India now has emerged as an
industrial country, which has
transgressed from mere a nation of agriculture to a nation of
all-round development. For the past two decades, we have changed
our business strategies allowing a considerable percentage of FDI
in almost all sectors. We hailed MNCs to invest in India, at the same
time, Indian business giants like Ratan Tata et
al. expanded businesses abroad. In such a scenario, it
is imperative to implement business ethics in all
organizations irrespective of their ownership viz. public, private or government.
The very purpose of any organization in India is to lift millions of people
out of poverty and win economic freedom for all. Business is normally perceived as a purely economic
activity. Economics unfortunately, is traditionally regarded as
unethical and obsessed with the rational self-centered utility maximizer.
Ethics refer to the basic principles of moral values that are expected
to be followed by every citizen in a civilized society, aiming to
maintain tranquility and virtues. Any organization whether
profit-making or service-oriented needs to abide by ethical principles so
that the entire nation is benefitted. The major sources of ethical values are knowledge imbibed
through religious sermons and vedic books, culture and law. These
systems influence every organization and have become the guiding
principles for the individuals working in the organization.
In my experience, the strict followers of religious values
practice ethics in business also. They are bound by such values and afraid
of violating them. The culture comprises of inherited
expected behavior which is transferred from one generation to another.
Finally, the laws are rules of conduct, approved by legislatures that
guide human behavior in any society. It is to be noted that
even after hundreds of amendments in Law, we could not weed out
unethical business practices. This implies that Law alone cannot
prevent malpractices, it has to be ethics. |
