Business Morality
Law and ethics in the business Environment
Business Morality
Law and ethics in the business Environment is a great asset in business. It means a reputation for fair-dealing The goodwill of a house of business is built up over a number of years. When thus built up, it comes to have a price” of its own. Good reputation is the best advertisement for a house of business. Some people do not associate moral consideration with business. They are mistaken.
What is business morality? People should be given real value for their money. Fake goods or shoddy goods should not be palmed off as real stuff. This is soon found out. And the supplier of such goods comes to have a bad reputation, and his business suffers in consequence. Dishonest businessmen have often been known to show to their prospective buyers good specimens, which are naturally approved and passed. Large orders are placed for the approved specimens. When these orders are supplied and paid for, it is often discovered that the goods supplied are far inferior to the specimens shown. If an Indian businessman practises this trick in supplying foreign orders he is not only harming his own business prospects, he is doing something fatal to Indian exports.
Let it not be forgotten that business activities can be moral or immoral activities. Not only deliberate dishonesty but careless or clumsy work, inattention to small details, and similar other faults, intentional or unintentional, or against the laws of business morality.
In the fourth decade of our twentieth century, many banks were opened in India by private agencies. They were both scheduled and non-scheduled banks. When their assets came up to a good amount many of them declared themselves bankrupt. The public lost crores of rupees. Prosecution and conviction of those responsible for this nationwide swindle was not easy. In view of such disasters the control of the Reserve Bank of India over every bank has been tightened. Big shareholders and directors-of banks have sometimes been known to indulge in shady practices. Hence the need for the nationalisation of banks. Consequently Indian banks were nationalized. Such nationalization, in addition to guaranteeing the security of the banks is likely to release huge funds for our five-year plans. But one should beware of vested interests; they are in the way.
Honestly and efficiently organised socialism is expected to make our economic structure work in accordance with the laws of business morality. Petty cases of dishonesty, theft and bribery are punished, but swindling on a nation-wide scale, floating paper companies, cheating the government of crores of income tax every year, hoarding and cornering, food and medicine adulterations, black-marketing and many other rackets generally go unpunished.
It by now be clear that on business morality depends the welfare of the whole nation and of the coming generations. Dishonest business by many key agencies can ruin the economic life of the whole nation and cause untold misery. Business immorality is thus a million times more serious than a mere matter of personal addiction like gambling or drinking. Nonbusinessmen cannot harm society so much by their lapses or crimes as few selfish and dishonest businessmen can do. Business ethics are of very great
importance to a welfare state.