BUSINESS ETHICS – Reflective Journal
- Reflection
Any business, small or big, running at any level, I believe is realized by the people working for it and by the people that it is being done for i.e. the customers as well as the business persons. How much ever mechanized or technically advanced the systems of the business may be, but at the core management and execution of the work, it is shaped up by the people involved. This demands the deep understanding of the social structure that we are living in, today, and then, developing the basic moral values of the society into prescribed guidelines and code of conduct, believing in them and abiding by them. The flexibility that the ethical theory provides is one of its finest features. Accepting the relativism of the right and the wrong, with the explicit intention of using philosophical reasoning, it provides a normative guidance for business policy. I personally feel convinced by the argument of the utilitarian theory, which says that, any practice, if it leads to the best possible balance of good and bad consequences for the people involved, is right.
The enquiry based learning approach made my experience very rich in terms of self understanding, as it encouraged me to get involved into the matter fully to the core. This method, instead of focusing on accumulating a lot of inconvertible facts, urges one to think about the matter from the perspective of the people or group involved. This approach might even change the definition and understanding of the standardized good or bad practices, and also change a person’s view about something that seems to be the obvious solution. This rigorous process of continuous assessment of any situation, has helped me break some of my preconceived notions about how the society benefits.
- Graduate Capabilities
Whenever we set on to find a solution to a problem of any nature, we restrict ourselves with some of the assumptions that we subconsciously make while assessing the issue. These assumptions are based on our personal understanding of the society which we have developed over time, and depends on our personal experiences in life. The group exercises have taught me to view any problem from a broader scale and react to it rationally. It opened up my mind frame to different scenarios and view points for a single case. This, in turn, leads to a fairer analysis and near perfect solution to the problem into consideration.
In any business or even the smallest of conversation, it is very important to put forward and pass on the idea precisely. Not being able to do that with efficiency creates confusion and leads to the wastage of a lot of precious time. Thus, the mode and the process of communication cannot be ignored. It is highly essential to possess good communication skills, which help you to say exactly that you want to say. There are different modes of communication that can be used for this purpose, most important of them being verbal communication. Use of language has tremendous power in the type of atmosphere that is created at the problem solving table. Trying to put forward one’s ideas during a group assignment and convincing the partners for the same taught me a lot of do’s and don’ts of this. Another indispensible part of verbal communication are the non-verbal messages that one passes. These include facial expression, postures, gestures and body language. It is of utmost importance to be in full control of all these. Apart from the verbal communication mode, there are other ways of communicating one’s ideas across, like visual communication. This includes written matter as well as the use of images for expressing the ideas and concepts. Both of these are highly influenced by and should be in sync with the current cultural practices of the society.
- Business Ethics
Every company has a particular public image, which represents the way in which the public views the company. These public images are the result of a number of different things, but they are primarily the result of the way in which it acts with respect to the environment, customers, its employees and its social responsibilities. Since public image is largely a result of company behavior, business ethics play a large role in determining public image. This is one of the reasons, as to why business ethics are important to a company’s overall success and why it is critical to the future managers. Learning the nitty-gritty of business ethics in detail has helped me improvise my analysis and understanding of the everyday activities and even the common practices that we do not give much importance to generally. Assessing the ways and means of applying the morals of the business ethics for improving the feel good factor in the daily life, I have tried to understand the core principal of one of the most important ethical theory, the Egoism. This moral theory states that all choices either involve or should involve self-promotion as their sole objective. I tried to implement my understanding of this topic in the smallest of daily activities, where I would be communicating with strangers. It can be in a coffee shop, a library, on a bus stop or the ticket counter. I worked on promoting myself by getting myself known in the places that I visited daily but was still invisible there. Instead of communicating in a purely formal way, with all the people involved in these activities, which I normally used to do, I started communicating with them a bit informally, with a personal touch. Slowly I came to know them and they started recognizing me as ‘not just a customer’. This gave me an edge over the others and I started getting favors and reaping benefits out of it. This experiment taught me how the basic morals can positively change the quality of everyday mundane activities in our lives.
Business ethics steer a company in the thick and thin and defined its path leading it to the road to success. Because in today’s modern, fast changing and highly competitive world that has reached the peak of globalization, it takes more than just the technical skills, practical knowledge and good products or services to survive and excel in one’s endeavor.
SOURCES –
Archie B. Carroll. Managing ethically with global stakeholders: A present and future challenge. Academy of Management Executive, 2004, Vol. 18, No. 2
Marthavasquez. Why Business Ethics Are Important For a Company and Its Success. <http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/161760/corporate_matters/>
Business Ethics -Your Way to Success. Communication Relations Department, ICAC.
<http://www.hkedc.icac.hk/english/files/publications/PG002.pdf>
Marcoux Alexei. Business Ethics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall 2008 Edition.
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/ethics-business/>
