The Ethical Context of HRM

It is a curious fact that the current surge of interest in business ethics has largely bypassed the theory and the practice of human resource management . While business as a whole is presenting itself more and more in terms of social responsibility, and employees are routinely accepted as crucial stakeholders in most business organizations, HRM practice continues to affirm its significance for corporate profitability and prefers to distance itself from its traditional welfare image.

The business ethics mainly put attention on the social and ecological responsibilities of the companies within the society. Ethics are now becoming one of the most important internal concerns for the companies. Previously, the interests of the employees were not taken into consideration but now it has become one of the main responsibilities of the company to ethically manage its human resources (Christian & Andra, 2009). Now it’s the era of ethical leadership.

                                                Video 1: Human Resource Ethics

Acts of its employees towards a business perspective to his moral character is a litmus test. Relationship between business and its employees is based on employment contract. The principle of ethical selection is followed by an ethical organization for hiring prospective employees. As per this principle an organization should only hire a person who is expected to contribute the maximum towards increasing the long-term value of the business (Glenn, 2001).

Business ethics as a field of study and as an issue with currency in the broader community has grown considerably in recent years. This interest has been increased, it can be suggested, by a series of corporate scandals that have stimulated a small explosion in academic publications on corporate governance (Zoffer and Fram 2005) and led to a greater concern to include ethics courses in business school curricula (Crane 2004; Elliott 2004; Evans and Marcal 2005; Koehn 2005).

Given all of these initiatives in business ethics and CSR, one might expect a similar growth of interest in ethics and HRM. After all an extremely important component of making business more ethical is to take seriously the ethical aspects of managing people (Winstanley and Woodall 2000a).

What are the ethics related to a  work place?

• Safety and health: Much of the work in the industries and companies is hazardous. All this is because of the use of heavy technology. Nowadays there is much use of machineries and high temperature based production processes. New sources of accidents and illnesses are increasing day by day. Risk is present in every job but its frequency differs from job to job.

• Face to face ethics: These types of ethics arise due to human element in the activities in the workplace. No work is possible without employees.

• Corporate policy ethics: The use of more technology in the workplace has replaced the labor in the workplace. This has made hundreds of persons jobless. The managers are responsible for making policies and their successful implementation. It should be such that it can be able to send right signals to every person in the company (Shuttleworth, 2004).

• Employee Relations: It’s the duty of the HR manager to maintain objectivity in hiring, discipline, promotion, training, retention, termination and compensation (Ken & Joanne, 2010). All this lies at the core of human resources.

 References

• Ashly Pininngton,Rob Macklin and Tom Campbell , Human Resource Management :Ethics and Employment, Available at: https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Designations/Job-Ready-Program/Human-Resource-Management-Ethics-and-Employment.pdf (Accessed: Oct 5th 2018).
• Ethics in Human Resource Management. [online]. Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/critical-analysis-of-ethics-and-hrm-management-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 5th  October 2018].
• Video 1:Human Resource Ethics [Online].Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdQuzoHQt90/[Accessed 5th Oct 2018].

Organisational Culture

What is Organisational Culture?

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that show people what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. These values have a strong influence on employee behavior as well as organizational performance. In fact, the term organizational culture was made popular in the 1980s when Peters and Waterman’s best-selling book In Search of Excellence made the argument that company success could be attributed to an organizational culture that was decisive, customer-oriented, empowering, and people-oriented. Since then, organizational culture has become the subject of numerous research studies, books, and articles. Organizational culture is still a relatively new concept. In contrast to a topic such as leadership, which has a history spanning several centuries, organizational culture is a young but fast-growing area within management.

Why Organisational Culture?

An organization’s culture may be one of its strongest assets or its biggest liability. In fact, it has been argued that organizations that have a rare and hard-to-imitate culture enjoy a competitive advantage.  In a survey conducted by the management consulting firm Bain & Company in 2007, worldwide business leaders identified corporate culture to be as important as corporate strategy for business success. This comes as no surprise to leaders of successful businesses, who are quick to attribute their company’s success to their organization’s culture.

Culture, or shared values within the organization, may be related to increased performance. Researchers found a relationship between organizational cultures and company performance, with respect to success indicators such as revenues, sales volume, market share, and stock prices.  At the same time, it is important to have a culture that fits with the demands of the company’s environment.

In addition to having implications for organizational performance, organizational culture is an effective control mechanism dictating employee behavior. Culture is a more powerful way of controlling and managing employee behaviors than organizational rules and regulations. For example, when a company is trying to improve the quality of its customer service, rules may not be helpful, particularly when the problems customers present are unique.

Video 1:What is organisational Culture

Model Describing How Cultures Are Created and Maintained?

Figure 1: Model describing how cultures are created and maintained.

Where do cultures come from? Understanding this question is important in understanding how they can be changed. An organization’s culture is shaped as the organization faces external and internal challenges and learns how to deal with them. When the organization’s way of doing business provides a successful adaptation to environmental challenges and ensures success, those values are retained. These values and ways of doing business are taught to new members as the way to do business (Schein, 1992).The factors that are most important in the creation of an organization’s culture include founders’ values, preferences, and industry demands.

As a company matures, its cultural values are refined and strengthened. The early values of a company’s culture exert influence over its future values. It is possible to think of organizational culture as an organism that protects itself from external forces. Organizational culture determines what types of people are hired by an organization and what types of people are left out. Moreover, once new employees are hired, the company assimilates new employees and teaches them the way things are done in the organization. We call these processes attraction-selection-attrition and on boarding processes. We will also examine the role of leaders and reward systems in shaping and maintaining an organization’s culture.

References

• Creating and Maintaining Organisational culture, Available at: http://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/8-5-creating-and-maintaining-organizational-culture-2/ (Accessed: 2nd October 2018).
• OrganisationalCulture, Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d79e/e2d5d0095c1b650e670a15dda35dfb6f996e.pdf(Accessed: 2nd October 2018).
• Figure 1:Model described how cultures are created and maintained[online]avaolable at:http://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/8-5-creating-and-maintaining-organizational-culture-2/[Accessed on : 2nd October 2018]
• Video 1:What is organizational culture?[Online] available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd0kf3wd120/ [Accessed on: 2nd October 2018].