Ethical and unethical issues in Human Resource management.

Current Ethical and Unethical issues in discipline of Human Resource Management (HRM)

Ethics

• Ethics are moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

• The word Ethics stem from the greek word ethike which attribute to a social environment referred to a social environment referred to as ethos or social millieu, or we can say the general word Ethics means what is right to do and what is wrong to do.

• Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.

• Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.

Business Ethics

• Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or from the legal system. These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business. They help those businesses maintain a better connection with their stakeholders.

• Business ethics is the behavior that how an organisation deal with the world. The Ethics of the business can be diverse .They are applied not only on how the business interact with the world but also to interact with an individual.

• If an organisation want to run their  in the competitive market then it is necessary to follow the ethics in business for moral values, norms, and as well as for the society.It would be beneficial for an organisation to follow the business ethics.It is the responsibility of the organisation to maintain the ethical status.

Human Resource

• Human resource management is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in an organization, so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives.

• Also called personnel or talent management human resource management involves overseeing all things related to managing an organization’s human capital.

• Human resource is defined as managing laborers or employee in an organisation in an efficient and effective manner for the betterment of the organisation.

• Human resource management is a contemporary, umbrella term used to describe the management and development of employees in an organization.

Ethical Issues Related to Human Resource

• Of all the organisational issues or problems, ethical issues are the most difficult ones to handle or deal with. Issues arise in employment, remuneration and benefits, industrial relations and health and safety.

Cash and Compensation Plans

• There are ethical issues pertaining to the salaries, executive perquisites and the annual incentive plans etc. The HR manager is often under pressure to raise the band of base salaries. There is increased pressure upon the HR function to pay out more incentives to the top management and the justification for the same is put as the need to retain the latter. Further ethical issues crop in HR when long term compensation and incentive plans are designed in consultation with the CEO or an external consultant. While deciding upon the payout there is pressure on favouring the interests of the top management in comparison to that of other employees and stakeholders.

Race, Gender and Disability

• In many organisations till recently the employees were differentiated on the basis of their race, gender, origin and their disability. Not anymore ever since the evolution of laws and a regulatory framework that has standardised employee behaviours towards each other. In good organisations the only differentiating factor is performance! In addition the power of filing litigation has made put organisations on the back foot. Managers are trained for aligning behaviour and avoiding discriminatory practices.

Employment Issues

• Human resource practitioners face bigger dilemmas in employee hiring. One dilemma stems from the pressure of hiring someone who has been recommended by a friend, someone from your family or a top executive. Yet another dilemma arises when you have already hired someone and he/she is later found to have presented fake documents. Two cases may arise and both are critical. In the first case the person has been trained and the position is critical. In the second case the person has been highly appreciated for his work during his short stint or he/she has a unique blend of skills with the right kind of attitude. Both the situations are sufficiently dilemmatic to leave even a seasoned HR campaigner in a fix.

Privacy Issues

• Any person working with any organisation is an individual and has a personal side to his existence which he demands should be respected and not intruded. The employee wants the organisation to protect his/her personal life. This personal life may encompass things like his religious, political and social beliefs etc. However certain situations may arise that mandate snooping behaviours on the part of the employer. For example, mail scanning is one of the activities used to track the activities of an employee who is believed to be engaged in activities that are not in the larger benefit of the organisation.

Unethical issues of Human Resources

Examples for unethical issues are as follows:-

Reasons why above practices are wrong are as follows,

•  Unethical behavior is an action that falls outside of what is considered morally right or proper for a person, a profession or an industry. Individuals can behave unethically, as can businesses , professionals and politicians.The employees, function, involvement, loyalty,dedication, discipline,and decision making play a big role in the success of the organisation . However great facilities, machinery,and building a corporate provides,it is ultimately the people who have to make them workable and to achieve the organisations success.More or less organisation sources is obvious signs of unethical behavior you may have faced with public problems of ultimately loss business .some of the problems promoting ethical business on the right path are lying about performance , breach of contact ,crossing harassment,failure to maintain safety in workplace.