ETHICS AND HUMAN

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
 HRM Sphere
• Recruitment and Selection
• Performance Appraisal
• Training and Development
• Industrial Relation
• Health and Safety
 Ethical Issues in HRM
• Discrimination
• At will employment
• Democratization ( union busting and strike
breaking
• Privacy( workplace surveillance and drug
testing)
• Whistle blowing
• Fairness of employment contract
• Occupational Safety and Health
 Corporate Values Statements
• Describes the core values the company
wants its employees to exhibit including:
– How employees are to treat one another
– How employees are to treat customers and
stockholders
 Effective Values Statements
• Must come from the top with the CEO
being directly involved in its development
• Top management must actively
disseminate the values statement and
then live by it
• The values statement must be focused
 HR Responses
• Conduct surveys to determine:
– What behaviors are routinely being rewarded
and reinforced
– What values and attitudes are prevalent
– How strong the pressure to engage in
misconduct is
 HR Responses Continued
• Take steps to eliminate and discourage reasons
for misbehavior and introduce and encourage
reasons to behave ethically
• Develop an appraisal system that rewards
individuals for ethical behaviors and punishes
those who act unethically
• HR can use its expertise to communicate with
the workforce to get out the ethical message
 Human Costs
• Unethical business environments can:
– Demotivate individuals
– Make good employees leave the company
– Attract unethical employees
– Lead to the lack of trust by the employees for
the company
Guidelines for Fostering an Ethical
Culture
• Have a well developed policy and
procedures manual
• Enforce policies
• Reward compliance
• Recruit ethical employees
• Create a division to oversee ethics
 Conclusion
• Whenever you are required to make a
difficult decision, especially one that is
ethically challenging, select an option that
you would be comfortable describing to
the nation on the evening news