Importance of ethics in business (627)

Business ethics is a term that is commonly heard across the work environment. Some might think of it is the guiding principles of the working of the organization while some might think of it as a set of rules laid down by the management to be followed by everyone related to the organization.

Ethical decisions are tough to take but a foundation of ethical decisions leads to greater future opportunities. While it may seem very easy to steal from the company and mistreat the customers, this behavior goes a long way in damaging the reputation of the employer as well as the employee. The wisdom to choose right from wrong is very important in business.

Businesses today run on their name and the reputation they have built in public. It is often seen that businesses that do extremely well in the market are the ones that are built on the foundations of strong ethical decisions.

In the case stated above, we see that the employees are non compliant towards company policies and are not ethical in their behavior. This is wrong. This kind of behavior leads to negative image in the eyes of the employer. Any company that hires an employee has a certain set of expectations from them. Only when those expectations are met, the employees are given chances to build their career with the employer. They are presented with future opportunities that can make them excel in their area of expertise. If there are employees who do not comply with the values of the company, they are let go.

It is of utmost importance that the employees believe in the values laid down by the company they are working for. If the employees believe in the same values as their employer, they would love their place of work and would make every effort to provide the customers with the best possible customer service.

It is very easy to run away from responsibility and take unethical decisions. This only leads to a conflict of interest between the employee and the employer. What employees need to do is follow the code of conduct and make sure that they adhere to company norms and policies. In turn, employers need to make sure that the voice of their employees is heard and they are given equal opportunities to grow in the company.

Understanding of business ethics is very important. Customers, employees, stakeholders, everyone appreciate and benefits from ethical business practices. They help the business in maintaining a clean reputation and build a positive public image. Employees should uphold the image of the company in the market and should behave in a manner acceptable to the management of the company.

Ethical behavior does not only reflect the values of the company, it also reflects to a great extent the morale and conduct of an individual. An individual who is morally responsible and practices fair trade practices goes a long way in establishing himself at the workplace. There is no shortage of opportunities for such individuals. Infact, individuals who practice ethical behavior gain monetarily and non-monetarily in the long run.
Behaving in an ethical manner also means that the people and the environment are not negatively impacted by your or the actions of your organization. It also means that the resources of the company along with the time and energy of the individual are being utilized effectively and efficiently. An efficient use of an employees’ resources leads to a boost in employee morale and the productivity of the team. Employees who work for an organization that demands high standards of business ethics in all facets of operations are more likely to perform their job duties at a higher level and are also more inclined to stay loyal to that organization.

Living and dying with Asbestos (844)

In the case study of companies manufacturing asbestos, the companies have followed non-ethical practices and neglected the social well being of its employees. The management kept neglecting and sidelining the health of its employees in order to maximize their own profits and the growth share of the company. The purpose of any business is to increase the value of stakeholders or to maximize the profits. While this is the aim of any business, the companies cannot neglect their responsibility that they hold towards their own employees.

One of the major reasons corporates fail to comply with corporate social responsibility if because of favoritism towards corporate financial performance. Most companies fear that if they invest too much in corporate social responsibility activities, it might lead to a decreased financial performance of the firm. While this may be true in a lot of cases, it cannot be neglected that health and safety of the employees if important to the success of a business.

Safeguarding the interests of its employees is of primary importance to the companies. It not only leads to a favorable image in the market but also leads to building a strong network of satisfied employees. The company should lay down important rules for maintaining the health of the employees, should provide them medical care of the highest standards and should also make them aware of the health hazards of continuous working in the work environment. This is a fair trade practice and also lets employees take a well-informed decision before starting work with the employer.

The companies that neglect basic employee safety standards would be able to make profits in the short run but in the long term, they will spoil their reputation amongst the employees, prospective employees, competitors and market. This can also impact the sales of the company in future. Therefore, for the company to uphold its position in the market, it is necessary that they adhere to certain norms and safeguard the interest of their employees.

A leading economist Adam Smith gave the principle of invisible hand. According to him, companies need to self-administer their functioning and working in the market. While the government overlooks the policies and the functioning of the companies in the market, self-adherence is of utmost importance. It is clear why Smith says that moral norms are necessary for such a system to work - in order for exchange to proceed, contracts must be enforceable, people must have good access to information about the products and services available, and the rule of law must hold.

The companies manufacturing asbestos could have institutionalized ethics into their operations in a better way. They could have given their employees access to advanced medical care. They could have informed the employees of the hazards of continuous working in the environment. They could have made people work in shifts so as to downplay the effect of continuous working in the same environment. The companies could have employed the help of automated machines to take up task that has maximum exposure to substances that lead to medical conditions.

It is very important that companies follow the norms and policies and safeguard the health and well being of their employees. It is always better to identify the hazard at the workplace and isolate it. If isolation is not possible, then the employers should take utmost care to provide their employees with protective gear so that their health is not impacted by the substances at use at work.

Additionally, the companies could also employ supervisors to monitor the health of employees and who could provide proper training to the employees about the safety measures they could use at work.

The duty of employers to train employees needs to be read in conjunction with employee's duties to follow instruction and not to endanger themselves or others. This means, for example, that an employer is not required to train an employee in the use of equipment or substances where the employee has been instructed not to carry out that activity. Such a situation is more likely to be a matter of the employer exercising adequate supervision.

All these measures and attention to detail could have gone a long way in improving the reputation of the company in the market and the well being of its employees, who are the backbones of the company.

Alternately, employers can hire a supervisor to guide the employees about the safety measures and the hazards of prolonged use of substances that cause health issues. The supervisor can monitor the health of the employee and take precautionary measures, if necessary.

The company is a very good example of invisible hand which states that companies need to self administer their operations. The government will always be watching the operations but companies should adhere to the norms laid down by the company itself. Given the aim of profit maximization and the materialistic desires of the society, companies cannot overlook the health and safety of its employees. This not only tarnishes the image of the company but also leads to fewer takers in the market.

Rights of the poor (960)

Rights of the poor might look like a very easy topic of discussion but it is indeed a very complicated one. Let us begin by explaining poverty first. Pogge defines a poor individual as one who does not have access to a standard of living adequate for health and well being of himself and of his family including food, clothing, house and medical care. Though a vague definition of poverty, it includes a large percentage the world population.

Poor people should have the same rights as other people but what is often seen is that the rights of the poor are violated across the world. Although the standard of living of people in developed as well as developing economies has risen, there is no noticeable change in the living standards of the poor across the world. There is a percentage of people who has risen above the poverty line but cannot be missed is the fact that the percentage of poor people is also on the rise. Waging war against poverty and raising the level of poor people is an international war. This is a moral fight with sole aim of improving the standards of the world’s poor.

Nations have a common responsibility of creating a prosperous environment for the world’s poor and creating an environment that is moral and democratic. Poverty is enemy of peace and democracy. Countries that have higher percentage of population above the poverty line are less developed. This is because poverty makes it difficult to maintain political stability, thus leading to a less developed socio economic environment.

In today’s era of globalization, it becomes important that nations collectively fight poverty at a large scale. Fighting poverty would in turn promote world peace, developed economies, peace treaties, human rights and development in social, economic and environmental terms.

Fighting poverty requires direct action under the broader framework but what it also means is that we encourage poor to fight poverty with their own efforts. We help them improve their standard of living by helping them reach a standard where they are able to do so. The responsibility to alleviating poor to those standards lies with the individual nations. The capacity and the will to eradicate poverty are extremely crucial. Nations should promote dialogues with the neighboring countries in order to formulate policies that guide this result. A combined effort will result in more positive results.

The government of different nations needs to bring about social changes in order to bring a change in the social development of the economy. People need to have access to basic amenities – housing, medical care and food. They need to be provided with equal amount of security against injustice, violence, natural disasters etc. as other people. There has to be a sense of belongingness in the poor people. The fight against poverty means a lot more than alleviating poverty. It means creating the right conditions for the people to prosper. This would result in people themselves encouraged to fight their status of poor and will also result in long term results.

Various countries use different measures to measure poverty, but the most widely used measure is the per capita income. Countries have an average income below that the people fall under poverty line. This is sometimes misleading because some countries have a varied pattern of income that is unequally distributed amongst strata of society. Another commonly used indicator of poverty is the Human Development Index that has been developed by UNDP.

All these instruments are far from reliable. What is needed is detailed information with different aspects of poverty. We cannot relate the poor of one country to the other. We need to identify groups of poor people within one country itself. Most poor people in a country suffer from malnutrition and starvation. This does not mean that there is lack of food in a country or the country is incapable of producing food to feed its people. What it means is that people lack the purchasing power to feed them.

People are not poor because of the same reasons. There are different groups of people that are poor because of different reasons. The reasons could range from dependency on agriculture to rapid increase in population, from demographic factors to income distribution. While some poor can bear the suffering easily, some communities find it hard to bear the suffering that comes with poverty. Poor people in some communities in a lot of countries face discrimination. They also often suffer from war and conflict that makes their situation even worse.

The need of the hour is development cooperation amongst nations. But is that enough? Our governments need to promote respect for human rights of the poorest citizens. They must be encouraged to participate in elections and they also must be well informed so that they can take a well-informed decision. We live in times where the rich exercise their social and economic rights but the same rights of the poor are violated. This can also be because of the reason that poor people lack the power and knowledge to assert their rights.

We need good governance by government and public authorities to lead the poor to towards social and economic development. We need to stress the need for reforms in public administration to increase the efficiency of the functioning of public authorities.

It can be concluded by saying that it is not difficult to combat poverty. It is possible. But, it requires a great deal of effort from the poor and the government authorities. The fight against poverty is everyone’s fight. It is a common duty with a common goal. We can only create a better place for the poor and respect for their rights if we work together towards the common goal.

References

Pogge, T. (2007). Freedom from poverty as a human right: Who owes what to the very poor?. UNESCO.

Gledhill, J. (2003). Rights and the poor. Human rights in global perspective Anthropological studies of rights, claims and entitlements London: Routledge, 209-228.
Pinkowitz, L., Stulz, R. M., & Williamson, R. (2003). Do firms in countries with poor protection of investor rights hold more cash? (No. w10188). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ethical Decision Making (879)

The topic I chose for the above question is very close to my heart. I come from a country where the state of poor people is really bad and noteworthy. Though a certain percentage of people have been able to alleviate from the poverty line, the number of poor people is on a rise and seems to keep increase every year.

Going through articles on human rights and the poor, most research studies show that the rights of the poor are violated in most countries. Though the government has policies in place that help poor people exercise their rights, it is because of the absence of adequate knowledge and resources that the poor are not able to exercise their rights.

In developing nations, a large percentage of poor population live as migrants on illegal lands and operates illegal and unregistered businesses. These are also the people who lacking clean drinking water and food. Although, this presents as a big opportunity to nations and governments, most authorities fail to realize it. The only way to get rid of poverty is to deal with it which most economists fear doing.

Poverty is like apartheid which requires fighting a long battle – a battle that cannot be fought alone and need assistance from other nations. We can provide poor with the opportunities for economic growth. The poor can be provided with a secure environment and be allowed to operate and exist alongside other members of the society. While this might look like a feasible solution, there is also a possibility that the poor people misuse their rights. The underlying assumption we have taken here is that the poor people want to be helped. But, what if they do not want to be helped.

For example, in India, even if the government creates opportunities for them to educate their kids and provide the poor with free education, there is a large percentage that does not want to send their kids to school. Instead, they want their kids to work so that they can work and earn. This is a temporary solution to a larger problem for them but it works in their favor nonetheless.

The second argument here is that while the government and the social agencies want to help the poor in their own way, the question is here is what do poor want for themselves. The prevailing mindset is that what's good for the poor should be done to them whether they like it or not. Failing to recognize poor people as individuals who have rights also tends to produce unsatisfactory economic results.

To fight poverty on a global scale, we as a nation must help government write simple laws that the poor can use and exercise. We need to give them the freedom to exercise their rights and provide them with the resources to do the same. Only when the poor are empowered, will they be encouraged to do better for them.

Though this topic is of global importance and huge number of studies have been done on this topic, there is still no evidence that states the indicators of poverty that are reliable – indicators that can be established at a global level. There is a gap between the researches that have taken place. There is a scope of finding out global indicators of poverty.

In a number of researches the way in which poor have been identified raise a lot of questions. Purchasing power parity exchange rates, which are essential to compute a “uniform” poverty line, have been criticized as inadequate, infrequently updated, and inapplicable to the consumption of the extremely poor (Deaton, 2004, 2006). Prices are typically higher in urban than in rural areas, and even in rural areas, the poor may pay different prices than everyone else. A lot of researches instead of counting the poor just state what their lives look like. The second assumption that we make about poor people is that they are long term poor. This also leads to biasness in our studying the data about poor people. The third assumption that a lot of researchers make is that the poor eat less. Fourth, the poor spend little on education. Fifth, the poor save less.

Given above are the basic assumptions one makes before classifying poor as poor. Now, these assumptions might lead to a biased data and description about poor people. My arguments about poor people are limited to the data found in the researches that have taken place in the past. The limitations might arise due to classification or the data being outdated. Nonetheless, the conclusion here is that the number of poor people is on the rise and that the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing every year. The nations of the world need to work together if they want to alleviate the standards of the poor and provide them with the basic amenities at least.

There is a growing need for a dialogue and the nations to formulate policies so that poverty can be controlled and we all can together work towards sustainable development. Eradicating poverty from the roots should be the major aim of the political parties of the countries and that would mean coming up with globally recognized solutions but accepted at a local level.

References

Phillips, K. (1990). The politics of rich and poor. Harper Collins Publishers.

Cattell, V. (2001). Poor people, poor places, and poor health: the mediating role of social networks and social capital. Social science & medicine, 52(10), 1501-1516.

Bilchitz, D. (2010). Is the constitutional court wasting away the rights of the poor? Nokotyana v Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality: notes. South African Law Journal, 127(4), 591-605.

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