Firms trying to cut down on costs due to rising inflation and overall slowdown in the economy need to check their expenses report. Around 55.7 per cent of workers had no qualms in fudging cost details to the company and almost 61 per cent felt that its fine to take printouts and photocopies at office for personal work, says a survey by TeamLease Services.
The fourth survey from the firm in the series of 'World of Work' tries to understand the changing scenario at workplaces in India. It says any firm trying to tackle productivity issues, needs to check internally. Around 63 per cent of respondents are fine with doing personal work during office hours, says survey.
The study titled 'Nothing Ethical about Ethics' attempts to present views of the corporate workforce on 'Workplace Ethics' across 8 cities in India - New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune.
The study commissioned by TeamLease Services and conducted by global research firm Synovate in the months of May and June 2008, covered top 500 companies and had a sample size of 401.
Surabhi Mathur, General Manager, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services, "The acceptable code of conduct in Corporate India is morphing from the dogmatic thought police whose card carrying members were the HR department to a more fluid situation that accepts diversity, relativity and materiality. Some people view this as a devaluation but Companies are getting better at defining non-negotiable but not interfering in trivia."
The survey further points out that nearly 62 per cent of the respondents said that they would use any means to get competitor information.
The study further reveals that Kolkata reacts strongly towards unethical office behaviour, whereas the most lenient city is Ahmedabad. While Mumbaikars would confront their co-workers directly for unethical behaviour, Ahmedabad believes in the indirect route, as per the report. Hyderabad and Kolkata insists that leaders/managers should 'walk the talk' on office ethics with Hyderabad stressing on the need to frequent ethics training in offices and increase in open lines of communication.
