All of us have been involved in some sort of business, be it owning and operating an enterprise, studying at a particular college/training institute or working for a company (which is essentially a business owned by someone else). Since businesses and corporations, no matter how big or small, form such an important and integral part in our lives, it is only imperative of us to involve our own morality into consideration into the work place.
In this write up, the point of view discussed will be from the perspective of a business owner, which can be extrapolated to the employees. So, first of all, let us explore what happens when your business is an ethical one.
- Ethics make you stand out of the crowd. If in the business world you are known for your strong moral values, shady characters are less likely to approach you. As such, your respect in the society will be higher and whatever customers you have, the number may be low or high, they will be loyal to your brand.
- A business built up on unethical grounds may seem to be doing very well on the outside, but in reality, the end is always looming near. Any sort of sudden policy change by the government (read demonetization) is likely to throw things off track. More often than not, unethical = illegal, so there is a chance of legal repercussions too.
- Elaborating on the second point, I personally have seen corner cutting contractors owning vehicles worth of ₹ 25 lakhs but never taking them out on the road because people might suspect. What’s the point of owning the vehicle then? To some extent, this applies to houses too. On the outside, the house is not even painted and the red bricks are visible but it is nothing short of a palace if you go inside it.
- Even if you are a daily wage labourer, the fact that you are an ethically and morally right person means that people tend to trust you with their belongings. It only becomes easier for you to make it through because the good samaritans will help you in your hour of need.
Yet, it is not all sunshine in the world of business ethics. Sometimes, one is presented with situations in which being ethical doesn’t look to be the most obvious choice. A few arguments and examples against being ethical are presented below:
- Ethics do not have visibility. People in the modern world are quite shallow. They value you for the money you have. While you should steer clear of such people, you lose many business opportunities you might have had with them. At the same time, appearance does matter, if your business looks all flashy and nice, people (read customers) will gravitate towards it in the short term.
- Making an ethical choice adds to the already long list of decisions to be taken, be it a business or life in general. If you sit to think about every little thing whether it was ethical or not, it only eats up your precious time. In the modern day fast world, that is a huge no no.
An example, let us assume that you are the general manager of a factory with a hundred employees under you. For some reason, the past few months haven’t been generous and you are facing pressure from the head office to secure a contract or else the factory will be shut down and the workers laid off and you would be transferred to a different facility. At this time, a new tender opens up, securing which your factory will gain one year of guaranteed work, only catch is, you have got to pay the unethical guy person (I mean why should guys get all the blame) who has floated the tender a hefty sum of money under the table. As the manager, will you bribe the person and save a hundred people their jobs, or will you keep thumping your bloated ethical chest while livelihoods are lost and you move on to different ventures?
In a nutshell, being ethical is very important in the business world and in our day to day life alike but at the same time one should realize that nothing is black and white and everything has a moral grey area. It is a subjective matter and things should be analysed on case basis, even if it takes some time.
Let me know what you would have done in the factory scenario in the comments section below. Do you know of any other such scenarios where ethics are likely to be compromised? Let me know of that too.
Wow! That factory scenario is a tough one.
When corruption is institutional the ethical thing to do might be to leave rather than to try and decide between two bad options.
Or another option would be to identify a way for the company to benefit from being seen as the ethical actor in this situation. For example, I could tell the head office that I’ve been asked to pay a bribe. However, paying that bribe is out of the question because I know (and here I’d make the assertion whether it’s true or not) the company would not want to be involved in such shady dealings. Instead, I will tell the individual in charge of granting the project that paying the bribe is unethical, and I’ll make sure that others know he or she has asked for a bribe. Shining a light on bad behavior can help people to make better choices. Sometimes, of course, there’s danger in doing this depending on the bad actors. But assuming this bad person isn’t going to break my legs or something . . . I’d try and do the right thing by exposing the individual’s actions and working towards a mutually beneficial solution.
Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for–but I tried my best. 🙂
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That’s a very insightful comment ma’am and it might even work in a developed economy, heck, sometimes it might even work over here but most often it doesn’t. Usually corrupt people like these have higher ups supporting them, a lot of times police and politicians too. Complaining against a person with connections would ironically get you arrested instead. Grim reality.
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Shoot. I was afraid of that. What do you think is the “right” answer in that situation?
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Unfortunately Ethics, standards, and company policies…. in the workplace have a very fine line, in this scenario you spoke about the manager anywhere else in the world his employment would be terminated. As much pressure as he could’ve put on his employees it would be to save his own ass. But again in the scenario that you spoke about it wasn’t a conflict of employees it was a problem of a contracts short of business . The bottom line is the business is not making any money they don’t have the money to pay the employees they can probably do it for a very short period of time but eventually the funds run out and the company closes usually in bankruptcy. It’s sad but that’s how it is companies will do everything in their power to avoid the going belly up . No matter who and what the price is.
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That is true but a lot of times bad sales cannot be attributed to bad management alone, a lot of external factors come in to the picture. In this the assumption was that the only option to save the factory would be to cave in. Most often it won’t happen but one should be prepared if it does.
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The fact that you are even considering ethics in the business world shows something about your character.
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Great points! Has got me thinking.
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Thanks, any thoughts on the question I posed? What would you have done?
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I have seen people as u talked about those brick houses from outside and not less than palaces from inside. That is very much clear to me, that what is the use of living so mysterious lives and stepping out with a veil inorder to hide ur fears.It is best to do work in an ethical manner raher than living just a materialistic cum threatening lives.
Anyways, it is a never ending debate.
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I know, right! Earn what you have and flaunt it proudly, that’s my motto.
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I’m with you SG on flaunting it. If your wealth is gained honestly and you want to show it off (common) then do so. On ethics; how many of the world’s largest conglamorates and companies really are run ethically? Their costly PR budgets are also there to paint over or whitewash any unethical practice. Honesty and ethics are loose words in these times.
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It is scary how true the PR phenomenon is. As I mentioned, everything is a grey area and we can’t take anything at face value these days.
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I nominate you for the blogger recognition award! The blogger recognition reward #1 – geetadhaar https://geetadhaar.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/the-blogger-recognition-reward-1/
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good question and wise answer Shining Gem. Actually in MBA there is a paper on Ethics . there are various theories related to this issue. There are some case studies , which indicates that ethics are important for long term business.
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Something that I’d think is quite true is that while you can be an ethical businessman, it’s impossible to run an entirely ethical business – simply because money makes the world go round. In that factory scenario I’d had have done the shady deal, not without putting a lot of thought into it though but in the end there comes a point where the lines can be blurred between being ‘ethical’ and being narcissistic.
Maybe it’s the kind of person I am, but to me it was a no-brainer – am I wrong/weird/ a bad person?!
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nice perspective of thinking especially in the factory story..😊😊Keep Writing
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Hey! I have nominated your blog for the Most Active Blog Award : https://vandanabajaj.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/most-active-blog-award/
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Thanks.
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Your thoughts are really astonishing!!
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That’s a hard one. Do you save your ethics and risk 100 people their jobs? I guess it’s a matter of what you can live with.
If I was faced with that decision I wouldn’t make it. I would quit.
The issue with paying the bribe is that it will eventually become a second, third and fourth time. It won’t end there. Whether it be the same person or a different one. Now you’re the guy/woman who is known for paying bribes. Word gets around fast and unscrupulous people will come knocking at your door and latch on like leaches. That first bribe won’t be the end and I don’t think I can work under those conditions.
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Our society is apt to give passes for politicians, preachers and professionals when they fail…which always indicated a failure in ethics. I think the best way to do business is being being ethical first and “checks and balances” as we are all prone to fail if left to our own devices. It sounds cynical but in reality no one should ever be blindly trusted. We all need good people to surround us and help us stay on the straight and narrow path.
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Very true Michael. Trust is really a loose cannon in today’s world. More often than not, you’ll regret trusting someone. Thank you for such an insightful viewpoint.
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It’s too much big and topic is boring for me
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Then just ignore and move on. I am not forcing anyone to read my stuff. Peace.
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You are making your content too big
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Probably you should read my about page, you’ll get to know why I write in such a way.
Besides, my content isn’t even that long. I have never broken the 1000 word barrier yet and the post we are commenting on currently sits at 800 words. Clearly, longer posts are not your cup of tea so please do not visit, since I do not want to force anything on people against their wishes. I’m 99.13% sure that you’re fed up reading this long comment of mine too. So I’ll stop here. Please go back to your 140 character world of Twitter.
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Any teenager will read your so much big blog i talk in small but explain whole thing not like you writing big things and nothing can be understood
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Okay big guy. You keep writing your blog and I’ll keep writing mine. Peace.
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Don’t show me your attitude of writing 100 words reply comment
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Have you 95.50% guarentee that each and every person who has read your blog has read every word
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I agree, not everyone reads every word, but a lot of people do, and that can be seen in the comments section where a lot of different people have posted comments relevant to what I’ve written. It doesn’t matter if 5 people completely read it or 50, as long as someone reads it and gives me feedback, I am happy.
Even though you have given me a negative feedback, I am still happy because you voiced your opinion. You definitely are not the only person to think so. Many people might think my posts are long and do not want to read it, to them I say, then please don’t.
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I just gave you a advice
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I never asked for your advice in the first place. Thank you very much. Now shoo.
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“In a nutshell, being ethical is very important in the business world and in our day to day life alike but at the same time one should realize that nothing is black and white and everything has a moral grey area” I really loved this sentence. My take on this is do good to people who have done good to you, you can forget about the others(in general)
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I think dont think business and ethics go hand in hand. (I mean it could, depending on the person). I feel like most want what’s best for their business in the expense of their employees. I do think most business want to go the ethical route first but when it comes down to it as a last resort, most would want the best for their business. But then again, all depends on the person.
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True. IT is quite a subjective matter.
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Interesting…wondering how it would apply to life science institutions…
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Reblogged this on Bret chapman cornelius.
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Thanks Cornelius.
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I really enjoyed reading this post. Interestingly.
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Great post man, loved that deep/strong perspective, really interesting keep up with the good work!
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Thank you for your kind words. Appreciate it. 🙂
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I also agree with one of the comments above that the formatting is a little tough to read and could use some more spacing or better headers.
Though on content, you did a good job at explaining how ethics can either help or hurt your business.
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Great articles good work
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Hello sir. You just touched a subject that is very pertinent to me. You see in most African countries, very ethical policies are in paper but on the field corrupt government officials twist the laws and make supposed smooth running mechanisms impossible. This deliberate unethical behaviors of such individuals for greedy purposes creats a bad chain efect
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Africa stayed behind for so long due to such greedy practises by officials. Deliberate free willed unethical practises can kill an entire continent.
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Great information.
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Thank you ethics in business I agree is a key to longevity in bushiness. We also aspire to help people understand that ethics are crucial to how we treat our business deals and employees. Thanks again for supporting these principles.
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Reblogged this on .
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I would not pay the bribe. Under USA Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, I would be guilty of breaking the law. I would report to my superiors why we did not get the contact
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Excellent site. Plenty of useful information here. 536080661
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