Xavier School of Management organizes the ‘2nd Business Ethics Conference’

The event was inaugurated by E Abraham, S. J. (Director of XLRI), Ozzie Mascarenhas, S.J. (JRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics at XLRI and founder of XLRI Ethics Research Center - XLERC), and key note address was delivered by Mukund Rajan (Brand Custodian, Member, and Group Spokesperson - Group Executive Council, Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Sons) in presence of other dignitaries.

“Given XLRI’s Jesuit background as an institution with grounding in social justice, we have always stressed upon the importance of pursuing an ethical code of conduct both in the workplace and in the business world. We believe that no management education curriculum is really complete, unless and until the students are instilled with a set of enduring values - that are indispensable ingredients for any aspiring business leader in today’s world. It is for this reason that a core course on “Managerial Ethics” is compulsorily offered to all our students at XLRI since early nineties,” remarked E Abraham, S. J. Director of XLRI.

Mukund Rajan, Brand Custodian, Member, and Group Spokesperson - Group Executive Council, Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Sons said, ‘’India needs to create a positive environment for whistle blowers since  anonymity is a concern. We would have to adopt similar policies followed in developed economies where whistle blowers are considered an essential aspect of corporate governance.’’

Ozzie Mascarenhas, S.J. JRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics at XLRI and founder of XLRI Ethics Research Center (XLERC) and the host of the event said, “Ethics deals with human behavior and is currently reckoned as a responsible action program for the betterment of individuals, groups, organizations and societies. Ethics empowers us to chart and live a new value-laden direction in life. It becomes relevant wherever people interact and function together. Hence, every field of business such as planning and strategy, accounting, finance, human resources management, business law, marketing, business research, and production management involves ethical issues and challenges”.

“Most corporate failures today reflect low levels of wisdom and phronesis, low level of ethical maturity, and often, a badly trained conscience.  In the past two decades, corporate fraudulent business practices have precipitated cash crises and subsequent bankruptcies - consider Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Qwest Communications, and Tyco; Satyam, 2G, 3G, CWG and Sahara. Organization that stays ethical in all its products and services will have corporate advantage that translates to higher revenues, market share, profitability, and market capitalization,”he remarked.

“The researches of XLREC focus on major classic and modern ethical concepts, constructs, theories, paradigms, models, strategies, cases, and best practices in the areas of basic ethics research and applied ethics research. Specific soft skills in ethics research include those of executive ethical thinking, understanding and explaining, executive moral reasoning, ethical reasoning, rationalizing, and decision-making, ethical problem-identification, formulation, specification, alternative solutions valuation and final selection of best solutions, and ethical planning, strategizing, choosing, implementation, monitoring, prediction and control,” Mascarenhas further added.

E Abraham, S. J. Director of XLRI, remarked, “Ethics is a subject which most people and organisations will want to discuss and strive to achieve,  for  in doing so, they will be addressing the Interests of all their stakeholders. After this conference we look forward to host many similar Conferences to discuss global and national issues concerning ‘Corporate Ethics that lead to Corporate Advantage'.”