ethics in human resource management essay

ethics in human resource management essay

Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of Human Resource Management

1. Introduction to Ethics in Human Resource Management

Personnelism includes ten ethical principles that are particularly important for HRM. These principles are prominent in the history of personnel management and widely reflected in corporate policies and practice. This study makes three important contributions to the HRM field. First, it defines the philosophical foundation for personnelism and the ten underlying ethical principles. Second, the study discusses and exemplifies each of these principles in terms of the areas of knowledge and practices that are specific to HRM. Specifically, each principle is associated with a common title, a brief purpose statement, anticipated issues to consider, appropriate ethical guidelines, and examples of corporate policy from ethical corporations and companies. Third, the study differentiates between low-impact and high-impact corporate policies. These policies support and promote the ethical principles and contribute to human dignity in terms of HRM. This differentiation has implications for both research and practitioners.

Over the last decade, research in the social and behavioral sciences has helped to reorient moral and ethical evaluation within the practical contexts of business functions and decision making, such as finance, marketing, operations, and most recently, business policy. Yet, a calling of the major business functions, the ethics of personnel management, or business policy. Yet, a calling of the major business functions, the ethics of personnel management, which we have labeled personnelism and defined as the philosophy that starts with people as the most important ingredient in any endeavor, holding that success without a concern for human beings is totally unacceptable.

2. Ethical Principles and Theories in HRM

Ethical formalism is based on the idea that people must follow the principle logical and universal principles of obligation in order to define actions. To meet the needs of the firm, HRM professionals are expected to align with business goals. They define job requirements and identify productive applicants, while actively supporting training and development. Predominant theories include shareholder theory, stakeholder theory, and the theory of social responsibility of business. Other theories can also be applicable in HRM. Utilitarianism, for example, might well be applied by the HRM professionals during the decision-making process.

As with all organizational functions, HRM must adopt ethical principles and then develop and promote activities that meet those principles. But, what are companies supposed to do when the interests of shareholders, customers, and employees diverge? Should a company be forced to cannibalize itself in order to pay employees higher wages or offer greater job security? Who decides and how? Complex ethical issues such as these are not subject to simple answers, yet they directly pertain to the field of HRM.

3. Ethical Challenges and Dilemmas in HRM Practices

Although some HR challenges may relate directly to individual employees, many HR dilemmas are influenced by the broader society. When worker layoffs are threatened, argument often arises as to whether management owes a duty to its stockholders or a duty to support the social good by avoiding layoffs. Managing diversity is another struggle for ethical balance. Although doing the right thing might dictate that some fairness or affirmative action laws be violated in support of other rights, more often this balance requires judgment and understanding rather than following prescribed guidelines. Effective human resource professionals understand, internalize and act from these values and principles. The end result can be a moral advantage for the organization.

Ethical challenges and dilemmas arise in various aspects of human resource activities – many involve fairness and supporting individual rights. All HR activities, such as attracting, selecting, and retaining employees, must be conducted in ways that treat employees and applicants fairly and that respect their privacy and well-being. Employers must also communicate honestly about job expectations and use accurate assessment tools; failure to be candid does not respect job seekers as individuals capable of making their own choices given full disclosure. Privacy considerations also arise in HRM decisions. Increasing employee monitoring, often justified by a desire for increased productivity, must balance employer goals with the rights of individuals.

4. Strategies for Promoting Ethical HRM Practices

Strategies for promoting compliance with organizational rules include various forms of retribution and reward. For example, specific company jobs can be structured in ways to ensure that employees only have the opportunity to engage in a limited range of behavior, making noncompliance all but impossible. Such solutions, which may include physically residing in work areas where potential self-interested behavior is not facilitated, are especially appropriate for employees in jobs that require close monitoring. Additional desirable methods of promoting compliance include offering behavior-specific training programs that provide ethics training and allow employees to see that ethical behavior is being observed and supported by other employees. Providing unfair or disproportionate punishment is another detrimental strategy, which may result in resentment, flight from the organization, or a variety of negative behaviors.

One might ask how human resource managers can ensure that their company has a reputation for exemplary ethical behavior since organizational culture has such a significant impact on employee behavior. Arthur Schwartz has some suggestions. First, HR professionals can hire people who have demonstrated reputations for ethical behavior in the past or who have indicated values that would help ensure ethical behavior in the workplace. They can also use employment tests to measure the moral reasoning abilities and attitudes of applicants to help determine the likelihood they would act ethically once on the job. Second, HR professionals can fortify values and norms to act in ways that are consistent with declared values. They can provide employees at all levels with the learning opportunities that not only teach necessary skills; they can also provide opportunities to practice dealing with ethical dilemmas so that employees can “learn by doing.”

5. Conclusion and Future Directions in Ethical HRM

Given this, there needs to be more explicit recognition in training and education of HR practitioners and line managers of the moral philosophy that underpins the role of resources and the situational field choices that practitioners regularly confront. Otherwise, HR professionals and line management will be like “ship without a rudder” whereas no one really knows where the ship is meant or where it is heading. Ethical teaching will not and should not automatically produce moral behavior. No amount of training would by itself make a person ethical. Nonetheless, the combination of moral imagination and situational awareness – that is, the ability to smell a moral problem from a distance – with the acquired skills, tools, and guidance of HR theory and practice has much to commend itself as best practice. Likewise, we believe that too little work has been done at the organization level to develop a readymade toolkit of procedures, policies, and metrics that will help them address the regular moral dilemmas that confront them. Given the increased prominence that a number of corporate stakeholders, including AI and Amnesty International on the worker rights front, the Corporate Responsibility Coalition on CSR aspects, shareholders on corporate governance, and perhaps unions on the social argument, HR seems particularly vulnerable for potential to do someone for ethical wrong identified within an organization. Such external challenges to the moral stewardship of HR must surely eventually threaten its legitimacy as a management function and reinforce some of the institutionalized patterns of corporate governance. In conclusion, the challenge to HR is whether it will be equal to coming to the moral “rescue” posed by the situation as part of the organization’s moral compass rather than ducking the issue as the next wave of organizational change washes over it.

There is a growing acceptance that HR is at the organizational epicenter of moral and ethical questions. In this article, we have sought to explore the ethical dimensions of HR with numerous reasons for why these issues should be potentially more prominent when pursued by HR than other management functions. It would be easy to conclude that HR is simply “a bit special” – and of course, it is. However, ethical theory suggests that HR involvement in human and employment managing activities will involve it inevitably in having to evaluate the morality of actions. This article’s conclusion is also that HR should regularly assume this moral responsibility as an everyday part of its tactical and strategic role. To do less is both to avoid the responsibilities of management and to deny the fulfillment of human interest and respect that society members deserve. Ethical HR will not be achieved in a moral marketplace where everyone expects the lowest common denominator. Such managers will just have to struggle with their consciences and the consequences of their actions helped by HR guiding lights.