Ethical context of HRM

Image 1

Meaning of 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 refer 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).

That ethics is concerned with rules or principles that help us to decide right and wrong (Hamlin et al., 2001).

Ethics is a key branch of philosophy, concerned with analysing what is right or wrong in people’s behaviour or conduct (Rose, 2008).

Ethic is the study of individual and collective moral awareness, judgement, character and behaviour (Petrick & Quinn, 1997).

Ethics is the choice or decision we make within morality and rules to keep the integrity and discipline.

The HR role in ethics

Image 2

Human Resource Management (HRM) is about how people should be managed, which is supported by a number of theories relating to the behaviour of people and organizations. It is concerned with the contribution it can make to improving organizational effectiveness through people but it should be equally concerned with the ethical dimension – how people should be treated in accordance with a set of moral values (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

More Business organizations are concern to keep the ethical standard of their organization. HR plays a main role to keep the standard of the ethical culture of an organization. It is important to keep the ethical standard to maintain discipline in an organization.

“All HR practices have an ethical foundation. HR deals with the practical consequences of human behaviour” (Johnson, 2003).

HR professionals have to raise awareness of ethical issues, promote ethical behaviour, disseminate ethical practices widely among line managers, communicate codes of ethical conduct, ensure people learn about what constitutes ethical behaviours, manage compliance and monitor arrangements (Woodall & Winstanley, 2000).

There are three approaches that HR can adopt: The first is to ensure that HR policies and the actions taken to implement them meet acceptable ethical standards, second HR practitioners can act as role models leading by example and living and breathing good ethical behaviour, the third approach, and the hardest, is to challenge unethical behaviour on the part of management (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

HR can implement the ethical standards from the recruitment process (e.g.: Asking for School character certificate), induction (e.g. Educating the rule and principles to how to behave in the organization), training (Concern with the how the trainees to behave in training), communication (e.g.: whistle blowing policy), performance management (e.g. check any violation letters are given to appraisee on behaviours or procedures), reward (e.g.: awarding the employee for his/her ethical behaviour) and making HR policies that can keep the employee disciplined.

Image 3

References

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

Hamlin, B., Keep, J. & Ash, K., 2001. Organizational Change and Development: A reflective guide for managers. London: FT Pitman.

Johnson, R., 2003. HR must embrace ethics. People Management, 9(1).

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

Petrick, J. A. & Quinn, J. F., 1997. Management Ethics: Integrity at work. London: Sage.

Rose, A., 2008. Ethics and Human Resource Management. Exploring human resource management, pp. 29-42.

Woodall, J. & Winstanley, D., 2000. Ethical Issues in Contemporary Human Resource Management. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Image 1 available in : https://jlmampa.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/mhrm-6605-ethics-in-hr/

Image 2 available in : https://www.101onlinedegrees.com/online-hospitality-career-management-degree/

Image 3 available in : https://www.slideshare.net/khalsajps/ethical-issues-in-human-resource-management-73554950