Abstract

Many large corporations have added ethical framework to their business processes as these organizations have realised that in long run an ethical business has a bright future. This includes customers, employees, vendors and the public. Every decision made by the business is based on the effect it may have on any one of these groups of people, or the environment surrounding it.

In organizations ethics go beyond the legal requirements; organizations understand that ethical framework helps in making supple decisions making and it also guides organizational behaviour and culture. Morality governs private, personal interactions. Ethics governs professional interactions. Law governs society as a whole, often dealing with interactions between total strangers. The legal environment in India includes various laws regulating business activities like Companies Act 2013, Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and many other such legislations, policies relating to licensing and approvals, foreign trade etc. Ethics are a set of moral values an individual/organization establishes for one own entity and own culture and behaviour whereas laws are structured rules utilized to govern the entire society.

A good example of how advertising can become responsible unethically is: Volkswagen’s campaign that promoted environmentally friendly “Clean Diesel” vehicles that had low-carbon emissions. In India, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had penalised car manufacturer Volkswagen with a “conservative” fine of Rs 171.34 crore, for contributing to air pollution in Delhi through excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and for causing extensive health damage. The company admitted to having installed software that manipulated emissions readings to make its cars appear as if they were environmentally friendly. Volkswagen erred by misleading consumers with false claims.

There’s a huge difference between using marketing to paint a product or service in the best possible light by outright lying. With traditional advertising, it’s easier to monitor if companies are using misleading language to target customers. With digital advertising, anyone can run an ad and face minimal oversight.

Airlines are notorious for advertising low prices to entice travellers, but some of them manage to keep things on the ethical side by disclosing when Jetstar and Virgin Airlines decided to forgo this disclosure, they were fined $745,000 for marketing false low prices in their ads. Whereas customers had to pay additional fees involved to finalize the booking.

The Wikipedia defines ethics as a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour. It is also known as moral philosophy. For all of us ethics means living our life responsibly; to review whether our actions are right or wrong. Ethical behaviour is that which is morally accepted as “good” and “right” as opposed to “bad” or “wrong” in a particular situation. All of us live in an ethical illusion about ourselves. The ethical illusions are discrepancies between how we think and how we behave and how we take an action. It also includes our sense of reasoning for our behaviour. Laws are the regulations established, and usually written, by a governing power. Ethics are the morals of a culture, and often, they define the laws of the land. The distinction is that, while you may obey the law, you might not always act ethically. It would be a rare case for something to be ethical, but against the law. An important point to keep in mind is that ethics do not have any associated punishments when broken. A law, however, specifically sets the types of repercussions that should occur or should it be broken.

The fundamental of any business firm cannot claim to be ethical firm if it looks at profits and numbers while ignoring the legitimacy. Today, businesses and industries increasingly find themselves facing external pressure to improve their ethical practices. The alert and well-informed customers today scrutinize business activities. Pressure groups are a good example of this. They are external stakeholders they focus on activities & fair practice of industries with direct and indirect actions which at times has forced some firms to close down their shutters.

Ratan Tata, the then Chairman of Tata Group of Companies, did something that is totally out of the world. He in fact taught the world some lessons in business ethics. After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks which were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in Hotels Taj and Oberoi were badly hit, Ratan Tata went all out to help every single person who was affected in Hotel Taj including those like the pav bhaji vendor outside the hotel. Each one was offered compensation running into several lakhs of rupees. The education of children of those affected, free medical facilities for those survivors at Tata hospital for the rest of their lives, total education of the 46 children who were affected by the bomb blast but survived, has been taken up by the Tata group. A Trust has been formulated to shoulder responsibility for the rehabilitation of the families of the victims. Ratan Tata himself visited the families of each of the 80 employees affected by the bomb blast, and offered compensation running into several lakhs of rupees. Such examples define business ethics. Leaders like Ratan Tata establish faith in customers. He calls himself an industrialist not a businessman.  He has strong attachment to his businesses yet an executive’s ability to make rational decisions.

For leaders at all level, it’s more important to learn how to make the right decision while dealing with different kinds of feelings rather than suppressing those feelings.

Some of the top B Schools such as IIMs in India and other top rung B schools in the world are revamping their syllabus adding business ethics as a core paper, adding projects on ethical values. The process of revamping is for also pondering over and challenging the standard of business wisdom practiced for decades. Ethics and social responsibility seem to be in limelight by some serious thinkers and practitioners.

Chairman of Wipro ltd, Azim Premji, is another example of modesty and a man who doesn’t believe in extravaganza. He annoyed several other fellow industrialists when he said that rich people should pay more taxes, in response to some budget proposal. Not stopping there, he justified his views in many interviews as well. WIPRO has spent upwards of some nine hundred crores in Karnataka and in Andhra Pradesh, where it has helped build school infrastructure, improve standards of education and so on. Its donations to several Government hospitals in Tamil Nadu is very much an example of the highest quality of business ethics.

In the world-famous Enron scandal, which was a series of events involving dubious accounting practices that resulted in the bankruptcy of the energy company, the accounting firm Arthur Anderson got shut down. Enron executives used fraudulent accounting practices to inflate the company’s revenues and hide debt of its subsidiaries. The Securities and Exchange Commission credit rating agencies (SEC), and investment banks were also accused of negligence and outright deception that enabled the fraud. I think it’s symptomatic of a breakdown of the ethical values of business over a period of perhaps 20 years, a gradual erosion of business ethics.

Business organizations dillydally from ethical practices because of compelling and persuasive day-to-day organizational practices. Ethics take a backseat because of the multifaceted processes and practices of businesses which leaves little time or penchant to divert attention to the moral content of organizational decision-making. Morality in business appears to be so ambiguous and qualitative in nature that it lacks substance in relation to business objectives and goals in today’s world. Business relies on quantitative performance than qualitative performance. The pace leaves hardly any time for the managers in reworking their decisions based on ethical framework. Hence the entire framework and thinking of the managers lacks ethical decision making.

Scams such as Satyam Case, Enron Case, I Gate Case, 2 G, 3G, Commonwealth games, Bofors, Fodder scam, IPL, Citibank the list can go on and on. Our memories are so short, that by the time we are fatigued with one scam there appears another scam. The big money, the lifestyles of cheaters, their overstated personas, and the glamour that comes with money feature more prominently in the young students of Business Management if the ethical frameworks in these and many other case studies are not tackled in the classrooms.

Conclusion

Dear friends Socrates, Plato and Aristotle sadly have no place in the twenty first century business environment. A yawning gap exists between philosophical knowledge and business practices. Each generation has learnt ethics and morality with a divergence. Morality is just a dictionary word. Yet, like it or not, there has and will continue to be a surge of interest in ethics.

A PESTLE analysis (formerly known as PEST analysis) is a frame or a managerial tool in strategic management used to analyze and monitor the macro-environmental factors that may have a profound impact on an organization’s performance. This tool is especially useful when starting a new business or entering a foreign market. In PESTLE P stands for politics, E stands for Economics, S stands for Social, T stands for Technology, L stands for legal and the last E stands for Environment factors.

Politics

Spanish oil giant Repsol had to face a downsizing due to political intervention in Argentina.  It started an above average profitability operations in Argentina. But the business was later impounded by the Left Wing government. So the decade long profits didn’t materialize in the end. Certain factors create Inter-linkages in many ways. US-based Google had to deal with the Chinese government’s restrictions on the freedom of speech in order to do business in China. China’s different set of political and legal guidelines made Google choose to cease its mainland Chinese version of its site and direct mainland Chinese users to a Hong Kong version.

Political system is basically the system of politics and government in a country. It governs a complete set of rules, regulations, institutions, and attitudes. A main differentiator of political systems is each system’s philosophy on the rights of the individual and the group as well as the role of government. Each political system’s philosophy impacts the policies that govern the local economy and business environment. There are more than thirteen major types of government, each of which consists of multiple variations.

Political decisions affect the economic environment for example the taxation system in the country, political decisions influence the country’s socio-cultural environment for example the LGBT; few countries are gay friendly, while most are not. Politicians can influence the rate of emergence of new technologies, politicians can influence acceptance of new technologies. Political factors relate to how the government in a country mediates in the economy. Political factors are government regulations that influence business operation positively and negatively. Managers must keep a bird’s eye view over political factors. These factors can be current; they can be impending legislation, political stability and changes, freedom of speech, protection and discrimination laws etc. Political factors are inclusive of tax policies, labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs and the most important of all political stability.

Economics

Nike has invested largely on their women’s footwear, clothes and equipments for women in Pakistan since the women are getting more liberal in Pakistan. Pakistan is already one of the primary suppliers for the Nike’s sports items. The rich Pakistanis are brand conscious and spend conspicuously on themselves.  Another good example of economic factor is of Coca-Cola operations in countries because of wages. Wages influence the company’s production costs; in countries like the UK they are quite high, whereas in Asian countries the salaries are low. Therefore, Coca Cola manufacturing is on higher side in Asian countries.

There are two great economic factors affecting business models they are demand and supply. Demand is how willing and able a consumer is to purchasing what a business offers and supply is how able the business is to make available what the consumer needs. Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rates. These factors greatly affect how businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm’s cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates can affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy.

Social

Because Pepsi is no-alcoholic drink, it has to maintain the strict differences in cultures around the world. It is essential for Pepsi to communicate its image as a global brand to change people’s perception. Pepsi values all the festivals in order to relate to their market.  Reacting to the social factor has helped Pepsi cash upon the opportunity of increasing sales during festive seasons around the world. Since June 1, 2011 a smoking ban in all of Argentina prohibits smoking in workplaces, all public indoor areas, schools, hospitals, museums and libraries, theatres, and all public transport. However, smoking is still allowed in balconies, terraces and patios. The law also included the prohibiting of advertising and sponsoring of tobacco. The fine for breaking the law is equivalent to 250 to 1,000,000 packets of the most expensive cigarettes in the market. Imagine, how cigarette companies could advertise in Argentina?

This measurement of the general environment represents the demographic characteristics, norms, customs and values of the population within which the organization operates. This includes population trends such as the population growth rate, age distribution, income distribution, career attitudes, safety emphasis, health consciousness, lifestyle attitudes and cultural barriers. These factors are especially important for marketers when targeting certain segments. It also includes the local workforce and its willingness to work under certain conditions.

Technology

Apple, Google, Blackberry and Microsoft have changed the information technology scene completely. Google is the most widely used search engine on the internet today. It receives over 3 billion online searches on a daily basis. It was created in 1997 by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Technological factors pertain to innovations in technology that may affect the operations of the industry and the market favorably or unfavorably. The progress in technology refers to technology incentives, the level of innovation, automation, research and development (R&D) activity, technological change and the amount of technological awareness that a market possesses. These factors may influence decisions to enter or not enter certain industries, to launch or not launch certain products or to outsource production activities abroad. By knowing what is going on technology-wise, the management of organizations may be able to prevent its company from spending a lot of money on developing a technology that would become obsolete very soon due to disruptive technological changes elsewhere. Technological Factors are linked to innovation in the industry, as well as innovation of the overall economy. Not being up to date to the latest trends of a particular industry can be extremely harmful to operations.

Legal

The foremost criteria include ease of starting a business, ease of obtaining construction permits, access to electrical utilities, ease of registering property, availability of credit, protection for minority investors, tax rates and collection methods, capacity for trade to occur across borders, and ease of enforcing contracts and declaring insolvency. Labor market regulation is also considered in compiling these rankings. It takes few hours to start a business in New Zealand. Thanks to a simple online procedure! High standards of living combined with one of the world’s most skilled labor forces are among the many factors that make Sweden an excellent country within which to carry out business and trade. Its strong infrastructure and well-developed social programs are strong incentives as well.

Although these factors may have some overlap with the political factors, they include more specific laws such as discrimination laws, antitrust laws, employment laws, consumer protection laws, copyright and patent laws, and health and safety laws. It is clear that companies need to know what is and what is not legal in order to trade successfully and ethically in a country.

Environment

Through 2011, Bhutan experienced accelerated economic activities pressured natural resources such as land, air, and water. Development activities increased urbanization, industrialization, mining and quarrying, agriculture, and solid waste management projects. Land degeneration, biodiversity and habitat loss, high fuel-wood consumption, and human-wildlife conflicts are some of Bhutan’s environmental challenges. Notwithstanding these problems, Bhutan remains overall carbon-neutral.

Environmental factors have come to the forefront recently. They have become important due to the increasing scarcity of raw materials, increased pollution and carbon footprint. Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, environmental offsets and climate change which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, agriculture and insurance. Furthermore, growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products they offer. This has led to many companies getting more and more involved in Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) practices and sustainability.

Competent lawyers are the courtroom heroes. Law is an integral part of nearly every area of our life – from the environment, trade, education, medicines, entertainment, marriage, childbirth, sports to death. When things go wrong in society we first think of lawyers. Be it a divorce, stealing, bribery, bankruptcy, IP theft, corporate slip-ups; when fundamentals and practicalities begin to crumble, lawyers swoop in like heroes to protect their clients against the offenders. Taking help of lawyer is a simple instantaneous action, born out of necessity. People call lawyers not because they wantto, but because itnecessitates to.

Can a lawyers’ role be narrowly defined as an antidote to conflict? Are they required only to avoid or manage disputes? The common most notion of a lawyer is – the one who is skilled at finding ‘loopholes’ in the system and help his/her client escape from a sticky situation. But this is our narrow-mindedness if we define their role in such tapered frame. And, we cannot deny that to one up the law one must know the law.

Law is the way society regulates its behavior. It creates rules of conduct that are widely understood and gives us parameters for resolving disputes and defining acceptable codes of conduct. Our centralized, state, and local laws regulate everything from how we do business with each other to how we behave in public places, our duties and responsibilities in society, how we keep our surrounding to where we can park our cars. Because law is considered a technical profession not easily comprehended by the untrained, individuals and companies hire professionals-lawyers-to help them realize it and conduct the procedures it defines. The role of lawyers cannot be limited or underrated. Lawyers have enormous power, which they use daily to effect change for their clients. Without law and order we cannot live peacefully in this world. In some or the other way we permanently depend on lawyers.

Law has been one of the popular career choices for youngsters. Those who come from families of lawyers usually opt to study law. Anyone can choose to study law as long as one has the passion for it. There are many areas of specialization in law these days. Maritime Law, Cyber Law, Business Law, Civil Rights Law, Entertainment Law, Environment Law, Immigration Law, Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labor Law, Taxation Law and many more. I listed just few of them. Today for every action and every activity we find a specialized lawyer. Traditionally, students could specialize in either civil or criminal laws.

People who enter this demanding and comprehensive profession do so for many reasons. It is a great paying career and it is a challenging career which requires lot of research and people skills. If you love it make a career in it. To be precise, lawyers can have a broad range of responsibilities depending on the specific area of law they practice. But if you think being a lawyer mainly involves making speeches and grilling witnesses in a courtroom, think again. Even trial lawyers-those who specialize in courtroom litigation spend surprisingly little time before a judge or jury. For every hour in the courtroom, many more are spent doing research, conducting interviews, or writing documents in preparation for proceedings. Many lawyers, in fact, never set foot in court. They work in the back office.

In broad terms, lawyers apply their interpretation of the law (the codified rules of their society) to advise their employer or client on completing transactions in compliance with the law or resolving disputes based on current understanding of the law. At its most basic level, a lawyer’s role is that of a supporter and adviser. Attorneys use specialized knowledge to research and interpret the intent of the law and apply it to whatever circumstances their clients face. It’s an imperfect practice, as the interpretations of the law may vary significantly based on the circumstances of the situation.

The legal profession can be divided into two major categories: litigation and transactions. Litigation, which concerns both civil and criminal law, is the process of arguing a dispute between two parties. Transactions relate to business and personal matters that usually do not require courtroom argumentation. For example, a lawyer may counsel a client in the transactions of preparing a will, contract, or lease; to help secure venture capital for a new company; or to prepare a patent for a new technology. However, if the will is contested or if the venture capitalists sue the business owner for fraud, that would then require an attorney with litigation skill.

Depending on the type of law they practice, lawyers will spend their time on paperwork; researching, preparing for, or participating in trials and advising clients. They spend hours in law libraries, online databases, and case studies for researching legal precedents. They prepare contracts, to the point note, and other documents, assembling boilerplate paragraphs (it is the sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration) or writing from scratch. They need a sharp mind, sharp focus and razor-sharp communication skills. Humor and wit is an added advantage as it can lighten the courtroom atmosphere.

They plan and conduct depositions or interviews with witnesses. In complicated cases, these can generate thousands of pages of testimony-all of which have to be read, analyzed, and refined into usable information. They present their evidence-the information they’ve gathered about a case and about the laws relevant to a case-in a court of law, arguing before a judge and/or jury. Alternatively, they may present their research findings to clients, advising them on business or other issues.

If you want to make a splendid career in law, you need to sharpen your analytical ability, attention to detail, logical reasoning, persuasiveness, sound judgment and of course writing ability.  I want to list here one of the most essential element for the career and that is of emotional intelligence. They need to empathies with their clients, they need to respect and honor their colleagues, and most important they need to be good listeners.  Impassive, unemotional and detached lawyers are never in demand. The market does not want a lawyer who is only half a person. They also need to be tech savvy and good in time management.

If you are interested in making a career in law – you can either do a three-year law course after graduation in any discipline or a 5 years’ course after 12th class. In fact, the 3 years’ course is now giving way to the 5 years’ one which is seen as a better option. In most cases, colleges run the 3 years’ course only for those whose main discipline in graduation is something other than law, or working professionals who want to do an LLB as an additional qualification. The five year course is meant for those who want to take up law as a career – be it as a litigator, or any other kind of legal professional. For the five years course the national law entrance exam, CLAT (Combined Law Admission Test) which basically tests the student’s general English, legal aptitude, general awareness, logical skills, etc needs to be cleared.

The LLB course is regulated by the Bar Council of India which sets rules and regulations regarding legal practice in the country. Any specialization is done at masters, M. Phil or PhD stage. A higher degree helps candidates in their career advancement. It is an honorable career.

Our nation needs competent and efficient lawyers for enhanced law and order. People like Mahtma Gandhi, Dr. Amedkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela were some great people who had donned the Lawyer’s coat sometimes in life.

The research in academics is built on a foundation of trust. On a similar topic simultaneously many researchers work across the globe; they trust that the results reported by others are true and sound. Research ethics involves the application of fundamental ethical principles to a variety of topics linking research which includes verity of educational streams. Society trusts that the results of research reflect an honest attempt by scientists and other researchers to describe the world accurately and without bias. But this trust will continue only if the scholarly community devotes itself to typify and transmit the values associated with ethical research conduct.

Research malpractices include the design and implementation of research involving redundant human experimentation, animal experimentation, various aspects of academic scandal, including scientific misconduct such as fraud, fabricated data, plagiarism, pseudo conclusions and observations, unruliness of research, etc. Research ethics is most developed as a concept in medical research because it involves animal experimentation. While animal rights activists protest the use of animals in scientific experimentation, proponents of animal experimentation argue the logical warrant for the practice. Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments. About 20 million animals are experimented on and killed annually, three-fourths for medical purposes and the rest to test various products. An estimated eight million are used in painful experiments. Reports show that at least 10 percent of these animals do not receive painkillers. Animal rights advocates are pressing government agencies to impose heavy restrictions on animal research. But this growing criticism of painful experimentation on animals is matched by a growing concern over the threat restrictions on the use of animals would pose to scientific progress. Whether such experiments should be allowed to continue has become a matter for public debate.

Remember, your research should contribute to the betterment of society. It is your responsibility to secure the actual permission and interests of all those involved in the study. You cannot misuse any of the information discovered, as a researcher, you have moral responsibility towards the participants. There is a duty to protect the rights of people in the study as well as their privacy and sensitivity. The confidentiality of those involved in the observation must be maintained all through, keeping their anonymity and privacy secure. If you your taking help of some whistle blowers, respect their contribution while protecting their welfare.

There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research. First and foremost, you should comply with the aims and objectives of your research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, if your topic is ‘whether entrepreneurs are made or born’ your objectives have to fall in the framework of finding whether they are born or they can be motivated and made entrepreneurs. Remember, you are prohibited against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data. Your outcomes are supposed to promote the truth only. Second, since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards are appreciated in collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration.

I am sure, no researcher will like his/her credit for the genius work done, to be stolen by others. Also, please don’t forget a fact that your research work is answerable to the public at large. In India of late all PhD thesis are uploaded on UGC website; I believe many PhD holder’s work was questioned for various reasons for instance some copied research work from other’s thesis was withdrawn and the PhD awards also discarded. We cannot escape centralized policies on research conduct any longer. As citizens of this great nation, we should not publish poor standard work anymore.

Given the importance of ethics for the conduct of research, it should come as no surprise that many different professional associations, government agencies, and universities have adopted specific codes, rules, and policies relating to research ethics. Many government agencies, such as the Indian Institute of Science (IIS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the National Environment Protection Authority (NEPA), UGC and the Department of Agriculture have ethical rules and regulations drafted for funding researchers, which cannot be overruled.

If you want to get pleasure from your journey of becoming a researcher with authenticity and consistency please follow few values and your will be successful forever.

Honesty: Strive for honesty in all your communications. Honestly collect, assess and report data and results. Don’t go for shortcuts, Follow methods and procedures, and publication grades. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. Do not deceive colleagues, granting agencies, or the public at large.

Have clear objectives of your research:  Avoid bias as far as possible in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, collecting grants if any,  expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Self-deception is worst. Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect research.

Alertness: Avoid careless errors and negligence; always carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research design, correspondence with agencies or journals, have neat and clean bibliography prepared simultaneously. Keep your promises and agreements, be sincere and strive for consistency of thought and action.

Sincerity: Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas. Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or secrets.

Respect Intellectual Property of others: Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use unpublished data, methods, or results without permission. Give credit where credit is due. Give proper acknowledgement or credit for all contributions to research. Avoid plagiarism. Respect each one’s contribution to your work. Respect respondents of your research work. Treat your assistants such as data entry operator, printer, binder, and your colleagues fairly.

Your publication is accountable: Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career. Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication. Strive to promote social good and prevent social harms through research of any kind.

Expertise: Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong education and learning; even after getting your doctoral or postdoctoral degree update yourself – do not end your learning. Take steps to promote competence in your area of work.

Legality: Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies. Don’t cut short any rule or regulation, you might come into some trouble if you do so – if not now in future.

Handle your topic with dedication: When conducting research on human subjects minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy. Take special precautions with vulnerable populations; and strive to distribute the results of your research fairly.