Why Savers are Losers in the 21st Century ?
Saving money has historically been considered to be a virtue. Perhaps, it was the most important one with the most far reaching consequences in one’s life. However, the world changed in 1971. Saving money is no longer an act of virtue. Rather it is act of foolishness and ignorance. Saving in its crude form does […]
Benefits of Automation for Banks and Financial Institutions
Why Banks Embrace IT and Automation We live in a digital age and hence, no institution of the global economy can be immune from automation and the advent of digital means of operations. Banks and financial institutions were among the first adopters of automation considering the humungous benefits that they get from embracing IT (Information […]
Financial Analysis and Planning
Introduction Financial analysis and planning are one of the fundamental activities and responsibility for the finance department. Financial analysis and planning help an organization in achieving strategic tasks and objective within available resources. The key responsibility of financial analysis and planning team is facilitate management in formulating short and long-term objectives, carrying out cost-benefit analysis […]
Reinsurance Vs Securitization
It is common for insurance companies to not hold the entire risk that they underwrite on their own portfolios. Instead, insurance companies try to find ways and means to offload some of this risk to other entities. This is common with all types of insurance. However, it becomes more pronounced with catastrophe-related insurance. This is […]
Importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Customer relationship management is not only pure business but also ideate strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of bonding drives the business to new levels of success. Once this personal and emotional linkage is […]
Practically business ethics at the workplace connotes an alignment between what the organization values and how to go about it. It means that the all the day to day operations or activities carried out by employees are in tandem with the organizational policies without any deviations. There are however lots of myths that surround business ethics and their relevance and effectiveness.
Many management thinkers and philosophers believe that business ethics alters people’s values. They cease to be what they are, which comes in way of realization of their full potential. Instead business ethics should be about managing values and conflict resolution. Conflict management is what they stress the most upon.
There is a continuous tension between individual and organizational ethics. Many organizations believe that most of their human resources are ethical already and need not be trained upon. When such an ethical dilemma arises, it arises because there is a clash of principles that differ in their result priorities. Again there ethics to counter that are equally reasonable! So what do you choose?
One more myth that surrounds business ethics is that it is well managed and the prerogative of philosophers and theologians. They say that there is no such term as business ethics that can decide how organizations go about their day to day activities. Most of this may be attributed to lack of participation of business leaders in ethical decision making process and their interest in the same.
Business ethics is also criticized as being nothing new. It is believed to something that only avows what is good and which is logical and known to everyone. But when we look at the same from the perspective of stakeholders, the society and employees who work at the bottom of the pyramid, it safeguards the interests of all these groups. Organizations cannot function in a programmed manner ensuring there is no breach of a certain code in the absence of ethics and values.
Business ethics in the context of corporations is recent, but it is fairly old if we talk of general business transactions. Cicero wrote about business ethics in his book ‘On Duties’. It looks recent because of the corporate social responsibility movement that started in early 1970’s.
Yet another myth that surrounds business ethics is that business ethics cannot be managed which is totally wrong. In reality business ethics is managed or exercised indirectly in some way. Organizations priorities can also be reflective of the ethics followed in the organizations. For example a sales driven organization is bound to be aggressive naturally, whereas one that is into the business of hospitality is bound to be different.
Certain other sections of people in management believe that business ethics and social responsibility are the same. They are not! In fact corporate social responsibility is only a small part of it. Corporate social responsibility concerns itself with managing business dealings and the interface with the society; it does not deal with ethics at the workplace. However both fall under the continuum of business ethics.
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