Business and Society were always interlinked but it was highlighted when the concept of contemporary business was introduced. Similar to Yoga bringing out our inner feelings, businesses have the same impact on society.
Man’s senses impact and shape his dealings and interaction with others. Now they need to have a multi-sensory approach. Business setups need to have a multi-disciplinary approach to co-exist and survive in a cut-throat industry. They need to provide value addition to their customers for gaining business. They need to meet the ever-increasing demand of the customers. It is not sufficient to provide the products and services, but also provide a valuable addition to their life.
A business is an entity of any kind that is engaged in commercial activities and may include buying & selling of goods and services with the aim of profit-making. This, however, is always constrained by the socio-political context in which they function. Their way of working should be guided by the aim of generating revenue, but this may be impacted by undesirable activities due to regulations or by people in power. Businesses operate in a fast-moving dynamic environment where markets are globalized, and the customers are spread worldwide. Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization (LPG) compel an organization to respond to changes quickly, which in many cases forces them to cut corners and compromise on ethics.
From inception and growth to maturity, a business setup should have a well-thought-out business plan, vision, and mission document. A business plan refers to the piece of paper or a document that showcases their operational and financial objectives, the vision and mission of the business which includes the rules, regulations, and policies. In a contemporary form of business, it is important to add and imbibe ethics and values in their rules, regulation, and policies to an existing business and similarly to embrace those ethics and morals while setting up a new business. Ethics refers to the morality, or the proper way of doing business which determines what is wrong and what is right, what is good and what is bad.
Business ethics deals with determining the rules and regulation or the behavior of the business, determining what constitute good and what constitute bad, determining the rightness and wrongness of business actions. Contemporary Business also known as Modern Business is a social system/social interaction which is constituted upon shared beliefs, norms, and ethics. Business Practices are affected by political, legal, social, economical, technological, environmental factors. To create a balance between business and various such factors ethics comes into play and keeping up with the current dynamic scenario the ethical principles and other moral problems should be administered. As the competition is increasing businesses are realizing that importance of ethical and moral practices and such ethics and morals issues matter more today than they did a few decades ago. A higher emphasis has been put upon the needs and wants of the employers, employees, society, community; focus on ethical practices rather than solely on profits. Companies have been known to bypass rules and regulations either to meet the stringent local requirements or to make more profit than would be legally admissible.
It is very important to promote awareness with respect to the ethics of a business. Every individual be it a serviceman or a businessman should be made aware that business and ethics are interlinked and go hand in hand. Businesses that are only profit-driven cannot sustain in a long run but if they incorporate ethics as a major factor there chances to stay in the competition will get higher. Many companies have to pay heavy fines due to not following the legal requirements which negate their benefits by following unethical practices.
A business setup that is ethical in its dealings stands more to gain in long term, compared to another which cuts corners and indulges in unethical business practices. Such business establishment may be able to generate more revenue and profits in the short term, but they lose out in the longer duration by loss of reputation and may get in to legal complications. Being ethical builds a reputation and encourages people to work with them. The ability to attract qualified manpower will help them provide more products and services and generate more revenue.
It helps to follow ethical practices.