ethics lecture 2 a

8/7/2019 Ethics Lecture 2 A

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THE PROPERTYLESS MANAGER:

CULTURE & ETHICS IN INDIAThe Gita concept --- Doing one s duty without seekingfor the fruits

Manu s precept- -- Of inheriting debts as well asproperty

Mauryan idea--- Of accountability provides a basis forGandhi s belief

Gandhi s belief---- That politics and business mustwork hand in hand for the development of the nation.


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Ethics in the Gita

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna laid down the rightsand obligations of each one of us.Krishna says that a manager must look upon thetask that he has been set, or that he sets himself,not in terms of personal gain or profit but purelyin terms of its fulfillment and the satisfaction thatthis gives him. There can be no better definitionof an ethical managerE.g. Mr. Prakash Tandon and Lord Heyworthmeeting from Hindustan Lever


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Manu & Inheritance

In the Aryan ethical code, there were rights andobligations for the sons who inherited theirfather s property. They also inherited his debt

and the debt went down to two generations, sothat if the first generation did not clear it, thesecond generation had to do so. This is similar toRoman law which, 1300 years later, laid down

similar obligations. Manu created our castesystem and gave a separate function to the traderor the merchant


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B uddha s theory

He said, the trader is like a honeybee, whichsucks honey out of the flower but does notharm the flower. Buddha, of course, did notrealize what we moderns know, namely, thatthe bee actually helps the process of fertilization. What Buddha did see was that

while taking profit out, no harm must be doneas one might do when in quest of personalgain.


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Mauryan Accountability

The concept of accountability of mangers waslaid down for the first time .

In a complex, but carefully defined,operational framework, the Artha Shastra lays

it down as a duty of a manager that he shouldbe subject to an audit, that his accountsshould be looked at every now and again fortheir clarity and truth


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In later centuries, India suffered variousinvasions

Ethics weakened because the trader was oftenheld to ransom and had recourse to extortionso as to be able to fend for himself

Hence Ethics no longer played the same role.


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Akbar and the OperationalFramework

However, ethics did come back in Akbar s time becauseAkbar gave us something indispensable for regularethical functioning

A clear and stable commercial set up.

We in the management know today that there can be

no proper performance of duty, no ethical and socialresponsibility unless the framework in which oneoperates has been well defined, for quite often it is thevagueness that leads to loss of ethics.


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The B ritish period

Akbar laid down an excellent land revenuesystem

British emulated Akbar in three things:1) in giving India unity and a wholeness,

2)A land revenue system and

3) Trying to bring about Hindu Muslim unity.British successful in first two but failed in thelast


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The B ritish period(cont)

This brings us to the British East IndiaCompany, where ethics wavered.

The British government operating till 1947gave India a complex but a good system of rights, obligations, duties, an operationalframework, such as we had in Akbar s time

and Mauryan time.


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Gandhi s philosophy & New India

The British rulers had looked down upon trade and industrybecause traders came from a class of society where tradingwas considered to be an occupation suitable for the lowerclasses of society.

But Gandhi belonged to the trading community himself, sohe renewed the nexus between government and trade andindustry of the Mauryan times and Manu s time.

He openly joined with the business community; he feltthere should be interaction between the administrators,the intellectuals and the businessmen, who should nolonger be sidelined.


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W hat is Ethics ?

It is a set of standards , or a code , or valuesystems , worked out from human reason andexperience , by which free human actions aredetermined as ultimately right or wrong ,good or evil.

If an action agrees with these standards , it isethical: If it does not agree , it is unethical.


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Ethical Standards

Ethical standards arise or are set in order toreach an ultimate goal

All men experience certain needs and strivefor certain goals

Fulfilling goals is Happiness

Fulfilling needs is Pursuit of HappinessAs human goal changes or is refined theethical standards also changes or is refined .


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ethics lecture 2 a

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