MN7181-People and Organisations

Ethical Context of HRM

Ethics

The term ‘ethics’ is usually applied to persons (ethics comes from the Greek ethos, meaning character) and ‘morality’ to acts and behaviour (moral comes from the Latin moralise, meaning customs or manners). It refers to that aspect of human experience which involves making what reason to be impartial judgements as to the ultimate rightness and wrongness of conduct and the values to which priority ought to be given in personal, social, and political decision-making (Maclagan, 1998).

Ethics in HR

While HR is all about people management, applying the theories ethics in an organization can be complicated as it as to be practical in day to day use (Kew & Stradwick, 2008). It is a critical challenge faces by HR practitioners to convert the theories in to practice since human resources is a very sensitive practice in any business.

The said sensitive practice human resource management deals with all activities relevant to the manpower and deal with the human element of the organization which makes everything different from any other practice or theory. However, ethics mostly matter in this area of business as the practice handles compensation, training development, industrial relations and health and safety issues (Gandz & Hayes, 1988). Hence, human resources play a crucial role in keeping up with ethics in an organization.

Given the nature of the practice of HR the HR professionals become responsible in raising awareness on ethics through the code of conduct which will be unique to each organization. In order to achieve this, the responsibility of the human resources practitioners of the organization would be (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014);

·         Implement policies and procedure that are ethical

This will help define & standardize ethical practices like the responsibilities of the employee and employer in the juncture of resignation, non-disclosure of company information and any other ethical behavior desired to be practiced.

·         Practice ethical standards in the HR framework (compensation, recruitment & all other key areas)

Setting salary scales for each grade of employment to maintain fair and transparent compensation. Requesting a standard set of onboarding documents at the point of recruitment which helps with the grading of the employee.

·         Challenge unethical behavior of any level of employee

The ability to challenge or question any employee’s behavior when unethical; regardless their designation in the organization in order to maintain an ethical environment.

References 

Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S., 2014. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13 ed. Londin: Kogan Page Ltd.

Gandz, J. & Hayes, N., 1988. Teaching business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 19, pp. 657-669.

Kew, J. & Stradwick, J., 2008. Business environment: managing in a strategic context. London: CIPD.

Maclagan, 1998. Management and Morality: A Developmental Perspective. London: Sage.