Organizational ethics challenges for businesses expanding to India

Culture and Organizational Ethics in India

India is one of the emerging nations in the world. Its economy has been growing at a high rate for the last few decades. It has also developed to be one of the leading technologically advancing nations and educational hub. Ethics in business is important as this is what determines whether a company will succeed in that country or not (Sekerka, Comer, & Godwin, 2014). Sustainability and business ethics contribute to the success of a business in another country. Before a company expands into another country, it must understand the business environment, the laws, ethical issues and all other aspects touching on its operations. For example, expanding to India varies from expanding to a country in the west. This paper looks at organizational ethics in India as compared to the USA.

Labor Laws in India

The labor laws in India are almost similar to those in the USA as per the constitution. However, one of the major challenges that face India is the concept of corruption and lack of law enforcement. In the west, most companies have to follow the law to the letter for them to be allowed to conduct business in a given country. However, people have a tendency of playing with the rules in India. The issue of corruption makes companies unable to follow the rules. For a business to succeed in India, it must institute strategies of dealing with the rampant corruption. However, things like child labor are prohibited by the constitution in India and one can face the law as a result. Similarly, discrimination is also prohibited in the country for both women and men have equal chances of getting jobs in the country.

Sustainability in India

India as a nation has strict rules related to sustainability both in terms of environment other aspects of sustainability. One of the differentiating factors is that the USA has a strict regime and the laws are enforced better than they are in India. The country also suffers from the issue of environmental sustainability. It is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions because of its dependence on coal as the source of energy. Therefore, air pollution is one of the main challenges the India is facing as a nation.

Doing business in India means that a business has to make sure that it has prepared itself in regards to the type of energy used. The country does not have comprehensive policies relating to energy use. However, it is ethical for a company to ensure that it breaks the curse existing in India relates to companies following the rules to their finality. Therefore, the company should ensure that it applies the policies from the USA especially on the efficient use of energy. One of the possible solutions is the existence of solar energy and the lower cost in harnessing it (Berger & Herstein, 2014).

Business ethics

Business ethics in India is a complicated concept. Despite the country having set rules that govern the concept of ethics and the way that businesses should operate, many players find ways of subverting them. They tend to follow what has been accepted by most of the other companies as the order of the day with corruption carrying the day in most of the times. Teaching business ethics has been termed as one of the most difficult things that can happen in India based on the rationalization of crime in the country. The corruption transparency index of India indicates that the country is not ready to take a corruption free road. Therefore, the society does not believe in any takeaway or a proper reward for any company that takes an honest and ethical approach to things. As a result, a business seeking to expand to India should be prepared to address the challenge of changing the employee perception relating to business ethics through the creation of promotion and other preventive tactics (Berger & Herstein, 2014).

One of the business attitudes in India holds that business cannot be done without people paying any bribes (Ameer, & Othman, 2012). The implication is that giving and receiving kickbacks is a justified practice in the country. It also implies that an ethics program cannot be practical because it will lead to the business suffering. The mindset among most of the people is that business growth can only occur when some compromises are done. The result is that ethical behavior is not one of the things used in the evaluating the performance of managers. Therefore, it is important for a company to build an ethical culture as part of its business strategy. It also means that there is need to have processes that monitor the ethical behavior (Warren, Gaspar, & Laufer, 2014).

In the USA, the case is different because corruption is not tolerated. It means that the company has to make sure that it takes ethics seriously in all its operations. One of the things that can be done is to ensure that employee appraisal incorporates some bonus points for the employees who use ethical means to meet the targets. Some penalty points should be awarded in case some unethical means were used to achieve the target. The same should apply to the recruitment process where the company should reject any person who is thought to have been involved in any fraud during the application process (Berger & Herstein, 2014).

Business ethics requires the company to ensure that all its operations are done accordance to the ethical standards. Expanding to India means that a company will have to adjust to the status in India. However, based on the constitution of the country, companies should not be operating the way that they usually do. The constitution prohibits bribes and corruption. Therefore, expansion into India requires the company to retain the mode of operation as it is in the USA. This will act as an example to the other companies and organizations operating in India. As stated, one of the main challenges that face India is the implementation of the laws that have been adopted in relation to ethical practices (Berger & Herstein, 2014).