IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is a set of corporate values and codes of principles, which may be written or unwritten, by which a company evaluates its actions and business related decisions.  It applies to the employees both rank-and-file and managers as well as the company as a whole.

Some of the ways in which business ethics are important may be discussed as follows:

1)Create Customer Loyalty and Maximizes Profit- Customers of businesses which follow ethics are loyal and satisfied with the services and products. For example- there is an organization which manufactures cosmetics. The organization strongly believes in the importance of business ethics. When the organization advertises its cosmetics in the market, being an ethical organization, it will be very truthful and honest in its communication with the customers. It will not exaggerate about the benefits or uses of its products. So the customers who buy its cosmetics, know precisely what they are buying and how useful that product is going to be for them. This way, the product will meet their expectations and thus, satisfy the customers. When customers are satisfied, they will become loyal to the company and come back again for repurchasing. This will surely increase the profits of the organization.

2)Stop Business Malpractices- Some dishonest businessmen perform business malpractices in the company. They do such things like black-marketing, artificial high pricing, cheating in weights and measures, selling of duplicate and harmful products, etc. Such practices are harmful to the customers. Business ethics help to stop these business malpractices.

3)Efficient Utilization of Business Resources- In an organization people working at the junior levels often imitate the ethics of the ones working at the top. So, if the seniors follow ethical business practices, the employees will follow the same. This will result in better and efficient utilization of the business resources.

4)Protect Consumer’s Rights- Business ethics help to protect consumer’s rights such as right to health and safety, right to be informed, right to select, right to redress, etc. Several companies do not respect and protect these rights.

5)Create Goodwill in the Market- For a company to grow, reputation is one of the most important possessions a company should have in order to stand in the market among its competitors. An organization, which is well-known for its ethical practices, creates goodwill for itself in the market.

6)Help Enhance Productivity- The ethics in an organization helps to bring out superior employee performance in terms of productivity. Ethics help build morals among the employees. 

7)Smooth Functioning- If the business follows all the business ethics, the employees, shareholders, consumers, dealers and suppliers will be happy and satisfied. They will provide full cooperation to the business. This will lead to smooth functioning of the business.

8)Healthy Competition- The companies should follow business ethics while dealing with the competitors. Business ethics help to create healthy competition. Business ethics do not accept cut-throat competition. Business ethics give equal opportunities to small-scale businesses.

CULTIVATING GOOD LISTENING SKILLS/ DEVELOPING GOOD LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is an important activity. It is a skill that can be developed or cultivated. The following are some ways that can be used for developing good listening skill.

1)Be Prepared: The listener should be prepared for the talk or discussion. He must do homework. He should be prepared mentally as he is going to listen or sit for more that one hour on the same place. 

2)Be Attentive: The listener should be attentive and should concentrate on what the speaker says. He should make good eye contact, should not interrupt what the speaker is saying and show interest in what is being said. Do not get distracted by the physical appearance of the speaker.

3)Be Interested: The listener must be interested in what he is listening. He should pay proper attention to the message. This will help the listener to avoid distractions created by unnecessary sources.

4)Avoid Distractions: If the listener is distracted, he cannot listen properly. Sometimes listener himself is responsible for the distractions such as playing with pen, notebook, tapping the floor, looking out of window, cracking jokes or responding to such jokes, etc. These things should be avoided for proper listening.

5)Be Open-minded: The listener should be open-minded. He should not be prejudiced about the speaker or the topic. He should open-mindedly listen the speaker first. He should not allow his prejudices, beliefs, attitudes, ideas and values while listening. The listener should respect the views of the speaker.

6)Take Notes: The listener should distinguish between important and unimportant points. He should take notes of important points. But he should not take down too much of notes as it may distract him from paying attention. Making notes helps the listener to concentrate.

7)Comfort the Speaker: The good speaker makes the speaker comfortable. Through the use of body language such as positive nodding of head, eye contact with the speaker, positive facial expressions, or some other non-verbal signs, the listener comforts and motivates the speaker.

8)Summarise the views of the Speaker: The listener should summarise and evaluate the views expressed by the speaker. This helps the listener to know whether he has understood whatever is expressed by the speaker or not. 

9)Provide Feedback: The good listener always provides the feedback to the speaker. He may discuss important points briefly. He should praise the speaker for the talk and gives feedback. This motivates and encourages the speaker.

TYPES OF LISTENING

1)Marginal Listening: Listening is faster than speaking. Listening is three times faster than speaking. The difference between speaking speed and listening speed gives extra time to a listener, while the speaker speaks. This extra time results in diverting the attention from the message communicated, and thus listeners may not pay attention once they get distracted.

2)Empathic Listening: Empathic listening is also called ‘Active listening’. Empathy means to understand emotions, thoughts, feelings, and point of view of another person. In empathic listening, listener tries to understand the thoughts, feelings and emotions expressed by the speaker from speaker’s point of view.

3)Evaluative Listening:  Evaluative listening is also called ‘Critical listening’. In this listening, the listener evaluates and judges what is said by the speaker. The listener evaluates strengths, weaknesses, agreement, disagreement and knowledge of the speaker. This is also called ‘Judgmental’ or ‘Interpretative’ listening.

4)Discriminative Listening: Discriminative listening is also called ‘Content listening’. In this listening, the listener pays attention to important contents of the speech or talk of the speaker, and does not pay attention to what is not so important. The listener tries to identify the key points of the message. 

5)Fake Listening: Fake listening is also called as ‘Passive listening’ and ‘Pseudo-listening’. In this case, the listener pretends or gives impression of attentive listening which in reality is not the case. Mentally his attention is elsewhere. In such situation only hearing takes place. He usually misses important points. Such kind of listening may not lead to fruitful communication.

IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

Listening is an important aid to communication. Listening with understanding is not merely hearing with ears but really in the mind. It is a conscious effort by the receiver to perceive and understand the message, give meaning to those sounds and words uttered. The concept of listening can be understood by studying the importance of listening.

1)Helps to Solve Problems: Good listening skill helps to solve the problems in the organisation. Problems in the organisation can be solved when employees listen to each other. Proper listening helps to spot sensitive areas and find out solutions before they become explosive. As a leader, a businessman should always be attentive to what employees say.

2)Helps to Know the Organisation: Newly recruited employees must listen the seniors in orientation programme. They come to know plans, policies, activities, rules and regulations of the organisation. Proper listening results in positive and effective working of employees. As they listen carefully, they rarely face any problem.

3)Expands Capacity and Knowledge: Good listening skills make an employee more capable and knowledgeable. By listening effectively, an employee is able to grasp the correct information he needs in order to perform his task without mistakes. The more an employee can get information from meetings, instructions and reports, the more effective and successful he will be at completing his tasks.

4)Provides Motivation and Encouragement: Listening helps to provide motivation and encouragement to the speaker. It motivates the speaker to put his best in providing information or sharing ideas and experience.

5)Helps to frame Plans and Policies: In a meeting, listening to subordinates helps the management to frame plans and policies properly. After careful analysis of the suggestions from the subordinates, the management may be in better position to frame plans and policies of the organisation.

6)Strengthen Customer Relationships: Effective listening strengthens customer relationships and enables products and services improvement. By putting in place a system to gather customers’ feedback on the usage of a product or a service, the organisation allows the customers know that their opinion matters and gain their loyalty.

7)Helps to Develop Internal Relations: Listening helps to develop internal relations in the organisation. Employees may have certain grievances against the management. If the management listens to such grievances properly, hostile feelings about management may diminish in the minds of the employees. This can result into good and healthy relations in the organisation.  

8)Develops Respect and Trust: By listening to staff members or employees, a leader shows respect and care to them. Due to this, he gains the trust and respect of workers and achieves referent power. As an appreciated leader, he gets people to open up and able to gather important information about them and other things.

OBJECTIVES OF COMMUNICATION

Effective Communication is essential for success of every large and small business organisation. The fundamental objectives of business are ‘To Survive and to Prosper’. In order to achieve these objectives, the following objectives of communication must be achieved.

1)      Information: To inform means to give knowledge. In an organisation, a lot of information flows within and outside the organisation. A businessman needs to communicate with his employees about:

i)                    Various developments within the organisation.

ii)                  About the culture of organisation, its rules and regulations.

iii)                About the information relating to the job.

iv)                 Information about his performances.

v)                  Information which gives them a clear understanding of authority and responsibility.

Businessman provides information to outsiders like customers, shareholders, competitors, and suppliers. Thus, providing and obtaining information is one of the important objectives of any business organisation.

2)      Advice: Providing advice is another objective of communication. Apart from information, employees also need advice to effectively handle various assignments. At times, difficulties at work or on personal front may interfere with employee’s performance. Providing advice can help employees handle such problems.

3)      Order and Instruction: An order is an oral or written communication directing the starting, stopping or modification of an activity. It is a form of communication by which management directs its employees to achieve its objectives. Instruction refers to recommendation on how a particular piece of work is to be done. In other words, instructions are specification on how orders must be carried out.

4)      Persuasion: Persuasion is the process by which a person’s attitude and behavior towards something are influenced by another person’s communication. In business world, one cannot force the employees to do something. Instead it is better to persuade them by telling them the benefits. If there is a change in the method of production, the employees have to be explained that how the change is beneficial for them. The management has to convince them that the new system will be taught to them and it will in no way affect their jobs.

5)      Motivation: To motivate means to cause an act or persuade employee to give the best. Managers have to their employees to ensure highest levels of quality. Motivating employees is a continuous process. The management should use communication in such a manner that the right emotional environment is created. Setting up of goals, communicating them clearly to employees, setting up right kind of reward system, inviting employee’s participation in decision making is yet another way of motivating the employees.

6)      Education: Educating the employees to take up the responsibilities of a given job becomes one of the major objectives of communication. Training or education the employees to update their knowledge and skills is challenge to every management. There must be a communication line in every organisation which reaches to its workers so that they may be able to acquire skills and work better. This can be done by organizing workshops, demonstrations, lectures, film shows, and seminars on regular basis. It is also necessary that outside public should be educated on several matters for as the survival of organisation depends on it. Educating the outside public usually takes the form of advertising, arranging informative talks, publishing articles in newspapers.

7)      Warning: To warn is to inform a person about unpleasant consequences. Management, at time, has to issue a warning to an erring employee. When all other alternative fail, warning the erring employee becomes necessary.

8)      Boosting the Morale of Employees: The dictionary meaning of morale is confidence, determination. Morale is the mental strength of an individual. The state of morale impacts performance of the individual. If morale is high, quality of work is high. If morale is low, the quality of work is poor. Since the state of morale affects the work performance of the organisation, boosting the morale of employees is one of the most important objectives of communication. Management can keep the morale high by:

i)                    Maintaining a steady stream of communication between workers, their supervisors and top executives.

ii)                  Permitting open discussion of problems.

iii)                Keeping a check on grapevine and not allowing harmful rumours to spread.

iv)       Giving a fair hearing to employee grievances and accepting their suggestions.

v)       Appreciating workers for their good work.

v)       Motivating workers by providing incentives.