LATEST EDITED VOLUME ON SOCIETY AND BUSINESS-Editor: Ananda Das Gupta

Society and Business Two singular axioms     A review of 

‘Ethics, Business and Society – Managing responsibly’ edited by Ananda Das Gupta, Sage Publishers; New Delhi/ England/ USA/ Singapore; 2010

By Divyadarshini Patel in MANAGEMENT COMPASS

Ethics, Business and Society is a collection of articles touching the two gigantic primes – social responsibility and business ethics and how social responsibility forms a part of business ethics. Fourteen great contributions make an insightful reading, crafting a valuable reshuffle of the knowledge you already possess. The book consists of a number of case studies which successfully create awareness about the prominent issues faced by the Indian companies today. The authors have stressed on the subject of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – the subject that is usually side tracked these days even by the big business firms.

Section I

This section talks about The Society, Business and Ethics: The Broader Canvas and the idea is contained in a total of eight articles, looking at the various business ethics perspectives.

The first contribution comes from Arabinda on Business Ethics and the one line that caught my attention here was, “most people are more interested in their own welfare than that of other to the extent of damaging the latter.” This told, we realise in an instant, why business ethics are so necessary for any society. Arabinda discusses about the difficult choices one has to make, how critical is the role of conscience in making these decisions and the never-ending conflicts of paying off ethical debts in the midst of corruption and bureaucracy.

Bibek talks about Governance and Economic Development where he first points out the difference in the way governance is interpreted. A better governance would lead to faster economic development would be an appropriate line to sum up the whole article. Klaus raises the topic of Corporate Philanthropy that can help sustain mass poverty – a major social challenge. Klaus makes it very clear by quoting the example of Novartis Foundation that philanthropy is not an obligation but a sense of duty towards the society you live in.

While D. K. Srivastava puts forth a case study to detail the Perspectives on CSR, L. K. Maheshwari also provides an example to convey her views on Ethical Dimensions in Technical Education. Pingali voices his admiration for XLRI, seeing it renew the face of earth since the past 15 years with its belief in the power of people relationship. Education for a Just, Equitable Society by Dileep beautifully describes that when equality can be measured in terms of individual differences, equity comes into picture when equality becomes a group affair thus drawing our attention towards equitable education.

The first section ends with Subir’s Civil Society and Governance. Beginning with civilization, Subir gives a definition coupled with his views on the topics of society and governance as well. He focuses on politics, religion, media, equity and the new paradigms of the society concluding that “equity in quality of life has to be the over-riding objective of governance in civil society”.

Section II

Put across six sub sections, this section concentrates wholly and solely on Ethics in Business and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Towards Horizon.

Usha commences this section with CSR for Promoting Stakeholder Engagement. In any business stakeholders may or may not play an important part, but the profit and loss in business is equally applicable to them as any other branch of the same business. Thus a stakeholder’s engagement becomes important. “The state, business (private sector) and civil society are posited as the three institutional anchors of modern societies,” the author says. These three are also the most important stakeholders and their involvement is necessary for business prosperity.

Ananda writes about Integrating Environmental Management in Small Industries of India. He reasons out the importance of Indian industrialisation. The small industries do not play a small role in this country and while supporting these, many a times the environment is put at stake. He opines that it thus becomes the duty of these industries to think about saving the milieu.

Ethics in Science and Technology by Parthasarathi is on the changes brought about science and technology and the ignorance savoured towards the consequences. Technology management is a step that must be taken to curb the unforeseen hazards. Hereafter, Prasad gives his inputs on Indian Model of Leadership. Looking at the number of management schools in India and the ever-growing number of applicants, it is quite clear that most of us in this country aspire to become leaders. The writer says that “complexity, diversity, interdependence, speed and ambiguity” define 21st century leadership.N. Balasubramanian shares his views on Governing the Socially Responsible Corporation. Several comments, examples quotations make his article very appealing, grabbing instant attention. He chooses to quote the Gandhian way of shouldering social responsibility to help us understand. The best part of this article was when the author talks about the Gandhian corporate governanace, the excerpts from which are given below:

“Does good governance in the Gandhian frame (similar but much more rigorous than most international stewardship expectations) pay? There certainly is a strong business case for Gandhism (much as Gandhi himself disliked the label) in corporate governance. As noted earlier, leadership companies around the world – and in India – have incorporated many of these tenets (with varying degrees of rigour) in their governance frameworks, often long before…”

The concluding article is a joint contribution from Arindam and Pradip relating to Corporate Governance and the Role of Independent Directors. Directors of various institutions and their qualifications come to light and the article leads to the sensitive Satyam story.The Guiding spirit of our constitution is always at work but still there are times when a crisis in proper corporate governance arises. The contributors have taken care to discuss well known incidents to help the reader relate well to message they are trying to convey. Thus, it is a good compilation to through, especially for the Indian audience.It was very fascinating to go through each of the chapters although I cannot abstain from saying that it did confuse me at times as I was reading many people’s opinions about the same thing. But then, this is what the book is all about – various perspectives on and Society.