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Ethics of Human Resource Management



Ethics of Human Resource Management

Ethics

Ethics are moral principles that guide a person's behavior. These morals are shaped by social norms, cultural practices, and religious influences. All decisions have an ethical or moral dimension for a simple reason—they have an effect on others. Managers and leaders need to be aware of their own ethical and moral beliefs so they can draw on them when they face decisions. They can then effectively think through an ethical issue with the same types of approaches they use for other decisions.

The Ethical Decision-Making Process

Before a model can be utilized, leaders need to work through a set of steps to be sure they are bringing a comprehensive lens to handling ethical disputes or problems.

1.Take Time to Define the Problem

Some initial analysis has to happen for leaders to truly understand where they need to bring in ethical principles. Leaders need to decide why an ethical decision needs to be made and the outcomes that are desired for the decision.

2.Consult Resources and Seek Assistance

Leaders then need to work on developing a strategy using the resources and people around them. Whether it be qualified co-workers, HR professionals, or policies and handbooks set long ago, leaders need to gain clarity from other sources when creating a strategy to tackle the issue.

3.Think About the Lasting Effects

While identifying the problem and seeking viable resources to help is the way to go, any advice for how to handle an issue should be filtered through the lens of how it will affect others. For instance, if there is an issue with employees getting to work on time, managers could install policies that change the time workers report, but if they are not careful, it may have a detrimental impact on other workers, and even clients.

4.Consider Regulations in Other Industries

Regulations and standards that other companies have established can be a good starting point for developing ethical strategies. Leaders should take a look at how they handle specific issues that have come their way. It might also be helpful to take a look at the mistakes the leader’s company and other organizations have made and learn from them. Everyone does not always get it right 100 percent of the time. Therefore, it is essential to see the good and bad side to become even more informed about a decision that should be made.

5.Decide on a Decision

After consulting others and doing a bit of extra research, it is time for a final decision. Since the choice will likely impact many it is a good idea to create a proposal of what the issue is and how leaders plan to work with the team to solve it. If the problem is more personal and involves harassment of some kind, it is more appropriate to only deal with those involved and establish a plan of action to handle that particular situation. However, for widespread ethical issues that have become a problem in the workplace, it is a good practice to bring decisions to the team at large.
6.Implement and Evaluate 
This is where talk meets action. It is easy for people to research and create solutions to a problem, but when dealing with morality and ethics, it can be challenging to put it into action finally. No one benefits from a plan that is not put into practice, so at some point, leaders need to facilitate the implementation of the ethical decision. Also, the application is not enough. Evaluation allows everyone to see how the approach is working out, and if there were some unintended consequences leaders did not foresee. Is the problem finally fixed? Did things get better or worse? Analysis of this issue can help those involved figure out if the implementation was the appropriate response.


Decision Trees

Decision trees are graphical representations of alternatives and possible outcomes. The decisions are represented by the branches of the tree. Organizations and individuals often use decision trees as part of their decision-making process because they are a means for adding formal structure to information about a decision. Identifying the range of possibilities and their potential consequences helps clarify the decision and facilitates selection of an alternative.
The Ethical Leader’s Decision Tree

Application
Decision trees can be applied to ethical matters as well. If confronted with an ethical dilemma, creating a decision tree is a useful method for analyzing what the potential outcomes of each action would be, and ultimately, how to proceed. It is a particularly useful tool for considering stakeholders such as employees, customers, shareholders, and communities. The answers to questions about what stakeholders will be affected and what the effects will be help build the case for or against each alternative. Often there will be competing interests, or situations in which two different values are in competition. For instance, a decision to close a coal mine because coal contributes to global warming may be positive for society at large, but it imposes high costs on the employees who will lose their jobs. Decision-tree analysis can help identify or uncover the potential impacts of alternatives so that a decision maker can select the one that is most consistent with her ethical and moral beliefs.

References
1.     Article on “Applying the Ethical Decision Tree”
2.     Article on “ Ethical Decision Making Models and 6 steps of Ethical Decision Making Process”
3.     Bagley,C.E.(Feb,2003):The Ethical Leader’s Decision Tree




















Comments

  1. Monali KarunarathnaJuly 8, 2019 at 8:14 AM

    In my opinion, ethics are really important in HRM as it deals with human component which is very difficult to understand and predict

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dushantha De SilvaJuly 8, 2019 at 9:08 AM

    In my point of view,Ethics is very important due to the following, Satisfying Basic Human Needs,Being truthful, honest and moral is one the essential human wants.
    Every worker wishes to be such himself and to figure for a company that's truthful and moral in its practices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PRIYANKAJuly 8, 2019 at 9:24 AM

    The ethics of an organization often fail when there is no value-based culture, from top to bottom.

    ReplyDelete

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