Transitional business ethics and social responsibilities

Introduction

The study of honourable aspect of businesses in former socialist countries have been very few and contradictory. Hisrich et al. (1977) establish more vagueness between the moral views of entrepreneurs in former deliberate economies that in those of entrepreneurs in market economies.

Hungary has been identified as a transition economy, experiencing radical economic, political and social change over the last 20 years. This review attempts to assess the author's contributions to the debate on business morals and CSR in general.

Business principles and SR management in Hungary

Business principles in Hungary is about dealing with ethical conflicts, providing solutions and anticipation (Kindler and Szolnai 1993, Csurgo and Hajdu, 1994). Social responsibility on the other hand involves the performance an organisation makes in the culture in which it operates for positive change. Social responsibility generally addresses issues such as product quality and safety, societal impact, energy, environment e.t.c.

Methodology

Using a five part questionnaire, the study attempts to look at the environment of business ethics in Hungarian enterprises especially as relates to social responsibility. The five parts are;

• Forming a general view on the correlation between morality and the economy
• Identifying examples of social responsibility of different companies in different industries
• Formative the views on the aspects of the SR of the companies
• Identifying the aspects of principles in a company
• Demography of sample companies

Findings

The findings of this article include;

More the 70% of the managers of large companies and more than 50% of non-profit managers did not believe that it was necessary to lose competitiveness to display moral business behaviour. More large enterprises felt morally based behaviour was more challenging those smaller enterprises.

The views of social responsibility differed between large and small enterprises as well as business and non-business enterprises. Large enterprises were more concerned about employment and insurance of worker while smaller enterprises were concerned about tax structure and tax payments.

Small companies were concerned with working conditions, fair salaries and responsibility towards employees while large companies were concerned about training and education.

The sample companies were from more than 125 small & medium sized companies, more than 75 large companies and more than 80 non-profit organisations (charities). Over 79% or the companies surveyed were in villages with less than 12% located in the cities.

Conclusions

Not any of the groups examined gave their business segment a vote of self-confidence in meeting societal needs. Most respondents were positive about ethical codes, ethical managers and ethical audits.

Recommendations

Based on the result of this learning, it would be interesting to see the developments or changes 20 years on in Hungary. An expansion of the study to include emerging economies like India and China should also be considered.

References

• Csurg?, O. C and Hajdu, H.P.(1994): ?zleti etika, Saldo, Budapest.
• Hisrich, R.D., F?l?p, G., Solymossy, E. and Szegedi, K. (1977): ?zleti etika a Magyar kisv?llalkoz?sok gyakorlat?ban, Vezet?studom?ny.
• Kindler, J. and Szolnai, L. (1993): Etika a gazdasagban, Keraban Konyvkiado, Budapest.

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