6 Universality of Human Values

• Learning Outcomes
• Introduction
• Nature of human values Prominent human values
• Universality of human values
• Summary

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

• After studying this module, students will be able to understand:
• Meaning of human values Nature of human values Prominent human values
• Universality of human values

MODULE 5: UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN VALUES INTRODUCTION:

Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities living on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values are called by different nomenclatures. For example, it can be human ethical and moral values. Out of these three, human values are very essential. These values reside within each individual and the same is reflected by the individual’s character. Formally, these are expressed in various laws, declarations, debates, meetings, conventions etc. thereby protecting and encouraging human rights. The first and important step taken by many countries around the globe has been the recognition of these human values universally and encouraging the implementation of these values in practical. The immediate aim of all these efforts is to integrate every human being physically as well as psychologically and the ultimate goal is to inculcate positive attitude, thinking, and behavior and utilize these universal human values as the basis of developing cordial human relationships, in the spirit of mutual respect of those values. Therefore, human values are those inspiring factor that encourage us to utilize our moral values, particularly in the situation of conflict, so that we avoid our negative attitude when dealing with confrontational situation.

MEANING OF HUMAN VALUES:

Human values can be defined as the belief, principles, followings, set standard that individual follows as their guidelines in daily activities. These human values are an important part of human nature. Without these values human beings are like flower without fragrance. Professional ethics are mainly built on the basis of these principle human values. From the societal point of view, these values are set of behavioral practices that individuals choose to practice in the light of maintaining interpersonal relationship. In the present era, human values plays a pivotal role in maintain peace and protecting society. Establishing human values into practical form contribute towards maintaining morality within the society. By correlating human values with personal relations, human being can live in harmony with others.

NATURE OF HUMAN VALUES

I. Human values are universal:

Human values are universal in nature. These values are mutually shared by all human beings, no matter to which religion, caste, creed, culture, nationality or history they belong to. Some of the eminent human values can be grouped as follows:

• Imbibe civility in nature. Giving respect to others.
• Having honesty in behavior.
• Developing a habit of sharing among individuals.
• Develop loyalty, solidarity and fairness in behavior.
• Establish a feeling of brotherhood, friendship, empathy, love and compassion for others.
• Inculcating openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition and appreciation in nature.

II.  Human values and culture:

Human values are specifically concerned to culture. Each persisting culture has its own value system, ethics and ethos. In countries like India and Japan, value system occupies the center stage in all activities, including those in business enterprises. Behavior that exert a positive relation with other human being are rewarded and having empathetic behavior for others are highly valued. On the other hand, behaviors which are anti-social are always condemned and are punished by the society. Therefore, culture promotes cultivating positive values in human being.

III. Implantation of Human values:

The initial process of implanting human values begins with the childhood of human being. These values are passed on by parents to their child and are further implanted throughout the child upbringing. As the child grows through its life phases, they learn more about these values from their friends groups, teachers, elders, leaders and society. The values which are learnt includes honesty, discipline, love, peace, justice, trust, civility, loyalty, appreciation and openness for the environment. In addition to this, subordination of individual interest before the larger interest is more desirable human values. People who hold outstanding human values are usually regarded as well as admired. It is generally visible in society for the individuals who are encouraged in profession like teachers, doctors, lawyers which are viewed as persons holding high moral and ethical code of conduct for their profession. These kind of noble human values are highly encouraged in society and on the other hand negative values are discouraged.

IV. Human values encourage peace:

If there is peace in the environment it encourages prosperity and this is attained by inculcating finer human values. It is by implanting such finer human values; people can better appreciate and give respect for the peaceful relationship among individuals. By putting human values into practice and it ultimately leads to bringing prosperity. Thus, these values can prove to be an encouraging factor for peace. Also, by putting these values into human relationship, it will surely enhance better mutual understanding among individuals. As far as business organizations are concerned, if these values are better cultivated into the organizational culture by the leaders, it is surely going to strengthen the foundation of workplace i.e. strong integration of human resources which would further lead to bringing peace and prosperity in the organization.

V. Human values encourage individual growth:

From the point of view to encourage individual growth, human values are of great importance. The basic thing is to focus on the self personality development. Complete knowledge regarding oneself is the first and foremost thing that needs to be taken care of. Today, there are many situations, where many people rely on other to follow their ideas to be successful which is completely fair because for the simple reason that we all have role models which influence our thinking. But still there exist a thin line discrepancy between individuals perspective of doing things. Human values which follow the basic features of Indian education focus on growth and advancement of individual. Indian education system which is the oldest system in the world has such qualities that do not exist anywhere in the world.

VI. Difference among Human values, Ethical values and Moral values:

Although three of them fall under the wide category of value system, there exists a thin line difference among them. Ethical values can be categorized as respectful behavior towards other human being, plants as well as animals without harmony them, while moral values are in fact the same but today moralizing rhetoric is not well received. On the other hand, human values are considered much more as developing positive attitude directly concerned with the behavior.

PROMINENT HUMAN VALUES:

Some of the prominent human values can be categorized as follows:

1.Genuine: One should have genuine feeling for others. Behavior should be honest, warm and heartily for people around you. Individual’s feeling should be such that it is felt genuinely by others.

2. Modesty: One must be humble in his/ her approach. There should not be a feeling of superiority within an individual. Modesty and humanity in nature have a far more everlasting impact on the people.

3.   Self-Respect: One should try to be someone whom people around give respect and seek advice from. One who never consider material gains over and above his/her own moral values. One should never allow anyone to move you away from doing what is right and acceptable.

4. Rationality: One must be rational in its thinking. Your values should be such that it is not easily influenced by other’s thinking. Have a rational approach towards comparing situations, acts, people etc. Don’t let prejudice or emotion affect you or your judgment.

5. Courteous: One should always show courtesy while behaving with others. Always adopt an approach of good manners even though others around you may not.

6. Incorrupt: One should opt a strong approach for withholding one’s life values. Don’t let outside powers to corrupt you. It must be known to the external environment that you are not the person whose moral values and reactions are saleable.

7.  Civility: One must have a great civic sense. It is very pertinent to know how to behave in society and extend courtesy to others.

8. Wisdom: It is important to have knowledge but more important to have wisdom. One should try to understand the real qualities of people and apply his/her wisdom for the greater good of humanity.

9.     Wholesome: One should be conducive of not only physical wellbeing but also psychological as well as spiritual wellbeing also. One must be completely attentive and active while interacting with others.

10.   Charity: Establishing a feeling of empathetic and compassionate behavior towards others helps the individual to grow his/her personality. Learn to extend a helping hand towards other even though they themselves are not able to help you.

UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN VALUES:

Human values are of universal nature. They are shared by all human beings, irrespective of their caste, creed, nationality, culture and personal history. Some of the prominent human values are grouped together as follows:

• Imbibe civility in nature. Giving respect to others.
• Having honesty in behavior.
• Developing a habit of sharing among individuals.
• Develop loyalty, solidarity and fairness in behavior.
• Establish a feeling of brotherhood, friendship, empathy, love and compassion for others.
• Inculcating openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition and appreciation in nature.

Ethics of Consumer Protection:

Of all stakeholders in a society, and more so in an economy, consumer are the most important and those likely to be more adversely affected by unethical practices, followed by producers and distributors of goods and services. Unfortunately, in several societies, especially in developing countries like India, consumer exploitation is rampant. This is mostly because of the inadequate and poor system of control over producers and distributors of goods and services by public authorities so as to ensure the consumers are protected from the various practices of these people. In this direction, Government should intervene in several ways like

(i) Adopt or maintain policies to ensure efficient distribution of goods and services to the public, especially to people living in rural communities and to the poor. Such need specific policies should include assistance for the creation of adequate warehousing and retail facilities in rural areas, provision of incentives for consumer self-help and better control of the supply of essential goods and services in such areas.

(ii) Encourage the setting up of consumer cooperatives and provision of information about them.

(iii) Establish legal and administrative measures to enable consumer and relevant organizations to get their grievances redressed fairly inexpensively and expeditiously through formal and informal procedures.

(iv) Encourage businesspersons to resolve all consumer disputes in a fair, fast and informal manner and to establish voluntary mechanism including advisory services and informal compliant procedures, which can provide assistance to consumer.

These guidelines encourage governments to develop, strengthen and maintain a strong consumer protection policy. In doing so, each Govt. must set its own priorities for the protection of consumers in accordance with its economic and social circumstances and the needs of its population.

Environmental Ethics:

The importance of environmental preservation through better state and corporate governance practices cannot be overstressed, in the context of global warming and its attendant problem. The growth of consumerism, leading to a high rate of consumption of natural resources, is at the heart of many environmental problems. Increasing awareness and consequent concern on these issues were fuelled by informed public sentiment, media coverage, corporate attitudes and government policy. The shift of corporate attitudes is the key to environmentalism. The stances of holders who advocate or oppose environmental protection seek to influence the government.

Government directives can prevent some of the most egregious environmental damage from occurring. A very significant concept underlying international and domestic environmental policy is sustainable development. Its goal is to ensure that the natural resource needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Environmental regulations are often criticized as being too costly for business. Industry is the world’s foremost creator of wealth, employment, trade and technology, controlling and deploying tremendous amount of human and financial resources for economic value addition

There are several reasons why those managing business are becoming increasingly conscious of environmental issues:

For management morale;

• In an era of lean management, many companies are findings ways and means to cut waste wherever possible
• The Environmental Protection Act has acknowledged the potential gains from pollution prevention
• Business people have realized the advantages of taking a proactive stance towards environmental regulation.

The time has come for companies to take a fresh look at environmental issues. Environmental audits provide an in-depth review of the company processes and progress in realizing log-term strategic goals. Reinhardt suggests five different approaches to managing environmental issues:

• Investing in environmental friendly processes or products. Managing environmental regulations
• Investing in environmental performance improvement, without increasing costs.
• Combining all the three methods mentioned above to change the basis for competition.
• Looking at environmental issues from a risk management perspective.

Thus, environmental management and practices in India have improved significantly in recent times though it still has a long way to go.

Marketing Ethics:

Marketing ethics denotes expressed and unexpressed standards of fair and ethical dealings in marketing which the conscience of the community may progressively develop over time. Marketing ethical capacity would include knowledge of marketing ethics, the ability to identify situations of ethics infraction in practice and the motivation to disseminate such knowledge. Marketing ethics and building of ethical capacity can be fostered by having a corporate culture that values ethics and a system to institutionalize and integrate ethical thinking in marketing planning. Marketing planners must articulate on virtues and not market products that retard character and denigrate value system

Ethics in marketing would include making safer products, not using deceptive or misleading advertisements, not indulging in hard sell, not using coercion on channel partners to push products and not engaging in price fixing- in short, fair and honest dealings that have the customers and other stakeholder’s interests in mind.

Ethics issues in Human Resource Management:

Human Resource Management at all times should be guided by the highest principles of integrity and development to the welfare of the people, only then can they succeed in creating organizations which are humane, affluent and civilized. The ethics of human resource management revolves around those issues arising out of the employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between them. Most of the ethical issues concerning HRM policies and activities are universal in nature, while some of them that have greater relevance in the Indian context. These are discrimination issues, suppression of democratization in the workplace; privacy issues; safety and health; and performance appraisal. Areas of unethical conduct revolve around issues relating to employment, remuneration and benefits, labor relations, health and safety and training and development.

In creating an ethical organization, the HR department plays a crucial role. It has to develop an institutional culture that helps in the evolution of an ethical organization. Every institution has a distinct culture that reflects the core values of the institution and forms the basis of how people work together. Institutional culture is a blend of ideas, conventions, customs and practices, company and shared ethical values that define accepted behavior for every employee in an organization. It sets the ethical tone and forms the ethical conscience of the organization. Corporate culture and the ethical climate can put pressure on employees to channel their actions in certain directions as desired by the company. All these create an atmosphere in which unethical conduct will be unacceptable in the organization.

Ethical Issues in Financial Management:

The financial services industry has several players such as insurance agents, brokers, individual investors, institutional investors, brokerage firms, mutual fund companies and so many more. The industry churns out several products and services which by the use of specialized skills and talents are managed efficiently. However, while agents and brokers owe a critical duty of care and diligence to their clients, they often tend to violate these.

Financial ethics, according to Professor Boatright is more than just trust. He mentions the difficulty in summing up the various aspects of the subject. He believes that the difficulty lies in:

1. Finance being a field not identified as a single occupation such as medicine, law or engineering, ethics in this field involves several different aspects and people.

2. Another area of complexity is the number of people not only in organizations, but also in the various financial markets and financial institutions.

According to him, ethics in finance is a function of personal integrity of individual, ethical leadership and an understanding of ethics in the areas of finance and accounting.

SUMMARY:

Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities living on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values are called by different nomenclatures. Establishing human values into practical form contribute towards maintaining morality within the society. By correlating human values with personal relations, human being can live in harmony with others. Unfortunately, in several societies, especially in developing countries like India, consumer exploitation is rampant. This is mostly because of the inadequate and poor system of control over producers and distributors of goods and services by public authorities so as to ensure the consumers are protected from the various practices of these people.

Environmental regulations are often criticized as being too costly for business. Industry is the world’s foremost creator of wealth, employment, trade and technology, controlling and deploying tremendous amount of human and financial resources for economic value addition.

Marketing ethical capacity would include knowledge of marketing ethics, the ability to identify situations of ethics infraction in practice and the motivation to disseminate such knowledge. Marketing ethics and building of ethical capacity can be fostered by having a corporate culture that values ethics and a system to institutionalize and integrate ethical thinking in marketing planning. In creating an ethical organization, the HR department plays a crucial role. It has to develop an institutional culture that helps in the evolution of an ethical organization.

SELF-ASSESSMENT

1.  Discuss the concept of universality of human values in relevance to the organization.

2. Explain the nature of human values.

REFERENCES:

• Pramod Sharma, “Business Ethics and Corporate Values: An Indian Perspective” Ravitanaya Publications, Shimla, 2017
• S.K Bhatia, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 2004
• A.C. Fernando, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Pearson Publication, 2013 Harris & Hartman, “Organizational Behavior” Jaico Publication House, 2002
• French, Bell & Vohra, “Organization Development” Pearson Prentice Hall Publication, 2009
• S B Gogate, “Human Values & Professional Ethics” Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 2011