Short Speech on “Business Ethics”

Ethics represent the eternal and prevalent moral standards, personal values, corporate code of conduct and are generally part of the cultural tradition of a country. According to John Huxley, major steps in the human phase of evolution are achieved by breakthroughs to new dominant patterns of mantel organization of knowledge, ideas, and ideological beliefs, instead of physiological or biological organization. Hence, this influences the socio-economic environment.

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While he socio-economic ethos itself is determined by the interaction of cultural ethics and psycho-social factors, ethical values are inseparable from the pursuits of ordered human society and dharma is the value that binds people together to form an integrated organization the society. The essence of our socio­economic ethics should be a pervasive social awareness contributing towards efficiency and humanizing our outlook and actions.

The conduct of an individual citizen or a corporate citizen involves the destiny of one or more individuals or corporate bodies in the society and affects others. It is like the state taking taxes from the people, only to ensure their own prosperity in return; just as the sun takes up the moisture only to give back in thousand fold measure.

One should devote oneself to perform with a spirit of dedications; the pursuit of excellence through efficiency in work is held out as the highest form of yoga and improves the quality of life. In this context, ethics can be defined as a self-generated system of moral standards in the realm of business, to which a substantial majority of executives give voluntary assent; genuine differences of opinions and dissidence should not be stifled as indiscipline.

The concept such as ‘work is worship’, ‘action is the duty-fruit is not thy concern’, ‘trust begets trust’ and other ideals should be practiced by institutions and not discarded as theoretical slogans.

Code of Ethics:

The ethical code of the International Federation of Purchase and materials management states that members shall not use their authority or office for personal gain and shall seek to uphold and enhance the standard of purchasing by:

(a) Maintaining an unimpeachable standard of integrity in all their business relationships both inside and outside the organization in which they are employed.

(b) Complying with the letter and spirit of the laws of the country in which they work.

Loyalty to the company, justice to those whom he deals and faiths in his profession are the basic codes of purchasing professionals. In this context, the code of a professional organization, the Indian Institute of Materials management, is given below:

(a) To consider first the total interest of one’s origination in all transactions without impairing their responsibility and dignity to one’s office;

(b) To buy without prejudice, seeking to obtain the maximum ultimate value for each rupee of expenditure;

(c) To subscribe and work for honesty and truth in buying and selling, to denounce all forms and manifestations of commercial bribery and to avoid anti-social practices;

(d) To accord a prompt and courteous reception, so far as conditions will permit, to all who call upon legitimate business mission; and

(e) To respect one’s obligations and those of one’s organization consistent with good business practices.

These codes are worthless if they are not backed up by deeds, preferably supported by policy statements. It is expected that the buyer should never forget that he is the symbol of all ethical standards and at all costs, in all circumstances, he would need deviation from the ethical standards to fall prey to temptations and allurements.