UNDERSTANDING A VALUE CENTRED ORGANISATION
K P Gopalkrishnan
Assistant Professor HR and Business Ethics
Pillai Institute for Management Studies and Research
Panvel – gopalpuru@rediffmail.com This paper attempts to clarify what is meant by value centred organisations since increasingly the word value is being used by Human Resource professionals to delineate their prognosis. To remove the fuzziness this paper takes a definitional stand and gives the HR professional a working idea of this highly abstruse subject – a subject on which divergent views expressed by a number of authors has managed to confuse many a reader. More often than not it boils down to my views for the rest of society-right or wrong. This is a sad commentary and
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When an organisation accepts the subjective connotation of value and acts thereupon it is called a value-based organisation. Oxfam, Centre for the Advancement of Philanthropy, and the Reliance Group are good examples of this variety. When an organisation accepts the objective connotation of value and acts thereupon it is called a value driven organisation. The A V Birla Group, the Tata Group and the Godrej Group are good examples of this variety. However when a corporate house (or even an educational institution or a cooperative society) is both value based (ethical) and value driven (positive) it is said to be value centred. And this is the kind of corporate house any good HR intervention will seek to achieve. Is it any wonder that names like Tata, Godrej, Infosys and Wipro stand out like beacon lights in the Indian corporate world purely because of the value centred leadership at their helm?
Conventionally, the idea that the activity of business is essentially morally neutral and that ethical value must be imposed from outside the activity itself has gained wide credence and acceptance. Business is expected to meet certain external criteria, derived from the prevalent/dominant moral philosophy in society if it is to gain wide acceptance and be deemed legitimate by the society in which it functions and operates. This reluctance to accept the intrinsic morality of
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.
“Business ethics is the application of general ethical ideas to business behavior” (Lawrence & Weber, 2017, p. 94) and it’s through these ideas that good, bad, moral, and immoral decisions are made based on the foundation and framework of how we view life. For this reason, our moral compass when based on a biblical worldview should influence how we approach making decisions as it pertains to business ethics (Porter,2013).
As many things in life, ethics has evolved through the history of our society. As anyone who has ever has read the news can attest, there are certain behaviors and tradition typical in societies around the world that may seem unethical and, sometimes, inhuman when seen through our ethical point of view. However, we often forget that many of those behaviors and tradition were, not only accepted, but expected in our society at one time. As our society changes over time, our moral code and compass shifts changing our outlook and tolerance for certain behaviors. And, as in other aspects of our society, the way we conduct business is no different.
This will be an over view of ethics as it relates to business in our society. Concepts from Philosophy will seek to describe the correlation between actions that are classified as morally right or ethical in our dealings with each other as human beings. Clear and concise examples will be given as well as ways in which to improve upon business ethics.
In today’s business world, businesses are subject to the laws of the country in which their company was organized and operates. Business owners are to conduct themselves and their affairs ethically and owe some degree of social responsibility for their actions. Ethics, although not law, is a set of moral principles or values that govern the conduct of an individual or a group (Cheeseman 132). Immanuel Kant, a well-known German Philosopher, believed the human mind creates the structure of human experience, that reason is the source of morality (Kant). He also believed that people owe moral
A company 's values are the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that company personnel are expected to display in conducting the company 's business and pursuing its strategic vision and strategy.
One philosopher wrote, "Like the wheel, business is one of the great human inventions. But unlike the wheel, the existence of business depends upon a social context, on unwritten rules and conventions…there is no more chance that we could return to an idyllic state before business existed than we could uninvent the wheel" (Klempner, n.d.). Just as the wheel has been redeveloped time and time again, thus making it better and better, we too must redevelop and enhance our philosophical and ethical decisions in the way we operate businesses in today 's society. Trying to maximize profits in business while catering to growing societal demands, proves to be quite complicated and challenging. Society and business owners alike are continually struggling to find that happy medium. Comparing and contrasting the many moral philosophies and belief systems, combined with trial and error is one way society as a whole can create a system that hopefully one day works for us all.
Followed by, the normative theory that best supports the conclusion. Determination of the considerations for and the process of ethical business decision making to balance corporate and social responsibilities and address moral, economic, and legal concerns
Business values can be defined as beliefs of an organisation, they are “the context in which an organisation’s norms are established and justified” (Nieuwenhuizen & Oosthuizen, 2014, p.95) therefore compel one to think about issues such as honesty, loyalty, morality etc.
We must change the focus of business ethics away from primary emphasis on Western ethics toward a deeper understanding of value systems that stem from different conceptions of human nature. We need to abandon the project of universalizing ethics along Western lines.
Business, in a very simplified definition, describes an exchange of something for another. In this context, it can be implied that there is a fiduciary understanding that the parties involved receive goods or services that are of equal value according to the appraisal system that they have agreed upon, whether it is based on units of measurement, or just mere goodwill. Thus, ethical standards that are applied in business should be in correspondence to expected moral behaviors of society, a basic equation of interdependence.
In their personal and professional lives, people can and, unfortunately, sometimes do go against their moral and ethical standards. Ethical standards are what it means to be a good person, the social rules that govern our behavior. Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or the good or bad behavior in the workplace environment. A business is an organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of people that work together to achieve a common purpose. The moral challenges that these men and women face each day along with a whole range of problems that could occur, are why ethics plays such an important
Corporate values are ‘the operating philosophies or principles that guide an internal conduct of the organization and its association with its clients, partners and shareholders’. It is also a fundamental and long-lasting belief that specific mode of conduction highly valued by the organization’s membership’ according to IBM corporate responsibility report (2002, What is the value of company).
The organizations are developing and sustaining the growth through identifying the fact behind their applications in the field of economic, health, social, educational and political development of the nations. The theory of value system has become a part of the organizational culture and helps to recognise the behaviour and approaches of the business, group or individual. The objective of this report focuses on the values of leadership and the way in which the outcomes affect the circumstances. Tesco is one most reputable brand follows a dynamic approach between the value system and the impact of culture for the sustainable development. The organization effectively does research on the different aspects of the needs and desire of the leader or manager in the organization to understand their values and provide the practical platform for leadership and team development. Apart from this, the personal values are also taken in account in perceptual filtration in decision making and creating