VALUES, NORMS,MORALITY

VALUES Values are a general term referring to those things which people

regard as good, bad, right, wrong, desirable, justifiable et c Values describe what is important in a person’s life while ethics

and morals what is appropriate in or is not considered in one’s life.

Values are potent source of conflict as well as of co-operation, control and self-control.

Values are collective representations of what constitutes a good society.

Values are potent sources of conflict as well as of co-operation, control and self-control. Through values, business can and does create value in the form of goods, service, employment etc.

However in extreme cases business and whole industries can cease to function because their continued existence is inconsistent with certain powerful values.

Values are many types.1. Cultural norms (represent the expectations of business clients and customers, legislators, employee, suppliers and the public)

2. Moral values-These are deep-seated ideas and feelings that manifest themselves as behavior or conduct. These values are not so easy to measure or express in words.

TYPES OF VALUES

IMPORTANT VALUES IN BUSINESS Generosity: Each member in the company

should share in the company success. Ex: stock option ,bonuses etc. Employers who follow this principle are rewarded with greater employee loyalty and higher productivity .

Fairness: Win Win situation. Both side of the business transaction feel that they have been treated fairly. A company with reputation for fair dealing encourages vendors, independent contractors ,joint ventures partners and customers to do business with it again and again

Pursuit of excellence: trying to develop better product and services to constantly improve customer satisfaction, to try to upgrade operational efficiency and productivity of everyone in the organisation. (due to competitive nature of the business)

Community involvement: Companies seek to be active participants in improving the quality of life for the communities in which they operate.

Innovation: Innovation allows a company to improve the quality of life for the customers. Making constant innovation a core value helps corporations grow in the face of ever increasing competition

concern for employees welfare: Employees want to see the company has a career path planned out for them one in which they can continue to learn , acquire new skills and rise within the organisatin.

HOW TO IDENTIFY VALUES IN BUSINESS Step 1: Read company’s code of Ethics Step 2: Speak with employees about values

of the co. Step 3: Speak with customers-Customer

service ,companies reputation in the market Step 4: Browse recent and old news articles

VALUE STATEMENT OF ITC

ITC’s core values are aimed at developing a customer focused, high performance organisation which creates value for its stakeholders

TATA STEELThe five core Tata values are: Integrity Understanding Excellence Unity responsibility

SAIL To be a respected world Class and the leader

in the Indian steel business in quality, productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction

ONGC To be world class Oil and Gas Company

integrated in energy business with dominant Indian leadership and global presence

NORMS Norms are expectations of proper behavior,

not requirements for that behaviors. Each individual within the society has a set of norms, belief and values that together form his or her moral standard.

Norms are the ways an individual expects all people to act, when faced with a given situation. Eg: Asian students normally bend slightly while

addressing professors of the other university. Lower level employees address the higher level

employee as sir.

BELIEF The belief in an ethical code are standards of

thought. These are the ways that the senior executives in an organisation want others to think. The intention is to encourage ways of thinking and patterns of attitudes that will pave way towards the wanted behaviour.It is expressed in a positive form in an ethical code.

MORAL STANDARD, BELIEF AND THEIR ROLELaw is a dynamic entity since the rules prevalent now

will change after some period. Several changes have already occurred regarding employment, pollution etc. Consequently, the law governing these have changed.

Eg. Actions found legal 20 yrs ago such as racial and sexual discrimination in hiring , discharge of chemical wastes into lakes, rivers etc. are now illegal.

All these changes in the law, is due to the changes in the moral standards of a majority of the population trough social and political process.

ETHICS AND MORALITY Ethics is study of morality or morality is the subject matter which

investigates ethics.

Morality is the standards that an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong or good or evil

Each individual within the society has a set of norms, beliefs and values that together form his or her moral standard.

Moral standards include the norms ( expectation of proper behavior, not requirements for that behavior) we have about the kinds of actions we believe are morally right and wrong, as well as the values we place on what we believe is morally good or morally bad.

Eg: believed it was wrong to lie and to endanger the lives of others, and believed also that integrity is good and dishonesty is bad.

MORALITYMorality can be defined as the standards that an individual or a group hasabout what is right and wrong or good and evil.

1. How to distinguish moral standards from standards that are not moral?Ethicists suggested five characteristics to identify moral standards.Moral standards deal with matters which people think can seriously injure or seriously benefit human beings.

2. Moral standards are not established or changed by political or legal authoritative bodies. The validity of moral standards rests on the adequacy of the reasons.

3. Moral standards are preferred to other standards including even self-interest when choice is there.

4. Moral standards are impartial. They are based on impartial reasons that an impartial observer would accept.

5. Moral standards are associated with special emotions. When people act in violation of a moral standard, they feel guilty, ashamed and remorseful.

Moral norms can usually be expressed as general rules about our actions, such as : “Always tell the truth,” “It’s wrong to kill innocent people” “Actions are right to the extent that they

produce happiness.” Moral values can usually be expressed with

statements about objects or features of objects that have worth, such as “Honesty is good,” “Injustice is bad.”

WHERE DO MORAL STANDARD COME FROM Typically, moral standards are first learned as a child

from family, friends, and various societal influences As we mature our experience, learning, and

intellectual development will lead us to think about, evaluate, and revise these standards according to whether we judge them to be reasonable or unreasonable.

We may discard some standards that we decide are unreasonable, and may adopt new standards because we come to believe they are more reasonable than the ones we previously accepted.

Through this maturing process, we develop standards that are more rational and so more suited for dealing with the moral issues of adult life

DO MORAL STANDARDS APPLY TO CORPORATIONS?

While some people do argue that corporations have no moral standards to adhere to and only people have.

But as corporate citizens they have moral standards to live up to but at the same time they are mainly acted upon by people. People are behind corporate decisions.

Group One` “Do not harm other people,”“Do not lie to other people,”“Do not steal what belongs to others.”

Group Two

“Do not eat with your mouth open,”“Do not chew gum in class,”

NATURE OF MORAL STANDARD Moral standard deals with matters that are

serious i.e matters that we think can seriously wrong or significantly benefit human beings.

Moral standards should be preferred to other values including self-interest.

Moral standards are not established or changed by decisions of authority figures or authoritative bodies.

Moral standards are felt to be universal.

Six stages grouped into three levelsHOW MORAL VIEWS DEVELOP

LEVEL 1: PRECONVENTION MORALITY Stage One: Punishment and Obedience

Orientation At this stage, the demands of authority figures or the pleasant or painful consequences of an act define right and wrong. The child’s reason for doing the right thing is to avoid punishment or defer to the power of authorities. There’s little awareness that others have needs and desires like one’s own.

Stage Two: Instrumental and Relative Orientation At this stage, right actions become those through which the child satisfies his own needs. The child is now aware that others have needs and desires like he does and uses this knowledge to get what he wants. The child behaves in the right way toward others, so others later will do the same toward him.

LEVEL TWO: CONVENTIONAL STAGES Stage Three: Interpersonal Concordance

Orientation Good behavior at this early conventional stage is living up to the expectations of those for whom the person feels loyalty, affection, and trust, such as family and friends. Right action is conforming to what’s expected in one’s role as a good son, good daughter, good friend, and so on. At this stage, the young person wants to be liked and thought well of.

Stage Four: Law and Order Orientation Right and wrong at this more mature conventional stage are based on loyalty to one’s nation or society. The laws and norms of society should be followed so society will continue to function well. The person can see other people as parts of a larger social system that defines individual roles and obligations, and he can distinguish these obligations from what his personal relationships require.

LEVEL THREE: POSTCONVENTIONAL STAGES

At these next two stages, the person no longer simply accepts the values and norms of her group. Instead, the person tries to see right and wrong from an impartial point of view. that takes everyone’s interests into account. The person can question the laws and values of her society and judge them in terms of moral principles that she believes can be justified to any reasonable person. When an adult at this stage is asked why something is right or wrong, the person can respond in terms of what’s “fair for everyone” or in terms of “justice,” or “human rights,” or “society’s wellbeing.”

Stage Five: Social Contract Orientation At this first post conventional stage, the person becomes aware that people have conflicting moral views, but believes there are fair ways of reaching consensus about them. The person believes that all moral values and moral norms are relative and that, apart from a democratic consensus, all moral views should be tolerated.

Stage Six: Universal Moral Principles Orientation At this second post conventional stage, right action comes to be defined in terms of moral principles chosen because of their reasonableness, universality, and consistency. These are general moral principles that deal, for example, with justice, social welfare, human rights, respect for human dignity, or treating people as ends in themselves. The person sees these principles as the criteria for evaluating all socially accepted norms and values.

Kohlberg’s theory is useful because it helps us understand how our moral capacities develop and reveals how we may mature in our understanding of our own moral standards. Research by Kohlberg and others has shown that, although people generally progress through the stages in the same sequence, not everyone progresses through all the stages.

Kohlberg found that many people remain stuck at one of the early stages throughout their lives. Those who stay at the pre conventional level continue to see right and wrong in the egocentric terms of avoiding punishment and doing what powerful authority figures say.

Those who reach the conventional level, but never get past it continue defining right and wrong in terms of the conventional norms and expectations of their social groups or of their nation and its laws.

And those who reach the post conventional level and take a rational and critical look at the conventional moral standards they have been raised to hold will come to define right and wrong in terms of moral principles they have chosen because they are reasonable.

MORAL REASONING

Moral reasoning is the process by which actions are judged with reference to moral standards. It involves knowledge of moral standard and whether a situation has arisen wherein moral standard needs to be applied.Moral reasoning has to be logical. The factual evidence regarding the situation must be accurate, relevant and complete. The set of moral standards invoked has to be consistent.