Introduction

Today’s corporate culture has grown global and digital as well. Modus operandi have changed. A corporate is known not just because of its assets, liabilities, capital and balance sheets. It is also defined by social responsibility, social accountability, respectfulness, behavior, integrity, accountability, team work, commitment, honesty, transparency, confidentiality, code of conduct, compliance and adherance to the law. These qualities define the organization and the concept has gone far beyond man, machine, materials and money. These may not be tangible but can always be felt and experienced and as a result of which measuring the work culture of that organization becomes a little easy. Every business has to follow ethics of good practices and has to fulfill responsibilities towards the society. Business has always been a social concern. If they do not meet the needs of the society then their survival may be at stake. The modern business has become a hub of enormous economic power and social impact. The legitimacy or the license to operate depends not only on its power to create wealth but on its ability to meet the expectations of diverse constituents which play a pivotal role in its existence and success. (James,2012).

Body

Business Ethics refers to the discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of the society. It is a Greek word meaning ethos which stands for conduct or character. To define ethics or moral values does not mean to differentiate and tell what is right and what is wrong, be it human behavior or an organization. It does not make any sense to get into an argument by involving in the subtle difference in the usage of terms like morality and ethics. In ethics one learns to see life as it is, without the bitterness or expectations. If someone learns that it is delightful drama of contradictions then one can go about moulding it to ‘what it ought to be’. Few advantages of practicing ethics are as follows

These organizations build market place loyalty

Attract and manage talent

Ethical organizations engage employees, promoting retention and higher levels of productivity. (Callahan,1988)

Business Ethics purifies the work culture. It maintains the energy level of all the team members who are working for one common goal/purpose/objective. It reduces the incidences where people get a chance to raise fingers at each other in work place. Raising finger here refers to being caught on practicing and unethical issues. It helps to maintain order at work, keeps a company free from corruption, away from biasness, encouraging people not to work for their vested interest rather, work for the interest of the organization. It also encourages employees not to offer any kind of favor at workplace.

Ethical analysis answers and identifies the participatory parties, their respective stakes and responsibilities and respective issues. After the ground work is done various rules of conduct and principles are applied to the problem. The discussion involves understanding the objective of the principles and guidelines when it is applied to a particular problem. While addressing the issue the person has to ask few questions which will help him in taking a decision before he or she eventually takes the step.

These questions are:

Identify the ethical issues or tasks

What is morally wrong in doing this particular task?

Measuring the issue by asking which side is heavier in the beam-balance the institution side or the personal side?

Who are the beneficiaries?

What is the obligation between the parties?

What are the best-case and worst-case outcomes?

What benefits and harm will be caused?

Are there rules or principles which state that this is an unethical practice.

In order to summarize the techniques of ethical analysis few points have to be kept in mind - one should always specify the facts and explain the dilemma, put in effort to identify the parties and their interests. Explain the values and principles which are at stake. Think of the actions and the possible consequences of these actions.

The case in study here is about a manager in a government establishment who receives bid for supply of new computers. However he learns that his friend is one of the bidders and has spoken to him in this context. His friend has bid on behalf of his company Radax. As he receives all the bids, it comes to his knowledge that Radax does not really have the best bid.

In such a case Corporate Governance comes into action. Questions of ethics or the right way to run a business are inherent in all aspects of corporate governance. Ethical decisions are relevant within the core business strategies and the way that direct the business as a whole to achieve them. Corporate Governance runs in the blood of every organization, governing the way businesses are run. It involves how the board is constituted and how it operates and performs its roles. It has become a buzzword due to the failure of many corporate. It makes a complete circle of ethical framework; moral framework and social framework. Corporate Governance denoted the rule of law transparency, accountability and protection of public interest in the management of a prevailing global and competitive market milieu. (nainawat and meena,2013)

My choice would be affected by the cultural values of the organization for which I work and the reason is as an employee of the organization I have to address the needs of social audits and keep my ethical investors in hand. I will be socially and officially accountable to the organization if I go after individual moral development. As an employee I have work on reputation assurance of my organization. The major concern here would be that the cultural values of an organization get represented in the moral disposition of the person fronting the organization. The topic of ethics covers right and responsibilities, quality of life issues, equity and access, privacy and how they affect individuals, organizations, cultures, communities and hence nation. I should wear fairness towards the company and other bidders. If I favor my friend then I will engage myself in conflict of interest with other colleagues. There will be no transparency. As an employee my duty calls to display or uphold the values and ethics both at personal and official level. My decision may not affect initially but it will definitely affect the organization and ultimately me in the long run. An organization stands on tangible and intangible assets and ethics is one of the intangible assets. So, as a precautionary measure I will choose to be with my organization. It has been keenly observed that these days the gap between the scientific and cultural ethics is widening. This raises a question of breach of confidence, accountability, existence and sustenance of the organization. Professional ethics are essential and need to be discussed as they affect the actions and decisions of the professionals. The importance is reflected in the work already done in this area. The study basically deals with how to apply code of ethics in a business environment. But the sad part is while the entire focus and energy is being diverted towards the procedure of code development and implementation, very less attention is being paid to those individuals who are supposed to implement and execute those codes.(Zakaria et al.,2014)

In my opinion awareness should be created regarding the various points that fall under the umbrella of ethics. To name a few – prudence, rule of conscience, egoism, stakeholders, legal issues, intellectual property theft, social and moral obligation, hiring and firing employees, occupational risk and employees dealing with it, sexual harassment, marketing, advertising and leaking of information.(Beauchamp, Bowie and Arnold)

I also justify my stand by drawing strong points from the Emotive Theory of Ethics. This theory talks about moral judgments, sentences, words and speech acts. It extends to cover or make for aesthetic and non-moral form of evaluation. This theory maintains that moral judgments and speech acts function primarily to express and influence states of mind or attitudes rather than to describe or report.(finlay,2006)

References

James, L.(2012). A Study on Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Relation to Organizational Culture and Business Ethics in Information Technology. Retrieved on 3 May from http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/5311/9/09_chapter%201.pdf
Callahan,J.(1988). Ethics Issues in Professional Life. Retrieved on 3 May from file:///D:/Content%20Writing/Ethics/09_chapter%202.pdf
Naina,r.Meena,r.(2013) Corporate Governance and Business Ethics. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies [online] Available at: http://www.ripublication.com/gjmbs_spl/gjmbsv3n10_08.pdf