Ethics
Content
A.15 Ethics
Ethics refers to a system of moral principles a sense of right and
wrong, and goodness and badness of actions and the motives and
consequences of these actions. As applied to business firms,
ethics is the study of good and evils, right and wrong and just
and unjust actions of businessmen.
Ethics is a body of principles or standards of human conduct that
govern the behavior of individuals and groups. Ethics arise not simply
from man's creation but from human nature itself making it a natural
body of laws from which man's laws follow.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy and is considered a normative
science because it is concerned with the norms of human conduct, as
distinguished from formal sciences such as mathematics and logic,
physical sciences such as chemistry and physics, and empirical
sciences such as economics and psychology.
Ethics is seen as an individual’s own personal attitude and a
believe concerning what is right or wrong, good or bad. It is
important to note that ethics reside within individuals and that
organization doesn’t have ethics. People have ethics. Consequently,
its definition and understanding varies from person to person.
These are not absolute, but are relative. Ethical behaviors are in the
eye of beholder. What is right or wrong is a personal individual matter,
but is still influenced by socially accepted norms.
Right, and proper and fair are the ethical terms. It expresses a
judgment about behavior towards people they felt to be just. Ethics
are useful tools for sorting out the good and bad components within
complex human interactions. Business ethics does not differ from
generally accepted norms of good or bad practices. If dishonesty is
considers to be unethical and immoral in the society, then any
business man who is dishonest his or her employees, customer’s
shareholders, or competitors is unethical and immoral person.
Businessmen should not try to evolve their own principles to justify
‘what is right and what is wrong’
A.16 Formation of ethics
An individual’s ethics are formulated through the operation of forces
in the individual’s environment. These are discussed in the
succeeding paragraphs.
Family influences
The formation of ethics begins when the individual is a child. Thus the
family environment has a significant influence in determining what the
child learns about good and bad, right and wrong.
Peer influences
As the child develops contacts outside the home through home,
school, play and work, peers exert considerable influence on the
individual’s ethical beliefs.
Experiences
As a person matures and develops as a human being, he or she will
be exposed to many critical experiences that will be affect his or her
ethical standards.
Values and morals
One’s ethical standards are also greatly influenced by values and
morals. People who place high value on money and material
possessions may not have strong ethical standard regarding
behaviors that facilitate the accumulation of that wealth.
Situation Factors
People often change their ethics in response to unknown situational
factors. An employee, who is threatened with loosing a job that has
been held for years, may commit unethical acts in order to save the
job.
Religion
One of the oldest sources of ethical inspiration is religion. More than
1,00,000 different religion exist across the globe .Despite doctrinal
differences, the major religion coverage on the believe that ethics is
an expression of divine will that reveals the nature of right and wrong
in business and others walks of life.
The legal system
Laws are rules of conduct, approves by legislatures, that guide
human behavior in any society .They codify ethical expectations and
change as new evils emerge. But law cannot cover all ethical
expectation of society. Whenever ethics the law codifies, it is binding
on businesses. The society expects businesses to abide by the law.
Obeying the law is presumed to be ethical behavior .Law breaking in
business is common. Taxes are evaded, hundred of employees die
because of occupational disease, many perish because of industrial
accidents, and million others receive disabling injuries on the job. The
blame for these death and injuries had to be shared by employees
and employers who fail to adhere to occupational health and safety
laws. Consumer suffer because of poor quality and high
priced products by the supplied by the businessmen
.Businesses that degrade the environment by disregarding
environment protection laws cause misery to the society.
A.17 IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethics is important to business in general and HR in particular, for
several reasons as stated below:
Ethics corresponds to basic human needs. It is men basic
nature that he desires to be ethical, not only in his private life but
also in his business affairs where, being a manager he knows
that his decisions may affect the life of thousands of employees.
Moreover, most people want to be the part of organization which
they can respect and be proud of, because they perceive its
purpose activities to be honest and beneficial to society. Most HR
manager would like to respond to this need of their employees
and, they (managers) themselves feel an equal need to be
genuinely proud of the company they are directing. These bases
ethical needs compel the organizations to be ethical oriented.
Values create credibility with the public. A company
perceived by the public to be ethical and socially responsive will be
honored ands respected even by those who have no intimate
knowledge of its actual working. There will be an instinctive
prejudice in favour of its products, since people believe that the
company offers value for money. Its public issues will attract an
immediate response.
Valued give the management credibility with its employees.
Values are supposed to be a common language to bring the
leadership and its people together.Organisational ethics, when
perceived by employee as genuine, create common goals, values,
and language. The HR management can have credibility with its
employees simply because it has credibility with the people.
Neither a sound business strategy, nor a generous compensation
policy and fringe benefits can win employee credibility, but
perceived moral and social uprightness can.
Values help better decision making. Another point of great
importance is that an ethical attitude helps the management make
better decisions, that is ,decision which are in the interest of the
public, their employees, and the company’s own long-term good,
even though the decision making is slower. This is so because
respect for ethics will force a management to take various aspecteconomic, social and ethical-in making decision.
Ethics and profit go together. A company which is inspired
by ethical conduct is also profitable. Value-driven companies are
most likely to be successful in long run, though in the short run,
they may lose money.
Law can’t protect society, ethics can. Ethics is important
because, law and lawyer cannot do every thing to protect society.
Technology develops faster than the government can regulate.
People in an industry know the dangers in the particular
technology better than the regulatory agencies.Futher; the
government cannot always regulate all activities which are harmful
to the society. Where law fails, ethics can succeed. An ethicallyoriented management takes measures to prevent pollution and
protect workers health even before being mended by law .An
ethically sound HR manager, who can reach out to agitated
employees, will quell a trouble more effectively than the police.
A.18 Code of ethics
Code of ethics has become popular .Nearly 95 percent of the Fortune
500 companies have codes, and a trend is visible in the corporate
sector in India also.
Industry association have evolved codes of conduct their own. For
example, the council of fair business practices (CFBP) established in
1916, by leading private sector industrialist in western India, and
adopted a code of fair business practices.
The code constitutes a primary level, self regulation character for
enlighten citizenship among business entities. The CFBP has initiated
a set of prizes and awards called ‘Jamnalal Bajaj Uchit Vyavahar
Puraskar’ or(Jamnalal Bajaj prize for fair Business Practices) to
promote exemplary application of the above norms .The CFBP
president claimed that sustained pressure from his council has
resulted in creation of Advertising standards Council of India (ASOI)
and in promulgation of the consumer protection act (CPA) ,1986.The
Federation of Indian chambers of commerce industry (FICCI,which
includes the MNCs)has recently issued a declaration on Norms of
business consisting of ten points. The Punjab, Haryana and Delhi
chamber of commerce has also lately formulated a code of ethics.
Whoever evolves the code, its purpose is to provide guidance to
manager and employees when they face ethical dilemma. The most
effective codes are those drawn up with the cooperation and
widespread participation of employees. An internal enforcement
mechanism, including penalties for violating the codes, adds teeth to
the code.
Code of ethics is guidelines to steer the conduct of both the
organizations and its employees in all business activities. These are
intra and inter organizational in nature and relate to all activities of an
organization and its environment. They provide positive and
productive orientation and direction to the code of business, besides
giving an individual identity to that organization.
Code of ethics provide general guidelines with respect to the values
and ethical standards of the company
Business ethics is concerned with truth and justice and has a variety
of aspects, such as expectation of society, fair completion,
advertising, public relations, social responsibilities, consumer
autonomy, and corporate behaviors with in and with out. A code is a
statement of policies, Principles, or rules that guide behaviors.
A.19 Objectives of code of ethics
A code of ethics aims at the following:
Guidance: It provides direction to the most important element
of an organization namely the “People”, so that they know how
to conduct themselves in terms of ethical behavior and give
them a sense of common identity.
Confidence: It inspires public confidence besides enhancing
the reputation of the organization.
Initiative: it provides initiative and stimulation to the suppliers
and customers for proper conduct by creating a sense of moral
obligation
Ethical culture: It promotes a culture of excellence by not
just formally teaching ethics, but by demonstrating through
leaders the commitment of the organization to ethical behavior.
A.20 Business ethics
Companies, led by top management, are increasingly adopting
ethical codes of conduct. Modern ethics codes aren't just some
simple platitudes set in a break-room plaque. Companies now commit
considerable time and money to illustrate their reliance on ethical
behavior.
Ethical behavior starts at the top. Before a company can expect to be
viewed as ethical in the business community, ethical behavior within
its own walls-to and by employees-is a must, and top management
dictates the mood. Ethical behavior by the leaders of an organization
will inevitably set the tone for the rest of the company-values will
remain consistent. Further, a well-communicated commitment to
ethics sends a powerful message that ethical behavior is considered
to be a business imperative.
Companies are also interested in determining whether ethical
behavior can be measured, just as efficiency and productivity
companies must innovate ways to measure ethical behavior, which in
turn motivates ethical behavior.
Once training, measurement and a new ethical code have been
developed, companies are also hiring full-time ethical compliance
officers, and starting ethics hotlines to report possible policy
violations. Hiring a full-time ethics officer is another signal to
employees that ethical violations will be taken very seriously.
However, this person isn't just a watchdog-they will take a proactive
approach to identifying possible violations before they develop.
Ethics are important not only in business but in all aspects of life
because it is an essential part of the foundation on which of a civilized
society is build. A business or society that lacks ethical principles is
bound to fail sooner or later.
A.21 THE MAJOR PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS
ETHICS:
No discrimination should be done on the basis of caste
,color , and religion,
The polices should be fair and transparent
Proper provision of safety should be provided by the
company to the employees.
There should be proper honesty, loyalty, and integrity in the
employees.
The company’s resources should not be utilized by the
employees for their personal usage
Company should provide better environment condition
Information about employee’s personal lives, health, and
work evaluations should be kept confidential.
Regular measurement of employee satisfaction should by
company.
To neither give nor take any illegal payment, remuneration,
gift, donation, or comparable, benefits to obtain business or
favours.
To comply with all regulations regarding preservation of the
environment.
Employee should report to management any actual or
possible violation of code or an event that could affect the
business or reputation of the employee’s company.
A.21 HR ETHICAL ISSUES
Ethical issues abound in HR activities. Areas of ethical
misconduct in the personnel function include employment,
remuneration and benefits, labour relations, health and
safety, training and development, and HRIS (hr ethical
issues)
Cash and
incentives
Race and
disability
Performance
appraisal
plans
Ethical issues
Employment
issues
Privacy issues
Safety and
health
Restructuring
and layoffs
Cash and incentives plans
This includes base salaries, annual incentive plans, long term
incentive plans, executive perquisites, and separation agreements.
Base salaries- The HR function is often presumed to justify a higher
level of base salaries, or a higher percentage increase than what
competitive practice calls for. In some cases, pressure is exerted to
re-evaluate the position to a higher grade for the purpose of justifying
a larger than normal increase.
Annual incentive plan- The HR manager is often forced to design
and administer top-management incentive plans, at higher raters than
what the individuals deserve. A common rationale presented to the
HR executive for bending the rules is the fear of losing the
outstanding executives, if higher incentives are not paid.
Long-term incentive plan- Just as with annual incentive plan, many
HR executives have the responsibility of designing and administering
the firm’s long term incentive plans, but in consultation with CEO and
an external consultant. Ethical issues arise when the HR executive is
put to pressure to favour top management interests over those of
other employees an investors
Executive perquisites- Executive perquisites make the ethical
standard of the HR executive difficult because their cost is often out
of proportion to the value added. For example a story relates to
Bangalore –based ,losing making public sector undertaking whose
CEO spend 20 lakh to get swimming pool built at his residence.
Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal lends itself to ethical issues. Assessment of
an individual’s performance is based on observation and judgment.
HR manager are expected to observe the performance in order to
judge its effectiveness.
Ethics should be the cornerstone of performance evaluation, and the
overall objective of high ethical performance reviews should to
provide an honest assessment of the performance and mutually
develops a plan to improve the ratee’s effectiveness.
Race, Gender, Age, and Disability
The practice of treatment of employees according to their race, ethnic
origin, sex, or disability has largely been stopped. A framework of
laws and regulations ahs evolved that has significantly improved work
place behavior. No enterprise today dare to publicly state it denies
minorities, woman, and the disable opportunities for employment,
remuneration, and growth prospects different from those given to
others.
In this environment the role of HR function is to:
Monitor the principles and norms of the enterprise to ensure
that they reflect the values of the society as expressed in its
law.
Monitor the selection, rewards, development and, the appraisal
system to ensure that they are consistent with the principles
and norms.
Vigorously pursue violations and, when necessary, vigorously
work to defend the enterprise against unfounded allegations.
Employment Issues
While discrimination and harassment situation receives mort publicity,
HR practitioners are more likely to face ethical dilemmas in the areas
of employee hiring. One challenge commonly encountered is
pressure to hire a relative o a friend of a highly placed executive.
Another area related to employment is that of faked credentials
submitted by a job applicant. While discovery of this kind of
fabrication usually leads to termination of the employment, the choice
becomes difficult when the applicant has a blend of skills set and a
proven track record with his or her previous employers.
Privacy issues
Privacy issues to protecting a person’s private life from intrusive and
unwarranted actions. The employee believes that his or her religious,
political, and social believes as well as personal life style are private
matters and should be safe guarded from being snooped or
analysed.Exceptions are permitted grudgingly only when job
involvement is clearly involved. For example, it may not be
inappropriate to intrude into an employee’s private matter if it is
suspected that he or she discusses with competitor, through email
messages, the specification of newly developed product not yet
launched into the market.
Safety and health
Much of the industrial work is hazardous. This is because of the
extensive use of high speed and noisy machinery, production
processes requiring high temperature, an increasing reliance on
chemical compounds .Accidents, injuries and illnesses are likely to
occur under these circumstances. Over past decade, new categories
of accident and illness have emerged, including the fast growing job
safety problem of office injuries.
Restructuring and Layoffs
Restructuring and consequent layoffs have become relevant because
of poor management, but incompetence does not become unethical.
There are ethical implications in the process by which termination
decisions are made and actions taken. For example if restructuring
requires closing a plant , the process by which that plant is chosen
,how the news will be communicated ,and the time frame for
completing the layoffs are ethically important .If conducted in an
atmosphere of fairness and equity and with dignity of the affected
individuals in mind, the action is ethical.
Ethical Dilemmas
Several ethical dilemmas comfort an HR manager. The ethical
dilemmas arise from three sources-faces to face ethics, policy ethics,
and functional area ethics.
Face to face ethics
These arise mainly because there is a human element in most
business transactions. Business is composed of this human
transaction; it should not be surprising that face to face ethical
dilemmas arise often. It is likely that the quality assurance man
overlooks minor defects and approves a lot delivered by a supplier
because of the personal relationship that the two enjoy.
Corporate policy ethics
Companies are often faced with ethical dilemmas that affect their
operations across all departments and divisions. The consequences
of employment contraction in labour intensive basic industries
because of the improved methods of production .Modern technology
has replaced older methods of production which has in turn resulted
in hundreds being jobless. The ethical burden of deciding corporate
policy matters normally rests upon a company’s HR management.
The Hr manager and directors are responsible for making policies
and implementing them too. The ethical content of their policies can
have enormous impact throughout the company. It can set an ethical
tone and send right signals to all employees as well as external
stakeholder.
Functional area Ethics
Functional area of a business is likely to comfort ethical issues.
Accounting is a critical function of any business. Accounting
statements reveals to the manager and owner the financial
soundness of a company. Managers, investors, regulating agencies,
tax collectors and trade unions rely on accounting data to
makedecisions.Honesty, integrity accuracy are absolute requirements
of the accounting functions. Account standard ensure a high level of
honest an ethical accounting disclosure.
Ethical dilemmas crop up in purchasing departments where strong
pressure is to obtain the lowest possible prizes from suppliers and
where too felt similar need it bag lucrative contracts. Bribes,
kickbacks, and discriminating pricing are temptation to both parties.
Ethics And Law
Laws and ethics have common aim- defining proper and improper
behaviour. But the two are not quite same. Laws are the society’s
attempt to formalize- that is to reduce to written rules- idea about
what is right and what is wrong in various walks of like. However, it is
rarely possible for written rules to capture all the sublet variations that
people give to ethics. Ethical concepts are more complex than writing
rules. Ethics deals with human dilemmas that frequently go beyond
the formal language of laws and the meanings given to legal rules.
Similarities and differences apart, legal rules help promote ethical
behaviour in organization. Some of the acts which seek to ensure fair
business practices in our country are the followings:
The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, now replaced by
FEMA.
The Companies Act, 1956.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969.
The consumer Protection Act, 1986.
The Environment Protection Act, 1986.
The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
Social and ethical accountability
Social and ethical accounting is a process that can help businesses
to stakeholders, and to improve performance, social, environmental
and economic. The process typically links a company’s value to the
development of policies and performance targets and to the
assessment and communication of the performance. In this way and
through engagement with stakeholder social and ethical issues are
tied into a company’s strategic management and operations.
Social and ethical accounting model there is no standard balance
sheet or units of currency. Instead, the are defined by company’s
value and aims by the interests and expectation of its stakeholders,
and by societal norms and deregulations. With the focus on the
concerns of society , the social and ethical accounting framework
implicitly concerns itself with issues as a wide as economic
performance working conditions , environment and animal protection,
human rights, fair trade and ethical trade, human resource
management and community development , and community
development and hence with the sustainability of a company’s
activities.
Companies have begin to open themselves up to their stakeholders,
partly because of the “push” factor of the pressure group activities but
also because the realize that a greater awareness of the impact of
their activities and how they are perceived is necessary to improve
strategic decision making. More and more companies are now
incorporating stakeholder in their decision making processes. Much
of this is, of course, standard business practice talking to customers
and suppliers to identify the issues as they arise to satisfy new needs
and a company realize that it is failing to involve important groups or
there is mistrust or misleading in its relations with stakeholder.
Principle of social and ethical accounting
These principles can be used in designing and managing a process,
or in assessing its quality. The dominant principle of social and ethical
accounting is inclusively. This principle requires that the aspirations
needs of all stakeholder groups are taken into account at all stages of
the social and ethical accounting process.
Other principles can be put into three broad relating to the:
Scope and nature of the company’s social ethical accounting
process.
Meaningfulness of the information created by the process.
Continuous management of the process.
Scope and nature of the process
Completeness- The inclusion in the accounting process of all
appropriate areas of activity relating to an organization’s social
and ethical performance.
Materiality- The inclusion of significant information that is likely
to affect stakeholder groups and their assessment of an
organization’s social and ethical performance.
Regularity and timeliness- The need for regular, systematic
and timely action of the accountings process to support the
decision making of an organization and its stakeholders.
Meaningfulness of information
Quality Assurance- The audit of an organization’s process by
an independent and competent third party. The audit is
concerned with building credibility in the process with all
stakeholder groups, and hence developing meaningful
stakeholder engagement.
Accessibility – Appropriate and effective communication to an
organization’s stakeholders of its accounting process and its
performance.
Comparability- The ability to compare information on an
organization’s performance with previous periods, performance
targets, or external benchmarks drawn from other
organizations, statutory regulation or non statutory norms.
Reliability- The characteristic that allows an organization and
its stakeholders to depend on the information provided by the
accounting to be free from significant error or bias.
Continuous management of the process
Embedded ness, or systems integration- Making the
accounting process part of an organization’s operations,
systems and policy making; that is, not just a one-off exercise to
produce a report.
Continuous improvement- Steps taken to improve
performance in response to the results of the accounting
process.
The Social and Ethical accountability model
Planning
Stakeholder
Engagement
Auditing
And
Accounting
Reporting
Embedding
The generic model of social & ethical accounting includes six
elements in a continuing process that a business undergoes in order
to manage & improve its accountability & performance.
PLANNING- The company commits to the process of social &
ethical accounting, auditing & reporting, & defines & reviews its
values & social & ethical objectives & targets.
ACCOUNTING- The scope of the process is defined,
information is collated & analysed, & performance targets &
improvement plans are developed.
REPORTING- A report
performance is prepared.
on
the
company’s
systems
&
AUDITING- The process of preparing the report & the report
itself are externally audited, & the report is made accessible to
stakeholder in order to obtain feedback from them.
EMBEDDING- To support each of the stages, structure &
systems are developed to strengthen the process & to integrate
it into the company’s activity.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT- The concerns of stakeholder
are addressed at each stage of the process through regular
involvement.
At every stage a company should incorporate useful experience
from the previous cycle- it must be flexible enough to learn &
innovate from the process.
Section 1 – Membership of any class shall be contingent upon
conformance with the established principle of professional Ethics.
Section 2 – Honesty, Integrity, Loyalty, fairness, Impartiality,
Fidelity to trust, and inviolability of confidence are incumbent upon
every member as professional obligations.
Section 3- Members shall not make false, misleading or
unwarranted statements, representation or claims in regards to
professional matters, nor shall they engage in false or deceptive
advertising.
Section 4- Members shall not falsely or maliciously attempt to
injure the reputation of others.
Section 5 – Member shall endeavor to cooperate with others in
profession and shall encourage the ethical dissemination of
geoscientific knowledge.
Literature review
Article 1
Wipro gets PHDCCI's Ethics in Business Award
Our Corporate Bureau
30 November 2002
Mumbai: Wipro has been awarded the “Ethics is Good Business”
award for the Year 2002. The award, instituted by the Punjab,
Haryana and Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI),
recognizes Wipro’s ethics and value-based business performance.
Wipro has compiled an "Integrity Manual" that defines the way
Wiproites should deal with their customers. Wipro has also introduced
a helpline known as “Wipro SOS”. This helpline comprises senior
members of the company, like Chairman Azim Premji, who are
available for guidance on any moral, legal or ethical issues that a
Wiproite may face.
Article 2
Press release, 3 November 2004
Reliance Industries ranks No.2 in 'India's Most Respected
Companies'
Reliance emerges as India's 'Most Dynamic Organization' Reliance
Industries ranks No.2 in 'India's Most Respected Companies' survey India's Most Respected Companies Survey IMRB International Business world, 2004.
RIL is the first and only private sector company from India to feature
in the 2004 Fortune Global 500 list of 'World's Largest Corporations'
and ranks amongst the world's Top 200 companies in terms of profits.
RIL also emerged as the only Indian company in the list of global
companies that create most value for their shareholders.
Article 3
Thursday, 3 September, 1998
Infosys Technologies is chosen Company of the Year
The Economic Times today announced its Awards for Corporate
Excellence, in consonance with its philosophy of recognizing and
celebrating business at its best. The company has arguably
pioneered in India the concept of valuing intellectual capital, and has
aggressively attempted to introduce employee stock options - it,
however, has an employee stock offer plan in place for five years
now. Infosys is expected to be the first Indian company to have its
shares listed on an American stock exchange.
Article4
``Ethics in business has to reflect ethics in society'
Our Bureau
Kolkata, June 22
Mr. S.M. Dutta, Chairman, Castrol India Ltd, and former Chairman of
HLL said that, “Ethics was such an inborn concept that all of it cannot
be contained in our law. Nobody teaches us ethics; no formal
instructions as such, and we are just left to learn it through
experimentation. While admitting that the primary task of business
was to create wealth by adding economic value to society, the
ethical dimension of business has to rest on the three key
aspects of "legitimacy, equitability and transparency".
Article 5
Date: 2005/7/19
Contact person: Mr. Saket Gupta, Supdt. Engineer (E&T)
“ONGC's Communication on Progress on Global Compact ”
Our corporate mission also explicitly requires us to maintain
high standards of business ethics and to enrich the quality of
community life through our commitment to Safety, Health and
the Environment. Because we are a public sector corporation, an
integral part of our business is reaching out to the community. We
have a Corporate Citizenship Policy, administered by our HR
Department. It has its own budget, funded from a percentage of our
profits; the figure is substantial.
Ranbaxy
Founded in 1962, Ranbaxy is India’s largest pharmaceutical
company. The company is now moving from a generic company to a
research oriented company and it is at the same time increasing its
international presence. It manages operations with a high concern
for safety and the environment. It stresses the fact that the
company is a responsible corporate citizen. As a responsible
corporate citizen, Ranbaxy ensures transparency in their dealings
with enforcement agencies, and extends their co-operation to officers
of statutory bodies for the purpose of audits and inspections. The
company also urges its employees to avoid actions or relationships
that might conflict with their job responsibilities, or the interests of
Ranbaxy.As for the environment, it ensures responsible consumption
of natural resources through processes that are eco-friendly.
Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance is India’s largest private sector enterprise and it plays a
major role in India’s petrochemicals sector. Reliance has India’s
largest marketing network and all its brands are market leaders. As
for business ethics practices, Reliance stresses environmental
responsibility. The company has its own set of environmental policies
and the policies are available to the public.
Highlights of its policies are:
Prevent pollution, maximize
discharges and emissions.
recycling,
and
reduce
wastes,
Conserve natural resources by their responsible and efficient use in
all our operations.
Plant trees, develop green belt and promote lush green
surroundings at manufacturing locations to work in harmony with
nature.
Emphasize every employee’s responsibility in environmental
performance; ensure appropriate operating practices and training.
Promote awareness among contractors, suppliers and customers
for shared responsibility towards environment protection.
Infosys
Founded in 1981 by a former socialist, It is located in Bangalore
Infosys has become a well-known player in the software industry
for its ethical business practices and generous treatment of
employees. Its books are open to investors, it offers a stock option
plan to employees, and it was the first Indian company to be listed on
a U.S. stock exchange. "We certainly find it useful to benchmark
ourselves against companies like Infosys," said the chairman of
Hindustan Lever, the Indian subsidiary of personal care products
giant Unilever.
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL)
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, established in 1969, is
the pioneering petrochemical company in India, and one of the
leading petrochemical companies. Its products include polymers,
synthetic fiber, solvents, surfactants, catalysts and adsorbents. The
company is backed by strong R&D and is continuously innovating its
processes and products. Outside its business, the company is
known for its rural development programs. The program sets up
low cost sanitation facilities to rural families and provides
school buildings, books, library furniture, playgrounds, and a
subsidized bus service for school children. It also supports
environmental preservation, constructs primary health centers,
provides ambulances and trains people in primary health care.
Furthermore, IPCL also provides technical assistance to the National
Institute for the Blind and camps for social welfare.
Balrampur Chini Mills Limited
Balrampur is India’s premier sugar company. It maintains a set of
ethical standards and emphasizes the following:
Integrity: "We demand of ourselves and others the highest ethical
standards."
Respect for People: Balrampur contributes its success today to its
people and is committed to treating its people with dignity.
Community: One of the company’s goals is to focus not only on its
earnings but also on its efforts to make the world a better place to
live.
Transparency: Balrampur strives to maintain global standards of
corporate transparency, and to increase shareholder confidence in
management.
Mitsubishi Corporation
Mitsubishi Corporation, one of the major global enterprises, conducts
various businesses in India including marine product trading and
automotive parts. The company is committed to serving the welfare of
world and local communities. The company set up a Committee for
Philanthropy in 1991 to come up with ways to make corporate
responsibility to society a part of the company’s activities. In addition,
the Mitsubishi International Corporation Foundation was also
established to help serve the educational needs of economically
disadvantaged young people. Environmental responsibility is also
an integral part of Mitsubishi’s corporate philosophy. The
company has its own internal environmental guidelines for business
activities and has formulated an Environmental Charter that follows
the international standard for environmental management systems.
Shell’s
Shell’s 2001 annual report provides details of disciplinary action taken
by the company against staff who has breached the company’s code
with regard to bribery.
Reported cases of bribery in Shell
Number of bribes and total value $
1997
0
1998
1
($ 300)
1999
1
($ 300)
2000
0
Bribes offered and/ or
paid by Shell company
employees directly or
indirectly to third parties
Bribes offered and /or
1
($
4,562)
paid by intermediaries,
0+
*
*
contractor employees
directly or indirectly to
third parties.
Bribes solicited and/or
23
4
3
4
accepted by Shell
(small) ($75,000) ($153,000) ($89,000)
company employees
Brides solicited and/ or
accepted by
intermediaries ,
contractor employees or
others
*
*
1
1
(unknown) (Zero)
* Data not available.
+ One Case in which a shell employee used an intermediary to make
payments of us$300 has been included in the vases concerning
company employees.
HONEYWELL
No employee will give, offer or promise to give, or ask or accept
anything of value….. With the following expectations:
Items of a strictly advertising nature (that is, imprinted with the
company’s name……) which are less than $10 in value.
Standard Chartered Bank
Nothing may be given or received which might distort commercial
judgment or harm the Groups reputation….. Any business-related
personal benefits which you or your family give receive must be
reported in writing within three working days to the person to whom
you normally report.
Ethics refers to a system of moral principles a sense of right and
wrong, and goodness and badness of actions and the motives and
consequences of these actions. As applied to business firms,
ethics is the study of good and evils, right and wrong and just
and unjust actions of businessmen.
Ethics is a body of principles or standards of human conduct that
govern the behavior of individuals and groups. Ethics arise not simply
from man's creation but from human nature itself making it a natural
body of laws from which man's laws follow.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy and is considered a normative
science because it is concerned with the norms of human conduct, as
distinguished from formal sciences such as mathematics and logic,
physical sciences such as chemistry and physics, and empirical
sciences such as economics and psychology.
Ethics is seen as an individual’s own personal attitude and a
believe concerning what is right or wrong, good or bad. It is
important to note that ethics reside within individuals and that
organization doesn’t have ethics. People have ethics. Consequently,
its definition and understanding varies from person to person.
These are not absolute, but are relative. Ethical behaviors are in the
eye of beholder. What is right or wrong is a personal individual matter,
but is still influenced by socially accepted norms.
Right, and proper and fair are the ethical terms. It expresses a
judgment about behavior towards people they felt to be just. Ethics
are useful tools for sorting out the good and bad components within
complex human interactions. Business ethics does not differ from
generally accepted norms of good or bad practices. If dishonesty is
considers to be unethical and immoral in the society, then any
business man who is dishonest his or her employees, customer’s
shareholders, or competitors is unethical and immoral person.
Businessmen should not try to evolve their own principles to justify
‘what is right and what is wrong’
A.16 Formation of ethics
An individual’s ethics are formulated through the operation of forces
in the individual’s environment. These are discussed in the
succeeding paragraphs.
Family influences
The formation of ethics begins when the individual is a child. Thus the
family environment has a significant influence in determining what the
child learns about good and bad, right and wrong.
Peer influences
As the child develops contacts outside the home through home,
school, play and work, peers exert considerable influence on the
individual’s ethical beliefs.
Experiences
As a person matures and develops as a human being, he or she will
be exposed to many critical experiences that will be affect his or her
ethical standards.
Values and morals
One’s ethical standards are also greatly influenced by values and
morals. People who place high value on money and material
possessions may not have strong ethical standard regarding
behaviors that facilitate the accumulation of that wealth.
Situation Factors
People often change their ethics in response to unknown situational
factors. An employee, who is threatened with loosing a job that has
been held for years, may commit unethical acts in order to save the
job.
Religion
One of the oldest sources of ethical inspiration is religion. More than
1,00,000 different religion exist across the globe .Despite doctrinal
differences, the major religion coverage on the believe that ethics is
an expression of divine will that reveals the nature of right and wrong
in business and others walks of life.
The legal system
Laws are rules of conduct, approves by legislatures, that guide
human behavior in any society .They codify ethical expectations and
change as new evils emerge. But law cannot cover all ethical
expectation of society. Whenever ethics the law codifies, it is binding
on businesses. The society expects businesses to abide by the law.
Obeying the law is presumed to be ethical behavior .Law breaking in
business is common. Taxes are evaded, hundred of employees die
because of occupational disease, many perish because of industrial
accidents, and million others receive disabling injuries on the job. The
blame for these death and injuries had to be shared by employees
and employers who fail to adhere to occupational health and safety
laws. Consumer suffer because of poor quality and high
priced products by the supplied by the businessmen
.Businesses that degrade the environment by disregarding
environment protection laws cause misery to the society.
A.17 IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethics is important to business in general and HR in particular, for
several reasons as stated below:
Ethics corresponds to basic human needs. It is men basic
nature that he desires to be ethical, not only in his private life but
also in his business affairs where, being a manager he knows
that his decisions may affect the life of thousands of employees.
Moreover, most people want to be the part of organization which
they can respect and be proud of, because they perceive its
purpose activities to be honest and beneficial to society. Most HR
manager would like to respond to this need of their employees
and, they (managers) themselves feel an equal need to be
genuinely proud of the company they are directing. These bases
ethical needs compel the organizations to be ethical oriented.
Values create credibility with the public. A company
perceived by the public to be ethical and socially responsive will be
honored ands respected even by those who have no intimate
knowledge of its actual working. There will be an instinctive
prejudice in favour of its products, since people believe that the
company offers value for money. Its public issues will attract an
immediate response.
Valued give the management credibility with its employees.
Values are supposed to be a common language to bring the
leadership and its people together.Organisational ethics, when
perceived by employee as genuine, create common goals, values,
and language. The HR management can have credibility with its
employees simply because it has credibility with the people.
Neither a sound business strategy, nor a generous compensation
policy and fringe benefits can win employee credibility, but
perceived moral and social uprightness can.
Values help better decision making. Another point of great
importance is that an ethical attitude helps the management make
better decisions, that is ,decision which are in the interest of the
public, their employees, and the company’s own long-term good,
even though the decision making is slower. This is so because
respect for ethics will force a management to take various aspecteconomic, social and ethical-in making decision.
Ethics and profit go together. A company which is inspired
by ethical conduct is also profitable. Value-driven companies are
most likely to be successful in long run, though in the short run,
they may lose money.
Law can’t protect society, ethics can. Ethics is important
because, law and lawyer cannot do every thing to protect society.
Technology develops faster than the government can regulate.
People in an industry know the dangers in the particular
technology better than the regulatory agencies.Futher; the
government cannot always regulate all activities which are harmful
to the society. Where law fails, ethics can succeed. An ethicallyoriented management takes measures to prevent pollution and
protect workers health even before being mended by law .An
ethically sound HR manager, who can reach out to agitated
employees, will quell a trouble more effectively than the police.
A.18 Code of ethics
Code of ethics has become popular .Nearly 95 percent of the Fortune
500 companies have codes, and a trend is visible in the corporate
sector in India also.
Industry association have evolved codes of conduct their own. For
example, the council of fair business practices (CFBP) established in
1916, by leading private sector industrialist in western India, and
adopted a code of fair business practices.
The code constitutes a primary level, self regulation character for
enlighten citizenship among business entities. The CFBP has initiated
a set of prizes and awards called ‘Jamnalal Bajaj Uchit Vyavahar
Puraskar’ or(Jamnalal Bajaj prize for fair Business Practices) to
promote exemplary application of the above norms .The CFBP
president claimed that sustained pressure from his council has
resulted in creation of Advertising standards Council of India (ASOI)
and in promulgation of the consumer protection act (CPA) ,1986.The
Federation of Indian chambers of commerce industry (FICCI,which
includes the MNCs)has recently issued a declaration on Norms of
business consisting of ten points. The Punjab, Haryana and Delhi
chamber of commerce has also lately formulated a code of ethics.
Whoever evolves the code, its purpose is to provide guidance to
manager and employees when they face ethical dilemma. The most
effective codes are those drawn up with the cooperation and
widespread participation of employees. An internal enforcement
mechanism, including penalties for violating the codes, adds teeth to
the code.
Code of ethics is guidelines to steer the conduct of both the
organizations and its employees in all business activities. These are
intra and inter organizational in nature and relate to all activities of an
organization and its environment. They provide positive and
productive orientation and direction to the code of business, besides
giving an individual identity to that organization.
Code of ethics provide general guidelines with respect to the values
and ethical standards of the company
Business ethics is concerned with truth and justice and has a variety
of aspects, such as expectation of society, fair completion,
advertising, public relations, social responsibilities, consumer
autonomy, and corporate behaviors with in and with out. A code is a
statement of policies, Principles, or rules that guide behaviors.
A.19 Objectives of code of ethics
A code of ethics aims at the following:
Guidance: It provides direction to the most important element
of an organization namely the “People”, so that they know how
to conduct themselves in terms of ethical behavior and give
them a sense of common identity.
Confidence: It inspires public confidence besides enhancing
the reputation of the organization.
Initiative: it provides initiative and stimulation to the suppliers
and customers for proper conduct by creating a sense of moral
obligation
Ethical culture: It promotes a culture of excellence by not
just formally teaching ethics, but by demonstrating through
leaders the commitment of the organization to ethical behavior.
A.20 Business ethics
Companies, led by top management, are increasingly adopting
ethical codes of conduct. Modern ethics codes aren't just some
simple platitudes set in a break-room plaque. Companies now commit
considerable time and money to illustrate their reliance on ethical
behavior.
Ethical behavior starts at the top. Before a company can expect to be
viewed as ethical in the business community, ethical behavior within
its own walls-to and by employees-is a must, and top management
dictates the mood. Ethical behavior by the leaders of an organization
will inevitably set the tone for the rest of the company-values will
remain consistent. Further, a well-communicated commitment to
ethics sends a powerful message that ethical behavior is considered
to be a business imperative.
Companies are also interested in determining whether ethical
behavior can be measured, just as efficiency and productivity
companies must innovate ways to measure ethical behavior, which in
turn motivates ethical behavior.
Once training, measurement and a new ethical code have been
developed, companies are also hiring full-time ethical compliance
officers, and starting ethics hotlines to report possible policy
violations. Hiring a full-time ethics officer is another signal to
employees that ethical violations will be taken very seriously.
However, this person isn't just a watchdog-they will take a proactive
approach to identifying possible violations before they develop.
Ethics are important not only in business but in all aspects of life
because it is an essential part of the foundation on which of a civilized
society is build. A business or society that lacks ethical principles is
bound to fail sooner or later.
A.21 THE MAJOR PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS
ETHICS:
No discrimination should be done on the basis of caste
,color , and religion,
The polices should be fair and transparent
Proper provision of safety should be provided by the
company to the employees.
There should be proper honesty, loyalty, and integrity in the
employees.
The company’s resources should not be utilized by the
employees for their personal usage
Company should provide better environment condition
Information about employee’s personal lives, health, and
work evaluations should be kept confidential.
Regular measurement of employee satisfaction should by
company.
To neither give nor take any illegal payment, remuneration,
gift, donation, or comparable, benefits to obtain business or
favours.
To comply with all regulations regarding preservation of the
environment.
Employee should report to management any actual or
possible violation of code or an event that could affect the
business or reputation of the employee’s company.
A.21 HR ETHICAL ISSUES
Ethical issues abound in HR activities. Areas of ethical
misconduct in the personnel function include employment,
remuneration and benefits, labour relations, health and
safety, training and development, and HRIS (hr ethical
issues)
Cash and
incentives
Race and
disability
Performance
appraisal
plans
Ethical issues
Employment
issues
Privacy issues
Safety and
health
Restructuring
and layoffs
Cash and incentives plans
This includes base salaries, annual incentive plans, long term
incentive plans, executive perquisites, and separation agreements.
Base salaries- The HR function is often presumed to justify a higher
level of base salaries, or a higher percentage increase than what
competitive practice calls for. In some cases, pressure is exerted to
re-evaluate the position to a higher grade for the purpose of justifying
a larger than normal increase.
Annual incentive plan- The HR manager is often forced to design
and administer top-management incentive plans, at higher raters than
what the individuals deserve. A common rationale presented to the
HR executive for bending the rules is the fear of losing the
outstanding executives, if higher incentives are not paid.
Long-term incentive plan- Just as with annual incentive plan, many
HR executives have the responsibility of designing and administering
the firm’s long term incentive plans, but in consultation with CEO and
an external consultant. Ethical issues arise when the HR executive is
put to pressure to favour top management interests over those of
other employees an investors
Executive perquisites- Executive perquisites make the ethical
standard of the HR executive difficult because their cost is often out
of proportion to the value added. For example a story relates to
Bangalore –based ,losing making public sector undertaking whose
CEO spend 20 lakh to get swimming pool built at his residence.
Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal lends itself to ethical issues. Assessment of
an individual’s performance is based on observation and judgment.
HR manager are expected to observe the performance in order to
judge its effectiveness.
Ethics should be the cornerstone of performance evaluation, and the
overall objective of high ethical performance reviews should to
provide an honest assessment of the performance and mutually
develops a plan to improve the ratee’s effectiveness.
Race, Gender, Age, and Disability
The practice of treatment of employees according to their race, ethnic
origin, sex, or disability has largely been stopped. A framework of
laws and regulations ahs evolved that has significantly improved work
place behavior. No enterprise today dare to publicly state it denies
minorities, woman, and the disable opportunities for employment,
remuneration, and growth prospects different from those given to
others.
In this environment the role of HR function is to:
Monitor the principles and norms of the enterprise to ensure
that they reflect the values of the society as expressed in its
law.
Monitor the selection, rewards, development and, the appraisal
system to ensure that they are consistent with the principles
and norms.
Vigorously pursue violations and, when necessary, vigorously
work to defend the enterprise against unfounded allegations.
Employment Issues
While discrimination and harassment situation receives mort publicity,
HR practitioners are more likely to face ethical dilemmas in the areas
of employee hiring. One challenge commonly encountered is
pressure to hire a relative o a friend of a highly placed executive.
Another area related to employment is that of faked credentials
submitted by a job applicant. While discovery of this kind of
fabrication usually leads to termination of the employment, the choice
becomes difficult when the applicant has a blend of skills set and a
proven track record with his or her previous employers.
Privacy issues
Privacy issues to protecting a person’s private life from intrusive and
unwarranted actions. The employee believes that his or her religious,
political, and social believes as well as personal life style are private
matters and should be safe guarded from being snooped or
analysed.Exceptions are permitted grudgingly only when job
involvement is clearly involved. For example, it may not be
inappropriate to intrude into an employee’s private matter if it is
suspected that he or she discusses with competitor, through email
messages, the specification of newly developed product not yet
launched into the market.
Safety and health
Much of the industrial work is hazardous. This is because of the
extensive use of high speed and noisy machinery, production
processes requiring high temperature, an increasing reliance on
chemical compounds .Accidents, injuries and illnesses are likely to
occur under these circumstances. Over past decade, new categories
of accident and illness have emerged, including the fast growing job
safety problem of office injuries.
Restructuring and Layoffs
Restructuring and consequent layoffs have become relevant because
of poor management, but incompetence does not become unethical.
There are ethical implications in the process by which termination
decisions are made and actions taken. For example if restructuring
requires closing a plant , the process by which that plant is chosen
,how the news will be communicated ,and the time frame for
completing the layoffs are ethically important .If conducted in an
atmosphere of fairness and equity and with dignity of the affected
individuals in mind, the action is ethical.
Ethical Dilemmas
Several ethical dilemmas comfort an HR manager. The ethical
dilemmas arise from three sources-faces to face ethics, policy ethics,
and functional area ethics.
Face to face ethics
These arise mainly because there is a human element in most
business transactions. Business is composed of this human
transaction; it should not be surprising that face to face ethical
dilemmas arise often. It is likely that the quality assurance man
overlooks minor defects and approves a lot delivered by a supplier
because of the personal relationship that the two enjoy.
Corporate policy ethics
Companies are often faced with ethical dilemmas that affect their
operations across all departments and divisions. The consequences
of employment contraction in labour intensive basic industries
because of the improved methods of production .Modern technology
has replaced older methods of production which has in turn resulted
in hundreds being jobless. The ethical burden of deciding corporate
policy matters normally rests upon a company’s HR management.
The Hr manager and directors are responsible for making policies
and implementing them too. The ethical content of their policies can
have enormous impact throughout the company. It can set an ethical
tone and send right signals to all employees as well as external
stakeholder.
Functional area Ethics
Functional area of a business is likely to comfort ethical issues.
Accounting is a critical function of any business. Accounting
statements reveals to the manager and owner the financial
soundness of a company. Managers, investors, regulating agencies,
tax collectors and trade unions rely on accounting data to
makedecisions.Honesty, integrity accuracy are absolute requirements
of the accounting functions. Account standard ensure a high level of
honest an ethical accounting disclosure.
Ethical dilemmas crop up in purchasing departments where strong
pressure is to obtain the lowest possible prizes from suppliers and
where too felt similar need it bag lucrative contracts. Bribes,
kickbacks, and discriminating pricing are temptation to both parties.
Ethics And Law
Laws and ethics have common aim- defining proper and improper
behaviour. But the two are not quite same. Laws are the society’s
attempt to formalize- that is to reduce to written rules- idea about
what is right and what is wrong in various walks of like. However, it is
rarely possible for written rules to capture all the sublet variations that
people give to ethics. Ethical concepts are more complex than writing
rules. Ethics deals with human dilemmas that frequently go beyond
the formal language of laws and the meanings given to legal rules.
Similarities and differences apart, legal rules help promote ethical
behaviour in organization. Some of the acts which seek to ensure fair
business practices in our country are the followings:
The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, now replaced by
FEMA.
The Companies Act, 1956.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969.
The consumer Protection Act, 1986.
The Environment Protection Act, 1986.
The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
Social and ethical accountability
Social and ethical accounting is a process that can help businesses
to stakeholders, and to improve performance, social, environmental
and economic. The process typically links a company’s value to the
development of policies and performance targets and to the
assessment and communication of the performance. In this way and
through engagement with stakeholder social and ethical issues are
tied into a company’s strategic management and operations.
Social and ethical accounting model there is no standard balance
sheet or units of currency. Instead, the are defined by company’s
value and aims by the interests and expectation of its stakeholders,
and by societal norms and deregulations. With the focus on the
concerns of society , the social and ethical accounting framework
implicitly concerns itself with issues as a wide as economic
performance working conditions , environment and animal protection,
human rights, fair trade and ethical trade, human resource
management and community development , and community
development and hence with the sustainability of a company’s
activities.
Companies have begin to open themselves up to their stakeholders,
partly because of the “push” factor of the pressure group activities but
also because the realize that a greater awareness of the impact of
their activities and how they are perceived is necessary to improve
strategic decision making. More and more companies are now
incorporating stakeholder in their decision making processes. Much
of this is, of course, standard business practice talking to customers
and suppliers to identify the issues as they arise to satisfy new needs
and a company realize that it is failing to involve important groups or
there is mistrust or misleading in its relations with stakeholder.
Principle of social and ethical accounting
These principles can be used in designing and managing a process,
or in assessing its quality. The dominant principle of social and ethical
accounting is inclusively. This principle requires that the aspirations
needs of all stakeholder groups are taken into account at all stages of
the social and ethical accounting process.
Other principles can be put into three broad relating to the:
Scope and nature of the company’s social ethical accounting
process.
Meaningfulness of the information created by the process.
Continuous management of the process.
Scope and nature of the process
Completeness- The inclusion in the accounting process of all
appropriate areas of activity relating to an organization’s social
and ethical performance.
Materiality- The inclusion of significant information that is likely
to affect stakeholder groups and their assessment of an
organization’s social and ethical performance.
Regularity and timeliness- The need for regular, systematic
and timely action of the accountings process to support the
decision making of an organization and its stakeholders.
Meaningfulness of information
Quality Assurance- The audit of an organization’s process by
an independent and competent third party. The audit is
concerned with building credibility in the process with all
stakeholder groups, and hence developing meaningful
stakeholder engagement.
Accessibility – Appropriate and effective communication to an
organization’s stakeholders of its accounting process and its
performance.
Comparability- The ability to compare information on an
organization’s performance with previous periods, performance
targets, or external benchmarks drawn from other
organizations, statutory regulation or non statutory norms.
Reliability- The characteristic that allows an organization and
its stakeholders to depend on the information provided by the
accounting to be free from significant error or bias.
Continuous management of the process
Embedded ness, or systems integration- Making the
accounting process part of an organization’s operations,
systems and policy making; that is, not just a one-off exercise to
produce a report.
Continuous improvement- Steps taken to improve
performance in response to the results of the accounting
process.
The Social and Ethical accountability model
Planning
Stakeholder
Engagement
Auditing
And
Accounting
Reporting
Embedding
The generic model of social & ethical accounting includes six
elements in a continuing process that a business undergoes in order
to manage & improve its accountability & performance.
PLANNING- The company commits to the process of social &
ethical accounting, auditing & reporting, & defines & reviews its
values & social & ethical objectives & targets.
ACCOUNTING- The scope of the process is defined,
information is collated & analysed, & performance targets &
improvement plans are developed.
REPORTING- A report
performance is prepared.
on
the
company’s
systems
&
AUDITING- The process of preparing the report & the report
itself are externally audited, & the report is made accessible to
stakeholder in order to obtain feedback from them.
EMBEDDING- To support each of the stages, structure &
systems are developed to strengthen the process & to integrate
it into the company’s activity.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT- The concerns of stakeholder
are addressed at each stage of the process through regular
involvement.
At every stage a company should incorporate useful experience
from the previous cycle- it must be flexible enough to learn &
innovate from the process.
Section 1 – Membership of any class shall be contingent upon
conformance with the established principle of professional Ethics.
Section 2 – Honesty, Integrity, Loyalty, fairness, Impartiality,
Fidelity to trust, and inviolability of confidence are incumbent upon
every member as professional obligations.
Section 3- Members shall not make false, misleading or
unwarranted statements, representation or claims in regards to
professional matters, nor shall they engage in false or deceptive
advertising.
Section 4- Members shall not falsely or maliciously attempt to
injure the reputation of others.
Section 5 – Member shall endeavor to cooperate with others in
profession and shall encourage the ethical dissemination of
geoscientific knowledge.
Literature review
Article 1
Wipro gets PHDCCI's Ethics in Business Award
Our Corporate Bureau
30 November 2002
Mumbai: Wipro has been awarded the “Ethics is Good Business”
award for the Year 2002. The award, instituted by the Punjab,
Haryana and Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI),
recognizes Wipro’s ethics and value-based business performance.
Wipro has compiled an "Integrity Manual" that defines the way
Wiproites should deal with their customers. Wipro has also introduced
a helpline known as “Wipro SOS”. This helpline comprises senior
members of the company, like Chairman Azim Premji, who are
available for guidance on any moral, legal or ethical issues that a
Wiproite may face.
Article 2
Press release, 3 November 2004
Reliance Industries ranks No.2 in 'India's Most Respected
Companies'
Reliance emerges as India's 'Most Dynamic Organization' Reliance
Industries ranks No.2 in 'India's Most Respected Companies' survey India's Most Respected Companies Survey IMRB International Business world, 2004.
RIL is the first and only private sector company from India to feature
in the 2004 Fortune Global 500 list of 'World's Largest Corporations'
and ranks amongst the world's Top 200 companies in terms of profits.
RIL also emerged as the only Indian company in the list of global
companies that create most value for their shareholders.
Article 3
Thursday, 3 September, 1998
Infosys Technologies is chosen Company of the Year
The Economic Times today announced its Awards for Corporate
Excellence, in consonance with its philosophy of recognizing and
celebrating business at its best. The company has arguably
pioneered in India the concept of valuing intellectual capital, and has
aggressively attempted to introduce employee stock options - it,
however, has an employee stock offer plan in place for five years
now. Infosys is expected to be the first Indian company to have its
shares listed on an American stock exchange.
Article4
``Ethics in business has to reflect ethics in society'
Our Bureau
Kolkata, June 22
Mr. S.M. Dutta, Chairman, Castrol India Ltd, and former Chairman of
HLL said that, “Ethics was such an inborn concept that all of it cannot
be contained in our law. Nobody teaches us ethics; no formal
instructions as such, and we are just left to learn it through
experimentation. While admitting that the primary task of business
was to create wealth by adding economic value to society, the
ethical dimension of business has to rest on the three key
aspects of "legitimacy, equitability and transparency".
Article 5
Date: 2005/7/19
Contact person: Mr. Saket Gupta, Supdt. Engineer (E&T)
“ONGC's Communication on Progress on Global Compact ”
Our corporate mission also explicitly requires us to maintain
high standards of business ethics and to enrich the quality of
community life through our commitment to Safety, Health and
the Environment. Because we are a public sector corporation, an
integral part of our business is reaching out to the community. We
have a Corporate Citizenship Policy, administered by our HR
Department. It has its own budget, funded from a percentage of our
profits; the figure is substantial.
Ranbaxy
Founded in 1962, Ranbaxy is India’s largest pharmaceutical
company. The company is now moving from a generic company to a
research oriented company and it is at the same time increasing its
international presence. It manages operations with a high concern
for safety and the environment. It stresses the fact that the
company is a responsible corporate citizen. As a responsible
corporate citizen, Ranbaxy ensures transparency in their dealings
with enforcement agencies, and extends their co-operation to officers
of statutory bodies for the purpose of audits and inspections. The
company also urges its employees to avoid actions or relationships
that might conflict with their job responsibilities, or the interests of
Ranbaxy.As for the environment, it ensures responsible consumption
of natural resources through processes that are eco-friendly.
Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance is India’s largest private sector enterprise and it plays a
major role in India’s petrochemicals sector. Reliance has India’s
largest marketing network and all its brands are market leaders. As
for business ethics practices, Reliance stresses environmental
responsibility. The company has its own set of environmental policies
and the policies are available to the public.
Highlights of its policies are:
Prevent pollution, maximize
discharges and emissions.
recycling,
and
reduce
wastes,
Conserve natural resources by their responsible and efficient use in
all our operations.
Plant trees, develop green belt and promote lush green
surroundings at manufacturing locations to work in harmony with
nature.
Emphasize every employee’s responsibility in environmental
performance; ensure appropriate operating practices and training.
Promote awareness among contractors, suppliers and customers
for shared responsibility towards environment protection.
Infosys
Founded in 1981 by a former socialist, It is located in Bangalore
Infosys has become a well-known player in the software industry
for its ethical business practices and generous treatment of
employees. Its books are open to investors, it offers a stock option
plan to employees, and it was the first Indian company to be listed on
a U.S. stock exchange. "We certainly find it useful to benchmark
ourselves against companies like Infosys," said the chairman of
Hindustan Lever, the Indian subsidiary of personal care products
giant Unilever.
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL)
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, established in 1969, is
the pioneering petrochemical company in India, and one of the
leading petrochemical companies. Its products include polymers,
synthetic fiber, solvents, surfactants, catalysts and adsorbents. The
company is backed by strong R&D and is continuously innovating its
processes and products. Outside its business, the company is
known for its rural development programs. The program sets up
low cost sanitation facilities to rural families and provides
school buildings, books, library furniture, playgrounds, and a
subsidized bus service for school children. It also supports
environmental preservation, constructs primary health centers,
provides ambulances and trains people in primary health care.
Furthermore, IPCL also provides technical assistance to the National
Institute for the Blind and camps for social welfare.
Balrampur Chini Mills Limited
Balrampur is India’s premier sugar company. It maintains a set of
ethical standards and emphasizes the following:
Integrity: "We demand of ourselves and others the highest ethical
standards."
Respect for People: Balrampur contributes its success today to its
people and is committed to treating its people with dignity.
Community: One of the company’s goals is to focus not only on its
earnings but also on its efforts to make the world a better place to
live.
Transparency: Balrampur strives to maintain global standards of
corporate transparency, and to increase shareholder confidence in
management.
Mitsubishi Corporation
Mitsubishi Corporation, one of the major global enterprises, conducts
various businesses in India including marine product trading and
automotive parts. The company is committed to serving the welfare of
world and local communities. The company set up a Committee for
Philanthropy in 1991 to come up with ways to make corporate
responsibility to society a part of the company’s activities. In addition,
the Mitsubishi International Corporation Foundation was also
established to help serve the educational needs of economically
disadvantaged young people. Environmental responsibility is also
an integral part of Mitsubishi’s corporate philosophy. The
company has its own internal environmental guidelines for business
activities and has formulated an Environmental Charter that follows
the international standard for environmental management systems.
Shell’s
Shell’s 2001 annual report provides details of disciplinary action taken
by the company against staff who has breached the company’s code
with regard to bribery.
Reported cases of bribery in Shell
Number of bribes and total value $
1997
0
1998
1
($ 300)
1999
1
($ 300)
2000
0
Bribes offered and/ or
paid by Shell company
employees directly or
indirectly to third parties
Bribes offered and /or
1
($
4,562)
paid by intermediaries,
0+
*
*
contractor employees
directly or indirectly to
third parties.
Bribes solicited and/or
23
4
3
4
accepted by Shell
(small) ($75,000) ($153,000) ($89,000)
company employees
Brides solicited and/ or
accepted by
intermediaries ,
contractor employees or
others
*
*
1
1
(unknown) (Zero)
* Data not available.
+ One Case in which a shell employee used an intermediary to make
payments of us$300 has been included in the vases concerning
company employees.
HONEYWELL
No employee will give, offer or promise to give, or ask or accept
anything of value….. With the following expectations:
Items of a strictly advertising nature (that is, imprinted with the
company’s name……) which are less than $10 in value.
Standard Chartered Bank
Nothing may be given or received which might distort commercial
judgment or harm the Groups reputation….. Any business-related
personal benefits which you or your family give receive must be
reported in writing within three working days to the person to whom
you normally report.
