Sources of Business Ethics

Ethics in general refers to a system of good and bad, moral and immoral, fair and unfair. It is a code of conduct that is supposed to align behaviors within an organization and the social framework. But the question that remains is, where and when did business ethics come into being?

Primarily ethics in business is affected by three sources - culture, religion and laws of the state. It is for this reason we do not have uniform or completely similar standards across the globe.

These three factors exert influences to varying degrees on humans which ultimately get reflected in the ethics of the organization. For example, ethics followed by Infosys are different than those followed by Reliance Industries or by Tata group for that matter. Again ethical procedures vary across geographic boundaries.

1. Religion

   It is one of the oldest foundations of ethical standards. Religion wields varying influences across various sects of people. It is believed that ethics is a manifestation of the divine and so it draws a line between the good and the bad in the society.

   Depending upon the degree of religious influence we have different sects of people; we have sects, those who are referred to as orthodox or fundamentalists and those who are called as moderates.

   Needless to mention, religion exerts itself to a greater degree among the orthodox and to lesser extent in case of moderates. Fundamentally however all the religions operate on the principle of reciprocity towards ones fellow beings!

2. Culture

   Culture is a pattern of behaviors and values that are transferred from one generation to another, those that are considered as ideal or within the acceptable limits. No wonder therefore that it is the culture that predominantly determines what is wrong and what is right.

   It is the culture that defines certain behavior as acceptable and others as unacceptable.

   Human civilization in fact has passed through various cultures, wherein the moral code was redrafted depending upon the epoch that was.

   What was immoral or unacceptable in certain culture became acceptable later on and vice versa.

   During the early years of human development where ones who were the strongest were the ones who survived! Violence, hostility and ferocity were thus the acceptable.

   Approximately 10,000 year ago when human civilization entered the settlement phase, hard work, patience and peace were seen as virtues and the earlier ones were considered otherwise. These values are still pt in practice by the managers of today!

   Still further, when human civilization witnessed the industrial revolution, the ethics of agrarian economy was replaced by the law pertaining to technology, property rights etc. Ever since a tussle has ensued between the values of the agrarian and the industrial economy!

3. Law

   Laws are procedures and code of conduct that are laid down by the legal system of the state. They are meant to guide human behavior within the social fabric.

   The major problem with the law is that all the ethical expectations cannot be covered by the law and specially with ever changing outer environment the law keeps on changing but often fails to keep pace.

   In business, complying with the rule of law is taken as ethical behavior, but organizations often break laws by evading taxes, compromising on quality, service norms etc.