Items Description of Module

Subject Name Human Resource Management

Paper Name Human Values & Indian Ethos
Module Title Universality of Human Values
Module Id Module No:- 05
Pre- Requisites Basic Knowledge of human values
Objectives To Study Various human values, their importance in the business organization
Keywords Human values, universality, new dimension, ethics and environment, financial
management,
 QUADRANT-I
Module 05: Universality of Human Values
 Learning Outcomes
 Introduction
 Nature of human values

 Prominent human values

 Universality of human values

 Summary

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module, students will be able to understand:

 Meaning of human values
 Nature of human values
 Prominent human values
 Universality of human values

MODULE 5: UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN VALUES

INTRODUCTION:
Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities living
on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values are called by
different nomenclatures. For example, it can be human ethical and moral values. Out of
these three, human values are very essential. These values reside within each individual
and the same is reflected by the individual’s character. Formally, these are expressed in
various laws, declarations, debates, meetings, conventions etc. thereby protecting and
encouraging human rights. The first and important step taken by many countries around
the globe has been the recognition of these human values universally and encouraging the
implementation of these values in practical. The immediate aim of all these efforts is to
integrate every human being physically as well as psychologically and the ultimate goal
is to inculcate positive attitude, thinking, and behavior and utilize these universal human
values as the basis of developing cordial human relationships, in the spirit of mutual
respect of those values. Therefore, human values are those inspiring factor that encourage
us to utilize our moral values, particularly in the situation of conflict, so that we avoid our
negative attitude when dealing with confrontational situation.
MEANING OF HUMAN VALUES:
Human values can be defined as the belief, principles, followings, set standard that
individual follows as their guidelines in daily activities. These human values are an
important part of human nature. Without these values human beings are like flower
without fragrance. Professional ethics are mainly built on the basis of these principle
human values. From the societal point of view, these values are set of behavioral
practices that individuals choose to practice in the light of maintaining interpersonal
relationship. In the present era, human values plays a pivotal role in maintain peace and
protecting society. Establishing human values into practical form contribute towards
maintaining morality within the society. By correlating human values with personal
relations, human being can live in harmony with others.
NATURE OF HUMAN VALUES
I. Human values are universal:
Human values are universal in nature. These values are mutually shared by all human
beings, no matter to which religion, caste, creed, culture, nationality or history they
belong to. Some of the eminent human values can be grouped as follows:
 Imbibe civility in nature.
 Giving respect to others.
 Having honesty in behavior.
 Developing a habit of sharing among individuals.
 Develop loyalty, solidarity and fairness in behavior.
 Establish a feeling of brotherhood, friendship, empathy, love and compassion for
others.
 Inculcating openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition and
appreciation in nature.
II. Human values and culture:
Human values are specifically concerned to culture. Each persisting culture has its own
value system, ethics and ethos. In countries like India and Japan, value system occupies
the center stage in all activities, including those in business enterprises. Behavior that
exert a positive relation with other human being are rewarded and having empathetic
behavior for others are highly valued. On the other hand, behaviors which are anti-social
are always condemned and are punished by the society. Therefore, culture promotes
cultivating positive values in human being.
III. Implantation of Human values:
The initial process of implanting human values begins with the childhood of human
being. These values are passed on by parents to their child and are further implanted
throughout the child upbringing. As the child grows through its life phases, they learn
more about these values from their friends groups, teachers, elders, leaders and society.
The values which are learnt includes honesty, discipline, love, peace, justice, trust,
civility, loyalty, appreciation and openness for the environment. In addition to this,
subordination of individual interest before the larger interest is more desirable human
values. People who hold outstanding human values are usually regarded as well as
admired. It is generally visible in society for the individuals who are encouraged in
profession like teachers, doctors, lawyers which are viewed as persons holding high
moral and ethical code of conduct for their profession. These kind of noble human values
are highly encouraged in society and on the other hand negative values are discouraged.
IV. Human values encourage peace:
If there is peace in the environment it encourages prosperity and this is attained by
inculcating finer human values. It is by implanting such finer human values; people can
better appreciate and give respect for the peaceful relationship among individuals. By
putting human values into practice and it ultimately leads to bringing prosperity. Thus,
these values can prove to be an encouraging factor for peace. Also, by putting these
values into human relationship, it will surely enhance better mutual understanding among
individuals. As far as business organizations are concerned, if these values are better
cultivated into the organizational culture by the leaders, it is surely going to strengthen
the foundation of workplace i.e. strong integration of human resources which would
further lead to bringing peace and prosperity in the organization.
V. Human values encourage individual growth:
From the point of view to encourage individual growth, human values are of great
importance. The basic thing is to focus on the self personality development. Complete
knowledge regarding oneself is the first and foremost thing that needs to be taken care of.
Today, there are many situations, where many people rely on other to follow their ideas
to be successful which is completely fair because for the simple reason that we all have
role models which influence our thinking. But still there exist a thin line discrepancy
between individuals perspective of doing things. Human values which follow the basic
features of Indian education focus on growth and advancement of individual. Indian
education system which is the oldest system in the world has such qualities that do not
exist anywhere in the world.
VI. Difference among Human values, Ethical values and Moral values:
Although three of them fall under the wide category of value system, there exists a thin
line difference among them. Ethical values can be categorized as respectful behavior
towards other human being, plants as well as animals without harmony them, while moral
values are in fact the same but today moralizing rhetoric is not well received. On the
other hand, human values are considered much more as developing positive attitude
directly concerned with the behavior.
PROMINENT HUMAN VALUES:
Some of the prominent human values can be categorized as follows:
1. Genuine: One should have genuine feeling for others. Behavior should be honest,
warm and heartily for people around you. Individual’s feeling should be such that it is felt
genuinely by others.
2. Modesty: One must be humble in his/ her approach. There should not be a feeling of
superiority within an individual. Modesty and humanity in nature have a far more
everlasting impact on the people.
3. Self-Respect: One should try to be someone whom people around give respect and
seek advice from. One who never consider material gains over and above his/her own
moral values. One should never allow anyone to move you away from doing what is right
and acceptable.
4. Rationality: One must be rational in its thinking. Your values should be such that it is
not easily influenced by other’s thinking. Have a rational approach towards comparing
situations, acts, people etc. Don’t let prejudice or emotion affect you or your judgment.
5. Courteous: One should always show courtesy while behaving with others. Always
adopt an approach of good manners even though others around you may not.
6. Incorrupt: One should opt a strong approach for withholding one’s life values. Don’t
let outside powers to corrupt you. It must be known to the external environment that you
are not the person whose moral values and reactions are saleable.
7. Civility: One must have a great civic sense. It is very pertinent to know how to behave
in society and extend courtesy to others.
8. Wisdom: It is important to have knowledge but more important to have wisdom. One
should try to understand the real qualities of people and apply his/her wisdom for the
greater good of humanity.
9. Wholesome: One should be conducive of not only physical wellbeing but also
psychological as well as spiritual wellbeing also. One must be completely attentive and
active while interacting with others.
10. Charity: Establishing a feeling of empathetic and compassionate behavior towards
others helps the individual to grow his/her personality. Learn to extend a helping hand
towards other even though they themselves are not able to help you.
UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN VALUES:
Human values are of universal nature. They are shared by all human beings, irrespective
of their caste, creed, nationality, culture and personal history. Some of the prominent
human values are grouped together as follows:
 Imbibe civility in nature.
 Giving respect to others.
 Having honesty in behavior.
 Developing a habit of sharing among individuals.
 Develop loyalty, solidarity and fairness in behavior.
 Establish a feeling of brotherhood, friendship, empathy, love and compassion for
others.
  Inculcating openness, listening, welcoming, acceptance, recognition and
appreciation in nature.
Ethics of Consumer Protection:
Of all stakeholders in a society, and more so in an economy, consumer are the most
important and those likely to be more adversely affected by unethical practices, followed
by producers and distributors of goods and services. Unfortunately, in several societies,
especially in developing countries like India, consumer exploitation is rampant. This is
mostly because of the inadequate and poor system of control over producers and
distributors of goods and services by public authorities so as to ensure the consumers are
protected from the various practices of these people. In this direction, Government should
intervene in several ways like
(i) Adopt or maintain policies to ensure efficient distribution of goods and services to the
public, especially to people living in rural communities and to the poor. Such need
specific policies should include assistance for the creation of adequate warehousing and
retail facilities in rural areas, provision of incentives for consumer self-help and better
control of the supply of essential goods and services in such areas.
(ii) Encourage the setting up of consumer cooperatives and provision of information
about them.
(iii) Establish legal and administrative measures to enable consumer and relevant
organizations to get their grievances redressed fairly inexpensively and expeditiously
through formal and informal procedures.
(iv) Encourage businesspersons to resolve all consumer disputes in a fair, fast and
informal manner and to establish voluntary mechanism including advisory services and
informal compliant procedures, which can provide assistance to consumer.
These guidelines encourage governments to develop, strengthen and maintain a strong
consumer protection policy. In doing so, each Govt. must set its own priorities for the
protection of consumers in accordance with its economic and social circumstances and
the needs of its population.
Environmental Ethics:
The importance of environmental preservation through better state and corporate
governance practices cannot be overstressed, in the context of global warming and its
attendant problem. The growth of consumerism, leading to a high rate of consumption of
natural resources, is at the heart of many environmental problems. Increasing awareness
and consequent concern on these issues were fuelled by informed public sentiment,
media coverage, corporate attitudes and government policy. The shift of corporate
attitudes is the key to environmentalism. The stances of holders who advocate or oppose
environmental protection seek to influence the government.
Government directives can prevent some of the most egregious environmental damage
from occurring. A very significant concept underlying international and domestic
environmental policy is sustainable development. Its goal is to ensure that the natural
resource needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. Environmental regulations are often criticized as
being too costly for business. Industry is the world’s foremost creator of wealth,
employment, trade and technology, controlling and deploying tremendous amount of
human and financial resources for economic value addition
There are several reasons why those managing business are becoming increasingly
conscious of environmental issues:
 For management morale;
 In an era of lean management, many companies are findings ways and means to
cut waste wherever possible
 The Environmental Protection Act has acknowledged the potential gains from
pollution prevention
 Business people have realized the advantages of taking a proactive stance
towards environmental regulation.
The time has come for companies to take a fresh look at environmental issues.
Environmental audits provide an in-depth review of the company processes and
progress in realizing log-term strategic goals. Reinhardt suggests five different
approaches to managing environmental issues:
 Investing in environmental friendly processes or products.
 Managing environmental regulations
 Investing in environmental performance improvement, without increasing costs.
 Combining all the three methods mentioned above to change the basis for
competition.
 Looking at environmental issues from a risk management perspective.
Thus, environmental management and practices in India have improved significantly
in recent times though it still has a long way to go.
Marketing Ethics:
Marketing ethics denotes expressed and unexpressed standards of fair and ethical
dealings in marketing which the conscience of the community may progressively
develop over time. Marketing ethical capacity would include knowledge of
marketing ethics, the ability to identify situations of ethics infraction in practice and
the motivation to disseminate such knowledge. Marketing ethics and building of
ethical capacity can be fostered by having a corporate culture that values ethics and a
system to institutionalize and integrate ethical thinking in marketing planning.
Marketing planners must articulate on virtues and not market products that retard
character and denigrate value system
Ethics in marketing would include making safer products, not using deceptive or
misleading advertisements, not indulging in hard sell, not using coercion on channel
partners to push products and not engaging in price fixing- in short, fair and honest
dealings that have the customers and other stakeholder’s interests in mind.
Ethics issues in Human Resource Management:
Human Resource Management at all times should be guided by the highest
principles of integrity and development to the welfare of the people, only then can
they succeed in creating organizations which are humane, affluent and civilized. The
ethics of human resource management revolves around those issues arising out of the
employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between them.
Most of the ethical issues concerning HRM policies and activities are universal in
nature, while some of them that have greater relevance in the Indian context. These
are discrimination issues, suppression of democratization in the workplace; privacy
issues; safety and health; and performance appraisal. Areas of unethical conduct
revolve around issues relating to employment, remuneration and benefits, labor
relations, health and safety and training and development.
In creating an ethical organization, the HR department plays a crucial role. It has to
develop an institutional culture that helps in the evolution of an ethical organization.
Every institution has a distinct culture that reflects the core values of the institution
and forms the basis of how people work together. Institutional culture is a blend of
ideas, conventions, customs and practices, company and shared ethical values that
define accepted behavior for every employee in an organization. It sets the ethical
tone and forms the ethical conscience of the organization. Corporate culture and the
ethical climate can put pressure on employees to channel their actions in certain
directions as desired by the company. All these create an atmosphere in which
unethical conduct will be unacceptable in the organization.
Ethical Issues in Financial Management:
The financial services industry has several players such as insurance agents, brokers,
individual investors, institutional investors, brokerage firms, mutual fund companies
and so many more. The industry churns out several products and services which by
the use of specialized skills and talents are managed efficiently. However, while
agents and brokers owe a critical duty of care and diligence to their clients, they
often tend to violate these.
Financial ethics, according to Professor Boatright is more than just trust. He
mentions the difficulty in summing up the various aspects of the subject. He believes
that the difficulty lies in:
1. Finance being a field not identified as a single occupation such as medicine, law
or engineering, ethics in this field involves several different aspects and people.
2. Another area of complexity is the number of people not only in organizations, but
also in the various financial markets and financial institutions.
According to him, ethics in finance is a function of personal integrity of individual,
ethical leadership and an understanding of ethics in the areas of finance and
accounting.
SUMMARY:
Human beings have some sort of values attached to them like the way all entities
living on this earth pursue. The difference here which persists is that, these values
are called by different nomenclatures. Establishing human values into practical form
 contribute towards maintaining morality within the society. By correlating human
values with personal relations, human being can live in harmony with others.
Unfortunately, in several societies, especially in developing countries like India,
consumer exploitation is rampant. This is mostly because of the inadequate and poor
system of control over producers and distributors of goods and services by public
authorities so as to ensure the consumers are protected from the various practices of
these people.
Environmental regulations are often criticized as being too costly for business.
Industry is the world’s foremost creator of wealth, employment, trade and
technology, controlling and deploying tremendous amount of human and financial
resources for economic value addition.
Marketing ethical capacity would include knowledge of marketing ethics, the ability
to identify situations of ethics infraction in practice and the motivation to
disseminate such knowledge. Marketing ethics and building of ethical capacity can
be fostered by having a corporate culture that values ethics and a system to
institutionalize and integrate ethical thinking in marketing planning. In creating an
ethical organization, the HR department plays a crucial role. It has to develop an
institutional culture that helps in the evolution of an ethical organization.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. Discuss the concept of universality of human values in relevance to the
organization.
2. Explain the nature of human values.
REFERENCES:
Pramod Sharma, “Business Ethics and Corporate Values: An Indian Perspective”
Ravitanaya Publications, Shimla, 2017
S.K Bhatia, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Deep & Deep Publications,
New Delhi, 2004
A.C. Fernando, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Pearson Publication, 2013
Harris & Hartman, “Organizational Behavior” Jaico Publication House, 2002
French, Bell & Vohra, “Organization Development” Pearson Prentice Hall Publication,
2009
S B Gogate, “Human Values & Professional Ethics” Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi,
2011