SOURCES OF BUSINESS ETHICS
SOURCES OF BUSINESS
ETHICS
In every society there
are three sources of business ethics-
Religion, Culture and Law.
Religion: Religion
is considered the oldest source of ethical inspiration. These are considered the
ethical base of majority of people in the world. It is believed that nearly one
lakh religious groups are existing across the whole world, with their own
cultural and ethical practices and values.
Every religion gives
an expression of what is wrong and right in all walks of life including
business. However, all of them are in agreement on certain fundamental
principles of ethics. The Principle of reciprocity towards one’s fellow beings
is found in all the religions. Religions preach the necessity for an orderly
social system and emphasize upon social responsibility with an objective to
contribute to the general welfare.
Culture: Culture
is the set of important understandings that members of a community share in
common. It consists of basic set of values, ideas, perceptions, preferences,
concept of morality, code of conduct etc. which creates distinctiveness among
human groups.
Culture differs from
society to society. Moreover, culture is passed from generation to generation. Most
of the cultural practices found in the world, advise the generations to be committed
towards certain values, over and above one’s individual self-interest. Every
business should frame their ethics, based on the culture of the country, in
which the business situates.
Culture encourages the
members of the organizations to give priority to organizational goals over and
above their personal interests. Culture also serves as a, ‘sense-making and
control’ mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of
people.
Law: The
legal system of any country, guide the human behaviour in the country. Law can
be considered as legalised ethics. The society expects the business to abide by
the law. Whenever there is an attempt from the part of business to violate law,
it becomes not only against Law but against ethics also. Tax evasion, hoarding,
adulteration, poor quality of products, high pricing of products, environment
pollution etc. are against the law as well as against the ethics.
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