CASE STUDY 1

Manav Saxena had joined Bhagat Enterprise only a few days back as the Purchase Manager and he was going through the employees conduct manual. He was attracted by the clause, prohibiting acceptance of gifts by the employees of the purchase department. It read as follows: Purchase department employees shall not accept gifts from vendors. This is to ensure that no vendor is given any special treatment and the employees work only in the best interest of the firm at all times. Any deviation from the above would be dealt with severely and could mean dismissal from the firm. Manav remembered his experience with his previous firm, Giant Corporation, where he had worked from 1970 for six years as purchase head prior to joining the Bhagats. It was only six months since he was with the Giants when it was New Year. With the New Year came some inconsequential gifts like ball pens and key chains. The rule in the firm was that an employee could accept no gift worth more than Rs 25. One day one of the vendors brought three wall clocks, one for the MD, one for the GM, and one for Manav. The vendor explained that as his firm had purchased the clocks in bulk they cost only Rs 25 each and as such there should not be any hesitation in accepting the same. He added that in any case he is going to accept the Giants calendar and dairy for his firm in return. Manav found it hard to believe that the clocks were only worth Rs 25. He decided to take the matter to the MD of the firm. The MD had one look at the clocks and called his secretary to take one of the clocks meant to be given to the MD to be placed on the wall in his office and told Manav to distribute others as desired by the vendor explaining that in bulk the clocks would cost about Rs 25 only. Manav had taken the clock and given to his wife and it became the center point in their living room. In later years with the Giants he had taken gifts of dubious value always proclaimed worth less than Rs 25. To keep his conscience clear he would make sure to give some gift from his firm to the vendors salesman in return. Manav in fact stopped feeling any remorse on receiving the gifts and in fact he started looking forward to the festive season in anticipation of some nice gifts. (In his heart he knew that none of the gifts could be of less value than Rs 3000.) Now again it was festive time and in the new firm he was not sure how he should react to the gifts, which had become such a part of business calendar in Indias

corporate world. He was musing on the matter when Rajan the Executive Assistant to the MD walked in. Rajan wanted to know if any gifts had started arriving or not. He confirmed that it has been the practice with the previous purchase manager also to accept the gifts and distribute them to the important persons of the firm like himself. He added that not a word about the matter should be discussed with the MD; otherwise there was every chance of that being thrown out of the firm. But if he did not accept the gifts, he would annoy quite a lot of his colleagues. Manav was wondering if this was just a ploy of the MD to test his integrity, as the MDs secretary would be in the MDs confidence. At the same time Manav could not risk taking a chance of annoying a large number of his new friends in the firm. Sure enough, next day a vendor came with ten baskets, each having three bottles of scotch whiskey, return air tickets for four to any destination in India with four nights five star hotel stay thrown in. The total value of each of the gift baskets was nearly two lakh. His secretary told Manav that this was just the beginning and the gifts were also quite cheap compared to gifts from other vendors. Manav wondered if his predecessor was thrown out of the firm on account of the gifts he was receiving from the vendors, which were amounting to large amounts and were practically bribes. Manav had no one to guide him at the moment.

CASE SUMMARY 1
The case circumvents around Mr. Manav, who has recently joined Bhagat Enterprise as Purchase Manager. Prior to joining the Bhagats he was working with the Giant Corporation where it was almost a part of the business culture to accept gifts during festive occasion and in fact he stopped feeling any remorse on receiving the gifts. Now again it was festive time and in the new firm he was not sure how he should react to the gifts. He had a lot of questions in his mind whether his integrity was being tested by the MD; whether the predecessor was thrown out of the firm on account of accepting gifts from the vendors; how would the MD react if he accepted the expensive gifts; if he didnt accept the gift then will he annoy a large number of his vendors and friends in the firm. So Manav was in a dilemma and he didnt wanted insult or upset anyone.

QUESTION Please give your sincere advice to Manav in his hour of predicament? OUR SUGGESTION AS A GROUP
Manav should not give in to the temptation of accepting the expensive gifts without thinking and should consider the following points: He should first of all find out about the organizations culture towards accepting gifts by casually talking to people in the firm and thereby garner more and more information before taking any step.

He should then verify the reason for his predecessor leaving the job, so that if his predecessor has been thrown out of the job for accepting gifts, he does not repeat the same mistake. Then Manav should also find out about the temperament of MD and how high he is on his moral principles. He can do this by going to the MD with a gift given by the vendor and ask him what he should do with it. If the MD allows him to keep the gift that means he is okay with the idea of accepting gifts. This way he can play safe and avoid face-losing confrontation with his boss.

If the above mentioned points are in favor of Manav , then it is probably safe to assume that there is no problem in accepting gifts as bribery, and even safe to assume that the MD, his colleagues and vendors plans to share the take.

But in our opinion it is far better to prevent bribery than to clean up the mess later on. In addition to ethical considerations involved with bribery there are some very practical reasons for not engaging in the practice as it will not help you in the long run though it may reap you short-term benefits.

Unfortunately this is not the way the world operates and in order to survive in this world we have to get real and learn the way of the world. Just to be on the safer side if at all Manav is accepting the gifts he should maintain records and evidence of the gifts received and by whom to be able to testify against the person in future. In case he is caught up in a situation he can offer a legitimate explanation for the bribery to put a veneer of legality to the situation.