Ethics and Human Resources: Making Good Decisions
Ethics in business may involved everything including hiring decisions, pricing decisions, strategic decisions, and so on. The need for a process for making ethical decisions in business is great. There are a large number of instances where ethical decisions are necessary in business operations, and corporations find that they can get themselves into trouble even when they are trying to be ethical if they do not have a strong and effective procedural structure to guide employees in making such decisions. The Human Resources department must operate with ethical standards that are clear and that address the kinds of issues this department will face. The HR professional handles more than hiring and firing of employees, also being responsible in some degree for orientation, training, union negotiations, decisions regarding compensation, special programs for addressing workplace problems, and so on. All of these tasks must be infused with an ethical structure that helps HR professionals make good decisions.Hallier and Leopold (1996) note the nature of defining the problem of characterizing the personnel function by pointing out that the terminology is "ambiguous, contradictory and controversial" (p. 46) and yet as a discipline on
To a degree, the distinction made between personnel and HRM is only a matter of terminology, yet more respect is accorded HRM than the personnel function in the literature. There is no doubt that the relationship between the worker and the average company has been changing for some time, with less job security and more flexibility for the company. This has created particular problems in the public eye, notably a perception that older workers are not being treated fairly (as one analyst notes, "Age discrimination is the most frequent type of discrimination complaint; it is not only unlawful, it is bad business" [Age discrimination in the workplace, 2005]) or that minorities may not be given sufficient opportunity if affirmative action programs are outlawed in the future. Managers may have to develop more creative ways to achieve diversity and to incorporate demographic changes into their thinking, but they first have to recognize the scope of the problem and the need for creative solutions. Human resource development (HRD) has three important components--training, education, and development. When the three are properly coordinated, HRD has a positive effect on worker productivity and so on the productivity of the company. Training improves the performance of workers and so increases their motivation, and as they work harder and produce more, the company profits. HRD is also dedicated to seeing to it that skills do not become obsolescent. Employees may have their skills upgraded through added training and education, and this benefits them in terms of promotion. Diversity training also needs to take into account the various levels of the organization. It is common, for example, for companies to provide diversity training at the low and mid‑levels of an organization, but to ignore the executive level. Despite the gains which have been made by minorities and women, the executive level in many companies remains largely white male, and there is sometimes the belief that diversity training and effective interpersonal communication training is not needed at these levels (Fly
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Approximate Word count = 1417
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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