While coaching business leaders, one issue that comes up quite often is the battle of conscience, or, the battle of Ethics vs Morals. But first, let us understand the distinction between the two.
Ethics: Many many years ago, as Man moved from being a hunter forager to settling down in groups and communities, a need was felt of putting together a code of civilized living. The code was based on notions of socially approved conduct, behaviour and duty. One could cite the Manu Smriti in India and the Ten Commandments of Christianity as examples of such codes of conduct.
Morals: As opposed to community -based ethics, morals are personal choices we make. It is about good vs bad, right versus wrong.
In sum, therefore, Ethics are community-defined whereas morals are more personal choices or inclinations.
The Battle of Conscience:
Doing business in India has unique challenges - and the problem faced by every single business leader is of dealing with the cancer of corruption. And this is where the battle of the conscience starts to rear it's head. This was evident at a recent workshop on Personal Mission and Values I was doing for a group which included a few front-line executives. One of the activities required participants to identify their personal values and the importance of identifying and living our values in our life. After my presentation one of them asked, "If the value of my time to my company is Rs 3000.00 per day, and I have an option to pay a tout Rs 1000.00 and get a ticket (or a form etc.) delivered at home instead of waiting in a queue to buy one, what should I choose to do?
And that's the battle of the conscience I am talking about - should the business executive/leader forgo his personal value (morals) of not paying a bribe and settle for the 'efficient' and 'cost-effective' option of saving his time and pay a bribe? Or should he he stick to the ethical standards of conduct no matter what it costs?
Fighting the Cancer of Corruption
Indian business leaders have learned to deal with this cancer in their own ways, and we can map them on a a matrix as follows:
The Upholders: Believe in going by their voice of conscience, whatever it takes. E.g. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, who resisted the temptation of greasing palms to get work done and yet came out a Winner.
The Wilters: They do a trade off with their conscience as in the case of the participant above. They believe in the dictum, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"
The Tainted: These are the ones who thrive in a corrupt system. They are deaf to their voice of conscience and milk the system for all it's worth.
The Contaminators: These people with low morals, in the pursuit of their own interests, contaminate an uncorrupted system. An example is that of the pharma industry, which in trying to get doctors to prescribe their products, resorted to gifting them all kinds of fancy things from cars to jewellery. The previously noble profession has very few now who abide by the Hippocratic oath. The industry now cribs about the increasingly fanciful demands of doctors, but they themselves are to blame.
In Conclusion
Every business leader doing business in India, has to take a call and do peace with his conscience in his own way. Some fight successfully, some succumb, many thrive while a few corrode the system.
Each does battle with his conscience in his own way.
Ethics: Many many years ago, as Man moved from being a hunter forager to settling down in groups and communities, a need was felt of putting together a code of civilized living. The code was based on notions of socially approved conduct, behaviour and duty. One could cite the Manu Smriti in India and the Ten Commandments of Christianity as examples of such codes of conduct.
Morals: As opposed to community -based ethics, morals are personal choices we make. It is about good vs bad, right versus wrong.
In sum, therefore, Ethics are community-defined whereas morals are more personal choices or inclinations.
The Battle of Conscience:
Doing business in India has unique challenges - and the problem faced by every single business leader is of dealing with the cancer of corruption. And this is where the battle of the conscience starts to rear it's head. This was evident at a recent workshop on Personal Mission and Values I was doing for a group which included a few front-line executives. One of the activities required participants to identify their personal values and the importance of identifying and living our values in our life. After my presentation one of them asked, "If the value of my time to my company is Rs 3000.00 per day, and I have an option to pay a tout Rs 1000.00 and get a ticket (or a form etc.) delivered at home instead of waiting in a queue to buy one, what should I choose to do?
And that's the battle of the conscience I am talking about - should the business executive/leader forgo his personal value (morals) of not paying a bribe and settle for the 'efficient' and 'cost-effective' option of saving his time and pay a bribe? Or should he he stick to the ethical standards of conduct no matter what it costs?
Fighting the Cancer of Corruption
Indian business leaders have learned to deal with this cancer in their own ways, and we can map them on a a matrix as follows:
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The Wilters: They do a trade off with their conscience as in the case of the participant above. They believe in the dictum, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"
The Tainted: These are the ones who thrive in a corrupt system. They are deaf to their voice of conscience and milk the system for all it's worth.
The Contaminators: These people with low morals, in the pursuit of their own interests, contaminate an uncorrupted system. An example is that of the pharma industry, which in trying to get doctors to prescribe their products, resorted to gifting them all kinds of fancy things from cars to jewellery. The previously noble profession has very few now who abide by the Hippocratic oath. The industry now cribs about the increasingly fanciful demands of doctors, but they themselves are to blame.
In Conclusion
Every business leader doing business in India, has to take a call and do peace with his conscience in his own way. Some fight successfully, some succumb, many thrive while a few corrode the system.
Each does battle with his conscience in his own way.
2 comments:
While there seems to be no clear cut answer, I feel that it's all a matter of degrees. Bribing a child to stop crying (genuinely crying, not throwing a tantrum and being a brat) is ok, I think.
For instance, I remember I used to 'bribe' my son with a Hot Wheels toy car if he co-operated with the barber and got his monthly hair cut. At that time, he was only about 4-5 years old, of course, but it was like a little game between us, and he got over it after a couple of years. Today, as a grown-up, he is as averse to corruption and greasing palms as I am, but sometimes he does give in to the give-the-guy-a-hundred-bucks-and-get-the-bloody-form-passed syndrome.
These are easy decisions to take: it is sometimes easy to extrapolate and take a 'mathematical' decision, like the participant you mentioned (whose value to his company was Rs 3000).
Sometimes, it is certainly immoral, unethical and downright unlawful. For instance, I have heard of people getting their driving licence by simply bribing the agent, who actually delivers the driving licence to your home, without you ever having even sat in the driver's seat!
Rajan Nair
Rajan, bribing a child and BRIBING to expedite work at a client or government department, I believe are two different things.
While bribing a child is about training him in what is good for him; as in having that haircut, or eating a baingan or louki ki bhaji. This reward for good behavior then becomes learned behavior. However, BRIBING results in a different sort of learned behavior for the bribe-taker - deliberate stalling around with your papers or file till his/her palm is greased. Worse, it results in terrible roads that disintegrate with the first shower and even worse,as in the example you quoted, untrained drivers who land up driving on those roads and being life hazards to others.
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