distributive justice, or economic justice, is concerned with giving all members of

ni
society a “fair share” of the benefits and resources available.
Debate – What is a fair Share?

U
Some possible criteria of distribution are equity, equality, and need. (Equity means
that one’s rewards should be equal to one’s contributions to a society, while “equality”
means that everyone gets the same amount, regardless of their input. Distribution on
the basis of need means that people who need more will get more, while people who
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need less will get less.)
●● Procedural justice is concerned with making and implementing decisions

according to fair processes that ensure “fair treatment.” Rules must be applied in
order to generate an unbiased decision. Those carrying out the procedures should
m
be neutral, and those directly affected by the decisions should have some voice
or representation in the decision-making process. (Employee Unions) If people
believe procedures to be fair, they will be more likely to accept outcomes, even
)A
ones that they do not like.

●● Retributive justice appeals to the notion of “just desert” -- the idea that people
deserve to be treated in the same way they treat others. It is a retroactive
approach that justifies punishment as a response to past injustice or wrong doing.
The central idea is that the offender has gained unfair advantage through his or
(c
her behavior, and that punishment will set this imbalance straight. In other words,
those who do not play by the rules should be brought to justice and deserve to

suffer penalties for their transgressions. The notion of deterrence also plays in
Notes
e
here: the hope is that the punishment for committing a crime is large enough that
people will not engage in illegal activities because the risk of punishment is too
high.
in
But, because there is a tendency to slip from retributive justice to an emphasis
on revenge, some suggest that restorative justice processes are more effective. It is
nl
concerned with healing victims’ wounds, restoring offenders to law-abiding lives, and
repairing harm done to interpersonal relationships and the community. Offenders
are encouraged to understand the harm they have caused their victims and take
responsibility for it.
O
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)A
(c

Unit - 3.4: Working With Minors

Notes
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Employing the minors must be done with great care.
Employing Minors can harm the child’s well-being and hinders his or her education,
nl
development and future livelihood.
Two International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions – the Minimum Age

Convention No. 138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No. 182 -
O
provide the framework for national law to define a clear line between what is acceptable
and what is not, including a minimum age for admission to employment or work.
This minimum age should not be less than the age for completing compulsory
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schooling, and in general not less than 15 years.
The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work calls for
the effective abolition of child labour.
si
This means that all ILO member States have an obligation to abolish child labour
within their territories regardless of whether they have ratified the relevant Conventions;
and all companies should contribute to such efforts in the country they operate in as
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well as to the global effort to eliminate all forms of child labour.
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Developing countries have the option to set the minimum age at 14 and 12 for “light
work” as a transitional measure. Many developing countries, however, have chosen to
adopt the minimum ages of 15 or even 16, so it is essential to check national legislation
on minimum age to ensure compliance with the national law.
ni
The minimum age for hazardous work is 18 years for all countries. Hazardous
work is defined as work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of the
U
child because of its nature or the working conditions and has to be listed by national
legislation after consultation with employers and trade unions.
Even young persons who have attained the minimum age for employment in
general but are not yet 18 years of age should not be engaged in hazardous work.
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Hazardous child labour is one of the “worst forms of child labour” which requires urgent
and immediate action. All ILO member States have ratified the Worst Forms of Child
Labour Convention No. 182, so it is important to be aware of national legislation on
“hazardous work”.
m
Not all work by a person under the age of 18 is child labour. It depends both on the
age and on the types and conditions of work.
)A
Child labour should not be confused with “youth employment” as from the minimum
working age, young people should be able to engage in decent work, but still need
protection from hazardous work and other worst forms of child labour.
There are also flexibilities for “light work” which is permissible as from 13 (or 12, if
the minimum age is set at 14) years of age by school-going children if authorized and
(c
monitored by the relevant authorities.


Notes
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●● Small business owners and employment analysts agree that the key to securing
skilled and motivated minors as employees lies at the very beginning, with the
in
application and interview. In order to find top-notch minor employees, business
are encouraged to pay close attention to the information provided in the job
application form. Are the students high academic achievers in high school? Do
nl
they participate in extracurricular activities? Do they provide good references, such
as former employers or school teachers/administrators?
●● Distinguish the teen employees and group them appropriately (with other teen and
O
grown up employees) forming effective teams.
●● Remarkably, some employers tend to lump teen employees together into one
indistinguishable mass, but in reality, dramatic differences exist within this
demographic group in such areas as punctuality, honesty, ambition, talent,
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intelligence, and all-around quality.
●● In addition, employers should take the time to conduct a thorough interview with
minor applicants, even if it is for a part-time entry level position. Every employee
si
plays a part in shaping company culture, and if the new hire has a bad attitude,
it has the potential to influence other teen employees. This is particularly true for
businesses that have a significant number of minor employees. For example,
r
an employer who hires a minor for a floor sales position only to discover that
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the new hire has a previously undetected predilection for emotionally distant,
“cool” behavior may find other emotionally malleable—and previously customer-
friendly—staffers adopting some of the same mannerisms.
●● Employers who hire minors also need to recognize that, as Bess Ritter May said
ni
in Supervision, “adolescence is a transitional period. Those who are in this age

group are forming their personalities and identities.” This sometimes is awkward
period of development and will likely manifest itself in all phases of the teen’s life—
U
including work.
●● But while employers may experience some frustration dealing with teens who are
buffeted by school, societal, and peer pressures, they can take comfort in the fact
“that it’s easy to train these kids since they have little or no prior work experience
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and have consequently acquired little or no work-related bad habits” . “Most

intelligent youngsters can also be instructed quickly concerning specific business
systems and procedures, pick up and remember new things easily and have few
or no preconceived ideas concerning how specific workplace tasks should be
m
handled. Such aptitudes have surprised and astonished many supervisors.”

●● Minor employees may require closer supervision than other employees. Often,
they are unfamiliar with various facets of the workplace, and they may be so
)A
intimidated that they will be reluctant to ask questions about issues or tasks that
they do not fully understand. Employers should anticipate this and do two things,
first, fully explain projects and tasks, and second, maintain a work environment
that is clearly receptive to their questions.
(c
●● In addition, employers should adopt a firm, but positive and constructive manner in
various areas of training. This includes communication that may be necessary to
correct errors. Adopting a tactful, reasonable, but firm approach in such instances

is important. “Adolescents who are starting out on their first or second jobs are
Notes
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often more sensitive to corrections concerning their work by those who are older
and (presumably) wiser. Such youngsters do not always understand that it is only
their skills that are being faulted and not their innate characters and consequently
in
are often very defensive.”
●● Organizations who employ minors should also consider giving their top workers
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opportunities to show their abilities. Young employees are fully capable of
contributing to the business’s success in ways other than filing paperwork or
sweeping floors, and they sometimes develop into valued employees after
reaching adulthood.
O
●● Finally,
o Employers should at all times remain cognizant of the importance of adhering
to state and federal laws.
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o “Conduct periodic check-ups of your compliance with child labor law,” Be sure
to keep the managers up to date on the child labor issue.
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o Make sure not to hire new employees without obtaining proper age
documentation.
o Be assured and know the minor employees and what type of job duties
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they may perform. After all, it won’t do your company much good if you are
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well-versed in the laws, but the managers who directly oversee workers are
unaware of the requirements.”
o In addition, experts recommend that owners (or knowledgeable managers)
establish a regular practice of reviewing underage employees’ schedules to try
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and prevent violations.

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)A
(c

Unit - 3.5: Organizational Complaint Procedure

Notes
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in
In modern organizations, it is a daily business to deal with employee grievances.
The grievances may be genuine or sometimes illusory to the employees who feel a
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certain dissatisfaction regarding their job or the management.
If not resolved on time, it can lower employee morale, create inefficiency and
increase absenteeism among the employees. In short, your ability in handling
O
grievances of employees can have a direct impact on overall productivity at work.
ty
Employee grievance can be simply defined as the discontentment caused by the
gap between what the employees expect and what they fail to get. It may or may not be
justified but needs to be tackled very carefully. A considerable amount of time must be
si
invested by the HR person to talk to the employees to understand their grievances.
Identifying employees’ grievances can be a challenge in personnel management.

However, there are certain ways that can help you in this job. the following points helps
r
in knowing that the employees are not happy:
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●● Changed Behavior:
Human behavior reflects a lot about how they are feeling. Every good HR manager
should have the considerable emotional intelligence to handle a grievance. A routine
direct observation can help in identifying the dissatisfaction of an employee. Periodic
ni
one on one conversations, group meetings, collective bargaining, and employee

counseling sessions are the best occasions when direct observation can be the highest
effective.
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●● Suggestion Boxes:
For anonymous complaints, it can be placed in different accessible locations within
the office. The fear of adverse managerial actions can be avoided through this method.
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●● Open-door Policy:
It is one of the best employee empowerment techniques in the workplace. Open
door policy refers to open communication and transparency that allows them to be in
touch with the senior management, to get their grievances addressed.
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●● Opinion Surveys:
These surveys can be used in understanding different employee opinions
)A
regarding workplace satisfaction. It may be conducted periodically in the form of

questionnaires and self-report measures.
●● Effective Exit-Interviews:
If answered honestly, exit interviews can provide constructive reflections on
(c
the impact that the company culture has on its employees. By knowing the reasons
for leaving the job, employers can make the best possible changes with improved
management policies.


Notes
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●● Undesirable working conditions in physical terms.
●● Changes without prior notice.
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●● Poor employee relations.
●● Improper wage adjustments.
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●● Dissatisfactory office policies in case of:
o Promotion
O
o Demotion
o Transfer
o Discharge
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o Leaves
o Overtime
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●● Violation of laws.
●● Inadequate safety, health, and welfare amenities.
●● Labor-management hostility.
●● Incidences of workplace favoritism and nepotism.
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●● Lack of organizational discipline.
No matter what sort of organization it is, in the everyday working environments
problems occur quite frequently, which demands reasonable solutions. Every complaint
ni
needs careful and proper handling. The primary aim should be in dealing with
grievances informally. However, if the complaint is of a serious nature, the employee
might raise and follow a formal grievance.
U
By law, every company should have a grievance policy. The formal, written
document should let the employees know the point of contact if they have an issue and
should set forth the process and the time limits of each action.
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Here’s how organizations can take actions on employee grievances that should be
considered for a timely resolution.
3.5.4 Redress Mechanism - Steps To Handle Employee Grievances

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Most Effectively:
1. Create the system:

)A
The first thing is to set up the grievance redressal system for your companies,
to help your employees lodge complaints and grievances, so that it can be resolved.
Things that you must consider here are that-
The grievance procedure must be added to the employee handbook’s content so

that it can be easily accessed by all.
(c

Someone must take responsibility for grievance receipts. The employees must be
Notes
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ensured that their complaints are placed in confidence. Generally, it should be someone
from the Human Resources Department.
in
The place of receiving the complaints must be within reach to all. It should
be located centrally. If you use a grievance box, it should be in the area of common
accessibility.
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As it might involve personal matters, it is important to focus on confidentiality while
dealing with employees’ grievances. Involving the least number of people prevents the
matter from being widespread.
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The complaints put forwards must be followed up timely. No issue should be on
hold for a long time. It should follow a schedule so that the employees can expect a
certain level of responsiveness within a specified time period.
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2. Acknowledge the grievance:
You should listen more than you talk while dealing with employee grievance. When
si
your employees come to you lamenting over an issue, lend them your ear.
That doesn’t mean that it should be resolved immediately but so that your
employees know that their complaint is acknowledged. Let your employees know that
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you have received their report and are willing to do something about it.
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3. Investigate:
Not all issues qualify for a hearing. Generally, it is important to review whether
the grievance is valid or not. Inquire about the incidents or situations and gather any
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relevant information. It may not always be necessary but if the matter involves other
staff, they will need to be informed and given a chance to explain themselves and put
forward their own shreds of evidence.
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Once the investigation is over, you can arrange a formal meeting.
4. Hold the formal meeting:

The employee with the grievance and all the relevant parties should be called to be
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present in the formal hearing. The employee can put forward any evidence that backs
up the complaint and explain how they would like the problem to be resolved. Later on,
you can circulate the minutes of the meeting notes.
m
5. Take your decision and act accordingly:

This is the decision making phase. Once you have collected all the required
information and examined the situation closely, you should make a decision.
)A
You might decide to accept the grievance in full or part, or reject it completely.
You need to let the employee know in writing about the actions that you will take. At
the same time, you can advise the employee on how they should deal with similar
situations.
(c
6. Appeal process:
Your employee might not accept your decision and has the right to an appeal.
Here again, your grievance policy should outline the terms and conditions of the appeal
Notes
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process.
It should start with an appeal letter written by the employees, informing the reasons
in
why they want the decision to be reconsidered. To ensure impartiality, the appeal should
be heard by another manager or supervisor who was not a part of the first meeting.
This should be followed by an appeal hearing with new evidence. The decision of
nl
the same should be informed to the employee in writing. If your employee is still not
satisfied, it can either be mediated or escalated to the employment tribunal.
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7. Review the situation:
It’s always healthy to have an objective look back at your decisions. If the
employee is happy with the resolution, you were good at settling the issue. In fact, it can
prove great to your company culture.
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If the prevailing policy ensures justice, it can foster a sense of pride and
accountability in the employees’ work. That’s the benefit of implementing a fast and
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effective grievance procedure.
8. Uproot the main cause of grievance:
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Your aim is to go for a long-lasting solution. That is, a formal complaint should be
addressed once and for all. This prevents your employees from coming back again and
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again with the same issue.
The key solution here lies in identifying the root cause of the problem and making
sure to solve the problem completely, with the scope of adjustments, if necessary.
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The successful operation of a grievance procedure requires the maintenance of

sufficient records, experience and fair treatment to all.
However, there might arise some special circumstances when the above-
U
mentioned process needs to be modified for better. The Human Resource Department
reserves the right to revise the same as necessary and appropriate.
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)A
(c

Unit - 3.6: Legal Aspects of Professional Ethics

Notes
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Professional ethics are principles that govern the behavior of a person or group in
a business environment. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person
should act towards other people and institutions in such an environment.
nl
Unlike values, professional ethics are often codified as a set of rules, which a
particular group of people use. This means that all those in a particular group will use
O
the same professional ethics, even though their values may be unique to each person.
Ethical principles underpin all professional codes of conduct. Ethical principles

may differ depending on the profession; for example, professional ethics that relate to
medical practitioners will differ from those that relate to lawyers or real estate agents.
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However, there are some universal ethical principles that apply across all
professions, including:
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o Honesty
o Trustworthiness
o Loyalty r
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o Respect for others
o Adherence to the law
o Doing good and avoiding harm to others

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o Accountability.

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Professional associations’ efforts to enforce ethics codes are bedevilled by

widespread confusion about the interrelationship among law, licensure rules,
malpractice, other civil law rules (such as contracts or regulatory requirements), and
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ethics. Thus, a professional charged may protest: “You can’t charge me with unethical
conduct: I was acquitted in my criminal case.” or an ethics committee member may say:
“Of course he acted unethically; the jury found malpractice.” Alternatively, a complainant
may say: “He isn’t even licensed, so you should get him for unethical conduct.” All these
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statements are illogical because they confuse the several intersecting realms in which
problems of professional misconduct can be addressed.
)A
(c

Notes
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Relationships among Law, Licensure, and Ethics
Source: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/pdf/10.1044/nsshla_19_61
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1. Non-Admirable: Conduct may be non-admirable, or even repellent, but not be civilly
actionable or criminal. Such conduct also might not be professionally unethical,
r
malpractice, or contrary to the licensing law. This category could include activities
outside the professional realm (e.g., knowing membership in a discriminatory club or
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defrauding the purchaser in selling one’s home), as well as professional conduct that
does not transgress a specific rule (such as never entertaining less affluent clients
or constantly belittling colleagues). Some non-admirable conduct, of course, does
violate civil laws, criminal law, or ethics rules.
ni
2. Civil Action - Conduct may be civilly actionable (that is, it confers on the party harmed
the right to sue for money damages or another remedy). Some such conduct will be
outside professional ethics rules, malpractice standards, licensing laws, or criminal
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laws (e.g., failure to deliver a book manuscript despite receiving an advance, or

breaching an HMO contract). But some civilly actionable conduct also violates these
other systems of standards, such as violating confidentiality or billing fraudulently.
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3. Criminal Conduct – Conduct may be criminal or unlawful but not malpractice, not a
violation of a professional’s licensure statute, and not contrary to a profession’s ethics
code. This would include conduct that is primarily personal and not professional
(such as violating a court order concerning custody of children) and crimes not
involving “moral turpitude,” which often are not covered by the licensing laws (such
m
as disturbing the peace). Conduct may also be unlawful but not criminal (such as
most income tax evasion) without necessarily triggering these other sanctions.
However, spousal abuse, use of controlled substances, or driving while intoxicated
)A
may well trigger licensure or ethics proceedings.

4. Unethical Conduct - Conduct may be unethical, but not contrary to the licensing
statute and not an act of malpractice. For example, it may be “unethical” in a broad
sense to take on so many clients that one really is not performing up to one’s true
(c
capacity.
5. Contrary to Licencing Statutes - Conduct may be both unethical and a violation of the
licensing law—for example, false advertising.

6. Conduct may violate the licensing law but not be unethical or malpractice—for
Notes
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example, forgetting to file reports with the state board.
7. Conduct may be unethical and malpractice but not violate the licensing law. This
in
would be a rare case. There are harmless technical ethics violations and mistaken
or biased jury verdicts in malpractice cases, so that all such events should not trigger
licensure sanctions.
nl
8. Conduct may be unethical, contrary to the licensing law, and malpractice, such as a
establishing relationships with clients.
9. Conduct might conceivably be deemed to be malpractice and a violation of the
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licensing law, but not be unethical in a broad sense. This could be a single case of
erroneous diagnosis by an otherwise meticulous practitioner, which nevertheless
resulted in a jury finding of negligence.
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10. Malpractice - Conduct may be malpractice but not unethical or contrary to the
licensing statute. If a competent, conscientious professional makes a poor decision,
a jury might find him or her “negligent.” But it is only by stretching the concept of
“ethics” to the breaking point that one could consider him or her as “unethical” merely
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on the basis of one incident.
Summary
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We frequently make judgements about what is good, what is baf, what is right and
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what is wrong. The critical analysis of these and other ideas fundamental to how we
judge our own and each other’s actions and decisions is referred to as philosophical
ethics.
In the twenty-first century, social responsibility has become one of the most
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important aspects of corporate governance. Businesses and corporate societies are

aware of their role in the development of social well-being and cohabitation. Their
devotion is frequently motivated by principles and takes into account a company’s
U
social and environmental responsibilities to many stakeholders. To attain continuous

prosperity and pleasure for the greatest number of people, professionals must
practise value-based ethical behaviour which includes methods of working with
minors, addressing issues and a proper redressal. This should be practiced in both
ity
their professional and personal lives. Professional behaviour, is only feasible when
professionals have a clear concept of themselves and see the need of functioning in
harmony at all levels of life. While working towards economic progress and customer
well-being, professionals are also expected to consider philosophy, social concerns and
m
environmental conservation.
Multiple Choice Questions

)A
1. “The principles of natural justice are those fundamental rules, breach of which will
prevent justice from being seen to be done”
a. Lord Parker
b. Lord Denning
(c
c. Lord Hewart
d. Lord Widgery

Ans d
Notes
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2. Nemo Judex in Causa Sua means
a. No person should be judge of his own cause
in
b. A person should be judge of his own cause
c. Every one should be heard before being condemned
nl
d. Every one should not be heard before being condemned
Ans a
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3. When are employees able to use workplace grievance procedures?
a. To apply for promotion within the workplace.
b. To deal with any complaints they have which relate to their job or working
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environment.
c. To organise the workplace lottery syndicate.
d. To book holiday entitlement.
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Ans:d. all of the above
4. The presence of grievances among employees may cause
a. indiscipline among them r
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b. strain on the labour–management relations
c. a decline in the employees’ performance and productivity
d. all of the above
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Ans: b. The gripe-box system

5. Which of the following techniques permits the grievant (complainant) to remain
anonymous?
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a. The exit interview

b. The gripe-box system
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c. The opinion survey

d. None of the above
Ans: c. real or imaginary
m
6. Which of the following is correct definition of ‘Audi alteram partem’?

a. A Listening to the appeal
b. B Right of fair hearing
)A
c. C Right to know reasons of decision

d. D All of the above
Ans b
(c
7. Principles of natural justice are NOT applicable against which of the following
actions?

a. A Administrative actions
Notes
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b. B Rulemaking action
c. C Quasi judicial actions
in
d. D Judicial process
Ans b
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8. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect the use of information and ideas that are of
a. Ethical value
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b. Moral value
c. Social value
d. Commercial value
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Ans: d
9. The term ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ covers
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a. Copyrights
b. Know-how
c. Trade dress
d. All of the above
r
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Ans: d
10. Which of these is a geographical indication?
a. BMW
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b. Champagne
c. Hogwarts
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d. Playstation
Ans: b
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m
)A
(c

Module - 4: Global Issues in Different Sectors

Notes
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Structure:
in
4.1 Globalization of MNCs and International Trade
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4.1.7 Examples of MNCs Dilemma
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4.2 Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
4.2.2 Importance and Need for Business Ethics r
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4.3 Environmental Ethics
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4.4 Sustainable Development Goals
m

)A

4.5 Manufacturing Ethics and Marketing Ethics
(c



Notes
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in
4.6 Ethics Pertaining to Disciplines
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4.6.2 Ethical Issues in Bioethics
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)A
(c

Unit - 4.1: Globalization of MNCs and International Notes
e
Trade
in
In this unit, we will discuss about:
nl
●● The need of ethical conduct for businesses that work on the global level.
●● The requirements of working in a diverse workspace.
O
●● Issues faced by global business and how to improve global business ethics.

Globalization means integration of countries through commerce, transfer of
ty
technology, and exchange of information and culture. In a way, it includes acting
together and interacting economies through trade, investment, loan, development
schemes and capital across countries.
si
In a different sense, these flows include knowledge, science, technology, skills,
culture, information, and entertainment, besides direct human resource, tele-work, and
outsourcing.
r
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This interdependence has increased the complex tensions and ruptures among the
nations. For the managers, the issues such as multinational organizations, computer,
internet functions and environmental ethics have assumed greater importance for their
very sustenance and progress.
ni
International business has become an important economic force during the second
half of the 20th century. With more countries reducing trade barriers, the number of
firms affected by international competition is increasing every day. Many MNCs have
U
subsidiaries, affiliates and joint venture partners in most of the developing countries.

ity
Many factors have come to play a facilitating role in recent times to promote and
foster international trade. These are:
1. Falling trade barriers

2. Political reforms have opened-up new frontiers
m
3. More developing nations joining the bandwagon of global business

4. Emergence of new technologies and businesses spanning continents
)A

The two perspectives of corporations doing business are:
●● Ethnocentric perspective, where in corporations doing business consider

(c
the country of their origin as the major source of their capital, revenues and
personnel and the home country’s laws as dominant.
●● Geocentric perspective, where in firms develop managers at all levels
from a worldwide pool of talent and seek to use the best people for all jobs
Notes
e
regardless of where they come from.
in
Organizations who have established business in more than one country, are called
multinational corporations. The headquarters are in the home country and the business
nl
is extended in many host countries.
“Multinational corporations” are business entities that operate in more than one
country. While still maintaining a domestic identity and a central office in the country
O
where it was incorporated, a multinational corporation now aims to maximize its profits
on a worldwide basis. The corporation is so large and extended that it may be outside
the control of a single government. Besides subsidiaries, a multinational corporation
may have joint ventures with individual companies, either in its home country or foreign
ty
countries.
si
The Western organizations doing business in the less economically developed
(developing, and overpopulated) countries gain the advantage of inexpensive labor,
availability of natural resources, conducive-tax atmosphere, and virgin market for the
r
products. Organizations who have established business in more than one country, are
ve
called multinational corporation. The headquarters are in the home country and the
business is extended in many host countries.
The ethical disturbances like, loss of jobs for the home country, and loss or
exploitation of natural resources, political instability for the host countries are some
ni
of the threats of globalization. At the same time, the developing countries are also
benefited by fresh job opportunities, jobs with higher remuneration and challenges,
transfer of technology, and several social benefits by the wealth developed. But this
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happens invariably with some social and cultural disturbance in the ethical norms.
Issues faced by multinational corporations:
1. Maximize profits
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2. Meet customer demands

3. Adapt to technological change
4. Be aware of trends and events in various countries where they operate
m
5. Be accountable

)A
The key global issues for business are:
1. Employment dilemma
2. Sustainable practices and values

(c
3. Trust, honesty and transparency
4. Collaboration and partnerships for action

A few principles enlisted here must be followed and should respect the basic
Notes
e
human rights of the people of the host countries. These are:
1. The activities of the MNCs should give economic and transfer technical
in
benefits and implement welfare measures of the workers of the host countries.
2. The MNCs must respect the laws and political set up, besides cultures and
promote the cultures of the host countries.
nl
3. The MNCs should provide a fair remuneration to the employees of the host
countries.
O
4. MNCs should provide necessary safety for the workers when they are
engaged in hazardous activities and ‘informed consent’ should be obtained
from them.
The economic and environmental conditions of the home and host countries may
ty
vary. The multinational institutions must adopt appropriate measures not to disturb
or dislocate the social and living conditions and cultures of the home countries. If the
remuneration is high as that of home country, this may create tensions and if it is too
si
low it will lead to exploitation. Adequate compensation should be paid to them for the
additional risks undertaken.
4.1.7 Examples of MNCs Dilemma r

ve
MNCs sometimes face dilemmas linked to operations in countries with
governments accused of violating human rights. Few examples are:
1. In the 1970s, Polaroid stopped selling equipment to the government in

apartheid South Africa when it learned that cameras were used to make IDs
ni
for the surveillance of dissidents.

2. In 1993, Levi Strauss and Co. cancelled contracts in China due to the
systematic violation of human rights perpetrated by the government.
U
3. More recently, Google accepted the Chinese government’s request to censor

keywords like Tiananmen Square and Dalai Lama in its search engine. The
CEO Eric Schmidt stated: “I think it is arrogant to enter a country where we
ity
are starting our operations and tell the country how to govern itself”

As businesses expand internationally, they must not only understand an
m
organization’s mission, vision, goals, policies and strategies but also must consider the
legal and ethical issues in international business.
Ethical issues in International Trade:

)A
1. Employment Practices
If work conditions in a host nation are clearly inferior to those in a multinational’s
home nation, should companies apply:
(c
●● Home country standards

●● Host country standards

●● Something in between
Notes
e
2. Human Rights
in
In developed countries, basic human rights such as freedom of association,
freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of movement are taken for
granted. In other countries, these rights may not exist.
nl
3. Environmental Pollution
Ethical issues arise when environmental regulations in host nations are far inferior
to those in the home nation. Environmental questions take an added importance
O
because some parts of the environment are a public good that no one owns, but
anyone can spoil. The tragedy of the commons occurs when a resource held in
common by all, but owned by no one, is overused by individuals, resulting in its
ty
degradation.
4. Corruption
si
In US, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act outlawed the practice of paying bribes to
foreign government officials in order to gain business. The Convention on Combating
Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions adopted by
r
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) obliges member
states to make the bribery of foreign public officials a criminal offence.
ve
5. Moral Obligations
Social responsibility refers to the idea that business people should take the social
consequences of economic actions into account when making business decisions, and
ni
that there should be a presumption in favor of decisions that have both good economic
and good social consequences. People argue that businesses need to recognize their
noblesse oblige and give something back to the societies that have made their success
U
possible.

ity
All multinational corporations should follow these practices for improving global
business ethics.
●● Inflict no intentional or direct harm

●● Produce better than bad for the host country
m
●● Contribute to host country’s development

●● Respect the human rights of their employees
)A
●● Respect local culture beliefs that do not violate moral norms

●● Cooperate with the government to develop and enforce background
institutions
Summary
(c
●● In this unit, we have discussed about the requirement of ethical conduct when
businesses are being run in various countries by various MNCs across the globe.

Self-Assessment Questions
Notes
e
1. Obeying the law of the home country is a business’s __________.
a. right
in
b. choice
c. economic responsibility
nl
d. legal responsibility
Ans: (d)
O
2. State True or False: Falling trade barriers and emergence of new technologies and
business models have contributed to promotion of international trade.
a. True
ty
b. False
Ans: (a)
3. Ethical dilemmas in the form of __________ may occur where a manager takes a
si
bribe or kickback or extraordinary gift in return for making the decision favorable to
the gift giver.
a. Discrimination
b. Sexual harassment.
r
ve
c. Conflicts of interest.
d. Customer confidence.
Ans: (c)
ni
4. Which of the following best describes a diverse workforce?

a. A company hires white men and women to work for their company.
U
b. company hires only women because they are part of a protected workforce
c. A company hires only African Americans because they are part of a protected
workforce.
ity
d. A business hires men, women and people of different races, religions, and
backgrounds
Ans: (d)
m
5. State True or False: Ethnocentrism considers the culture of all countries equal and
is the approach where managers are drawn from all the countries in which the MNC
operates.
)A
a. True
b. False
Ans: (b)
(c

Unit - 4.2: Business Ethics and Corporate Governance

Notes
e
in
●● Importance of ethical practices in a business
nl
●● The concept and need of corporate governance
O
Business ethics is the application of general ethical ideas to business behaviour.
It is based on the principle of integrity and fairness and concentrates on the benefits
to the stakeholders, both internal and external. Stakeholder includes those individuals
ty
and groups without which the organization does not have an existence. It includes
shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, dealers, vendors, government and the
society.
si
4.2.2 Importance and Need for Business Ethics
A business organization competes in the global market on its own internal
r
strength, in particular, on the strength of its human resource and on the goodwill of its
stakeholders.
ve
The value-based management and ethics that an organization uses in its
governance enables it to establish productive relationship with its internal customers,
and lasting business relationship with its external customers.
ni
Real type situations (Tata Steel and Infosys) show that use of ethical practices in
business creates high returns for companies.
U

Managers must observe the following ethical values while performing their duties:
●● Impartiality
ity
●● Responsiveness to public interest

●● Accountability
●● Honesty
m
●● Transparency
●● Integrity
)A

“Corporate governance is not just corporate management; it is a much broader
concept and includes a fair, efficient and transparent administration to meet certain well-
defined objectives. It is a system of structuring, operating and controlling a company
(c
with a view to achieving long-term strategic goals to satisfy shareholders, creditors,

employees, customers and suppliers and complying with the legal and regulatory
requirements, apart from meeting environmental and local community needs. When it

is practised under a well-laid out system, it leads to the building of a legal, commercial
Notes
e
and institutional framework and demarcate the boundaries within which these functions
are performed.”
in
From the Academic Point of View:
“Corporate governance addresses problems that result from the separation of
nl
ownership and control.”
From the Angle of Developed Versus Developing Countries:
O
“In developing economies, one must look to supporting institutions – for
example, shoring up weak judicial and legal systems in order to better enforce
contracts and protect property rights.
– John D. Sullivan
ty
Narrow Versus Broad Perceptions of Corporate Governance:
Corporate Governance… is defined narrowly as the relationship of a company to its
si
shareholders or, more broadly, as a relationship to society.

●●
r
Distinguishing the roles of the board and the management
ve
●● Composition of the board and related issues
●● Separation of the roles of the CEO and the chairperson
●● Should the board have committees
ni
●● Appointments to the board and directors’ re-election

●● Directors’ and executives’ remuneration
U
●● Disclosure and audit

●● Protection of shareholder rights and their expectations
●● Dialogue with institutional shareholders
ity
●● 10. Should investors have a say in making a company socially responsible

corporate citizen

m
Managements usually have an information advantage over others. Good corporate

governance will ensure all stakeholders interests are protected, while their requirements
are fulfilled. Investors prefer companies with good corporate governance. Also, the
)A
Shareholders are prepared to pay a premium for a company with good corporate
governance practices. Corporate values, codes, internal control systems etc. are useful
to ensure flow of capital for combating corruption, stakeholder protection, ensuring
industrialization and economic development. Benefits of good corporate governance
to a corporation culture within the organization and industry improves shareholder
(c
confidence.
A good and effective corporate governance:

1. Ensure flow of capital for combating corruption, stakeholder protection,

Notes
e
ensuring industrialization and economic development.
2. Improves shareholder confidence.
in
3. Well governed companies get a premium for their stocks.
4. Enhancement of a corporation’s competitive advantage.
nl
5. Preventing fraud and malpractices.
6. Providing protection to shareholders’ interest.
7. Creates additional shareholder value over time.
O
8. Enhancing the valuation of an enterprise.
9. Ensuring compliance of laws and regulations.
ty
Summary
In this unit, we have discussed about:
si
○ The idea of business ethics and code of conduct that must be followed by
managers.
○ The issues of corporate governance and its relevance in the current time and
age. r
ve
Self-Assessment Questions:
1. Which of the following regarding corporate governance is correct?
a. Corporate governance can hamper growth of the company.
ni
b. Good corporate governance can result in excessive risk-taking.

c. Corporate governance often results in ineffective decision-making.
U
d. Corporate governance aims to protect the interests of shareholders and the

local economies.
Ans: (d)
ity
2. State True or False: As businesses exist primarily for profit making, they need not
bother about transparency and responsibility to public interest.
a. True
b. False
m
Ans: (b)
3. Unethical behavior in business can be reduced if management does all of the
)A
following, except
a. establishes clear policies on unethical behavior.
b. limits opportunities for unethical behavior.
c. establishes formal rules and procedures.
(c
d. punishes unethical behavior firmly.

e. depends totally on employees’ personal ethics.
Ans: (e)
Notes
e
4. Which of the following are stakeholders of a business?
a. Employees but not shareholders
in
b. Management but not employees
c. Shareholders, employees, customers, and management
nl
d. Shareholders but not employees
Ans: (c)
O
5. State True or False: When the top management of a company follows the concept
of corporate governance, they ensure that shareholders interests are protected and
the company comply with law and regulations .
a. True
ty
b. False
Ans: (a)
r si
ve
ni
U
ity
m
)A
(c

Unit - 4.3: Environmental Ethics

Notes
e
in
●● ethical decisions to be taken by individuals and businesses with respect to
nl
environment.
O
Environmental ethics are the application of ethical standards to relationships
between human and non-human entities. They are hard to resolve as it all depends on
the person’s ethical standards, and also on the person’s domain of ethical concern.
ty
There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the
si
environment, like:
●● Should humans continue to clear cut forests for the sake of human
consumption?
●● r
Why should humans continue to propagate its species, and life itself?
ve
●● What environmental obligations do humans need to keep for future
generations?
●● How should humans best use and conserve the space environment to secure
and expand life?
ni
●● What role can Planetary Boundaries play in reshaping the human-earth

relationship?
U

With the emergence of several theories, several environmental ethics have
emerged. While some protect human beings, others protect plants, animals and other
ity
elements of nature. The types include:
●● Social ecology: Social ecology, which is the study of human beings and their
relation to their environment.
●● Deep ecology: Deep ecology promotes that all beings have an intrinsic value.
m
●● Ecofeminism: Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism that helps us look at earth

as a woman so that we can respect it in a better way.
)A

Reinhardt suggests five different approaches to managing environmental issues:
1. Investing in environment friendly processes or products.
2. Managing environmental regulations.
(c
3. Investing in environmental performance improvement, without increasing costs.

4. Combining all the three methods mentioned above to change the basis for
Notes
e
competition.
5. Looking at environmental issues from a risk management perspective.
in
There are several reasons why those managing business are becoming
nl
increasingly conscious of environmental issues:
●● For management morale
O
●● To cut waste
●● Benefits arising from pollution prevention
●● Advantages of taking a proactive stance towards environmental regulation
ty
●● Savings through pollution prevention measures
●● Increased fear of environmental damage
These are some major steps organizations are doing for environmental
si
conservation:
●● ‘Green design’ of products

●● Production of environment-friendly products, packages, and processes
●● Eco-labelling
r
ve
●● Coordination with environmental advocacy groups and government regulators
Summary
●● In this unit, we have discussed about why environmental ethics is crucial and how
ni
businesses can contribute towards safeguarding the natural environment.
U
1. Which of the following describes an ecologically sustainable organization?

a. A company conducts business to meet the needs of current customers without
compromising future generations’ ability to live
ity
b. A business operates inconsistently with the principles of sustainable

development
c. A company cuts corners to avoid embracing safety, health and environmental
regulation
m
d. A business treats society as their dumpsite for manufacturing waste

Ans: (a)
)A
2. State True or False: Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism that helps us look at earth
as a woman so that we can respect it in a better way.
a. True
b. False
(c
Ans: (a)

3. Which among the following can NOT be considered the reason for business becoming
Notes
e
increasingly conscious of environmental issues:
a. To cut waste and cost in the production process
in
b. Advantages of taking a proactive stance towards environmental regulation
c. Savings through pollution prevention measures
nl
d. Decreased consumer trust due to eco-conscious practices
Ans: (d)
4. State True or False: Some of the reasons why businesses are becoming conscious
O
of environmental issues include reduced wastage and savings through pollution
prevention measures.
a. True
ty
b. False
Ans: (a)
si
5. Choose the option that does not reflect an ethical decisions with respect to the
environment?
a. Should humans continue to clear cut forests for the sake of human
consumption? r
ve
b. Why should humans continue to propagate its species ?
c. What environmental obligations do humans need to keep for future
generations?
ni
d. How should humans best earn money and increase economic prosperity?
Ans: (d)
U
ity
m
)A
(c

Unit - 4.4: Sustainable Development Goals

Notes
e
Learning Objectives
in
●● The idea of sustainable development and related goals
nl
●● What are Millennial Development goals
O
At the beginning of the new millennium, in 2000, world leaders gathered at the
UN to shape a broad vision to fight poverty in its many dimensions. That vision was
translated into 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDG framework has
ty
guided development work across the world for the past 15 years.
MDGs 2000-2015
r si
ve
ni
U

ity
Significant achievements have been made to combat poverty through MDGs, but
still many people are being left behind:
1. Gender inequality persists

m
2. Big gaps exist between:

The poorest and richest households
Rural and urban areas
)A
3. Climate change and environmental degradation undermine any progress

achieved; poor people suffer the most
4. Conflict remains the biggest threat to human development
5. Millions of people still live-in poverty and hunger, without access to basic
(c
services


Notes
e
The 17 main goals of sustainable development 2030 focus on the 5 Ps:
●● People: the wellbeing of all people
in
●● Planet: protection of the earth’s ecosystems
●● Prosperity: continued economic & technological growth
nl
●● Peace: securing peace
●● Partnership: improving international cooperation
These five aspects are interdependent. Therefore, the SDGs demand integrated
O
thinking as well as integrated approaches to achieving the goals
The focus on People:
ty
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
si
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
r
opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
ve
The focus on the Planet and on Prosperity:
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
ni
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and
productive employment and decent work for all
U
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable

industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
ity
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Do consumption with great care as a responsible citizen
13. Take corrective climate action
m
14. Respect and save life under water, save fishes and mammals living under
water
15. Respect and save life on land, animals and birds from getting extinct
)A
The focus on Peace

16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development,
provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive
(c
institutions at all levels
The focus on Partnerships

17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership
Notes
e
for sustainable development
in
For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: Government, Private
Sector, Civil Society, People like you and us. Some popular examples of corporate
nl
houses working for sustainable development are:
Reckkit Benckiser “Nutrition India Program” in Amravati and Nandurbar districts of

Maharashtra
O
ty
r si
ve
ni
U
ity
m
Summary
)A
●● In this unit, we have discussed about why sustainable development is important

for the welfare of the planet, people and businesses.
(c
1. How are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) described in the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development?

a. They are Goals to be applied in certain countries.

Notes
e
b. They are universal guidelines, applicable to all countries while respecting
national contexts.
in
c. They imply a mandatory and international set of development models.
Ans: (b)
nl
2. The 8 Millennium Development Goals include:
a. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
b. Promote gender equality and empower women.
O
c. Improve paternal health.
d. All the above
ty
e. Only a and b
Ans: (e)
3. State True or False: Reckkit Benckiser in their “Nutrition India Program” work on the
si
nutrition requirement of athletes playing for Maharashtra.
a. True
b. False r
ve
Ans: (b)
4. The goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include 5 Ps, except:
a. People: the wellbeing of all people
ni
b. Planet: protection of the earth’s ecosystems

c. Peace: securing peace
d. Pandemic: eradicate Covid from the earth
U
5. State True or False: As SDGs involve global goals for sustainable development, it is
only the role of governments to implement them and individuals have absolutely no
contribution to make.
ity
a. True
b. False
Ans: (b)
m
)A
(c

Unit - 4.5: Manufacturing Ethics and Marketing Ethics

Notes
e
in
●● The idea of manufacturing ethics and the need of good practices in marketing of
nl
products
O
Marketing plays a major role in running a business model effectively and efficiently.
●● Positive role of marketing

●● Negative role of marketing
ty
●● Voluntary adherence to high marketing ethics
●● Ethics due to market compulsions
si
●● Shift from emphasis on products to process

r
Marketing ethics as a right or wrong action: Marketing ethics means a standard by
ve
which a marketing action may be judged ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. It can also be defined as how
moral standards are applied to marketing decisions, behaviour, and institutions.
●● Ethics and law

ni
●● Effect of time
●● Tacit and explicit codes of ethics
U

●● Corrupt governments
●● Archaic laws
ity
●● Lax implementation of existing laws

●● Lackadaisical consumers
●● Lack of competition
m
●● Very few independent monitors

)A
●● In product development
●● In pricing
●● In placing (distribution)
●● In promotion (advertising)
(c
●● In other promotional activities (i.e., excluding advertising)

Beyond the Four Ps

Notes
e
Marketing ethics goes beyond the four Ps discussed above. A few are mentioned
here under:
in
1. Keeping information about the stakeholders confidential.
2. Follow ethical standards in marketing research/ intelligence.
nl
●● TOMS isn’t just engaged in corporate philanthropy to make a quick buck; it’s a
O
core part of the company’s values and brand.
●● TOMS was founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006 following a trip to Argentina.
●● During his visit, Mycoskie saw firsthand how people living in impoverished areas
ty
of Argentina had to live without shoes, a challenge that many of us likely give little
thought.
●● Inspired by his trip, Mycoskie decided to establish his company with giving in mind.
si
●● Since 2006, TOMS’ footwear business has donated more than 60 million pairs of
shoes to children in need all over the world.
●●
r
TOMS’ eyewear division has given more than 400,000 pairs of glasses to visually
impaired people who lack access to ophthalmological care.
ve
●● They further have diversified their operations to include clean water initiatives
through its coffee business, and its line of bags has helped support projects to
expand access to birthing kits to expectant mothers in developing nations as well
as training for birth attendants.
ni
How Does TOMS Use Ethical Marketing?

●● TOMS puts its social and environmental philanthropy on full display in virtually
U
every aspect of its branding.

●● This not only lets potential customers know the kind of company they’re
dealing with right off the bat, but also reinforces TOMS’ brand values
ity
consistently across all channels.

●● Look at TOMS’ homepage. Right underneath the carousel, the company tells
you that, for every product you purchase, TOMS will help someone in need.
OMS’ mission is so central to the company’s branding, it’s given almost equal
m
emphasis on its website as the products it sells. In fact, it’s almost impossible to
navigate through TOMS’ site without seeing further examples of how TOMS helps
people around the world.
)A
This isn’t a typically cynical attempt to capitalize on empty gestures or a feel-good

sales tactic; it’s the same principle leveraged by brands that use display advertising.
Just as many display ads are designed to promote brand awareness and achieve
top-of-mind presence among consumers, TOMS’ philanthropic mission is constantly
reinforced throughout its website and marketing materials. As a result, it’s almost
(c
impossible to think of TOMS as a brand without thinking of the company’s various

outreach projects and corporate giving initiatives.


Notes
e
The view that because manufacturers are in a more advantaged position and
consumers must rely on them, they have a duty to take special care to ensure that
in
consumers’ interests are not harmed by the products that they offer them.
Manufacturer’s Duties in Due Care Theory
nl
In designing product:
1. research its risks in conditions of use
O
2. design it so risks are minimized
3. take capacities of users into account
ty
In production:
1. use strict quality control to eliminate defects
2. ensure materials and manufacturing do not add defects or risk
si
In marketing:
1. provide users with information about using product safely
2. warn of all dangers
r
ve
3. do not market to those unable to avoid risk
Summary
ni
●● In this unit, we have discussed about what are marketing ethics and what are the
duties of a manufacturer while producing products.
U
1. True or False: Ethics in marketing includes keeping information about the stakeholders
confidential and following certain standards in marketing research/ intelligence.
a. True
ity
b. False
Ans: (a)
2. Exploitation of consumer interest will NOT include which of the following:
m
a. Profiteering
b. Competitive Pricing
)A
c. Misleading Ads
d. Black-marketing
Ans: (b)
3. True or False: According to the Due Care theory the consumers are in a more
(c
advantaged position and manufacturers must rely on them, therefore, they have a
duty to take special care to ensure that manufacturers’ interests are not harmed.

a. True
Notes
e
b. False
Ans: (b)
in
4. Which of the following can be considered as manufacturers’ duty while designing the
product?
nl
a. Research its risks in conditions of use.
b. Design it so risks are minimized.
c. Take capacities of users into account.
O
d. All of the above.
Ans: (d)
ty
5. True or False: The enterprise TOMS isn’t just engaged in corporate philanthropy to
make a quick buck; it’s a core part of the company’s values and brand.
a. True
si
b. False
Ans: (a)
r
ve
ni
U
ity
m
)A
(c

Unit -4.6: Ethics Pertaining to Disciplines

Notes
e
in
In this unit, you will be able to understand
● The Importance of Ethical Conduct in Life Sciences, in the field of journalism and
nl
media.
● Understand what elements of corporate wars can be unethical.
● Understand the role and responsibilities of an ethical hacker.
O
● You will be able to understand why ethical conduct is important for professionals
working in the legal field as well as in the field of teaching.
ty
Bioethics is the application of ethics to the field of medicine and healthcare.
Ethicists and bioethicists ask relevant questions more than provide sure and certain
si
answers. Professionals working in the field of bioethics include philosophers, scientists,
health administrators, lawyers, and anthropologists.
4.6.2 Ethical Issues in Bioethics r

ve
Following are some of the ethical issues in Bioethics:
●● IPR Infringement
●● IPR protection
ni
●● Physician patient relationship

●● Death and dying
U
●● Resource Allocation
●● Assisted reproductive techniques and their use
●● Genetic testing and screening
ity
●● Clinical research ethics

●● Consent, vulnerability, and/or coercion
●● Mental health illness, treatments, and care for patients
m
●● Ethical treatment of research subjects in clinical trials

)A
The ethics are essentially the self-restraint to be practiced by the journalists

voluntarily, to preserve and promote the trust of the people and to maintain their own
credibility and not betray the faith and confidence of the people.
The press is an indispensable pillar of democracy. It purveys public opinion and

(c
shapes it. Parliamentary democracy can flourish only under the watchful eyes of the
media. Media not only reports but acts as a bridge between the state and the public.

Ethical dilemmas have always existed in Media, but the Internet and social media are
Notes
e
presenting new challenges.
Code of Ethics for Media
in
The media all over the world has voluntarily accepted that code of ethics should
cover at least the following areas of conduct:
nl
●● Honesty and fairness;
●● Duty to provide an opportunity to reply to critical opinions as well as to critical
factual reportage;
O
●● Appearance as well as reality of objectivity; some codes prohibit members of
the press from receiving gifts;
●● Respect for privacy;
ty
●● Duty to distinguish between facts and opinion; Duty not to discriminate or to
inflame hatred on such grounds as race, nationality, religion, or gender;
●● General standards of decency and taste;
si
●● Duty not to prejudge the guilt of an accused and to publish the dismissal of
charges against or acquittal of anyone about whom the paper previously had
reported that charges had been filed or that a trial had commenced.

r
ve
Ethical hacking involves an authorized attempt to gain unauthorized access to a
computer system, application, or data. Carrying out an ethical hack involves duplicating
strategies and actions of malicious attackers. This practice helps to identify security
ni
vulnerabilities which can then be resolved before a malicious attacker can exploit them.
Also known as “white hats,” ethical hackers are security experts that perform these
assessments. The proactive work they do helps to improve an organization’s security
U
posture. With prior approval from the organization or owner of the IT asset, the mission
of ethical hacking is opposite from malicious hacking.
Types of Hackers
ity
The practice of ethical hacking is called “White Hat” hacking, and those who
perform it are called White Hat hackers.
In contrast to Ethical Hacking, “Black Hat” hacking describes practices involving

security violations.
m
The Black Hat hackers use illegal techniques to compromise the system or destroy
information.
)A
Four Key Protocols Hacking Experts Follow:
●● Stay legal
●● Define the scope
●● Report vulnerabilities
(c
●● Respect data sensitivity

Ethical Hacker: Roles and Responsibilities

Notes
e
●● An ethical hacker must seek authorization from the organization that owns the
system.
in
●● Determine the scope of their assessment and make known their plan to the
organization.
●● Report any security breaches and vulnerabilities found in the system or network.
nl
●● Keep their discoveries confidential.
●● Erase all traces of the hack after checking the system for any vulnerability.
O
Legal ethics refers to the code of conduct regulating and instructing behavior of
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persons within the legal profession. This definition covers not only the nature of the
interaction of the lawyer with the client but is recognized to include the duty owed to the
wider population.
si
The duties and obligations also extend to legal educators who are charged with the
mandate of offering legal education to the public without discrimination, paralegals, and
private investigators.
Importance of Legal Ethics

r
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1. An enforced code of conduct is vital in ensuring the credibility of the practitioners and
legal system.
2. Often lawyers and other legal practitioners are faced with conflicting interests from
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the clients they represent, society at large and personal interests.

3. Legal ethics are therefore important in helping the lawyer to navigate the delicate
balance of these interests and work to promote the greatest good.
U
4. Ethics also serve to safeguard the interests of the client being represented and
ensure they receive service without discrimination.
ity

Since codes of ethics are determined by various bodies and associations formed
for that purpose, the codes are varied from place to place, as are the disciplinary
measures were taken. However, there are some common malpractices that apply
m
across the board. These include:
1. Neglect and lack of communication

2. Misappropriation of client’s funds
)A
3. Conflict of interest
4. Malpractice
5. Solicitation
(c


Notes
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Corporate Wars are conflicts between mega-corporations. Corporate warfare may
include methods of industrial espionage, spreading disinformation, leaking confidential
in
information and damaging a company’s information systems. The intention is largely to
destabilise or sink the value of the rival company for financial gain, or to steal trade
secrets from them.
nl
Why doing a business seems like a war?
Doing a business sometimes resembles a war-like situation because of the

following reasons:
O
●● Take care of the market forces
●● Business works on strategies
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●● One needs to create a force
●● One cannot always be fair in business
Corporate War between APPLE & SAMSUNG
si
Almost 14 years ago, Steve Jobs began the modern smartphone industry with
the launch of the iPhone. While Apple dominated the cellphone industry, the Android
r
platform struggled with an equal alternative. Three years later, Samsung reached
success with the release of the Galaxy. From that point on, it was clear that there was
ve
a smartphone rivalry between Apple and Samsung, and till today it has held true. While
other good smartphones erupted and faded away, these two phones remained stable.

ni
●● Teachers play a huge role in student’s lives and form a major influencing factor for
them right from the childhood.
U
●● Apart from imparting academic knowledge, the mentors are also responsible for
inculcating invaluable life lessons in their students.
●● To set a positive example, teachers must follow an ethical code of conduct to show
professionalism.
ity
●● Those ethics ensure that these educational guides remain unbiased while doing
their job and fulfill their objective of providing uncompromising education.
Moral Principles Teachers Must Observe in Class:

m
1. Being with students

2. Safety for all students
)A
3. Commitment towards Profession

4. Cooperating with all colleagues
5. Interaction with parents & community
(c
Summary
In this unit, we have discussed about:

●● Globalization of MNCs
Notes
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●● Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
●● Corporate Wars
in
●● Teaching Ethics
●● Marketing and Manufacturing Ethics
●● Journalism and Media Ethics
nl
●● Sustainable Development Goals
●● Environmental Ethics
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●● Ethical Hacking
●● Bio Ethics
●● Legal Ethics
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1. True or False: Oftentimes, Lawyers and other legal practitioners are faced with
conflicting interests from the clients they represent, society at large and personal
si
interests.
a. True
b. False r
ve
Ans: (a)
2. Agree or Disagree: As per the accepted standards of conduct, journalists should
inflate and sensationalize the news stories as this attracts audiences to their platform.
ni
a. Agree
b. Disagree
Ans: (b)
U
3. True or False: Black Hat hackers carry out an ethical hack duplicating strategies and
actions of malicious attackers. This practice helps to identify security vulnerabilities
which can then be resolved before a malicious attacker can exploit them.
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a. True
b. False
Ans: (b)
m
4. _______ is the right granted by a government to an inventor to prevent others from

the commercial use of his invention.
a) Piracy
)A
b) Ethics
c) Biosafety
d) Patents
(c
Ans: (d)

5. Why is ethical conduct expected from teachers?

Notes
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a. To set a positive example
b. To ensure impart of quality education
in
c. Teachers are responsible for inculcating invaluable life lessons in their
students
nl
d. All of the above
Ans: (d)
O
ty
r si
ve
ni
U
ity
m
)A
(c

Module - 5: Name of Module: Research Ethics and

Notes
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Academic Integrity
in
Structure:
5.1 Best Practices in Research / Standards Setting Initiatives and Guidelines
nl
O
5.2 Academic Misconduct
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5.2.2 Fabrication
5.2.3 Falsification
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5.2.4 Plagiarism
5.3 Redundant Publication r
ve
5.3.3 Redundant Publication and Salami Slicing: the Significance of Splitting
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Data
5.4 Violation of Publications Ethics, Authorship, And Contributor Ship
5.4.1 Authorship
U

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5.5 Using Plagiarism Software
5.5.1 Plagiarism
m

)A

5.6 Complaints and Appeals
5.6.2 Case 2: Author displays bullying behavior towards handling editor
(c
5.6.3 Case 3: Editor and Reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work.
5.6.4 Other Case:
Unit - 5.1: Best Practices in Research / Standards

Notes
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Setting Initiatives and Guidelines
in
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●● Determine best research practices
●● Understand the academic misconducts
O
●● Understand redundant publications and their violation
●● Interpret the usage of plagiarism software
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Research publishing depends, to a great extent, on trust. It occurs in an
environment of powerful intellectual, financial, and sometimes political interests that
may collide or compete.
si
Good research and editing manage these interests and foster a sustainable and
efficient publishing system, which will benefit academic societies, publication houses,
r
editors, authors, research funders, readers, and publishers. Good publication practices
do not develop by chance, and will become established only if they are actively
ve
promoted.
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access

Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the
ni
World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) are scholarly organizations that promote
quality researches and its publication.
U

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is committed to educating and supporting
editors, publishers and those involved in publication ethics with the aim of moving
the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become a normal
ity
part of the publishing culture. The approach is firmly in the direction of influencing
through education, resources and support of our members, alongside the fostering of
professional debate in the wider community.
Conceived by just 3 editors in 1997, COPE is now a fully multidisciplinary

m
international organisation with more than 12,000 members worldwide – primarily

editors, but also publishers and some related organisations and individuals. COPE
provide resources and support to all their members on all aspects of publication ethics
)A
and, in particular, on how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct that
arise at their journals. COPE does not investigate individual cases but encourages
editors to ensure that cases are investigated by the appropriate authorities (usually a
research institution or employer). All COPE members are expected to follow the Codes
of Conduct for Journal Editors and Publishers.
(c

COPE has an objective to:

Notes
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●● Extend the range of our resources to meet the needs of all members,
irrespective of discipline, and develop new resources to meet the needs of
in
universities and producers of non-journal scholarly products.
●● Carry out a targeted campaign to increase and extend awareness of COPE
across all sectors, disciplines and geographical areas, in particular those
nl
where they are currently underrepresented, as well as within the current
membership.
●● Be more responsive to ethical issues in scholarly work and its publication as
O
and when they arise.
Measures taken by COPE:

1. Delivered educational resources on publication ethics in various languages
ty
including English, Spanish and Chinese that are used by universities.
2. Created educational resources that are actively used by editors and
publishers beyond STEM disciplines, specifically in the arts, humanities, social
si
sciences, computer sciences and technology based disciplines.
3. Developed resources that meet the needs of producers of non-journal
r
scholarly products, such as book publishing and conference proceedings.
ve
4. Increase awareness of COPE among the current membership by the creation
of focused and relevant communications across different mediums and
channels.
5. Increase annual usage of all of COPE’s resources year on year.
ni
6. Increase membership in all disciplines, with a specific focus on increasing

membership in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and the computer
sciences and technology based disciplines.
U
7. Increase membership from all regions, with a specific focus on increasing

membership from China (excluding Hong Kong), South Asia and South
America after providing educational resources to help support them and
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ensure that they meet membership requirements.

8. Representation on Council from: universities; arts and humanities disciplines;
South America and South Asia.
9. Annually review emerging trends in publication ethics, and provided a report
m
for the benefit of the members.

10. Review and streamlined the COPE structure, processes and procedures, to
enable COPE to respond more quickly to external drivers.
)A
Core Practices of COPE:

The Core Practices were developed in 2017, replacing the Code of Conduct. They
are applicable to all involved in publishing scholarly literature: editors and their journals,
publishers, and institutions. The Core Practices should be considered alongside specific
(c
national and international codes of conduct for research and are not intended to replace
these.

Journals and publishers should have robust and well described, publicly
Notes
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documented practices in the following areas for their journals:
1. Allegations of misconduct - Journals should have a clearly described
in
process for handling allegations, however they are brought to the journal’s or
publisher’s attention. Journals must take seriously allegations of misconduct
pre-publication and post-publication. Policies should include how to handle
nl
allegations from whistle-blowers.
2. Authorship and Contributorship - Clear policies, that allow for transparency
around who contributed to the work and in what capacity, should be in place
O
for requirements for authorship and Contributorship as well as processes for
managing potential disputes.
3. Complaints and appeals - Journals should have a clearly described process
for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or
ty
publisher.
4. Conflicts of interest / Competing interests - There must be clear definitions of
conflicts of interest and processes for handling conflicts of interest of authors,
si
reviewers, editors, journals and publishers, whether identified before or after
publication.
r
5. Data and reproducibility - Journals should include policies on data availability
and encourage the use of reporting guidelines and registration of clinical trials
ve
and other study designs according to standard practice in their discipline.
6. Ethical oversight - Ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to,
policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations,
ni
ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using

human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing
practices.
U
7. Intellectual property - All policies on intellectual property, including copyright

and publishing licenses, should be clearly described. In addition, any costs
associated with publishing should be obvious to authors and readers.
Policies should be clear on what counts as prepublication that will preclude
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consideration. What constitutes plagiarism and redundant/overlapping

publication should be specified.
8. Journal management - A well-described and implemented infrastructure is
essential, including the business model, policies, processes and software for
m
efficient running of an editorially independent journal, as well as the efficient

management and training of editorial boards and editorial and publishing staff.
9. Peer review processes - All peer review processes must be transparently
)A
described and well managed. Journals should provide training for editors and
reviewers and have policies on diverse aspects of peer review, especially
with respect to adoption of appropriate models of review and processes for
handling conflicts of interest, appeals and disputes that may arise in peer
review.
(c
10. Post-publication discussions and corrections - Journals must allow debate

post publication either on their site, through letters to the editor, or on an

external moderated site, such as PubPeer. They must have mechanisms for
Notes
e
correcting, revising or retracting articles after publication
in
The DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) was launched in 2003 with 300
open access journals. Currently, this independent database contains over 16,500 peer-
nl
reviewed open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine,
social sciences, arts and humanities. Open access journals from all countries and in all
languages are included in the database.
O
Many libraries, publishers and other like-minded organisations financially support
DOAJ. Supporting DOAJ demonstrates a firm commitment to open access and the
infrastructure that supports it.
ty
DOAJ is a co-author to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in
Scholarly Publishing that provide the basis of the DOAJ basic criteria for inclusion.
The mission of the DOAJ is:
si
●● To curate, maintain and develop a source of reliable information about open
access scholarly journals on the web;
●● r
To verify that entries on the list comply with reasonable standards; to increase
the visibility, dissemination, discoverability and attraction of open access
ve
journals;
●● To enable scholars, libraries, universities, research funders and other
stakeholders to benefit from the information and services provided;
ni
●● To facilitate the integration of open access journals into library and aggregator
services; to assist, where possible, publishers and their journals to meet
reasonable digital publishing standards; and
U
●● To thereby support the transition of the system of scholarly communication

and publishing into a model that serves science, higher education, industry,
innovation, societies and the people.
Through this work, DOAJ will cooperate and collaborate with all interested parties
ity
working toward these objectives.
DOAJ promotes principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing

by prescribing guidelines to the open access journals, such as:
m
●● Website - A journal’s website, including the text that it contains, shall

demonstrate that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional
standards. It must not contain information that might mislead readers or
)A
authors, including any attempt to mimic another journal/publisher’s site.

An ‘Aims & Scope’ statement should be included on the website and the
readership clearly defined. There should be a statement on what a journal
will consider for publication including authorship criteria (e.g. not considering
multiple submissions, redundant publications) to be included. ISSNs should
(c
be clearly displayed (separate for print and electronic).

●● Name of journal - The Journal name shall be unique and not be one that is

easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors
Notes
e
and readers about the Journal’s origin or association with other journals.
●● Peer review process - Journal content must be clearly marked as whether
in
peer reviewed or not. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual
manuscripts from reviewers expert in the field who are not part of the journal’s
editorial staff. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s
peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web
nl
site, including the method of peer review used. Journal websites should not
guarantee manuscript acceptance or very short peer review times.
●● Ownership and management - Information about the ownership and/or
O
management of a journal shall be clearly indicated on the journal’s website.
Publishers shall not use organizational or journal names that would mislead
potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal’s owner.
ty
●● Governing body - Journals shall have editorial boards or other governing
bodies whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included
within the journal’s scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s
editorial board or other governing body shall be provided on the journal’s
si
website.
●● Editorial team/contact information - Journals shall provide the full names and
r
affiliations of the journal’s editors on the journal’s website as well as contact
information for the editorial office, including a full address.
ve
●● Copyright and Licensing - The policy for copyright shall be clearly stated in
the author guidelines and the copyright holder named on all published articles.
Likewise, licensing information shall be clearly described in guidelines on the
website, and licensing terms shall be indicated on all published articles, both
ni
HTML and PDFs. If authors are allowed to publish under a Creative Commons
license then any specific license requirements shall be noted. Any policies
on posting of final accepted versions or published articles on third party
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repositories shall be clearly stated.

●● Author fees - Any fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing
and/or publishing materials in the journal shall be clearly stated in a place that
is easy for potential authors to find prior to submitting their manuscripts for
ity
review, or explained to authors before they begin preparing their manuscript

for submission. If no such fees are charged that should also be clearly stated.
●● Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research
misconduct - Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify
m
and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has

occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/
fabrication, among others. In no case shall a journal or its editors encourage
)A
such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the

event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation
of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal, the
publisher or editor shall follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing
with allegations.
(c
●● Publication Ethics - A journal shall also have policies on publishing ethics.

These should be clearly visible on its website, and should refer to: i) Journal

policies on authorship and contributorship; ii) How the journal will handle
Notes
e
complaints and appeals; iii) Journal policies on conflicts of interest / competing
interests; iv) Journal policies on data sharing and reproducibility; v) Journal’s
policy on ethical oversight; vi) Journal’s policy on intellectual property; and vii)
in
Journal’s options for post-publication discussions and corrections.
●● Publishing schedule - The periodicity at which a journal publishes shall be
clearly indicated.
nl
●● Access - The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available
to readers and whether there are associated subscription or pay per view fees
shall be stated.
O
●● Archiving - A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access
to the journal content (for example, access to main articles via CLOCKSS or
PubMedCentral) in the event a journal is no longer published shall be clearly
ty
indicated.
●● Revenue sources - Business models or revenue sources (eg, author fees,
subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational
si
support) shall be clearly stated or otherwise evident on the journal’s website.
Publishing fees or waiver status should not influence editorial decision
making.
●● r
Advertising - Journals shall state their advertising policy if relevant, including
what types of adverts will be considered, who makes decisions regarding
ve
accepting adverts and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior
(online only) or are displayed at random. Advertisements should not be related
in any way to editorial decision making and shall be kept separate from the
published content.
ni
●● Direct marketing - Any direct marketing activities, including solicitation of

manuscripts that are conducted on behalf of the journal, shall be appropriate,
well targeted, and unobtrusive. Information provided about the publisher or
U
journal is expected to be truthful and not misleading for readers or authors.

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Established in 1995, WAME is a global nonprofit voluntary association of editors

of peer-reviewed medical journals who seek to foster cooperation and communication
among editors; improve editorial standards; promote professionalism in medical
editing through education, self-criticism, and self-regulation; and encourage research
on the principles and practice of medical editing. WAME develops policies and
m
recommendations of best practices for medical journal editors and has a syllabus for
editors that members are encouraged to follow.
)A
The objectives of WAME are as given:

●● To facilitate worldwide cooperation and communication among editors of peer-
reviewed medical journals;
●● To improve editorial standards, to promote professionalism in medical editing
(c
through education, self-criticism and self-regulation;

●● To encourage research on the principles and practice of medical editing.

The aim of members of WAME is to be dedicated to high ethical and scientific

Notes
e
principles in the pursuit of the following common goals:
●● To publish original, important, well-documented peer-reviewed articles on
in
clinical and laboratory research;
●● To provide continuing education in basic and clinical sciences to support
informed clinical decision making;
nl
●● To enable physicians to remain informed in one or more areas of medicine;
●● To improve public health internationally by improving the quality of medical
care, disease prevention and medical research;
O
●● To foster responsible and balanced debate on controversial issues and
policies affecting medicine and health care;
●● To promote peer review as a vehicle for scientific discourse and quality
ty
assurance in medicine and to support efforts to improve peer review;
●● To achieve the highest level of ethical medical journalism;
●● To promote self-audit and scientifically supported improvement in the editing
si
process;
●● To produce publications that are timely, credible and enjoyable to read;
●● To forecast important issues, problems and trends in medicine and health
care; r
ve
●● To inform readers about non-clinical aspects of medicine and public health,
including political, philosophic, ethical, environmental, economic, historical
and cultural issues;
●● To recognize that, in addition to these specific objectives, a medical journal
ni
has a social responsibility to improve the human condition and safeguard the
integrity of sciences.
U

OASPA is a trade association that was established in 2008 in order to represent the
interests of Open Access (OA) publishers globally across all disciplines. By encouraging
ity
collaboration in developing appropriate business models, tools and standards to

support OA publishing, OASPA aims to help ensure a prosperous and sustainable
future for the benefit of its members and the scholarly communities they serve. This
mission is carried out through exchanging information, setting standards, advancing
models, advocacy, education, and the promotion of innovation.
m
Every year OASPA holds a conference which brings together policy makers,
funding Agencies, library information specialists and key figures in the open access
publishing community. This event provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and
)A
sharing of information, and for highlighting best practices and innovation within the
industry. OASPA also holds a series of webinars and twitter chats on key topics in OA
publishing which are made available to the wider community.
(c

Unit - 5.2: Academic Misconduct

Notes
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in
Research misconduct means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing,
performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.
nl
(a) Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
(b) Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or
changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately
O
represented in the research record.
(c) Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results,
or words without giving appropriate credit.
ty
(d) Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion.
5.2.2 Fabrication
si
In scientific inquiry and academic research, data fabrication is the intentional
misrepresentation of research results. As with other forms of scientific misconduct,
it is the intent to deceive that marks fabrication as unethical, and thus different from
r
scientists deceiving themselves. There are many ways data can be fabricated.
ve
Experimental data can be fabricated by reporting experiments that were never
conducted, and accurate data can be manipulated or misrepresented to suit a desired
outcome. One of the biggest problems with this form of scientific fraud is that “university
investigations into research misconduct are often inadequate, opaque and poorly
ni
conducted. They challenge the idea that institutions can police themselves on research
integrity.”
Sometimes intentional fabrication can be difficult to distinguish from unintentional

U
academic incompetence or malpractice. Examples of this include the failure to account

for measurement error, or the failure to adequately control experiments for any
parameters being measured.
ity
Fabrication can also occur in the context of undergraduate or graduate studies

wherein a student fabricates a laboratory or homework assignment. Such cheating,
when discovered, is usually handled within the institution, and does not become a
scandal within the larger academic community.
m
5.2.3 Falsification
Note that “Falsification” and “Fabrication” are not always easy to distinguish.
Fabrication is making up data, so reporting on experiments that never happened or
)A
patients that never existed. Falsification is different in that an experiment might have
taken place, but that some measurements were altered. Although the definitions appear
to be very different, the reuse of an image to represent two different experiments could
be interpreted as either falsification (changing data) or as fabrication (making up data).
(c
For now, I will file these under falsification.
Here are some examples of research falsification; but again, note that several of
these might also be interpreted as fabrication.
●● Removing an outlier from a series of measurements.

Notes
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●● Changing a measurement to make it look higher or lower.
●● Adjusting the brightness of one particular gel band, but not the other bands in the
in
same photo.
●● Adding error bars to single measurements to suggest multiple measurements were
performed.
nl
●● Re-using the same Western blot (either in the same orientation, or mirrored,
rotated, or stretched) to represent a different experiment.
O
●● Showing two overlapping microscopy images to represent 2 different experiments.
●● Presenting data as if derived from cell line A while it was obtained from cell line B.
●● Duplicating some cells on a photo to make it look like a treatment resulted in a
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higher cell density.
5.2.4 Plagiarism
si
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or
without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.
All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic
r
form, is covered under this definition. Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or
ve
unintentional.
Forms of plagiarism
1) Verbatim (word for word) quotation without clear acknowledgement
ni
Quotations must always be identified as such by the use of either quotation marks
or indentation, and with full referencing of the sources cited. It must always be apparent
to the reader which parts are your own independent work and where you have drawn
U
on someone else’s ideas and language.
2) Cutting and pasting from the Internet without clear acknowledgement
Information derived from the Internet must be adequately referenced and included
ity
in the bibliography. It is important to evaluate carefully all material found on the Internet,
as it is less likely to have been through the same process of scholarly peer review as
published sources.
3) Paraphrasing
m
Paraphrasing the work of others by altering a few words and changing their order,
or by closely following the structure of their argument, is plagiarism if you do not give
due acknowledgement to the author whose work you are using.
)A
A passing reference to the original author in your own text may not be enough;
you must ensure that you do not create the misleading impression that the paraphrased
wording or the sequence of ideas are entirely your own. It is better to write a brief
summary of the author’s overall argument in your own words, indicating that you are
(c
doing so, than to paraphrase particular sections of his or her writing. This will ensure
you have a genuine grasp of the argument and will avoid the difficulty of paraphrasing

without plagiarising. You must also properly attribute all material you derive from
Notes
e
lectures.
4) Collusion
in
This can involve unauthorised collaboration between students, failure to attribute
assistance received, or failure to follow precisely regulations on group work projects.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you are entirely clear about the extent of
nl
collaboration permitted, and which parts of the work must be your own.
5) Inaccurate citation
O
It is important to cite correctly, according to the conventions of your discipline. As
well as listing your sources (i.e. in a bibliography), you must indicate, using a footnote
or an in-text reference, where a quoted passage comes from. Additionally, you should
not include anything in your references or bibliography that you have not actually
ty
consulted. If you cannot gain access to a primary source you must make it clear in your
citation that your knowledge of the work has been derived from a secondary text (for
example, Bradshaw, D. Title of Book, discussed in Wilson, E., Title of Book (London,
si
2004), p. 189).
6) Failure to acknowledge assistance
r
You must clearly acknowledge all assistance which has contributed to the
production of your work, such as advice from fellow students, laboratory technicians,
ve
and other external sources. This need not apply to the assistance provided by your
tutor or supervisor, or to ordinary proofreading, but it is necessary to acknowledge other
guidance which leads to substantive changes of content or approach.
ni
7) Use of material written by professional agencies or other persons
You should neither make use of professional agencies in the production of your
work nor submit material which has been written for you even with the consent of the
U
person who has written it. It is vital to your intellectual training and development that
you should undertake the research process unaided. Under Statute XI on University
Discipline, all members of the University are prohibited from providing material that
could be submitted in an examination by students at this University or elsewhere.
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8) Auto-plagiarism
You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted
(partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification of this, or
m
any other, university, unless this is specifically provided for in the special regulations for
your course. Where earlier work by you is citable, ie. it has already been published, you
must reference it clearly. Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be
considered to be auto-plagiarism.
)A
Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity. It is a principle of intellectual honesty

that all members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the
originators of the ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work.
Passing off another’s work as your own is not only poor scholarship, but also means
(c
that you have failed to complete the learning process. Plagiarism is unethical and can
have serious consequences for your future career; it also undermines the standards of
your institution and of the degrees it issues.

Notes
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There are many reasons to avoid plagiarism. You have come to university to learn
to know and speak your own mind, not merely to reproduce the opinions of others - at
in
least not without attribution. At first it may seem very difficult to develop your own views,
and you will probably find yourself paraphrasing the writings of others as you attempt
to understand and assimilate their arguments. However it is important that you learn
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to develop your own voice. You are not necessarily expected to become an original
thinker, but you are expected to be an independent one - by learning to assess critically
the work of others, weigh up differing arguments and draw your own conclusions.
Students who plagiarise undermine the ethos of academic scholarship while avoiding
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an essential part of the learning process.
You should avoid plagiarism because you aspire to produce work of the highest
quality. Once you have grasped the principles of source use and citation, you should
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find it relatively straightforward to steer clear of plagiarism. Moreover, you will reap the
additional benefits of improvements to both the lucidity and quality of your writing. It is
important to appreciate that mastery of the techniques of academic writing is not merely
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a practical skill, but one that lends both credibility and authority to your work, and
demonstrates your commitment to the principle of intellectual honesty in scholarship.
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Unit - 5.3: Redundant Publication

Notes
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A publication is called redundant when:
1) A published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published
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more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment
of the source/cross-referencing/justification, or,
2) When the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one
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publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is
done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the
findings have been published before.
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Duplicate publication includes the text in an article, but it also includes figures
and data sets previously published. If an author uses a figure in an article published
in a blog, an abstract, another journal article, a teaching file, or published lecture
notes, that figure may have a copyright associated with it or it at the very least it has
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been published. This figure could be a graph or drawing produced by the author or a
radiology image. Once it has been published, it cannot be included in a future article
without acknowledgement and for most peer review journals, the ability to assign the
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copyright to that figure to the journal accepting the manuscript for publication. If the
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author uses a dataset for an article, that dataset has been published. Different parts of
the dataset can be used for subsequent articles but not the prior published dataset.

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The ‘slicing’ of research that would form one meaningful paper into several different
papers is called ‘salami publication’ or ‘salami slicing’. Unlike duplicate publication,
which involves reporting the exact same data in two or more publications, salami slicing
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involves breaking up or segmenting a large study into two or more publications. These
segments are referred to as ‘slices’ of a study.
As a general rule, as long as the ‘slices’ of a broken up study share the same
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hypotheses, population, and methods, this is not acceptable practice. The same ‘slice’
should never be published more than once.
The reason is that salami slicing can result in a distortion of the literature by leading
unsuspecting readers to believe that data presented in each salami slice (i.e., journal
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article) is derived from a different subject sample. This not only skews the ‘scientific
database’ but it creates repetition that wastes readers’ time as well as the time of
editors and reviewers, who must handle each paper separately. Further, it unfairly
inflates the author’s citation record.
)A
Most journals request that authors who either know or suspect a manuscript
submitted for publication represents fragmented data should disclose this information,
as well as enclose any other papers (published or unpublished) that might be part of the
paper under consideration.
(c

5.3.3 Redundant Publication and Salami Slicing: the Significance of

Notes Splitting Data
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When researchers are under pressure to constantly increase the number of
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publications to their name, there is a temptation to split one set of results, or data set,
into many articles.
Though alluring, this is generally considered unethical practice.
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Whilst not such a serious problem as fraud or plagiarism, such over publishing
wastes the time of editors and reviewers (refereeing multiple articles, etc.), and may
mislead the readers as well as waste their time.
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Producing many articles from a moderately sized research project might give it
undue significance – something which could initially appear beneficial to the research
team responsible.
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But splitting the data into segments may also affect the statistical significance of
each part and possibly undermine the findings themselves, thus changing an important
result into several moderately interesting results.
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Such splitting of results to produce multiple papers is called redundant publication
or salami slicing, and is sometimes derisively described as the least publishable unit.
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‘Nobody is well served by the practice of reporting the same study in two journals,
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publishing a review of the same subject nearly simultaneously in two journals, or
splitting a study into two or more parts and submitting each to separate journals.’
The redundant publication is sometimes supported by justifiable reasons for

redundant publication; for example, wishing to reach different audiences, a desire for a
ni
longer discussion on one aspect of the results, restrictions in the standard article word
count, and so on.
It is very difficult to estimate the prevalence of redundant publication (or

U
redundancy), as the basic plagiarism checking tools will often not find it.
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) places emphasis on citation in

their definition of redundant publication: The COPE states that ‘When the same (or
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substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without

adequate cross referencing or justification, reviewers and readers are unlikely to realise
that most or all the findings have been published before.’
Authors must decide how best to write up their research, where to submit it, and
m
which audiences they want to reach.
Authors could decide to split their data into several articles rather than one3 and
their decision may be valid and reasonable. However, they should have a good reason
)A
for their decision and be prepared to declare it. If they are not prepared to do this, then
unfortunately it will be assumed that there was no good reason.
Also, if they do not cite the other works based on the same research, this implies a
certain amount of duplicity and even a wish to mislead the readers.
(c

Authors need to carefully consider their publication strategy and consider both long
Notes
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and short term repercussions. Redundant publication or salami slicing might appear
immediately rewarding, but in the longer term may undermine a reputation – and
without due acknowledgement can directly harm it.
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Unit - 5.4: Violation of Publications Ethics, Authorship,

Notes
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And Contributor Ship
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5.4.1 Authorship
Naming authors on a scientific paper ensures that the appropriate individuals get
nl
credit, and are accountable, for the research. Deliberately misrepresenting a scientist’s
relationship to their work is considered to be a form of misconduct that undermines
confidence in the reporting of the work itself.
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While there is no universal definition of authorship, an “author” is generally
considered to be an individual who has made a significant intellectual contribution to the
study.
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According to the guidelines for authorship established by the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), “All persons designated as authors
should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.”
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●● Substantial contribution to the study conception and design, data acquisition,
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analysis, and interpretation.
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●● Drafting or revising the article for intellectual content.
●● Approval of the final version.
●● Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work related to the accuracy or
integrity of any part of the work.
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The following are some general guidelines, which may vary from field to field:
●● The order of authorship should be “a joint decision of the coauthors”.

●● Individuals who are involved in a study but don’t satisfy the journal’s criteria for
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authorship, should be listed as “Contributors” or “Acknowledged Individuals”.

Examples include: assisting the research by providing advice, providing research
space, departmental oversight, and obtaining financial support.
●● For large, multi-center trials, the list of clinicians and centers is typically published,
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along with a statement of the individual contributions made.

●● Some groups list authors alphabetically, sometimes with a note to explain that all
authors made equal contributions to the study and the publication.
)A

Three types of authorship are considered unacceptable:
●● “Ghost” authors, who contribute substantially but are not acknowledged (often paid
(c
by commercial sponsors);

●● “Guest” authors, who make no discernible contributions, but are listed to help
Notes
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increase the chances of publication;
●● “Gift” authors, whose contribution is based solely on a tenuous (weak and
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unconvincing) affiliation with a study.
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When not appropriately addressed, authorship issues can lead to dispute.
●● Some disputes are based on misconduct (such as lying about one’s role);
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●● Some stem from questions of interpretation, such as the degree to which a
person’s contribution can be considered “substantial,”
●● Being involved in a study, but not listed as an author or contributor;
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●● Somebody taking someone else’s idea and publishing a paper claiming full
authorship;
●● And an author finding his name on a publication without his permission or consent.
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Unit - 5.5: Using Plagiarism Software

Notes
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5.5.1 Plagiarism
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Plagiarism defined as the act of taking or attempting to take or to use (whole or
parts) of another person’s works, without referencing or citing him as the owner of this
work.
nl
It may include direct copy and paste, modification or changing some words of the
original information from the internet books, magazine, newspaper, research, journal,
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personal information or ideas.
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Plagiarism detection or content similarity detection is the process of locating
instances of plagiarism and/or copyright infringement within a work or document.
The widespread use of computers and the advent of the Internet have made it
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easier to plagiarize the work of others.
Plagiarism checker tools are an incredibly effective way of reviewing the essays or
theses for any case that can be a symbol of plagiarism.
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A wide range of software are available to the researchers who take their academic
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work seriously and want to make no mistake.

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Plagiarism checker tools are an incredibly effective way of reviewing the essays or
theses for any case that can be a symbol of plagiarism.
A wide range of software are available to the researchers who take their academic
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work seriously and want to make no mistake. These software application aims to:
●● Verifying Originality- In this case, when you are given a piece of content from
an unknown origin, whether an essay, a new article, poem, etc, and you need to
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check and see if the work is original.

●● Tracking Content Misuse – Through effective use of plagiarism tools, a content
creator can track if his authentic content is misused by others in their published
researches.
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●● In-Depth Plagiarism Analysis- The situation where one already suspects the work
of being a plagiarism and the checker needs to confirm the suspicions.
)A

Some of the important advantages of plagiarism checkers for researchers:
1. Plagiarism checkers offer more resources

(c
Most researchers choose to cross-check their work on the Internet using a search
engine, line by line. Plagiarism checkers, therefore, provide more references and wider
cross-reference repositories. Books and articles that are not accessible online are often

included in repositories with plagiarism programs that cannot be found through simply
Notes
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copying and pasting in Google.
Many scanners also look for a vast library of other researchers’ past submissions.
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And the next time you think Google is enough to test your work; then think again! Tools
for checking plagiarism utilizes the Internet and more by using its own large database.
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2. Highlighting content makes it easy to find plagiarism
Plagiarism Checker highlights every line or phrase that is already available on the
Internet. You can never miss any plagiarized content in your essay. It gives you details
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about sources of the original content, and by clicking on the given link, it will instantly
take you to the site of source.
3. Provides you specific data on plagiarism
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Plagiarism software often includes a total percentage of comparisons or matches.
When scanning text, it offers teachers a percentage of plagiarism. Universities often
have an agreed standard of percentage that students need to stick to. Therefore,
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students can guarantee that the percentage of similarities is below the required number
by using a plagiarism checker before the research is delivered.
There are sometimes no magic percentages, but a high percentage result leads
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to an investigation. Therefore, a matched percentage check prevents any unwanted
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encounters with your supervisor and eliminates any issues suspected of plagiarism.
Neither one would ever want to be convicted of perceived dishonesty. So why
compromise yourself when you can be confident before you submit your assignments?
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4. Use plagiarism checker instead of paraphrasing all night

Even very intelligent researchere can find paraphrasing very difficult. If you can
use a plagiarism checking software to check thenwhy take the risk of not paraphrasing
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correctly? A plagiarism checker will highlight any material from your work that is similar
to the original text of the author. You can easily locate any plagiarized sentence even if
your content consists of thousands of lines. Therefore you can fix this automatically if
you have not properly paraphrased and quoted the text.
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5. It shows your honesty if you use a plagiarism checker

You can have a printed copy of the plagiarism check that you can provide
as evidence that you’ve taken the necessary precautions for any reason you are
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still questioned by your tutor on certain aspects of your paper. It shows that you are
completely honest by submitting the plagiarism report that you have taken by using a
plagiarism checker tool. If you had any intentions of committing plagiarism, you would
)A
not use a plagiarism checker in the first place, and every teacher or supervisor can
understand that fact.

(c
1) Turnitin:
●● This is a successful Web based tool provided by iParadigms.

●● Once a document is uploaded for plagiarism check, it creates a fingerprint of

Notes
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the document and stores it.
●● In this tool, detection and report generation is carried out remotely.
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●● Turnitin is already accepted by 15,000 Institutions and 30 Million Students due
to easy to use interface, support of large repository, detailed text plagiarism
check and well organized report generation.
nl
●● It can be considered as one of the best plagiarism checkers for teachers.
2) Urkund:
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●● This is another Web based service which carry out plagiarism detection in
server side.
●● This is an integrated and automated solution for plagiarism detection.
●● It is a paid service which uses standard email system for document
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submission and for viewing results.
●● This system claims to process 300 different types of document submissions
and it searches through all available online sources.
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●● It gives more priority to educational sources of documents during searching.
3) Grammarly Online Plagiarism Checker:

●●
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Grammarly is a well-known tool among writers and also who need to quickly
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check if article is original or copied from other places.
●● If you are a professor and need to check if the research paper is original or
copied from multiple sources online, this tool is perfect for you.
●● This is a multi-feature tool for webmasters to check the originality of the
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content, check Grammar, Check the spelling of the article.

●● It is highly recommend tool for plagiarism.
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4) Unicheck:
●● Unicheck is a paid versatile tool for checking the plagiarism.
●● The interface is smooth and it checks the pages really fast.
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●● This is a perfect tool for corporates and professors who don’t mind paying a
little for higher accuracy.
5) Ephorus:
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●● To access this tool, user is to register with the Ephorus site.

●● Hence, no downloads or installation is needed.
●● The search engine compares a text document to millions of others on the Web
)A
and reports back with an originality report.

●● This tool can be freely tried but license needs to be purchased.
●● It is well known in many European Universities and organizations.
There are many more tools available on the internet like copyscape, DOC Cop,
(c
ithenticate, Plagiarism Detect, Safe Assignment, copycatch, exactus etc.

Unit - 5.6: Complaints and Appeals

Notes
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in
●● Mr. X submitted a manuscript (case report) to Journal of Pharmacology and
Pharmacotherapeutics (JPP) on 15/03/13.
nl
●● A decision to send it for revision was taken by JPP on 25/03/13.
●● The author submitted the revised manuscript which was sent back to the author
again for further corrections as the suggestions of the editorial board were not
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complied with.
●● But the author never responded even after sending many reminders.
●● Meanwhile one of the JPP editorial staff accidentally identified an article with the
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same title published in “Journal Y” by the same author.
●● The manuscript was submitted to the above journal on 20/01/13.
●● When the author was questioned he responded after a month by simply sending a
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withdrawal request.
●● Timeline history of submission of Mr. X in “Journal Y” and JPP are as follows:
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Notes
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Outcome:
●● The author submitted a manuscript to JPP when it was under consideration
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elsewhere. This amounted to violation of publication ethics.
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Reference: The case and pictures courtesy https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
articles/PMC4419256/
5.6.2 Case 2: Author displays bullying behavior towards handling

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editor
https://publicationethics.org/case/author-displays-bullying-behaviour-towards-
handling-editor
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Author displays bullying behaviour towards handling editor
Case number: 20-08

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Case text (Anonymised):
A handling editor rejected a paper without review, after consulting with a senior
editor. The corresponding author sent an appeal about 2 weeks later where he
requested that the paper be given a second chance and be sent for peer review. He
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added that, in case of a new decision to reject without review, the editor should provide
a detailed response to a number of questions and comments raised in the appeal
letter. He also mentioned that, in order to illustrate the importance of the study, he had
done a social media poll asking whether the paper in question was more relevant to
)A
the journal’s readership than another paper whose link he provided in the poll and
that had recently been published in the journal. The appeal was also read by another
senior editor and it was agreed to reject the paper again without providing any detailed
explanations as the behaviour was considered borderline bullying.
(c
Three weeks after the second rejection, the corresponding author contacted the
journal expressing his disappointment with the decision and threatened a freedom
of information request to access the correspondence between the editors that led to
the editorial decision. Moreover, he suggested he would be writing about his negative
Notes
e
experience with the journal.
The handling editor perceived this as aggressive and litigious behaviour and
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shared the correspondence with the head of the research section of the journal, who
responded to the author and copied the senior author in the correspondence. The
senior author responded by acknowledging the inappropriate behaviour of the author
nl
and promising to take action internally.
Question(s) for the COPE Forum
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●● Did the journal handle the case appropriately?
●● Could something else or something different have been done?
●● How can this type of situation be prevented?
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Advice:
●● The Forum agreed that the journal behaved appropriately and handled the
case correctly.
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In terms of what the journal could do for future situations, the COPE Audit stresses
the need for an appeals process, and that the process is clearly described in the
author guidelines or on the journal’s website. The journal might wish to look again
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at their instructions to authors and include a statement about the editorial decision
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making process in the appeals process, stating that the associate editors make
recommendations to the editor, if appropriate, and that the final decision rests with the
editor. The journal might also wish to add prominently to the author guidelines that the
deliberations and decisions are, in general, confidential, and that any specific enquiries
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would have to requested formally by a lawyer.
The Forum suggested that in retrospect, perhaps the journal should have involved
the other co-authors, given that it was the corresponding author who made the threats.
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It is possible the co-authors may not have been aware of the corresponding author’s
threats.
Also, with the benefit of hindsight, it is possible that after the author had done the
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social media poll, and was asking for more detail, it might have been possible to de-
escalate the situation by giving more detail on why the appeal was declined.
Another suggested approach was to look at this from the point of view of a difficult
personality with misdirected enthusiasm, someone who does not understand the
m
process well, but is engaged and enthusiastic, who might respond to direction and
education from the journal.
)A
Follow up:
The journal considers the case closed
Resolution:
(c
Case Closed
Year: 2020

5.6.3 Case 3: Editor and Reviewers requiring authors to cite their

Notes own work.
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https://publicationethics.org/case/editor-and-reviewers-requiring-authors-cite-their-
in
own-work
Editor and reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work
nl
Case number: 18-03
Case text (Anonymised):
A staff member in our editorial office noticed a decision letter where a handling
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editor instructed an author to cite an article published by the handling editor. The staff
member wondered if this had happened before and reviewed recent decision letters
by that editor. This revealed a concerning pattern of behaviour—the handling editor’s
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decision letters (including reviewers’ comments) asked authors to add citations of his
work more than 50 times, three times more often than he asked authors to add citation
of work he did not co-author.
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Looking more closely, the handling editor frequently invited the same four
reviewers to review the papers he handled. The requests for added citations sometimes
came from those reviewers, and sometimes from the handling editor alone. The
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handling editor asked for his own papers to be cited more than 20 times and never
personally requested citation of papers that were not his own. The four regular
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reviewers requested citation of the handling editor’s work much more frequently than
they requested citation of papers he had not authored, and most of the citations they
requested that were not the handling editor’s were of papers they themselves had co-
authored.
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In at least one case, an author did not add the citation of the handling editor’s
paper as requested, so the handling editor returned the paper to the author again with
the request that the citation be added. This created concern that he was requiring
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authors to add these citations before he would accept their papers. According to
COPE’s ethics guidelines for peer reviewers, reviewers should “refrain from suggesting
that authors include citations to your (or an associate’s) work merely to increase citation
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counts or to enhance the visibility of your or your associate’s work; suggestions must be
based on valid academic or technological reasons.”
The staff member brought the issue to the journal’s editor-in-chief to see if there
was legitimate scientific reason for these papers to be cited. (Note: in our editorial
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structure, handling editors make final decisions about papers; the editor-in-chief does
not normally review decision letters before they are sent out). After reviewing the papers
in question, the editor-in-chief did not see a reason why these additional citations were
scientifically necessary. The editor-in-chief then consulted with the journal’s editorial
)A
board (handling editors are not part of the editorial board). The editorial board agreed
that they could not see a scientific reason why these citations were requested. The
editor-in-chief and editorial board drafted a letter to the handling editor to ask him to
explain the pattern and why he requested these additional citations. The editorial
board and editor-in-chief agreed to wait until hearing from the handling editor before
(c
contacting the reviewers.

The handling editor responded with a letter that stated that he requested citation of
Notes
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his own work more often than others’ work because he was most familiar with his own
work. He then stated that he found the inquiry from the editorial board to be offensive
and resigned immediately. The editor-in-chief and editorial board decided that the
in
resignation was sufficient and closed the case. In response to this case, the journal staff
have added time to the journal’s annual meeting with the handling editors for review of
editorial ethics, to ensure that all editors are familiar with COPE and the journal’s ethical
nl
standards. The journal’s code of ethics is also included in the handbook provided to all
handling editors, and editors will be asked to sign an agreement stating that they have
read and agree to the code of ethics each year.
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Question(s) for the COPE Forum
●● What if anything should the journal have done differently? Are there other
actions the journal should have taken?
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●● Should the journal have reached out to the reviewers as well, or was reaching
out to the handling editor sufficient?
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●● Do other journals have safeguards in place that would help identify a pattern
such as this one more easily?
Advice:
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The Forum advised that any suggested citations to a paper must advance the
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argument within the article. There can be circumstances where there are genuine
suggestions for additional citations which may improve the quality of the paper, but
these should not be a condition of acceptance. However, this case appears to be a
blatant example of problematic and unethical behaviour. The Forum agreed with the
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actions of the journal and commended the journal in terms of educating their handling
editors. The Forum suggested that the journal may wish to add to their decision letters
that acceptance is not contingent on adding specific references suggested by editors.
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The journal could also review all the decision letters before they are sent out. Although
this could be quite labour intensive, it would prevent these patterns of behaviour in the
future. The journal may also wish to consider providing more education for reviewers
with a reminder of their responsibilities. The editor may wish to share the COPE Ethical
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Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
Follow up:
The journal is working on implementing additional steps in the submission process
to prevent similar issues in the future. The editor considers the case closed.
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Related resource
Spanish version: El editor y los revisores solicitan que se cite su trabajo
)A
Resolution:
Case Closed
Year: 2018
5.6.4 Other Case:

(c
●● Lead author of a research paper disagrees with content of a linked editorial https://
publicationethics.org/case/lead-author-research-paper-disagrees-content-linked-
editorial

●● Editor found guilty of research misconduct

Notes
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https://publicationethics.org/case/editor-found-guilty-research-misconduct
●● Submission of an already published case report
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https://publicationethics.org/case/submission-already-published-case-report
●● Unresponsive authors delaying publication
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https://publicationethics.org/case/unresponsive-authors-delaying-publication
●● Institutional investigation of authorship dispute
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https://publicationethics.org/case/institutional-investigation-authorship-dispute
●● Data manipulation and institute’s internal review

https://publicationethics.org/case/data-manipulation-and-institutes-internal-review
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●● Author accused of stealing research and publishing under their name
https://publicationethics.org/case/author-accused-stealing-research-and-publishing-
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under-their-name
●● Multiple redundant submissions from the same author
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https://publicationethics.org/case/multiple-redundant-submissions-same-author
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Summary
The essential concepts for performing qualitative research include academic
honesty, integrity, and research ethics. Honesty, ethics, openness, responsibility, and
trust in academic and research endeavours are all examples of academic integrity.
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While studying and comprehending current research, the researcher’s originality must
be proven in order to defend one’s own unique material in research reports that might
take the shape of an article, dissertation, or thesis. When creating an essay, it is critical
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to use some already published information with suitable citations and references. To
prevent plagiarism difficulties while writing research articles, it is critical to comprehend
and learn how to ethically write an article.
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It is critical that ethical issues, research conduct, Academic Integrity, Academic/

Research Misconduct, proper citation styles, use of reference management tools,
abstaining from fabrication, falsification, manipulation, or tempering of data, avoiding
unethical practises, understanding plagiarism, and abstaining from fabrication,
falsification, manipulation, or tempering of data be made available. It also takes into
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account considering plagiarism prevention, usage of reference management tools,

Writing and Proofreading Tools and how to properly cite sources.
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Multiple Choice Questions:

1. Research ethics do not include:
a. Honesty
b. Integrity
(c
c. Subjectivity
d. Objectivity
Ans - c
Notes
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2. The non-profit trade association that was established in order to represent the
interests of Open Access publishers
in
a. Open Access Scholastic Publishers Association
b. Directory of Open Access Journals
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c. Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
d. Committee for Open Publication Ethics
Ans - c
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3. The following is beyond the purview of research sponsors:
a. Align regulatory policies with the promotion of research integrity
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b. Promote access to data and code
c. Practice impartiality and transparency in research
d. Promote peer review
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Ans - d
4. Which are the best practices by researchers:
a. Uphold research integrity with vigilance r
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b. Assimilate research integrity into overall culture of the institution
c. Manage research data effectively, responsibly, and transparently
d. Strive to be effective peer reviewer and maintain confidentiality
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Codes:
a. i, ii , iii, and iv
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b. i, iii, and vi
c. ii, iii, and iv
d. i, ii, and iii
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a. Ans - b
5. If the study is based on a data that is never being collected from any sample, it is
called:
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a. Falsification
b. Deception
c. Fabrication
)A
d. Adaptation
Ans - c
6. Which of the following definitions does not entail falsification?
(c
The researcher deliberately conceals research results that do not fit the research
hypothesis The researcher deliberately conceals research results that do not fit the
research hypothesis

a. The researcher deliberately conceals research results that do not fit the
Notes
e
research hypothesis
b. The researcher assembles data that does not exist.
in
c. The researcher over-beautifies existing pictures in the research
d. The researcher unreasonably manipulates the research data.
nl
Ans - b
7. Which of the following is not a form of plagiarism?
a. Omitting or modifying data or sample
O
b. Collusion
c. Inaccurate Citation
ty
d. Verbatim
Ans - a
8. Waste of economic resources, production of deficient products, erroneous
si
procedures, and lack of faith in science are consequences of misconduct that are
a. Research Related
b. Society Related r
ve
c. Personal
d. Economy related
Ans - b
ni
9. Which term refers to publishing several articles from the data collected in one large
study?
a. Duplicate publication
U
b. Salami Slicing
c. Redundant publication
d. Segment publication
ity
Ans - b
10. The possibility of publishing the same material again by altering the results,
represented as a longitudinal study is warranted by:
m
a. Selective Reporting
b. Salami Slicing
)A
c. Misrepresentation
d. Segmented Publishing
Ans - a
(c

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SLM Review Committee

Ms. Nitika Khanna

Ms. Mona Chaudhary

1.5.1 Truthfulness and Confidentiality

1.5.4 Beneficence and Non-maleficence

1.6.1 Philosophy of Action

1.7.2 Ethics Vs Philosophy

Module - 2: Name of Module: Ethics at Work place 30

2.1 Professional Code of Ethics

2.2 Workplace Rights and Responsibilities

3.1.2 Types of Intellectual Property

3.1.5 Nature & Characteristics of Intellectual Property Rights

3.2.2 What is confidentiality in an Organisation?

3.2.6 Unintentional Breach in Confidentiality

3.3.3 Exceptions to Principles of Natural Justice:

3.4.1 Business and Engagement of Minors:

4.2.5 Issues in Corporate Governance

4.3.1 What are Environmental Ethics?

4.3.4 Managing Environmental Issues

4.4.2 Loopholes in MDGs 2000-2015

4.5 Manufacturing Ethics and Marketing Ethics

4.5.4 Areas in Marketing Ethics

5.3.1 Redundant Publication

5.4 Violation of Publications Ethics, Authorship, And Contributor Ship

5.4.3 Guidelines for Authorship and Contributorship

5.5.4 Advantages of using Plagiarism Checker

5.6.2 Case 2: Author displays bullying behavior towards handling editor

Module - 1: Name of Module: Philosophy and Ethics

1.4.1 Moral Issues

1.4.3 Moral Autonomy

1.6.1 Philosophy of Action

1.7.2 Ethics Vs Philosophy

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Unit - 1.1: Introduction To Ethical Philosophy

●● Define what is Ethical Philosophy

1.1.1 What is a Philosophy

investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or

and goodness, as discoverable by human reasoning (Penguin English

1.1.2 Nature of Philosophy

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●● Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of the

this is the only legitimate function of philosophy.

problems remain unsolved.

●● Why is there anything at all?

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1.1.3 Few Important Aspects of Philosophy

1.1.4 Branches of Philosophy

as science, religion or mathematics.

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It is more precisely defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values,

regardless of its consequences.

Epistemologists examine putative sources of knowledge, including perceptual

nature of truth, belief, justification, and rationality.

There are three central questions in this field:

from or how do we know? This is the question of origins.

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multiple particulars, such as redness or a gender. The type of existence, if any, of

Deductive reasoning is when, given certain premises, conclusions are unavoidably

Because sound reasoning is an essential element of all sciences, social sciences

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and humanities disciplines, logic became a formal science. Sub-fields include

In recent years, this branch has become related to cognitive science.