BUSINESS ETHICS

PROJECT REPORT ON

MOST RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT

SIMRAN KAUR
16LLB076

SUBMITTED TO
PROF.AJIT SINGH RANHOTRA
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.NO. CONTENTS

1 BUSINESS ETHICS

2 DEFINATION OF BUSINESS ETHICS

3 IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

4 SCOPE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

5 CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS ETHICS

6 NEED FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

7 PREVENT UNETHICAL PRACTICE IN WORKPLACE

8 PIONEER PUBLICITY CORPORATION PVT. LTD.

9 QUESTIONNAIRE
BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles
and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of
business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.

Business ethics has normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career
specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business
behaviour employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects
the interaction of profit-maximizing behaviour with non-economic concerns. Interest in business
ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and
within academia. For example, most major corporations today promote their commitment to non-
economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Adam
Smith said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but
the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Governments use laws and regulations to point business behaviour in what they perceive to be
beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behaviour that lie beyond
governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and
sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics
regimes.
DEFINATION OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right
and wrong are addressed.

Business ethics in short can be described as a systematic study of moral (ethical) matters
pertaining to business, industry or related activities, institutions or practices and beliefs.

In defining business ethics observed that the moral standards of business are not different to that
of an individual.

It is the study of how personal moral norms apply to the activities and goals of commercial
enterprise. It is not a separate moral standard, but the study of how the business context poses its
own unique problems for the moral person who acts as an agent of this system.

Business ethics applies ethical reasoning to business situations and activities. It is based on a
combination of distributive justice – that is, the issuing of rewards for judgment that is placed on
all activities.

Organizational ethics refers to the rightness of the decisions and behaviors of individuals and the
organizations of which they are a part.

Business ethics is the study of moral standards and how they apply to the systems and organizations
through which modern societies produce and distribute goods and services, and to the people who
work in these organizations.

The ethics of business is the ethics of responsibility. The business man must promise that he will
not harm knowingly.
IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Long-term growth: sustainability comes from an ethical long-term vision which takes into
account all stakeholders. Smaller but sustainable profits long-term must be better than higher
but riskier short-lived profits.

Cost and risk reduction: companies which recognize the importance of business ethics will
need to spend less protecting themselves from internal and external behavioural risks,
especially when supported by sound governance systems and independent research

Anti-capitalist sentiment: the financial crisis marked another blow for the credibility of
capitalism, with resentment towards bank bailouts at the cost of fundamental rights such as
education and healthcare.

Limited resources: the planet has finite resources but a growing population; without ethics,
those resources are related for purely individual gain at huge cost both to current and future
generations.

SCOPE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethical problems and phenomena arise across all the functional areas of companies and at all levels
within the company.

1.Ethics in Compliance

Compliance is about obeying and adhering to rules and authority. The motivation for being
compliant could be to do the right thing out of the fear of being caught rather than a desire to be
abiding by the law. An ethical climate in an organization ensures that compliance with law is
fueled by a desire to abide by the laws. Organizations that value high ethics comply with the laws
not only in letter but go beyond what is stipulated or expected of them.
2.Ethics in Finance

The ethical issues in finance that companies and employees are confronted with include:

 In accounting – window dressing, misleading financial analysis.

 Related party transactions not at arm’s length

 Insider trading, securities fraud leading to manipulation of the financial markets.

 Executive compensation.

 Bribery, kickbacks, over billing of expenses, facilitation payments.

 Fake reimbursements

3.Ethics in Marketing

Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the
operation and regulation of marketing. The ethical issues confronted in this area include:

 Pricing: price fixing, price discrimination, price skimming.

 Anti-competitive practices like manipulation of supply, exclusive dealing arrangements,

tying arrangements etc.

 Misleading advertisements

 Content of advertisements.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS ETHICS

(i) A Discipline:

Business ethics are the guiding principles of business function. It is the knowledge through
which human behaviour is learnt in a business situation.

(ii) Ancient Concept:

Business ethics is an ancient concept. It has it origin with the development of human
civilization.

(iii) Personal Dignity:

The principles of ethics develop the personal dignity. Many of the problems of ethics arise due
to not giving dignity to individual. All the business decisions should be aimed by giving dignity
to the customers, employees, distributors, shareholders and creditors, etc. otherwise they
develop in immorality in the business conducts.

(iv) Related to Human Aspect:

Business ethics studies those activities, decisions and behaviours which are concerned with
human aspect. It is the function of the business ethics to notify those decisions to customers,
owners of business, government, society, competitors and others on good or bad, proper or
improper conduct of business.

(v) Study of Goals and Means:

Business ethics is the study of goals and means for the rational selection of sacred objects and
their fulfillment. It accepts the principles of “Pure goals inspire for pure means” and “Means
justifies the end”. It is essential that goals and means should be based on morals.
(vi) Different from Social Responsibility:

Social responsibility mainly relates to the policies and functions of an enterprise, whereas
business ethics to the conduct and behaviour of businessmen. But it is a fact that social
responsibility of business and its policies is influenced by the business ethics.

(vii) Greater than Law:

Although the law approves various social decisions, but the law is not greater than ethics. Law
is usually related to the minimum control of social customs whereas ethics gives importance
to individual and social welfare actions.

NEED FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

It is necessary to observe business ethics for the following reasons:

1. Survival of the Business Unit

Unethical practices of businessmen will lead to the closure of business unit. The closure of a
business unit does not only create problems to business but also to employees and the society
in general. Businessmen do not maximize the profit at the cost of existence of a business unit.

The behavior of a businessman is affected by some of the factors such as leadership qualities,
integrity, knowledge, skills, influence and exercising power. Businessmen should protect their
units in all respects.

2. Growth of Business Unit

Business ethics ensure the growth of a business. Whenever a businessman observes ethics
strictly, definitely the particular business unit will get developed. A business could not be run
in such a manner, which is detrimental to the interest of society or business itself. So there
should be some business ethics for the growth of a business.
 3. Earning Goodwill

If business ethics are properly followed by a business, automatically that particular business
unit earns a good name among the public.

4. Improving the Confidence

Business ethics are necessary to improve the confidence of the customers, employees and the
like. If confidence is infused, customers and employees will popularize the name of the
particular business unit.

5. Maintaining Inter-relationship

No business functions independently. Each business has close relationship with another
business even though the nature and size of the other business differs. It is expected that each
business unit should have a smooth relationship with others. The inter-relationship of business
is maintained by adopting business ethics.

6. Solving Social Problems

If a businessman observes ethics in his business, the public will not have any difficulty in
getting their wants fulfilled. There is no bargaining between the businessman and public. There
is a fair treatment of an employee by him. This will avoid social problems like strike, lockout
etc.

PREVENT UNETHICAL PRACTICE IN WORKPLACE

In recent weeks, I have had several conversations with school personnel directors about the
importance of building ethical cultures and practices. Leaders in all industries face issues
concerning unethical behavior and can learn from each other about how best to tackle these
situations. Here are seven practices to help prevent unethical actions in any organization:

- Create Policies and Practices: Organizations must research, develop, and document
policies and processes around defining, identifying, and reporting ethics violations. These
policies should be articulated in the employee handbook and protections should be put in
place for those who raise ethical issues. However, having a policy is not enough. You must
practice what you preach. Case in point: Years ago, the Enron Corporation was known to
have one of the most intricate ethics policies in the country. The 64-page document was
given to new employees with a letter from Ken Lay, the company's Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer. But, in 2001, it was revealed that Enron had engaged in major
accounting fraud to disguise its poor financial health. After Enron declared bankruptcy,
copies of their ethics policy went up on eBay. The Smithsonian National Museum of
American History also secured a copy that now lives in the museum's exemplary business
practices exhibit. How appropriate. I encourage you to read more about the Enron scandal
in the article "Management Controls: The Organizational Fraud Triangle of Leadership,
Culture, and Control in Enron" published in the July/August 2007 issue of Ivey Business
Journal.
- Hire Right: Selecting quality people from day one can make a huge difference in the ethics
of your organization. Some organizations scour background checks, purchase screening
tools, or use behavior-based interview questions, which may ask candidates to describe a
situation when they acted ethically even when it was against social or cultural norms.
- Develop People's Understanding: Most HR professionals will tell you that training
people to act "ethically" will not have much of an impact, but developing a process for
reporting ethics violations and building staff understanding about ethics expectations is
important.
- Incent the Right Thing: Some in the education community are asking, "Do states and school
districts incent people to cheat or act unethically by giving more weight to certain measures
over others?" Before introducing a new measure in schools--or any other industry--leaders
must consider if it encourages the type of actions that are valued by the organization. If
there is a risk of impropriety, it is important to have a conversation around what checks
and balances will be put in place to make sure unwanted behaviors are handled
appropriately.
- Put Controls in Place: Risk management professionals will tell you that even with all the
proper policies and processes in place and a staff that understands them, it is also wise to
perform regular audits to help reduce opportunities to act unethically, incent individuals
who may act unethically to reconsider, help catch issues that have occurred by accident,
and mitigate risk all around.
- Build a Culture of Transparency, Openness, and Communication: Cultural
management work is difficult. To ensure true success when it comes to organization ethics,
people must see and hear what is going on as well as feel comfortable to stand up and speak
out if they see something occur that is not right.
- Leadership Must Walk the Talk: Leaders can talk about the importance of policies and
processes, incentives, communication, and openness all day, but if they turn around and
act unethically, it can be like throwing a large stone into the pond of ethics tranquility. The
same goes for promoting staff who have behaved unethically. It doesn't take long for staff
at all levels of an organization to recognize a leader who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the
walk when it comes to ethics. This can breed suspicion and destroy trust.
COMPANY PROFILE

Pioneer Publicity Corporation Pvt Ltd

Company
PIONEER PUBLICITY CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED
Name

Company
Company limited by Shares
Category

Company Sub
Non-govt company
Category

Class of
Private
Company

Advertising. [Printing of advertising material is classified in

class 2221, Market research in class 7413, Public relations
activities in class 7414, Direct mailing activities in class 7499,
Activity Production of commercial messages for radio, television and
film are classified in the appropriate class of group 921].
 -

INFORMATION

Pioneer Publicity Corporation Pvt Ltd a leader in the out of home advertising domain, with over
51 years of industry experience and branch offices across the country. Pioneer offers complete and
comprehensive solutions for all your outdoor advertising needs. A well-established organization,
pioneer enjoy a high credibility both in respect of operations as well as financials. Leadership
through quality, innovation and service has always been the hallmark of the company.

In the year 1960 Late Shri Ved Prakesh Vasudeva & Late Shri Des Raj Vasudeva made a humble
and pious beginning and laid the pillars of ‘Trust & Confidence’ to build pioneer. Over the year,
with the support of his brother Sunil, Rajesh and Mukesh they have transformed the company into
a force to reckon with in the out of home domain in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur ,Ajmer,
Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.

Ethics in business, fair play & service are the core principals which made pioneer with stand the
test of times. In 1997 when outdoors was banned from Delhi, pioneer had the vision to foray into
new territories and grow.

In the year 2000 new concept of unipoles & protection screens were introduced in Delhi, which
revived the OOH Medium in the capital. Pioneer acquired new OOH mediums in Mumbai,
Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh and to its credit is the interactive & innovative mall media created at
select city walk mall, Sakat in New Delhi.

There quest for providing pan India Service to their clients, under their umbrella they have formed
NEXT- which specializes in providing 360-degree solution to clients, to strengthen their group.

Their strength lies in service & sincerity and will continue to be our strategy despite onslaughts in
the industry.
VISION

To be national outdoor media conglomerate providing out of home branding/ advertising services
catering to the need of people from all walks of industry.

VALUE

- Integrity
- Innovation
- Accountability
- Commitment
- Presence
 QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME :
AGE :
QUALIFICATION :

QUES 1. Are you aware about the business ethics?

( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 2. What do you mean by business ethics?

QUES 3. Does your organization have a written ethics policy?

( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 4. Do you think business ethics affects your performance?

( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 5. Do you think your organization on work according to rule and regulations?
( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 6. What are the principles of business ethics?

QUES 7. Do you think ethics helps in achievement of organizational goals?
( ) Agree ( ) Disagree
QUES 8. Does your organization have procedure for reporting unethical behaviour?
( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 9. Do you think business ethics should be followed by organization?

( ) Yes ( ) No

QUES 10. Do your organization offer training in business ethics?

( ) Yes ( ) No