Business Ethics in Respect of Bangladesh Essay

Business ethics: Social responsibility requires individuals engaging in business endeavors to behave in an ethical manner. Ethics are principles of behavior that distinguish between right and wrong. Ethical conduct conforms to what a group or society as a whole considers right behavior. People working in business frequently face ethical questions. Business ethics is the evaluation of business activities and behavior as right or wrong. Ethical standards in business are based on commonly accepted principles of behavior established by the expectations of society, the firm, the industry, and an individual’s personal values. Most business leaders realize their firms cannot succeed without the trust of customers and the goodwill of society. A violation of ethics makes trust and goodwill difficult to maintain. In thousands of companies, executives and employees act according to the highest ethical standards. Unfortunately managers in some firms behave unethically, and these instances are often highly publicized. Personnel executive say the major reason managers behave unethically is to obtain power and money. Business Ethics- Practice in Bangladesh In Bangladesh, though practice of Business ethics is still not so commendable in public sector and small companies, but business ethics has been an increasing concern among larger companies, at least since the 1990s. Major corporations increasingly fear the damage to their image associated with press revelations of unethical practices. The following information about the functions relating ethics and social responsibility of a reputed company of our country will give a brief idea about the practice of Business Ethics in Bangladesh: Unilever Bangladesh Limited Over the last four decades, Unilever Bangladesh has been constantly bringing new and world class products for the Bangladeshi people to remove the daily drudgery of life. Over 90% of the country’s households use one or more of Unilever products. They aim to give everybody a little something to celebrate about themselves every day. They believe that to succeed in business, it is essential to maintain the highest standards of corporate behavior towards everyone they work with, the communities they touch, and the environment on which they have an impact. Ethical Approaches: †¢ Effective Code of business principles: Their code of business principles describes the operational standards that everyone at Unilever follows, wherever they are in the world. It also supports their approach to governance and corporate responsibility. Code of business principles are- Standard of conduct, Obey the law, employees, consumers, shareholders, business partners, community involvement, public activities, the environment, innovation, competition, business integrity, conflict of interest, compliance, reporting, monitor. †¢ Women Development and Women Empowerment: Unilever strongly believes in the importance of empowering women in Bangladesh, because the progress of any society will be constrained if a significant part of its population is neglected and excluded from the benefits of development. They believe, with economic and educational empowerment, women can become more vocal about their rights and become stronger in withstanding repression in any form. So they have established â€Å"Fair & Lovely Foundation†. The mission of this foundation is to encourage economic empowerment of Bangladeshi women through information and resources in the areas of Education, Career and Enterprise. It is this realization that has brought about the Fair & Lovely Foundation Scholarship Program. Under this scholarship scheme, women who have passed their HSC each receives a Taka 25,000scholarship to support her tertiary level education. Unethical Approaches: †¢ Unilever produces Fair & lovely fairness cream, lotion, etc and they claim that skincolor will be white after using this product. But that it is not true. There are noscientific values about whiteness. This is totally unethical performance inmarketing activities of this company. Managing or Encouraging Ethical Behavior Managing the financial operations of a company can be a complex effort. Companies need to balance their desire to grow with the realities of maintaining their financial relationships, satisfying their investors and making a profit. †¢ Government Regulations: The government can do so by legislating more stringent regulations. But, rules require enforcement and when in many cases there is evidence of lack of enforcement even the ethical business person will tend to â€Å"slip something by† without getting caught. Increased regulation may help, but it surely cannot solve the entire business ethics problems. †¢ Trade Associations Setting Guidelines: Trade associations can and often do provide ethical guidelines for their members. These organizations within particular industries are in an excellent position to exert pressures on members that stoop to questionable business practices. †¢ Companies Providing Code of Ethics: Employees can more easily determine and adopt acceptable behavior when companies provide them with a â€Å"code of ethics.† Such codes are perhaps the most effective way to encourage ethical behavior. A code of ethics is a written guide to acceptable and ethical behavior that outlines uniform policies, standards and punishments for violations. Because employees know what is expected of them and what will happen if they violate the rules, a code of ethics goes a long way towards encouraging ethical behavior. However, codes cannot possibly cover every situation. Companies must also create an environment in which employees recognize the importance of complying with the written code. Managers must provide direction by fostering communication, actively modeling and encouraging ethical decision making, apart from investing in training employees to make ethical decisions. †¢ Whistle Blowing Technique: Sometimes, even employees who want to act ethically may find it difficult to do so. Unethical practices can become ingrained in an organization. Employees with high personal ethics may then take a controversial step called â€Å"whistle blowing.† Whistle blowing is informing the press or government officials about unethical practices in an organization. Whistle blowing could have averted disaster and prevented needless deaths in the Challenger space shuttle disaster, for example. How could employees have known about life-threatening problems and let them pass? Whistle blowing on the other hand, can have serious repercussions for employees; those who make waves sometimes lose their jobs. Conclusion The main objective of business is to serve people with their every need for the well-being of human being and to ensure that, there is no alternative of following business ethics. Since he practice of business ethics in our country is still not ubiquitous, we are not getting the proper environment for the business, and thus often we are facing some crisis situation and it is hampering our total economic development. Our policy makers and the top executives of the organizations should give more concern in making ethical policies and take proper steps to encourage business executives and service holders to follow them.