Corruption and Nepotism Essays

Corruption and Nepotism Essays Corruption and Nepotism Essay Corruption and Nepotism Essay Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. India is now no longer considered a soft state. It has now become a consideration state where everything can be had for a consideration. Today, the number of ministers with an honest image can be counted on fingers. At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time. In India, corruption attacks the fundamental values of human dignity and political equality of the people and hence there is a pressing need to formulate a fundamental human right to corruption-free service. The development of a fundamental human right to a corruption-free society will be observed initially from an international perspective so as to elevate the violation of this right to the status of an international crime. This would provide the comparative basis to elevate the right to corruption-free service to the status of a fundamental right within the framework of the Indian Constitution. One of the definitions of the term corruption is giving something to someone with power so that he will abuse his power and act favoring the giver. Another definition is the offering, giving, soliciting or acceptance of an inducement or reward, which may influence the action of any person. It includes bribery and extortion which involve at least two parties, and other types of malfeasance that a public official can commit alone, including fraud and embezzlement. The appropriation of public assets for private use and the embezzlement of public funds by politicians and bureaucrats have such clear and direct adverse impact on Indias economic development that their costs do not warrant any complex economic analysis. There are many myths about corruption, which have to be exploded if we really want to combat it. Some of these myths are: Corruption is a way of life and nothing can be done about it. Only people from underdeveloped or developing countries are prone to corruption. We will have to guard against all these crude fallacies while planning measures to fight corruption. The significance of corruption as a factor that adversely affects the growth of a country is being increasingly recognized. Corruption, in the words of Indira Gandhi, is a world phenomenon. It exists in developed countries too. Corruption is institutionalized as a part of the democratic process in the USA as lobbying and public relations activities and the country prides in its mushrooming lobbying and public relations firms with major foreign governments inter allies as its clients. The firms are nothing but mammoth business houses indulging in legal corruption. This no how justifies corruption other where. Indian corruption has special characteristics that make it far more damaging than corruption in other parts of the world. First, people in India being poor and largely dependent on the Government for decent living and even survival, and limited by its excessive laws, rules, regulations and largess in almost all activities of life with high rates of taxation on every conceivable items and services, corruption literally sucks life out of their existence unlike those in developed countries whose dependence on the Government is relatively not so deep and prelate. This renders corruption in India an extremely dangerous phenomenon with terminal consequences on the culture, value system and the quality and the content of the life of the people. Second, corruption in India flows down from above. Corruption at the top affects key decisions and policies with sweeping implications while core decisions in developed countries are taken on merit through transparent competition. The chief economic consequences of corruption are the loss to the exchequer, an unhealthy climate for investment and an increase in the cost of government-subsidized services. India still ranks in the bottom quartile of developing nations in terms of the ease of doing business, and compared to China and other lower developed Asian nations, the average time taken to secure the clearances for a startup or to invoke bankruptcy is much greater. Nepotism Introduction: Nepotism is the act of favoring relatives over other employees. The word nepotism is derived from the Latin word ‘nepote’ which means grandson or nephew. Nepotism in the workplace arises when employers favor relatives in their employment decisions, with little consideration for the requirements of a position. Skill and experience are excluded creating a corrupt environment in the workplace. Nepotism is considered almost everywhere as an unfair practices though common in many small companies and non-profit organizations. There is no strict law in writing stating that nepotism is prohibited, but there are a number of anti-nepotism policies† that shield the government agencies and public institutions only. Anti nepotism policies prevents relatives, whether by blood or marriage to work in the same firm or department. Many consider this as unfair treatment and even some states consider employer anti-nepotism policies to be discriminatory on the basis of marital status, if they avert qualified married couples from working together and many a times both the man and the woman are too valuable for a company to choose one of them. In many family owned businesses, nepotism is considered very favorable and a synonym for success since costs can be cut if the family members are trained in various sectors of management to ensure continuity of the firm. Nepotism does not take into consideration whether the person they are about to hire is fit for the job, fit for the culture, would make immense positive changes or not, but they hire nonetheless as a favour to that person unaware that his/her lack of competence can cause the business grave losses financially and productivity wise. As and when a job vacancy occurs the recruiter must follow the correct, legal and fair procedure of recruiting to avoid legal hassles and employee turnover. Corruption and Nepotism at Organization level: Corruption as a competitive disadvantage is reflected by dishonesty and untrustworthiness, which both hurt a firm’s competitive position in the market. An exchange partner worthy of trust is one that will not exploit other’s exchange vulnerabilities. Although trust is an attribute of a relationship between exchange partners, trustworthiness is an attribute of individual exchange partners. Credibility is an important resource that creates competitive advantage and distinguishes a firm from other rivals. Corruption and bribery, however, precipitate dishonesty and dissipate credibility. When a firm is involved in corruption and bribery, other firms will perceive it as unreliable and avoid it. Dishonesty and unreliability thus destroy, rather than stimulate, business networks. The illicit nature of corruption mirrors an individual or organizational untrustworthiness. Being law-abiding is a prerequisite element for corporate reputation and Trustworthiness. Because organizational trustworthiness is, in large part, embedded in top Managers’ credibility and honesty, corruption has an enduring effect on the firm unless these managers are removed from the organization. In an increasingly competitive environment, long-term relationships with suppliers, buyers, distributors, and other firms affecting a firm’s backward or forward value chain become fundamental. A break in such long-term relationships as a result of corruption longitudinally and fundamentally hampers a firm’s market reputation and competitive advantages. Restoring old relationships and initiating new networks might take years if an incidence of corruption or bribery occurs. Moreover, unreliability and untrustworthiness arising from corruption reduce consumer confidence in a firm’s service and erode consumer loyalty. This further inflates a firm’s competitive disadvantage in the market. In the perception of most consumers, corporate bribery or corruption implies organizational illness and operational deficiency. It violates business ethics and arms-length business principles. Since top managers are more or less involved with corrupt activities, corruption implies problematic organizational leadership and ill business morality. Under such leadership, it is realistically impossible for a firm to have an innovative culture, efficient administration, transparent communication, effective information flow and productive collaboration across departments or divisions within a firm. Corruption is an organizational pathology that results from impediments created by the bureaucratic structure . Its essential theme is the inability of bureaucratic organizations to accomplish public purposes because there are certain inherent characteristics in every administrative system that is detrimental to honest behavior. It is clear that the bureaucracy is not so pure from the very inside. So it is not surprising to find that organizational officials are motivated to create informational networks of friends, favor recipients, contracts, and communication links based on primarily personal, rather than official relationships with others. Nor is it unusual that organization that cannot charge money for their services must develop nonmonetary costs to impose on their clients as means of rationing their outputs.