Ethics constitutes the heart of organizations’ human resource management function (MacDonald, 2013). Human resource managers strive to address ethical issues in order to enhance smooth flow of organizational operations. Ethics refers to the branch of moral philosophy that deals with separating the right from the wrong to avoid organizational misunderstandings. Human resource management concentrates on business ethics to examine ethical principles and moral problems that arise in business environments (Simpson, 2013). Managers apply ethics to all aspects of the business operation to control the conduct of organizational publics and lead the business towards the right direction. Business ethics comprises of both prescriptive and normative dimensions. Employees are always sensitive to ethical violations, which they attempt to remedy through affirmative action. According to MacDonald (2013), ethics is fundamentally concerned with the choices that organizations make when organizational decisions have impacts on people’s well-being or rights. The aspects of ethical concerns in organizations include recruitment procedures, discrimination, collective bargaining, privacy, and work place safety.
Recruitment Procedures
John (2008) postulate that organizations have developed various procedures that they follow when hiring new employees. Recruitment selection is a function of human resource managers. Ethics has a crucial role in attracting, screening, and hiring workers. The primary ethical issues in recruitment selection include hiring and termination issues, discrimination, performance appraisals and disciplinary actions (Abbas, 2010). Laws and regulations dictate that companies have to adhere to the ethical code of conducts during; ethical practices result in recruitment of better performing workers. Ethical selection requires hiring employees on the basis of merit. It is unethical to discriminate prospective workers based on race, religion, pregnancy status, and gender. The criteria for selecting and appraising employees should be consistent and objective. According to Donald (2009), recruitment ethics discourages companies from placing misleading job advertisements in case the organization is offering a different job rather than the one advertised. Therefore, the selection criteria should be ethical and objective in order to ensure productivity and set standards for the future.
Discrimination
Discrimination involves preferential treatment of one or more employees on the basis uncontrollable characteristics such as race, age, religion, gender, color and national origin. Pregnancy status and disability are other aspects of discrimination in modern organizations (Donald, 2009). Discrimination at the workplace impairs a worker’s ability to perform and meet the productivity standards of the organization. Most countries have enacted laws to protect both prospective and current employees from all forms of discrimination. United States of America and Australia are popular countries devoted to employee protection on enacting anti-discrimination laws. For example, United States has enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination Act of 1975 and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 and Anti-Discrimination Act of 1975 are popular in Australia (Abbas, 2010).
Business organizations also formulate internal policies to prevent managers from exploiting employees because of their age, race, national origin, gender, disability status and pregnancy or handicapped status (John, 2008). Wall-mart Inc and IBM companies are committed to maintaining an exclusive work environment and diverse workforce free of discrimination to employees. These companies propose equal treatment of all workers in terms of promotions, performance appraisal, annual awards, and intra-company transfers. Ethical organizations have better chances of motivating employees, both extrinsically and intrinsically to boost the level of productivity towards achieving organizational objectives (Donald, 2009).
Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining involves negotiations between the employer and a selected group of employees to determine the conditions of payment. Ethics and collective bargaining are inseparable since they determine the extent of democracy in the organizations. Collective bargaining procedures result to collective agreements, which are the mainstay of most business organizations. Collective bargaining grants employees the freedom and right to collective bargain and join labor unions (Simpson, 2013). The constitution does not allow employers to interfere with the management of the labor unions and other collective bargaining groups. This limits chances of collusion between employers and labor unions management to exploit employees.
Exploitative human resources managers engage in adversarial collective bargaining and employ the tactics of lying, deception, and abandonment of truth as a moral value. Ethical managers, however, should adhere to collaborative collective bargaining model to address the human resource issues facing their business organizations (John, 2008). Ethical-oriented companies should apply the collaborative collective bargaining models to counteract the negative consequences and self-defeating elements of the adversarial collective bargaining. The model of collaborative collective bargaining enables businesses to work together towards achieving beneficial goals by use of ethically defensible approaches to labor unions.
Privacy
Both individualistic and communal approaches to ethics require human resource managers to maintain the rights of employees. Ethical human resource managers should understand that exposing employees’ confidential information is a violation of their right to privacy. Companies record all the information about prospective employees before hiring them. Organizations have enacted various principles and policies aimed at addressing issues revolving around privacy and confidentiality of workers’ data. These data include medical records, marital status, date of birth and contract terms. Abbas (2010) argues that it is unethical for human resource managers to reveal the medical records of the employees unless the law requires for it for purposes of handling court cases. Most of the workers need their salary status to be kept confidentially for purposes of security. Other details such as the date of birth and marital status should not be revealed to the public because people have personal interests concerning these details.
Employees are currently concerned with their privacy due to the advancement in technology (John, 2008). Business corporations are striving to strike a balance between the introduction of mobile devices in offices and ensuring the employees’ reasonable expectations for privacy. Workers enter the workplace expecting common inconveniences associated with steady employment such as commuting and time constraints (MacDonald, 2013). The newer technological devices, however, may thrust the workers into the public domain and capture their personal data. The personal boundaries of the employees that are not part of the contract are thus breached. Another aspect of violating privacy involves surveillance cameras that companies place at strategic points to monitor workers’ movements (Simpson, 2013). Closed-circuit Television cameras that are unnecessarily placed in ultra-modern buildings expose workers to the risks of publicizing their personal life. Over-protective employers place micro-chips sensors all over the buildings including the toilets. This may end up collecting sensitive data involving workers. These actions constitute ethical misconducts; organizations should avoid exposing employees if they want to maintain their self-concept.
Workplace Safety
Work place safety involves predicting safety, healthy and welfare of the organizational publics and putting in place contingency plans to counteract dangers that may befall the workers. The degree of risk that employees are exposed differs between companies depending on the job being performed (Simpson, 2013). The occupational place involves workers handling machinery, tools, and equipments as they perform their job roles. These tools, machinery, and equipments expose workers to risks of being hurt. It is the responsibility of human resource managers to provide security to ensure workplace safety. The Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations require all people in the organization to work in unity in identifying and controlling health and safety hazards (John, 2008).
Employers are responsible for providing a safe and health work environment (Donald, 2009). Human resource managers can achieve this by establishing occupational health committees and representatives to consult in matters affecting the workplace health and safety. Ethical organizations strive to ensure that they minimize the exposure employees to harassment and external aggression. This is possible if businesses fence their occupational places and employ security guards to limit the entry of strangers and minimize interruptions (Simpson, 2013). Some companies find it expensive to maintain workplace safety; however it ethical for human resource managers to value their workers and comply with Health and Safety Act and Regulations. Employers should also provide well maintained equipment, ensure workers are trained, and employ highly qualified supervisors (Abbas, 2010).
The human resource management is responsible for maintaining ethical standards in the organization. Employees resort to affirmative action when managers violate ethical requirements. Ethics plays a critical role in attracting, screening, and hiring workers. Human resource managers should avoid discrimination during recruitment and at the workplace. Discrimination impairs the worker’s ability to perform towards achievement of organizational goals. Employers should avoid adversarial collective bargaining, and instead apply collaborative collective bargaining to address the conflicts between employers and labor unions. Workers’ personal details need to be kept with due confidentiality to avoid security threats to workers. Employers are responsible for ensuring workplace health and safety. Human resource managers should provide contingency plans for mitigating unforeseen risks.
References
Abbas, J. A. (2010). Islamic challenges to HR in modern organizations. Personnel Review, 39(6), 692-711.
Donald, C. M. (2009). Teaching and Learning Ethical Reasoning with Cases. Public Integrity, 11(3), 239-250.
John, S. (2008). Ethics and morality in human resource management. Social Responsibility Journal, 4, 8-23.
MacDonald, C. (2013). Why HR management is always ethically relevant. Chandaria Business. Retrieved from http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blogs-and-comment/why-hr-management-is-always-ethically-relevant/
Simpson, J., & Taylor, J. (2013). Corporate governance, ethics, and CSR. London: Kogan Page.
