Ethics in Organizations: The Case of Tata Steel

The concern for ethical decision-making among the regulators, social groups and managers has substantially increased since failure of some of the prominent business organizations like Shell and Enron owing to strong social condemn of some of their business practices. This paper reviews literature to address this concern by examining and discussing significant issues of ethical decision making in organizations. Literature shows that authors have frequently used ethics, morality and values interchangeably in the context of organizational behavior. Simultaneously, the research to examine the linkage of ethical decision-making with other organizational construct is inadequate. This paper tries to fill these gaps by distinguishing ethics, morality and values in organizational context and by developing a comprehensive framework of organizational ethical decision-making and behavior in organizations. The framework identifies three groups of variables, which significantly influence the ethical decision-making and behavior of individuals in organizations: a) moral intensity, b) intrinsic factors and c) extrinsic factors. The framework is used to analyze the implementation of Code of Conduct at Tata Steel. Based on the case and literature review few propositions are suggested. They explain the linkages of these variables with ethical decision-making could guide future research in this field. The framework will also help practicing managers to concentrate on key organizational issues to sustain long-term interests of the organizations.

Effect of plasma lysozyme on live Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The role of plasma lysozyme of normal healthy subjects (NHS, n = 12) and active pulmonary tuberculosis (ATB) patients (n = 15) on the innate immune mechanism was studied by the binding activity of lysozyme on live Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Plasma samples of NHS and ATB patients treated with live M. tuberculosis for 4 h and 24 h time points showed a significant decrease in the plasma lysozyme level when compared to the untreated samples (4 h, P < 0.001; 24 h, P < 0.001). Pretreatment of live M. tuberculosis with plasma of NHS and ATB patients showed a trend in the reduction of viability of live M. tuberculosis. Moreover, M. tuberculosis pretreated plasma of NHS showed a trend towards an increased spontaneous as well as antigen-induced lymphocyte response when compared to ATB plasma. The enzymatic action of the lysozyme and other enzymes on the cell wall may induce M. tuberculosis to release some antigenic components which may be immunogenic and induce lymphocyte proliferation. The present study suggests that lysozyme and other enzymes may play an important role in the first line defence, i.e. the innate immunity, against M. tuberculosis infection

Is Imported Beef a Complement or a Substitute for Domestic Beef?

United States beef imports have been a controversial issue since 1958, which marked the beginning of major U.S. imports of beef from Australia. From the onset, U.S. beef producers have always been concerned with unrestricted beef imports fearing they would depress prices in the domestic market. In response to these fears, the U.S. Congress enacted the 1964 Meat Import law (P.L. 88-482) limiting red meat imports to approximately 7% of the then current domestic red meat production. This system was replaced by a beef Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ). Historically, TRQ countries rarely fill their quotas. The table on the next page provides the most recent year-to-date data on beef exports to the U.S. by country and a brief explanation of how TRQs work

THE IMPACT OF BIOFUELS POLICY AND DROUGHT ON THE U.S. GRAIN AND LIVESTOCK MARKETS

This article examines the impact of the 2012 drought and the biofuels mandate on the U.S. grain and livestock markets and estimates the mandate waiver required to offset the impact on the corn price. The framework used is a stochastic equilibrium displacement model that integrates the beef, pork, and poultry markets with the corn, distillers’ grain, soybean, soymeal, and ethanol markets. The corn and beef markets are found to be the most vulnerable. A mandate waiver of approximately 23% is required to fully negate the impact of the drought on corn prices. The waiver is equivalent to a 13.7% reduction in ethanol consumption