ETHICS IN BUSINESS: Ananda Das Gupta

We are almost bound to welcome the New Paradigm in Business because it opens the path for a decisive step forward in evolution from an authoritarian, mechanistic, Taylorian era to a freer and a more humanistic ethos in business. But even while the New Paradigm values are spreading fast and getting established in business, we have to think ahead and visualize the next stage in the evolution of business. The crucial question we have to ask is what the highest potentiality of humanism is, or in other words, what is the highest potential in man and how to manifest it in the individual and corporate life, especially in business? Some ideas can be put forward, we believe, as a New Paradigm for Management with Positivism (NPMP):

A Holistic Approach to Management

·           Managing others

·           Need to play one’s role well

·           Need to understand the importance and place of one’s role

·           Need to understand and function within a proper hierarchy

·           Need for common and individual goals

·           Need to ‘give’ and ‘take’

Value Based Administration: To add value to administration an administrator should:

·           Possess strategic thinking to integrate one’s region with the nation

·           Recognise the world beyond one’s office and  face its challenge

·           Understand society’s goals

·           See people as potential and strategic resources and mentor them  accordingly

·           Nurture belief in value adding

The Real Need

·           Hierarchy should be replaced by self managing structures such as (a) Networks; (b) multidisciplinary teams (c) Small action dyads

·           Information dissemination should be a routine work

·           Delivering service should be effective in terms of its cost, quality and quantity.

Working with Others

                    

·           Empathy

·           Team Work

Modern business philosophy has a certain viewpoint or perspective on human potential based on the secular humanistic values of the west and the scientific theories on the nature of man and his evolution. We are presenting a complementing perspective based on the values of spiritual humanism and the spiritual vision of the Vedantic sciences of the East. In general most of the conceptions on spirituality emerging in business and management denote some form of moral, religious, social and psychological fulfilment, like creativity, self-expression, sharing, charity or community service.

Business cannot be abstracted from the society in which it exists and functions; it is an integral part of the human society. This ‘holistic’ view of business is another perception emerging in modern business philosophy. And business happens to be the most dominant and representative organ of the modern society. So in an organic vision of business it has to be viewed as an integral part of the economic, technological, social, political and cultural environment in which it functions. And this environment, and the forces of the environment, at once influences and is influenced by the social organs which constitute it. But our focus will be not on the environment that belongs to the past, but of the new world of the future which is struggling to emerge from the ashes of the past and the facts of the present.

There are three major factors or forces, which, we believe, will shape the new world of the future. First is the urge for a new synthesis in thought and action; second, in the external world, the development of Science and Technology; third in the inner-world, mapping a new horizon for the development of consciousness. 

Relevant paper on CSR and HRM

Corporate Social responsibility and Human Resource Management-A Strategic-Balanced Model : Ananda Das Gupta

 Published in:

Professionals ́ Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility

Edited By Samuel O. Idowu, Walter Leal Filho

Published by: Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, 2009

Link:

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=AgEifBoKFPEC&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq=Corporate+Social+Responsibility+and+HRM%2B

Socially Responsible Initiatives in the New Millennium

The key issues for Socially Responsible Initiatives: Towards Future Mapping are as follows:

1. Corporate Competitiveness addressed by strategic management is a subject rarely discussed in the context of corporate responsibility. However, unless all strands of corporate responsibility are brought together under a common management framework, CSR and sustainability will remain peripheral activities and their impact is likely to remain well below required levels to achieve the Millennium and related goals.

2.  Corporate Governance sets the legal framework to protect a company’s shareholders and stakeholders; the relative emphasis being dependent on national models.

3. CSR is aimed at extending the legal requirements promoting ethics, philanthropy and social reporting to satisfy stakeholder concerns.

4. Corporate sustainability focuses on long term economic and social stakeholder expectations both by optimizing their sustainability performance and by participating in networks with governments, NGOs and other stakeholders that can provide the capacity for the world’s sustainable development.

5. Business ethics and social accountability create important bridges between CSR and corporate governance. Investor demands and specifically SRI, philanthropy and corporate citizenship provide a common ground for CSR and corporate sustainability.

6.  Performance stability and fair globalisation are important aspects both in strategic management and corporate sustainability. Competition policy and regulation affects strategic management and corporate governance but has also implications for business ethics and CSR. Similarly, risk management is a key issue for strategic management and governance and specifically in terms of reputation risks it becomes a common aspect in all the responsibility areas.

The Parameters for Social Impact Management, widely accepted by Global Research   community are :

1. Civil Society Strengthening

The capacity for strong performance in civil society provides the foundation for lasting social benefits.Global civil society is a monumental social and economic force with vast potential to create a more free, fair and just global order. The collective nature of civic action helps ensure that the interests of citizens—including women, the poor and other marginalized groups—are weighed by public institutions that make policy and allocate resources. Many civil society organizations (CSOs) face common challenges limiting their effectiveness— namely the ability to manage human and financial resources, advocate to power holders, manage for results and bring promising social innovations to scale.

2. Performance Management

Measuring results enables us to achieve outcomes and tell success from failure.

Managing for results is central to the global revolution in public management and aid effectiveness. Strong performance monitoring systems sharpen strategy and learning, improve communications with stakeholders, help ensure that resources are focused on key results, and promote accountability. Yet these systems are often impractical and out of alignment with organizational skills and incentives.

Area of Focus:

• Performance Management Systems-designing and implementing performance management systems for specific projects and programs to reinforce program performance, learning and accountability.
• Building Capacity for Performance Management-building performance management capacity for entire organizations, including international donors and local partners such as governments and civil society organizations.

 

3. Programme Evaluation

Evaluation is a platform for learning, accountability and focused strategy.Program evaluation is central to organizational learning, performance improvement and accountability. Through evaluation we can determine the efficiency, relevance, effectiveness, sustainability and institutional impacts of development activities. Impact evaluation helps us to better understand the extent to which activities reach the poor and the magnitude of their effects on people's welfare.

Area of Focus:

• Impact Evaluation-systematic assessment of effects on individual households, institutions, and the environment caused by a given development project, program or policy.
• Evaluations for Program Improvement-evaluations focused on improving projects and programs during the project life.
• Participatory and Empowerment Evaluation-evaluations with central objectives to foster participation, learning and empowerment among local stakeholder groups.
• Evaluation Capacity Development-building organizational skills, incentives and systems to use evaluation in order to achieve results.

4. Strategic Planning

Managing with a clear vision, mission and strategy produces lasting outcomes. Globalization and failed and fragile states, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and country Poverty Reduction Strategies require more strategic alignment of development assistance. Donor coordination provides added potential to design and manage country programs that help to create stability and prospects for longer-term development. To stay relevant in this environment, aid agencies need to sharpen their missions, mandates and strategies and engage in constant learning and innovation.

Area of Focus:

• Designing Results-Oriented Sector Strategies and Country Programs-working with donors, governments and local stakeholders to develop results-oriented sector strategies and programs in health, education, environment, governance and economic growth.
• Strategic Planning for Organizations and Teams-creating a shared vision, mission and strategy with measurable results for an organization, team or operating unit; creating a culture for strategic management.

5. Effective Teams

Harnessing the creativity, collective wisdom and energy of diverse teams helps to catalyze development results.Effective teams are important catalysts for development and social change and they are increasingly diverse and dispersed. Team members come with different values, experiences, technical skills and cultural traditions. Technical assistance teams are pressured to produce results quickly, especially in challenging environments. Teams working closely with local counterparts need to model values of empowerment and participation. In these settings traditional team building is not enough.

Area of Focus:

• Team Planning Meetings-rapid start-up for effective technical assistance teams.
• Team Building for Existing Teams-team assessment and tailored team building, including Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), to improve performance of existing teams.
• Building Team-based Organizations-creating organizational leadership processes, procedures, structures and incentives to support effective teams.
• Building Effective Virtual Teams-using specialized tools and methods for building virtual teams and communities of practice.
• research community is  aware of this  kind of proposed series and it will be well received.

Social Impact Management addresses Inclusive growth which includes more than just poverty alleviation and seeks to address the problem of equity through the enhancement of opportunities for everybody.

In the real world of competition and co-ordination, various situations elicit various trade-offs that the three pillars of economy-Business, Government and Society have to undertake for their survival and sustenance. In this paper, we look into many such case studies where each one was adamant in each scenario leading to betterment of one and detriment of another and thus arises the imbalance between the three pillars of economy.