ETHICS IN FUNCTIONAL AREAS

A Seminar report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(2018-2020)

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO

BARKHA GARG MS. BHAWNA KHANNA

MBA-II

ROLL NO: 1891099

BABA FARID COLLEGE OF

MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

BATHINDA
WHAT IS ETHICS
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that addresses the concepts of right and wrong or good and
evil. Ethics can also be called moral philosophy. Morality means usually a more practical
approach to ethics, for example questions about the right and wrong in actions. Adjectives
“moral” and “ethical” can be used fairly synonymously.
Applied ethics addresses practical, everyday issues. It is usually normative and thus aims to
find the best possible answers to questions like: “Is this act or policy right or wrong?” Of
course, life is often so complicated that simple answers cannot be provided. Then applied
ethics can serve as a tool for clarifying the issue and  for helping decision-making and
account for these decisions even if there is no absolute right answer to be found.
Professional ethics provides us means to solve certain ethical problems related to a certain
profession, in this case, health care. Professional ethics is usually presented as guidelines and
rules, but it can be demanding to apply these to complex situations, that call for sensitivity to
circumstances and the individuals in question. Thus, professional ethics cannot be only about
abiding by the rules, but constant awareness to the rights and needs of the clients or patients,
and critical thinking in the cross-fire of ethics, rules, conventions and difficulties of social
interaction.

The basic concepts and fundamental principles of right human conduct.

It includes study of universal values such as the:
 Essential equality of all men and women,
 Human or natural rights,
 Obedience to the law of land,
 Concern for health and safety and,
 Increasingly, also for the natural environment.
All of us want businesses to be fair, clean and beneficial to the society
 For that to happen, organizations need to abide by ethics or rule of law, engage themselves
in fair practices and competition; all of which will benefit the consumer, the society and
organization
 It is the individual, the consumer, the employee or the human social unit of the society
who benefits from ethics
 These ethics are meant to analyze problems that come up in day to day course of business
operations.
 Satisfying Basic Human Needs
 Creating Credibility
 Long Term Gains
 Improving Decision Making
 Securing the Society
Uniting People and Leadership
To retain the public image of the business
To take business operations seriously and direct towards missions
To reduce decision making dilemmas
To inculcate the fundamental and moral change

MARKETING
 Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product to customers, for the
purpose of selling that product (goods or services)
ETHICS IN MARKETING
Marketing ethics addresses principles and standards that define acceptable conduct in the
market place.
Unethical activities usually develop from the pressure to meet performance objectives.
Marketing which goes beyond the mere provision of information about (and access to) a
product may seek to manipulate our values and behavior.
Some obvious ethical issues in marketing involves clear cut attempts to deceive or take
advantage of a situation.

ETHICS IN HRM
The ethics of human resource management (HRM) covers those ethical issues arising around
the employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between employer
and employee

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
 Production is the functional area responsible for turning inputs into finished outputs
through a series of production processes.
Five production sub-functions:-
1. Production and planning department
2. Purchasing department
3. Stores department
4. Design and technical support department
5. Works department
ETHICS IN PRODUCTION
• Ethically produced goods are defined as goods produced under conditions of progressive
stakeholder relations, advanced environmental practices and respect for human rights
• An ethical business has to be concerned with the behaviour of all businesses that operate in
the supply chain – i.e.
- Suppliers
- Contractors
- Distributors
- Sales agents
 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
 Systematic direction, control, and evaluation of the entire range of processes that
transform inputs into finished goods or services.
 It deals with design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains
 Inputs-HR, capital, materials, land, energy, information, customer
 Transformations-convert inputs into outputs
 Outputs-goods or services, and waste

ETHICAL ISSUES FOR OPERATIONS MANAGER

 Worker safety
 Product safety
 Quality
 Hiring and firing workers
 Workers’ rights

CASE STUDY
"Wal-Mart: But We Do Give Them a 10 Percent Employee Discount."
Summarize the overall viewpoint of the author. Discuss ethical issues facing Wal-Mart
dealing with, "off-the-clock-work," sexual discrimination, health benefits, the role of unions,
the use of undocumented workers, as well as issues relating to child and labor laws. Review
the Questions for Thought. Answer these four questions using the business ethics principles.
Your discussion of the ethical issues facing Wal-Mart must be in paragraph form. However,
your responses to the four Questions for Thought can be answered either in paragraph form
or as a numbered list. There is no minimum word count requirement for this case study. I
need an answer to the discussion of the ethical issues facing Wal-Mart and a response to the
questions.

SOLUTION
The viewpoint of the author is that Wal-Mart has pursued its low cost strategy by regularly
violating the rights of employees. The view point of the author is that Wal-Mart has
mistreated its employees by off the clock work, sexual discrimination, low health benefits,
undocumented workers, and violation of child and labor laws. Even when law suits have been
brought against Wal-Mart for each of these violations, Wal-Mart has not shown any genuine
respect for its employees. Wal-Mart has taken actions such as receiving employee feed-back,
giving a special polo shirt to certain employees, giving a premium holiday to some
employees, and allowing employees to purchase one item that would be discounted by 20
percent. These reactions show the tokenism of Wal-Mart.
From the deontological ethical point of view, once the workers have punched out their time
cards the company has the duty to let its employees go. Wal-Mart is not ethical because it did
not allow its employees to go. It is the duty of Wal-Mart not to lock in its workers. It is the
duty of Wal-Mart not to discriminate against women.