An Insight into Ethical Dilemma in Contemporary Corporate Functioning in Indian Perspective

Abstract

The debate on the requirement and feasibility of ethics in business operations seems to be never ending. As a concept business ethics refers to knowing the difference between what is right or wrong in a given situation.The phrase not only discusses the ethically desirable actions of an individual within an organisation, but also describe the organisation as a whole on the defined parameter of ethics. It has been realized over the period of time that corporate functioning is a place where ethicality in corporate actions is desired because of the proposition of dilution of ownership and management. However, the recent series of corporate governance failures has indicated that corporate functioning is not perfectly ethical in spite of fair corporate functioning on paper which intends to comply with legal and contractual requirements only.

This paper explores the factors which arguments for strong corporate ethics and contemporary corporate ethical framework which is prevalent in the corporate world. This section explores a variety of reasons which have made corporate ethics so imperative. Then hindrance in ethical functioning has been discussed which explores the dilemma of corporate ethical functioning in today’s era of competition. The crux of argument is that there are imposed rather than self-driven forces which have driven the corporate ethical wave, but in the era of cut throat competition, it is irresistible for corporate to deviate from the ideal code of conduct. The perfect idealism is one extreme and difficult to obtain, but the definition of relative idealism needs to be underlined to ensure practically feasible corporate ethical framework.

Key Words: Ethical Dilemma, Corporate Governance, Corporate Ethical Framework, Business Ethics