Business Ethics- A Passing Fashion

As per words of Aristotle
“We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly”.
Truth don’t have any alternatives the same is true with topic under discussion. Yes business ethics has certainly turned up as a passing fashion nowadays. First of all, what does business ethics means it refers to the moral principles that govern business activities. These provide the code of conduct for managers & employees in performing their business related deeds.
As per Stanley Jones, a famous American, among seven deadly sins one is business without morality. And same is true for today’s business scenarios.
Examples of few years back scandal associated with ENRON, and that associated with SATYAM is still fresh in the minds of common people, had there been ethical practices, things would have been certainly different for the IT giant. Each and every businesses and corporations of today are having their Mission Statement engrossed with customer at the centre, but there is no say of ethical practices and behaviour in achieving the goals and plans of the businesses.
Companies having greased with ethical practices in its organisational systems are more likely to attract investment and human capital, retain talents, differentiate themselves in the markets and create a perception of being friendly.
But, scenario has changed and everything has undergone a transformation as far as ethical practices are concerned. Now every company is just putting the cover of ethical practices in order to lure the best possible gains to the company, in particular, spending few thousands of rupees in the name of corporate social responsibility is just a way to swindle the stakeholders, people and government.
Value based organisations, such as Infosys, has demonstrated that even so-called soft concept can be very powerful. As ethics covers all the possible areas of business, end and means should justifiable as per the norms of society. Rather than to become showy characters businesses should integrate core values, such as, integrity, honesty, fair practices, trust, respect with policy making and decision making.

COLLEGE TO CORPORATE

My first choice towards doing any work is to go straight forward with my goals, aims and ambitions. So is the aim of mine to enter into the most important phase of the life which is known as corporate life. But is it so easy to enter into the corporate life? Is it as glittery as I think? Will it be a bed of roses or does one will have to have a roller coaster ride before entering into this corporate world? All these feelings bring into me mixed responses.
My life right now is passing through a phase which seems to be inculcating within me the ways of leading theoretical corporate life. Whatever I am studying today is not merely a study of the any course as such rather it is the way to sustain our life in a way which is as per corporate requirement and I am suppose to learn all those etiquettes which are not only acceptable to corporate life rather those will make my future life full of glamour and success. Life is making me tough for the kind of experience that I will be enjoying in my life to come. One never know in what form life comes to help you out, so one must get him/herself ready with all arms and ammunitions intact in his/her arsenal (preparation).
In coming days I will be going through some more learning experiences that would be more of practical in its character and I will be then exposed to practicality aspect of my upcoming life. Things are going to be more teaching and will be providing me ground to flourish and grow multi-dimensionally. Workshops, Summer Training and many other practical pedagogy means ensure that I don’t miss on any of the knowledge base in any respect when I faces all these situations practically.
So learning all these processes and methods are surely going to make my ride to working life to a greater extent smoother. And my chances of getting success throughout post this learning phase is more and higher than ever. Further all glitters are certainly not going to gold so is this truth that life will always walk on and on with ups and down on its way and with every miles covered one got to learn something new every time. So is this journey of learning towards my future life – I am working out through learning. Wish me success for my life to come.

COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP – THE NEED OF HOUR

Anything which is permanent in this world, is change. We see the same in our day to day life. Innovations are increasing like population taking place in every element of this universe. The corporate world is no exception. One recent innovation in business leadership is development of the Collective Leadership. Gone are the days when an individualistic approach of the leadership was appreciated. When Ford developed new cars, showing his individual leadership quality, he earned all the praises. Every company wished to have somebody as superheroes or saviours, who could generate growth and could take them out from crises.

The scenario has changed in this present corporate world. Now, like a team effort, the need for collective leadership has started to be felt. It has been seen that team can be a critical differentiator for any organization. Becoming JACK OF ALL TRADE is quite an impossible task in this complex corporate world. So there is a need of a specialised leader i.e. each leader to have a special quality that could differentiate him from the other. There should what is called portfolio leadership concept. And collective leadership i.e. the combined efforts of all different portfolio leaders should come together collectively to meet the strategic imperatives of the corporations. With this effort, dealing with diverse situation; such as; crisis, transition, growth and stability, will be quite easier. In fact, in this present scenario of recession this need of the collective leadership is more relevant. Recession demands every leader to come together and to check out where the actual problem lies in the respective organization.

Very specifically, development of this collective skill as well as making organization more lissom and compliant can be met through Collective Leadership. The requirement of legitimacy and resilience is even more critical to the corporate world. In this period of crisis what is also required is to keep your human inventories intact. The leadership qualities that need to be taken care of, to keep intact human resources are to counsel employees and communicate with them. Leaders need to encourage employees to innovate and to truly understand the nuances and requirements of the business. Although the route is tough but it is possible in any situation, whether it is a normal situation or a crisis.

So this decentralized way of performing leadership is one of the most important tool for improving the collaborations and performance in the present complex organizations. A larger portfolio of leadership group with an open and positive mind set is a distinguishing feature of the high performing unit; also it will create the kind of communication and information distribution channel which will bring an edge to the corporations.