Business ethics and corporate governance : book of readings
ICFAI center for management research
Business ethics and corporate governance : book of readings - Hyderabad ICFAI center for management research 2003 - viii,378p.
CONTENTS
Part I: Business Ethics
Business Ethics - Making the World a Better Place 3
Customer rights quality, safety, price and customer service preceded environmental and (then) ethical concerns as issues for companies to focus on. From the 1960's to the J980's the Consumers Association in Britain increased its membership
The Normative Theories of Business Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed 14
A charge that is frequently lodged against the practical utility of business ethics as a field of study concerns the apparent failure of communication between the theorist and the business practitioner
Corporate Ethics and International Business: Some Basic Issues -Parti 36
Questions about the ethical justification of human activity have occupied philosophers since time immemorial. Whether Lao-Tse, Confucius, the writers of the gospels, or the Fathers of the Church like Augustine or Thomas of Aquinas: they all have comparable concepts of what is good and bad human behaviour and what constitutes sensible human existence
Corporate Ethics and International Business: Some Basic Issues-Part II 56
Why should a company consider ethics in directing its behaviour -on top of law, self-interest, and convention? The worst conceivable result of high moral standards would be competitive
How Business Can Be Good 60
"Business ethics," a topic that for years has been relegated to the deep interior of business publications or the fringes of business school curriculum, suddenly has status ...
Defining and Communicating Ethics in Your Business 64
Instead of creating a separate ethics department or officer, ensure your organization is using ethics as one of its metrics in all of its activity, including hiring new employees, pricing products, providing service and choosing clients
Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making 68
Moral issues greet us each morning in the newspaper, confront us in the memos on our desks, nag us from our children's soccer fields, and bid us good night on the evening nevjs ...
What Happened to Japanese Business Ethics? 71
It is often said that U.S. corporations tend to engage voluntarily in ethical practices because Americans in general are imbued with the Puritan spirit and have deeply held religious beliefs. On the other hand, it is said that the Japanese are not particularly religious and many Japanese are unconcerned with ethics...
Fraud, Ethics and Empowerment 75
Empowerment is not the delegation of power. Instead, empowerment is sharing responsibility to achieve goals, the means to achieve the goals, accountability for the goals and the means employed, and the authority (power) to accomplish the task within the given set of means...
Work, Spirituality, and the Moral Point of View 85
Despite talk of the 80s as a 'decade of greed, " there appears to have been a growing interest during this period among academics, consultants, and best-selling business authors on the topics of work, spirituality, and ethics
Going Green, the Corporate Way 96
At the corporate level, environmental management would consist of strong awareness and knowledge, development and adoption of a corporate philosophy and, importantly, a corporate plan to put the philosophy into action ...
Industrial Ecology: An Environmental Agenda for Industry 99
Operating on a global scale brings problems at a global level. The environmental issues now facing industry are no longer focused simply on local toxic impacts—although these remain potentially serious ...
The Corporate Environmental Dilemma 122
Today, many corporate executives recognize the increased legal liability facing firms that do not comply with environmental regulation and react by elevating environmental concerns to the top of their company priorities...
Beyond Eco-Efficiency: Sustainability as a Driver for Innovation 126
Eco-efficiency excellence will be necessary, but not sufficient, for doing business in the next millennium. This statement flies in the face of most of today's thinking on business and sustainable development. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSDj and others have convincingly demonstrated the potential for cutting material and energy costs through "eco-efficiency...
Part II: Management and Ethics
Integrating Ethics into the Strategic Management Process: Doing Well by Doing Good 137
Analysis of corporate failures and disasters strongly suggests that incorporating ethics in before-profit decision making can improve strategy development and implementation and ultimately maximize corporate profits ...
Is there more to Ethical Marketing than Marketing Ethics? 148
While it may have been acceptable in the past for businesses to pursue profits single-mindedly with little or no consideration for the wider social and environmental impact of their activities; this is not the case today...
Putting Ethics into Quality 156
With increasing demands being placed on corporations by a wide range of stakeholders, and a scepticism about business ethical standards, the traditions of independence and objectivity of an audit has attraction to corporation and stakeholder alike...
Trouble in Tobaccoland 164
"No smoking.... you 're joking" says the sticker on the wall in the office of a major advertising agency, which incidentally handles some of the accounts of tobacco giant ITC...
Hon Human Resources Can Help Build an Ethical Organization 169
A Human Resource practitioner, or anyone who serves in a leadership capacity within an organization, is often faced with multiple choices about how to handle ethical dilemmas...
Why the CEO Goes Bad: Follow Fraud to the Likely Perp 173
According to a 1999 study by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), in three-quarters of fraud cases the chief executive officer is directly involved...
The Logic and Morality of Takeovers 178
Of all the features of the market, the takeover process is still the most reviled. Assailed by moralists for encouraging greed and antisocial individualism and for breaking up stable communities...
Insider Trading: Is HLL Guilty? 183
For the first time in the history of the Indian capital markets Sebi had indicted S.M.Dalta, the Jormer chairman of Hindustan Lever and four current directors of HLL, including the present chairman Keki B. Dadiseth under the charge of indulging in the heinous offence of insider trading...
Ethical Indices: Enforcing Ethics 187
For years, in fad for ages, business and ethics have always been considered as the opposites. The general perception and in most cases rightly so, remained that profits and purity do not go together...
The Globalization Backlash 193
The violent backlash against international financial institutions is inextricably linked to attacks on global corporations, and finance executives should prepare to enter the fray...
The Social Audit and Ethics 199
has been about two decades since pressure began for corporations to develop and publicize social audits. This seems an appropriate time, therefore, to evaluate their status. .
A Call for Open Standards of Collaboration 206
The challenge posed by these Internet communities is that the easier and more prolific collaboration becomes, the more complex and elusive is the realization of its eventual success. Paradoxical though this may sound, the same upside dynamics also create comparable downside risk
Would the Absence of Copyright Laws Significantly Affect the Quality and Quantity of Literary Output? 214
Although the term intellectual property is commonly used in the legal field, in economics it is rather problematic, since it is difficult to justify this type of property right with the same arguments used to justify property in tangible goods...
End of Privacy 221
Sometime in the last week of September, 2000, Seema Kazi, a Delhi-based freelance researcher, figured that something was horribly wrong. She had joined the Middle Fast Socialist Network (MESN), an online discussion group with 123 members from across the world...
E-commerce Fraud and Protection 226
Lax IT security on the part of a trading partner could have significant consequences for the trader, which might result in legal claims. The trader's inability to prove the integrity of his data may prevent him from relying on the evidence from hard copy provided by his system in a court of law...
Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas while Competing Globally 230
As managers and leaders of companies doing business in a global economy, most of you will face decisions that have- in small or not-so small ways—significant consequences for the present or future welfare of persons. That is to say, you will face ethical choices in your economic life
Part III: Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Success 241
Most business leaders would agree that they are managing in times of turbulence and accelerating change. They would also find a consensus about most of the trends and forces which are challenging their traditional views of competitiveness and of the success factors for survival and profitability...
The Boundaries of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility - Part I 258
is no news that today's business organizations are expected to exhibit ethical behavior and moral management. However, over the past half century the bar has been steadily raised...
The Boundaries of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility- Part II 280
The wisdom of strategic CSR is seen in the fact that some of the most successful corporations are also among the most socially responsible, with some of the most prominent examples being the Body Shop, Ben & Jerry's, and Tom's of Maine
Managing Corporate Responsibility in Practice 291
The late 1990s have seen a massive growth of interest in corporate responsibility both among major corporations and across society. Concern about the social and ethical implications of corporate behavior has focused a spotlight on organizations perceived as performing unusually well or unusually badly..
Corporate Social Responsibility- A PR Invention? 300
The governance of companies reflects the interests of shareholders but not of other stakeholders. UK Company Law, for example, offers legal protection for shareholders, but not for any other groups affected by a company's decisions, such as consumers, employees, or communities impacted upon by a company's operations...
Do Corporations Have Any Responsibility Beyond Making a Profit? 307
The social-responsibility thesis is a covert attempt to bring about socialism. Friedman's view, however, has been broadly accepted by all pro-capitalist writers, albei! with some modifications. For example, it is maintained that the passive stockholder is not a conventional resource owner...
Part IV: Corporate Governance
orporate Governance Does Not Mean Corporate Government 315
Ethically, a corporation's "power" is irrelevant. Unlike governments, they do not enjoy the power of coercion. The idea of a private government is oxymoronic. Only the state can force people to do things through its political, military, arid police power...
Facts, Myths and Monsters: Understanding the Principles of Good Governance 319
There remains little doubt that the legacy of the 1990s will be interpreted as being a decade of change. If the usual 1:10 ratio for comparing things Canadian to things American holds true in this case, then approximately 450,000 boards of all types...
Corporate Governance Issues Hamper Emerging Markets 331
Emerging markets are struggling through more terrible times, underperforming both the U.S. and European markets as the Morgan Stanley Capita! International Emerging Markets Free Index has tumbled 25% this year...
Governance Matters 334
Business and ethics are often thought of as odd bedfellows whose co-existence is as impossible as putting two swords in one sheath. However, that notion may not be wholly true...
Company Law Changes- Groping Towards Better Governance 343
As the Companies Act, 1956, had become obsolete, the government in 1996 had appointed a Working Group to review it and suggest changes to make the law investor-friendly and fall in line with international developments in Company Law, having regard to the liberalized economic polices all over the world...
The Governance Loop: Protecting Stakeholder Interests 347
In restructuring, re-focusing and reengineering modern organizations, it is sometimes useful to have a map of the important strategic relationships before reconstruction begins. An important strategic planning step for the organization going through transformation is to understand the concept of corporate governance...
The Science of Alliances: Governance Roles and Responsibilities 351
Traditionally, one or two well-worn alliance models have dominated each industry joint ventures in energy and resources; long-term licensing agreements in pharmaceuticals and biotech; supply contracts in high tech; co-branding and co-promotion among dot-coms...
The "Triple Bottom Line": A Boardroom Guide 354
On an> ever-increasing basis, people and organizations are becoming aware of the "triple bottom line " and the related concept of sustainability...
As Boards Shrink, Responsibilities Grow 361
Smaller, more independent, more diverse: These are key trends for corporate boards in this country, which are gradually losing their image as old boys' networks of golfing and fishing buddies...
Balancing Money and Morals- The Infosys Way 367
174.4 / ICFAI
Business ethics and corporate governance : book of readings - Hyderabad ICFAI center for management research 2003 - viii,378p.
CONTENTS
Part I: Business Ethics
Business Ethics - Making the World a Better Place 3
Customer rights quality, safety, price and customer service preceded environmental and (then) ethical concerns as issues for companies to focus on. From the 1960's to the J980's the Consumers Association in Britain increased its membership
The Normative Theories of Business Ethics: A Guide for the Perplexed 14
A charge that is frequently lodged against the practical utility of business ethics as a field of study concerns the apparent failure of communication between the theorist and the business practitioner
Corporate Ethics and International Business: Some Basic Issues -Parti 36
Questions about the ethical justification of human activity have occupied philosophers since time immemorial. Whether Lao-Tse, Confucius, the writers of the gospels, or the Fathers of the Church like Augustine or Thomas of Aquinas: they all have comparable concepts of what is good and bad human behaviour and what constitutes sensible human existence
Corporate Ethics and International Business: Some Basic Issues-Part II 56
Why should a company consider ethics in directing its behaviour -on top of law, self-interest, and convention? The worst conceivable result of high moral standards would be competitive
How Business Can Be Good 60
"Business ethics," a topic that for years has been relegated to the deep interior of business publications or the fringes of business school curriculum, suddenly has status ...
Defining and Communicating Ethics in Your Business 64
Instead of creating a separate ethics department or officer, ensure your organization is using ethics as one of its metrics in all of its activity, including hiring new employees, pricing products, providing service and choosing clients
Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making 68
Moral issues greet us each morning in the newspaper, confront us in the memos on our desks, nag us from our children's soccer fields, and bid us good night on the evening nevjs ...
What Happened to Japanese Business Ethics? 71
It is often said that U.S. corporations tend to engage voluntarily in ethical practices because Americans in general are imbued with the Puritan spirit and have deeply held religious beliefs. On the other hand, it is said that the Japanese are not particularly religious and many Japanese are unconcerned with ethics...
Fraud, Ethics and Empowerment 75
Empowerment is not the delegation of power. Instead, empowerment is sharing responsibility to achieve goals, the means to achieve the goals, accountability for the goals and the means employed, and the authority (power) to accomplish the task within the given set of means...
Work, Spirituality, and the Moral Point of View 85
Despite talk of the 80s as a 'decade of greed, " there appears to have been a growing interest during this period among academics, consultants, and best-selling business authors on the topics of work, spirituality, and ethics
Going Green, the Corporate Way 96
At the corporate level, environmental management would consist of strong awareness and knowledge, development and adoption of a corporate philosophy and, importantly, a corporate plan to put the philosophy into action ...
Industrial Ecology: An Environmental Agenda for Industry 99
Operating on a global scale brings problems at a global level. The environmental issues now facing industry are no longer focused simply on local toxic impacts—although these remain potentially serious ...
The Corporate Environmental Dilemma 122
Today, many corporate executives recognize the increased legal liability facing firms that do not comply with environmental regulation and react by elevating environmental concerns to the top of their company priorities...
Beyond Eco-Efficiency: Sustainability as a Driver for Innovation 126
Eco-efficiency excellence will be necessary, but not sufficient, for doing business in the next millennium. This statement flies in the face of most of today's thinking on business and sustainable development. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSDj and others have convincingly demonstrated the potential for cutting material and energy costs through "eco-efficiency...
Part II: Management and Ethics
Integrating Ethics into the Strategic Management Process: Doing Well by Doing Good 137
Analysis of corporate failures and disasters strongly suggests that incorporating ethics in before-profit decision making can improve strategy development and implementation and ultimately maximize corporate profits ...
Is there more to Ethical Marketing than Marketing Ethics? 148
While it may have been acceptable in the past for businesses to pursue profits single-mindedly with little or no consideration for the wider social and environmental impact of their activities; this is not the case today...
Putting Ethics into Quality 156
With increasing demands being placed on corporations by a wide range of stakeholders, and a scepticism about business ethical standards, the traditions of independence and objectivity of an audit has attraction to corporation and stakeholder alike...
Trouble in Tobaccoland 164
"No smoking.... you 're joking" says the sticker on the wall in the office of a major advertising agency, which incidentally handles some of the accounts of tobacco giant ITC...
Hon Human Resources Can Help Build an Ethical Organization 169
A Human Resource practitioner, or anyone who serves in a leadership capacity within an organization, is often faced with multiple choices about how to handle ethical dilemmas...
Why the CEO Goes Bad: Follow Fraud to the Likely Perp 173
According to a 1999 study by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), in three-quarters of fraud cases the chief executive officer is directly involved...
The Logic and Morality of Takeovers 178
Of all the features of the market, the takeover process is still the most reviled. Assailed by moralists for encouraging greed and antisocial individualism and for breaking up stable communities...
Insider Trading: Is HLL Guilty? 183
For the first time in the history of the Indian capital markets Sebi had indicted S.M.Dalta, the Jormer chairman of Hindustan Lever and four current directors of HLL, including the present chairman Keki B. Dadiseth under the charge of indulging in the heinous offence of insider trading...
Ethical Indices: Enforcing Ethics 187
For years, in fad for ages, business and ethics have always been considered as the opposites. The general perception and in most cases rightly so, remained that profits and purity do not go together...
The Globalization Backlash 193
The violent backlash against international financial institutions is inextricably linked to attacks on global corporations, and finance executives should prepare to enter the fray...
The Social Audit and Ethics 199
has been about two decades since pressure began for corporations to develop and publicize social audits. This seems an appropriate time, therefore, to evaluate their status. .
A Call for Open Standards of Collaboration 206
The challenge posed by these Internet communities is that the easier and more prolific collaboration becomes, the more complex and elusive is the realization of its eventual success. Paradoxical though this may sound, the same upside dynamics also create comparable downside risk
Would the Absence of Copyright Laws Significantly Affect the Quality and Quantity of Literary Output? 214
Although the term intellectual property is commonly used in the legal field, in economics it is rather problematic, since it is difficult to justify this type of property right with the same arguments used to justify property in tangible goods...
End of Privacy 221
Sometime in the last week of September, 2000, Seema Kazi, a Delhi-based freelance researcher, figured that something was horribly wrong. She had joined the Middle Fast Socialist Network (MESN), an online discussion group with 123 members from across the world...
E-commerce Fraud and Protection 226
Lax IT security on the part of a trading partner could have significant consequences for the trader, which might result in legal claims. The trader's inability to prove the integrity of his data may prevent him from relying on the evidence from hard copy provided by his system in a court of law...
Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas while Competing Globally 230
As managers and leaders of companies doing business in a global economy, most of you will face decisions that have- in small or not-so small ways—significant consequences for the present or future welfare of persons. That is to say, you will face ethical choices in your economic life
Part III: Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Success 241
Most business leaders would agree that they are managing in times of turbulence and accelerating change. They would also find a consensus about most of the trends and forces which are challenging their traditional views of competitiveness and of the success factors for survival and profitability...
The Boundaries of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility - Part I 258
is no news that today's business organizations are expected to exhibit ethical behavior and moral management. However, over the past half century the bar has been steadily raised...
The Boundaries of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility- Part II 280
The wisdom of strategic CSR is seen in the fact that some of the most successful corporations are also among the most socially responsible, with some of the most prominent examples being the Body Shop, Ben & Jerry's, and Tom's of Maine
Managing Corporate Responsibility in Practice 291
The late 1990s have seen a massive growth of interest in corporate responsibility both among major corporations and across society. Concern about the social and ethical implications of corporate behavior has focused a spotlight on organizations perceived as performing unusually well or unusually badly..
Corporate Social Responsibility- A PR Invention? 300
The governance of companies reflects the interests of shareholders but not of other stakeholders. UK Company Law, for example, offers legal protection for shareholders, but not for any other groups affected by a company's decisions, such as consumers, employees, or communities impacted upon by a company's operations...
Do Corporations Have Any Responsibility Beyond Making a Profit? 307
The social-responsibility thesis is a covert attempt to bring about socialism. Friedman's view, however, has been broadly accepted by all pro-capitalist writers, albei! with some modifications. For example, it is maintained that the passive stockholder is not a conventional resource owner...
Part IV: Corporate Governance
orporate Governance Does Not Mean Corporate Government 315
Ethically, a corporation's "power" is irrelevant. Unlike governments, they do not enjoy the power of coercion. The idea of a private government is oxymoronic. Only the state can force people to do things through its political, military, arid police power...
Facts, Myths and Monsters: Understanding the Principles of Good Governance 319
There remains little doubt that the legacy of the 1990s will be interpreted as being a decade of change. If the usual 1:10 ratio for comparing things Canadian to things American holds true in this case, then approximately 450,000 boards of all types...
Corporate Governance Issues Hamper Emerging Markets 331
Emerging markets are struggling through more terrible times, underperforming both the U.S. and European markets as the Morgan Stanley Capita! International Emerging Markets Free Index has tumbled 25% this year...
Governance Matters 334
Business and ethics are often thought of as odd bedfellows whose co-existence is as impossible as putting two swords in one sheath. However, that notion may not be wholly true...
Company Law Changes- Groping Towards Better Governance 343
As the Companies Act, 1956, had become obsolete, the government in 1996 had appointed a Working Group to review it and suggest changes to make the law investor-friendly and fall in line with international developments in Company Law, having regard to the liberalized economic polices all over the world...
The Governance Loop: Protecting Stakeholder Interests 347
In restructuring, re-focusing and reengineering modern organizations, it is sometimes useful to have a map of the important strategic relationships before reconstruction begins. An important strategic planning step for the organization going through transformation is to understand the concept of corporate governance...
The Science of Alliances: Governance Roles and Responsibilities 351
Traditionally, one or two well-worn alliance models have dominated each industry joint ventures in energy and resources; long-term licensing agreements in pharmaceuticals and biotech; supply contracts in high tech; co-branding and co-promotion among dot-coms...
The "Triple Bottom Line": A Boardroom Guide 354
On an> ever-increasing basis, people and organizations are becoming aware of the "triple bottom line " and the related concept of sustainability...
As Boards Shrink, Responsibilities Grow 361
Smaller, more independent, more diverse: These are key trends for corporate boards in this country, which are gradually losing their image as old boys' networks of golfing and fishing buddies...
Balancing Money and Morals- The Infosys Way 367
174.4 / ICFAI