24 Prominent Indian Ethos and their relevance in Management

1. Learning Outcome

2. Introduction

3. Ethics

4. Importance of Ethics

5. Difference between Values and Ethics

6. Foundation of ethics

7. Business Ethics

8. Importance of ethics in Business

9. Business Ethics at global companies

10. Focal areas of business ethics

11. Indian ethos in Management

12. Need of Ethos

13. Application of Ethos

14. Relevance of Ethos

15. Summary

1. Learning Outcome:

After completing this module, the students will be able to learn about the following:

Ethics
Importance of Ethics
Difference between Values and Ethics Foundation of Ethics
Business Ethics
Importance of Ethics in Business
Business Ethics at Global companies Focal Areas of Business Ethics
Indian Ethos in Management Need of Ethos
Application of Ethos
Relevance of Ethos

2. Introduction

3. Ethics

The concept of ethics is not new to the society. It is there since long time and is as old as the origin of the traditional knowledge society. Ethics refers to the set of moral principles that play a significant role in guiding the conduct of managers and employees in the operation of any organisation. Ethics refer both to the body of moral principles governing a particular society and the personal normal precepts of the individual. Ethics is the study of the individual and collective moral awareness, judgement, character and conduct. Ethics in the society have been devised to regulate the human beings personal conduct in a most ideal and pure way which is fully devoid of corrupt practices. Our great epics and other works have elaborately defined all the components of personal, professional, and social ethics. In fact, a helping attitude, empathetic, thought process, kindness to fellow beings, selflessness, honesty and integrity are all the key elements of the ethics. Ethics are the guidelines for the correct conduct in human interactions and human behaviour. The broad objective of ethics is to study the human behaviour and make evaluative assessment about them as moral or immoral. It establishes moral standards and norms of behaviour and makes judgement upon human behaviour based on these standards and norms and also prescribes moral behaviour and makes recommendations about hoe to or how not to behave. It also expresses an opinion or attitude about human conduct.

4. Importance of Ethics

Today, due to globalisation and liberalisation, values are changing very fast. Human beings are under tremendous pressure to cope up with the change unleashed by the modern liberalised economic advancement. The importance of values becomes more pronounced and prominent in the modern times. Along with the technological advancement and sociological changes are also putting up threats to our value system. A system of ethics must further consist of not only emergency situations, but the day to day choices we make constantly. It must include our relations to others and recognise their importance not only to our physical survival, but to our well being and happiness also.

The various benefits of ethics are as follows:

Attract customers to the firm’s products, thereby boosting sales and profits.
Make employees want to stay with the business, reduce labour turnover and therefore increase productivity.
Attract more employees wanting to work for the business , reduce recruitment costs and enable the company to get the most talented employees.
Attract investors and keep the company’s share price high, thereby protecting the business from turnover.

5. Difference between Values and Ethics

Values are the basic fundamental beliefs that an individual thinks to be true. Every individual has a set of values through which he looks at all things and also at the world at large. It can be said that most of the people will never deviate from their values. The values can be said to be guiding principles in one’s life. Ethics are set norms of behavior or conduct in society or group. Ethics are guidelines or rules that are set for a society or an organisation rather than for an individual. The main differences between values and ethics are as follows:

Values are guiding principles in life and every person has his own value system that helps him in his behaviour and action throughout his life. On the other hand, ethics is moral code of conduct that decides what is wrong and what is right about the behaviour of an individual or a group in a society.
Values can be universal as well as personal and are actually beliefs that a person has that help him behave in a particular manner all his life. Ethics are written code of conduct that is to be followed by an individual or employees in an organisation.

6. Foundation of Ethics

It was Greek, Chinese and Indian philosophers who laid the foundation of the ethical theories. In Greek, wisdom has a strong ethical connotation. In fact, the Greek philosophy is the base of western philosophers’ and moral sciences. Kautilaya’s Arthashastra or the science of economics was written around 2300 years ago and it deals with the various aspects of the state craft, economy, and revenue, moral and immoral acts and how to deal with them. Kautilya dealt with morality in detail. Similarly, the Vedas are the foundation of Indian ethical thought process. The Mahabharta, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita also contain the complete knowledge of Vedic wisdom and thus laid the strong foundation of Indian ethics and ethos.

The major sources of ethics are as follows:

Genetic inheritance: Various traits are inherited from our forefathers and they come to us from the generation to generation. These are courage, sympathy, goodness, generosity and cooperation.

Legal system: Legal system is a great regulator of ethical and value based behaviours. Laws reflect the expectations and approvals of the society.

Religion: Religion is a very great source of our conduct and behaviour in almost all the societies. Religious books lay down the great ethical norms for the society to follow and observe them.

Philosophical system: Philosophers are also a great source of values in our society. The different philosophical inputs have strong bearing on business decision making process.

Culture: Customs, beliefs and standards are transmitted from generation to generation.

Code of conduct: These are the codes of set rules and norms that are devised and designed by the companies we work in. we have to adhere to this moral code of conduct.

7. Business Ethics

Business ethics refers to all those cherished underpinnings which form the basis of any business transactions. Business ethics are also known as corporate ethics. These are the set of applied ethics and professional ethics which examines the ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of a business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of the individuals and business organisations as a whole. Business ethics stands for the purity of purpose that is upheld through carefully designed actual practises of a business enterprise. Thus, it is an embodiment of conscience concern towards execution of business processes in tune with the nobility of the purpose. Business ethics are the rules of business conduct by which the propriety of business activities may be judged. The ethical principles in the business are dictated by the society and underlie the broad social policies. These principles when known, understood and accepted determine the propriety of business activities. Business ethics also relate to the behaviour of managers.

8. Importance of Ethics in Business

Following are the main benefits of business ethics:

Benefits to society: By observing ethics, business organisations help the society.

Emerges as a credible company: The Company that upholds the ethical values earn the credibility of all people involved in the business operations.

Cutting down the costs: Costs are cut down by not resorting to unnecessary unethical practices.

Winning trust of employees: Employees repose more trust in companies with ethical practices.

Matching public enterprise: Public gets satisfied with the business organisation which are ethical in their conduct and behaviour.

Enhanced image building: Image of the ethical companies gets refurbished and brightened up in the eyes of all stakeholders.

Overall benefit: All the stakeholders of the company derive immense benefits from the ethical conduct and behaviour of the company.

9. Business Ethics at Global companies

Business ethics are followed by various companies at global level. Some of these companies are as follows:

Google: Google regularly makes good its motto: “Don’t be evil”. Through its Google

Green Programme, the company has donated over $1 billion to renewable energy projects and has decreased its own footprints by using energy efficient buildings and public transportation.

Microsoft: Bill Gates is one of the America’s most generous philanthropists. The company and its employees donate over $1 billion yearly to charities and non-profit organisations.
Intel: Since 1988, the computer chip manufacturer Intel has been making efforts to strengthen the technological education. Through the Intel Foundation, the company hosts Intel Science Talent Search and International Science Engineering Fair to help and encourage the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education to young people.
Ultimate software: Every year the company rises in the rranks as one of the best companies to work for because of perks like the 100% free health care it offers to its employees, including coverage for all their dependents.
Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs’s vocal support of marriage equality has earned it some merit in terms of social ethics.
Starbucks: The Company is often quick to fix its environmental problems from greatly reducing the water it uses for its dipper well to using recycled paper in its cups. The company encourages consumers to be environmental friendly by offering 10% discount to those who bring their own reusable cups and giving free coffee grounds to consumers who want to use them for compost.

10. Focal Areas of Business Ethics

Without adequate business ethics, the business loses its soul and also harms the society at large. Some of the focal areas that explains the need and importance of business ethics are as follows:

Protecting consumer rights
Discharging social responsibility
Socialism
Safeguard the interests of the small industry
Spreading the interest of small industry
Spreading consumer movement
Establishing healthy relations with society
Boosting buyer’s market
Advantage to business and society

11. Indian Ethos in Management

“Ethos” is a Greek word which means character and is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterise a community, nation or ideology. India has a great tradition of ethical value orientation in all its thoughts and actions. The main features of Indian ethos are as follows:

Divinity of human beings is not merely a notion but a truth which can be experienced.
Balance is the keynote of Indian thought and we have synthesis and harmony between the dual concepts.
Individual is in central focus.
Divine element is the portion of the universe and is an element of universal consciousness.
Indian ethos lays special emphasis on values be it human or ethical.
Indian ethos is based on Indian scripture and it provides eternal knowledge.
It stipulates that al work is worthy and honourable.

12. Need of Ethos

Indian ethos is needed to instil and infuse ethical values among human beings and thus helping them to achieve excellence in their individual endeavours in life. Besides this, Indian ethos is also required in following sectors of life:

Management of life
Humanising organisation
Self management
Self- introspection
Brian stilling
Stepping back
Self dynamising meditation to train mind
Role of intuition
To develop proper management system
To ensure all round development of human personality
Work sincerely
Productivity of human beings

13. Application of Ethos

Indian ethos has a very wide range of applications in the sense of morally backed values and thus better management practises are used in the business. Some of the areas of management where the Indian ethos can be effectively and efficiently applied are as follows:

Ethical attitude of top management: This relates to the attitude of the top management towards the ethics and values. Top management believes that there should be value oriented holistic management of business. Management must help all stakeholders to internalise values and thereby realise their expectations and desires.
Self management: The manager must figure out how to manage and control himself. He cannot control and manage others without exercising self-management and comprehending its intricacies. It can only be done by imbibing in values.
Solutions through meditation: Meditation attempts to resolve many complex problems of modern management and organisations. A dynamic meditation is a process is transforming lower consciousness into higher consciousness. Indian ethos emphasizes on concepts like sacrificing individual desires in favour of social benefits and preferring log-term benefits over short term gains.

14. Relevance of Ethos

Indian ethos is relevant in our society for following purposes:

To maintain holistic universe
To work for the welfare of society and individual To develop unique work culture
To promote self development To provide concentration
To establish ethical value system

15. Summary

The word ethics stand for the discipline of the thought process of the human mind that keeps continuously differentiating the right and wrong and keeps guiding human actions forever in the life. Ethics are the fundamental principles and expected norms essential for the good conduct in the society. There is the need of the hour to promote the ethics in business practices and thus establish the healthy business traditions. Ethics refers to the set of moral principles that play a significant role in guiding the conduct of managers and employees in the operation of any organisation. Ethics refer both to the body of moral principles governing a particular society and the personal normal precepts of the individual. Ethics is the study of the individual and collective moral awareness, judgement, character and conduct. Morality refers both to the standards of behaviour by which individuals are judged and to the standards of behaviour by which people in general are judged in their relationships with others. Ethics encompasses the system of beliefs that supports a particular view of morality. Today, due to globalisation and liberalisation, values are changing very fast. Human beings are under tremendous pressure to cope up with the change unleashed by the modern liberalised economic advancement. The importance of values becomes more pronounced and prominent in the modern times. Along with the technological advancement and sociological changes are also putting up threats to our value system. A system of ethics must further consist of not only emergency situations, but the day to day choices we make constantly. It was Greek, Chinese and Indian philosophers who laid the foundation of the ethical theories. In Greek, wisdom has a strong ethical connotation. In fact, the Greek philosophy is the base of western philosophers’ and moral sciences. Kautilaya’s Arthashastra or the science of economics was written around 2300 years ago and it deals with the various aspects of the state craft, economy, and revenue, moral and immoral acts and how to deal with them. Kautilya dealt with morality in detail. Similarly, the Vedas are the foundation of Indian ethical thought process. The Mahabharta, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita also contain the complete knowledge of Vedic wisdom and thus laid the strong foundation of Indian ethics and ethos. Business ethics refers to all those cherished underpinnings which form the basis of any business transactions. Business ethics are also known as corporate ethics. These are the set of applied ethics and professional ethics which examines the ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of a business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of the individuals and business organisations as a whole. Business ethics stands for the purity of purpose that is upheld through carefully designed actual practises of a business enterprise. Thus, it is an embodiment of conscience concern towards execution of business processes in tune with the nobility of the purpose.

Indian ethos is needed to instil and infuse ethical values among human beings and thus helping them to achieve excellence in their individual endeavours in life.

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Suggested readings and references

Pramod Sharma, “Business Ethics and Corporate Values: An Indian Perspective”,Ravintanaya Publications, Shimla
S.K. Bhatia, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Deep & Deep Publications,New Delhi
A.C. Fernando, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Pearson Publications
SB Gogate, “Human Values & Professional Ethics”, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
Harris & Hartman, “Organizational Behavior” Jaico Publication House, 2002