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Ethical Management

by SATISH MODH
2 Buys | 41.86 Reward Points
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Mary Parker Follet defined management as the art of getting things done. This is a most value-free definition where there is no obligation on the part of manager or the worker to be ethical. To a larger extent even there is no obligation on business to give customers what s/he desires as long as the business can make more profit. Apparently, no one took notice as business organizations are focussed on economic value addition and everyone is trying to delight the customer to increase market penetration. But in this view there is no consideration of ethics except due to social pressures. The outcome of such an approach is there for everyone to see. We have institutionalized corruption on a global scale. There is manipulation of accounts, fudging of economic and financial data and increasing dissatisfaction in the society. In the ultimate analysis we must accept that organisational values always derive from individual values. That is where the importance of instilling basic values in the individual becomes vital. An attempt has been made in this book to explore the philosophy of values and its application to management. Moving away from the definition of management as getting things done, I have defined management as "a series of ethical actions done by people, using technology and resources, to achieve a state of joy and happiness in the minds of both, producers and consumers" The book is divided into three sections - Ethical Value, Value-based management and Ethical business. The primary concept developed here is that authentic and productive behaviour of people can be founded only on such principles and theories, which are in consonance with human nature at the deepest and universal level. The fourth section presents 19 cases on ethical values, applied ethics and corporate governance to train the mind on making a value judgement. This book progresses from individual ethics to managerial and organizational ethics to address issues of ethical behaviour, ethical conduct, applied ethics and social responsibility. As Dr S.P. Kosta, Former Director of Indian Space Research Organization, in his foreword of the book says, "The orientation towards ethics would help in developing positive relationship with other people at work places and would be better equipped to deal with human emotions. The book will help future decision makers in preventing the creation of culture of corruption at the outfit they will help run."
Additional Info
  • Publisher: Laxmi Publications
  • Language: English
  • ISBN : 978-93-5138-130-3
Total Price: 0
  • Chapter 1

    The theory of values Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    The theory of values affects everyone's life. All religions and most philosophical movements have been concerned with it to some degree. The theory of values encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree people value things - whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. According to Schroeder (2012), the term 'value theory' is used in at least three different ways in philosophy. In its broadest sense, 'value theory' is a catch-all label used to encompass all branches of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and sometimes feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of religion - whatever areas of philosophy are deemed to encompass some 'evaluative' aspect. In its narrowest sense, 'value theory' is used for a relatively narrow area of normative ethical theory, particularly, but not exclusively, of concern to consequential- ists. In this narrow sense, 'value theory' is roughly synonymous with 'axiology'. Axiology can be thought of as primarily concerned with classifying what things are good, and how good they are.
  • Chapter 2

    Ethical action Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Life can be described as a continuum of moments of activity and inactivity. The phenomenal happenings, the movement of the planets, the rhythmic dance of seasons, the music of creation, the law of colours - all exist in harmony. The nature plays its act ceaselessly and earnestly. The entire universe survives and sustains itself by activity. All of us act in our own given fields of activities with enthusiasm and deep interest, entire day through every day of the year and all through the years of our entire lifetime. Irrespective of our health, unmindful of the severity of seasons, through joy and sorrow, we constantly strive to earn and to hoard, to gain and to enjoy. We have the 'freedom of action' to contribute to harmony, or to bring about discord in the smooth running of this world. So long as a majority of people of a generation manages to live by the Law-of-Harmony, it grows from strength to strength, opening up fields of happiness for itself. Such periods herald the golden era of social and cultural life.
  • Chapter 3

    Ethical mind Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    In Five Minds for the Future, Gardner (2009) defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead: the Disciplined mind has mastered at least one way of thinking - a distinctive mode of cognition that characterises a specific scholarly discipline (including science, mathematics, and history), craft or profession. The Synthesising mind takes information from disparate sources, understands, and evaluates that information objectively, and puts it together in ways that makes sense to the synthesiser and also to other persons. It is the ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others. The Creating mind puts forth new ideas, poses unfamiliar questions, conjures up fresh ways of thinking, and arrives at unexpected answers. It is the capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena. The Respectful mind notes and welcomes differences between individuals and between human groups, tries to understand these 'others', and seeks to work effectively with them. It deals with the awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings and human groups. The Ethical mind ponders the nature of one's work, and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives. This mind conceptualises how one can serve purposes beyond self-interest and how people can work unself- ishly to improve the lot of all. It deals with fulfilment of one's responsibilities as a worker and a citizen. Swami Chinmayananda says that the mind is man. As the mind, so are the individuals and their experience. If the mind is disturbed, the individual is disturbed. If the mind is good, the individual is good (Chinmayananda, 1992). We can say that by constantly maintaining the awareness of the principles that preside over all human endeavours in our mind, we can maintain a healthier and more potent life of virtue and strength.
  • Chapter 4

    Socio-economic values Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Much of the interest in ethical behaviour stems from the desire of society to control greed in our everyday dealings. The study of ethical values has attracted scholars from various disciplines and schools of thought. The ethical perception varies with the society's politico-economic environment and the contingency of the situation. It was in the beginning of the 19th century that, in pure theory, the concept of social value came into prominence. The founders of what is usually called the 'modern' system of theory, as distinguished from the 'classical', never spoke of social, but only of individual value. Pure theory has an individualistic character. Almost everyone starts with wants and their satisfaction, and takes utility more or less exclusively as the basis of his/her analysis. Individuals are considered as independent units or agencies. This is so because only individuals can feel wants. Certain assumptions concerning those wants and the effects of satisfaction on their intensity give us our utility curves, which, therefore, have a clear meaning only for individuals (Schumpeter, 1908). Same reasoning cannot be directly applied to society as a whole. Society as such, having no brain or nerves in the physical sense, cannot feel wants and does not, therefore, have utility curves like those of individuals. For theory, it is irrelevant why people demand certain goods; the only important point is that all things are demanded, produced, and paid for because individuals want them. Every demand on the market is therefore an individualistic one, although, from another point of view, it often is an altruistic or a social one. The only wants which for the purpose of economic theory, should be called strictly social, are consciously asserted by the whole community. The means of satisfying such wants are valued not by individuals who merely interact, but by all individuals acting as a community, consciously, and jointly.
  • Chapter 5

    Cultural values Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Culture is defined as a set of patterns of thinking, feeling, and potential shared by people within the same social environment (Hofstede, 1980 and 1997) or as 'every day practices, symbols, and rituals that can be seen by an outside observer' (Schwartz and Bardi, 1997). One of the concepts identifying the differences among cultural patterns is the concept of values. Values are the tendencies of the members of society to judge what is good or bad, what should and should not be done, what is natural or not natural, rational or irrational, and so on (Schwartz, 1992; Hofstede, 1997).
  • Chapter 6

    Ethical management Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    In any pluralistic society, responsibility for the public good has been the central problem and issue. The pluralistic society of organisations is no exception. Organisations are formed to achieve some specific or partial goals. Each organisation represents some special interests. Members of such organisations have to serve both - their institution and the common good. If the society is to function, let alone remain a free society, members of these organisations will have to follow certain ethics. In contrast to philosophy, business involves action and implementation - getting things done. Managers must come up with answers to problems based on what they see and what they allow to exert influence on their decision-making process.
  • Chapter 7

    Ethical decisions Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Chakraborty (1985) puts up a proposition that management is decision-making. Decision-making has always been, is always, and shall always be, in the ultimate analysis, subjective. Modern thought asserts that every truth is relative and temporary. But the belief opposes the very nature of objective decision-making. Choices about ends and means are embedded in every decision area. Our failures in decision-making arise because of our failure to discriminate between relative and absolute values or truths. Decision-making lends itself to much variety. The decision to decide is perhaps the beginning. And then one is required to think, to contemplate, to write, to talk, to plan, to execute, to monitor and so on. Choices about ends and means are also embedded in every decision area. What are the characteristics of good decisions in these spheres?
  • Chapter 8

    Organisational ethics Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Socrates asked how a person could talk of pursuing the good before knowing what that good is. The analysis he visualised entailed a lifelong process of learning and examination. Though it is essential to distinguish between personal philosophy and corporate identity, such enquires, based on common sense, may result in developing a premise that is appropriate to individuals in organisational setting. Some questions relevant in
  • Chapter 9

    Ethics in business Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Business ethics tries to explore the actual evaluative rules that we fashion and follow in our day-to-day life. It deals with the rules that govern our stance towards and interaction with our superiors, subordinates, and peers, our friends, allies, and rivals, our business customers and competitors, the politicians, the media, other specific people we address, and the public at large. It examines a particular conception of right and wrong, of proper and improper that underpins these rules. It tries to analyse the work that we do and, in particular, how the social and bureaucratic context of our work shapes our occupational moralities.
  • Chapter 10

    Ethical leadership Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    Markets rely on rules and laws, which in turn depend on truth and trust. Conceal the truth or erode the trust, and the game of business becomes so unreliable that no one will want to play (Handy, 2002). Ordinary people will not put their savings for the creation of business. The great virtue of capitalism is that it provides a way for the savings of society to be used for the creation of wealth. If the truth and trust is eroded, capitalism will collapse. Then society will depend more on governments for creation of wealth, something that they are very bad at doing. In the recent scandals, truth seemed too easily sacrificed to expediency and to the need to show targeted profit. Trust too is fragile. And people's trust in business, and those who lead it, is today depleting. To many, it seems that executives no longer run their companies for the benefit of consumers, or even of their shareholders and employees, but for their personal ambition and financial gain. A Gallup poll conducted in 2002 found that 90 per cent of Americans felt that people running corpora- tions could not be trusted to look after the interests of their employees. Forty-three per cent in fact, believed that senior executives were only in it for themselves. In Britain, that figure, according to another poll, was 95 per cent.
  • Chapter 11

    Corporate social responsibility Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    The word responsibility implies some kind of obligation to deal with social problems that business organisations were believed to have towards the society in which they functioned. There are many definitions of social responsibility, but in general it means that a private sector firm has responsibility to society that go beyond the production of goods and services and its profit - that a company has a broader constituency to save than stockholders alone.
  • Chapter 12

    Corporate governance Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    The word 'corporate governance' has become a buzzword these days because of two factors. The first is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1990, it has become the conventional wisdom all over the world that market dynamics must prevail in economic matters. The concept of government controlling the economy has been given up. This, in turn, has made the market the most decisive factor in settling economic issues. This has also coincided with the thrust given to globalisation because of the setting up of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and every member of the WTO trying to bring down the tariff barriers. Globalisation involves the movement of four economic parameters namely, physical capital in terms of plant and machinery, financial capital in terms of money invested in capital markets or in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), technology, and labour moving across national borders. The pace of movement of financial capital has become greater because of the pervasive impact of information technology and the world becoming a global village. When investments take place in emerging markets, the investors want to be sure that not only are the capital markets or enterprises with which they are investing, run competently but also that they have good corporate governance.
  • Chapter 13

    Corporate governance in india Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    There are three aspects of 'corporate governance' that need attention when looking at the same in India. Firstly, there is no clear model of 'corporate governance' at the global level that can be replicated directly; it cannot be said that one model is better than others. Therefore, there is no direct solution for implementing one form of corporate governance for Indian companies. Second, in the given global scenario, it is difficult for Indian companies to ignore good corporate gover- nance practices. All companies doing business with Indian companies and also the investors would demand better disclosure, more transparency, and better corporate environment. Third, there is more to corporate governance than just adhering to company law. One cannot make provi- sions for financial and managerial disclosure, the responsibility of the board of directors and their fiduciary responsibilities towards shareholders, and sharing of information at the board level. One cannot legislate for commitment to transparency. These types of corporate behaviour evolve over time within the framework of law.
  • Chapter 14

    Corporate governance - global practices Price 2.99  |  2.99 Rewards Points

    There have been many examples of failures of corporate governance in the recent past. These failures have resulted in loss of investor confidence. There are some examples of such failures that have played key roles in focussing attention on corporate governance issues (Maier, 2005). The first such case is that of Maxwell Corporation in 1991. This has been described as one of greatest failure of corporate governance. The Maxwell group comprised two publicly quoted companies - Maxwell Communication Corporation and Mirror Group Newspapers. There was heavy borrowing to finance the expansion of its publishing and media business which led to high levels of debt (Financial Times, 1996). Investigations showed a number of corporate governance deficiencies. Robert Maxwell held both the posi- tions of chief executive and chairman, resulting in the concentration of power. This was one of the reasons for fraudulent activities in the group. There were questions raised about the effectiveness of the non-executive directors and pension trustees.

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