Page 166 - DMGT401Business Environment

Unit 7: Socio-cultural Environment

their children will follow those ethics. Ethics are passed from one generation to another, Notes
and the process goes on.
2. Religion: Religion plays a critical role in deciding ethics. Before the dawn of law, it was
religion that played the role of imposing restrictions on unsocial activities. Even today
also, a common man tries to abide by the ethics prescribed by his or her religion. The
Brihadarayaka Upanishad states about the Karmavada:
Yathakari, Yathachari tatha bhavati
Sadhukari sadhur-bhavati, papakari papi bhavati;

Punyah punyena karmaan bhavati, papah papena.
[As it does, and as it acts, so it becomes: the doer of good becomes good, and the doer of
evil becomes evil; he becomes virtuous through a virtuous act and vicious through a
vicious act].
3. Culture: Culture also begets ethical standards. Culture genders to rules, customs and
standards transmitted from generation to generation. Though culture differs from religion
to religion, its ethical standards remain the same. Different places may have different
cultures but no culture believes in dishonesty, or in deceiving or harming others. There
are three aspects of culture:
(a) Universal, trans-cultural human values and ideas: These are universal ideals expected of
everyone, In its ideal form. As in almost all culture girls leaves the home of there
parents after marriage.

(b) Culture specific, operative human values that translate ideals into actionable conduct in a
given culture: These are the cultural values a common man believes in for his day-to-
day operations. In India, for instance, the 'mother' image is the most dominant. In
India, even today, a father often does not touch his daughter's body once she attains
puberty.
(c) Culture-specific, operative human values that derive from certain altogether different human
ideals: This predisposition contributes to the purity of mind and is a check against
permissiveness and incest. In India it has translated into practical conduct through
the tradition of a son or a daughter bowing down and touching the feet of his/her
parents or by a student doing the same to a teacher.
4. Philosophical System: The philosophical system arising of a culture also influences ethics.
Philosophers like Aristotle, Pluto, Shri Aurbindo, Swami Vivekanand, Subhash Chandra
Bose, Swami Dayanand, and Mahatma Gandhi have left a lasting impact on ethics with
their different school of philosophies.
But there are differences of opinion too. On the one hand there is the ideology of Karl
Marx, according to which it is unethical to do business to accumulate wealth. On the other
hand, Mahatma Gandhi believed in business but preached trusteeship according to which
a businessman should look after the welfare of his employees.

Example: Jamna Lal Bajaj, JRD TATA, G.D. Birla who were influenced by M. Gandhi
adopted this philosophy and invested heavily on the welfare of employees.
On the other hand countries like China, the erstwhile USSR, etc., were influenced by the
ideology of Karl Marx and declared business to be both unethical and unlawful in their
respective countries. Vivekananda has given great importance to the means of achieving
results:

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