Indira Management Review

Mohan Gopinath ¹, Srividya Iyengar ¹

Affiliations
1 Alliance Business School, Bangalore 562106, IN

Abstract

The incidents narrated below are typical of what happens in a large organization which has unionized employees. The case tries to show the importance of having in place executives who are culturally sensitive and who realize that unions have to be carefully handled. Peripherally, it also examines the importance of being able to perform quick negotiations and come to grips with crises management, and how sometimes it could be beneficial to concede a minor point, than stick (without applying the mind) to the rules which are laid down. The incidents are based on a real life incident which happened a few years ago. They also reveal the Importance of sensitizing cross posted international officers to the realities of the workplace in the different countries in which they are based. What is applicable In Singapore will not apply in India; here unions are very powerful and they have to be handled correctly if the organization wants to avoid crises in day to day operations. Very often, unions can also make or mar the careers of officers. But above all, the incidents in the case go to prove that people management skills are perhaps at the top of the pyramid in terms of getting work to flow smoothly in an organization.

Keywords

Accelerated Negotiation , Confrontation, Crisis Management, Unions.

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Mohan Gopinath ¹

Affiliations
1 Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore, IN

Abstract

It is necessary for all executives and nonexecutives in the banking industry to know the meaning of ethics and the value systems that flow from these, and how to deal with the concept in its various nuances. This is because in today's business environment, ethical shades and meanings are difficult to pin down. By this it is meant that ethics is not something which can be seen in stark black and white colors; there are intervening shades of gray that make the concept of ethics difficult to define at times, and also make its practice, quite tricky.

From the perspective of training, the paper will be relevant for managers handling this function, in constructing modules which can be incorporated in the induction programs for new executives, perhaps based on what comes out from the contents of this paper. It is felt that in this day and age, and especially from what comes out in the press, this will be of critical value to new executives.

This paper looks at the meaning of business ethics and value systems as defined by various proponents. It also looks at these as applicable to non-banking industries, and then goes on to elaborate on what ethics meant to the writer when he worked as a young banker in a multinational bank, over three decades ago, where banking ethics (no one called it by that term in those days) were drummed into him by strict bosses, of the old school banker variety, both from and outside India.

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