Ethics in Human Resource
Human Resource comprises the workforce of an organization. The importance of human resource is that it manages human capital which makes an organization and ensures the success of a company in the long run. Human resource practitioners are responsible for assessing the ability of a company to employ the available human capital to generate revenues efficiently. Organizations tend to give attention to the human resource to measure the value of the workforce employed. The performance of a firm is based on the strength of its human resource department since it entails giving directions on the proper employment of available resources. The operation of a human resource department is however faced by the challenge of choosing what to be considered first: employees or profits. In a bid to identify the right functionality of a human resources department, legal and ethical standards are specified to create an organized running of the human resource department. Most chief executive officers believe that the performance of a company in terms of making profits should come before the interests of the employees.
Human resource practitioners have a professional responsibility that comes before the operation of any firm. During the development of an individual’s career as a human resource practitioner, the training is aimed at developing an all-rounded individual (Stone and Deadrick, 2015, p. 140). The employment by a particular firm should not make a human resource officer compromise the work ethics defining their career. The first responsibility of a human resource officer is to add value to the firm in which they are employed. The addition of value involves upholding ethical standards that define an excellent human resource department (Albrecht et al. 2015 p. 9). A firm that employs a human resource officer has a primary goal of enhancing both internal and external relations. The reputation of a company starts with the consideration of humanity in the treatment of employees. A company may not require a vibrant public relations department to spread the good news of the company’s name if the workforce is given the right treatment. Word of mouth from happy employees can go far in creating a good name for a company. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Similarly, the reputation of a company can easily be destroyed by workers who are seen to be frequently arguing, or are always on strikes. The work of the human resource, therefore, acts as a link between the workers of a company and the management to avoid unnecessary conflicts between the two groups (Noe, 2017, n. p). As a professional, a human resource practitioner is tasked with assessing the number of profits that the management is targeting and the extent to which the goals go to affect the comfort of workers. The human resource officer, therefore, is tasked with reconciling the two parties to come up with a strategy that does not leave either party straining.
A human resource officer should keep on developing their career despite the level of practice. Every professional is expected to keep growing their career since staying at the same level in a given career risks depreciation of value. The nature of human resource career is that each level of operation comes with new experience and a need for extra efforts. Human resource professional development is measured according to the way professionals strive to meet the highest possible standards in terms of competence. The commitment in an attempt to meet a professional’s competencies on continuous basis measures the rate at which a professional has developed career-wise. The decision-making experience of a human resource officer depends on the level of development of the individual. For example, a company that struggles to choose between making profits and taking care of employees’ interests requires advice from experienced human resource officers. The continuous development of human resource career gives an individual enough experience to know the decisions to make when the company seriously needs human resource input. The effectiveness of human resource practice lies in the desire and ability to rise above the comfort zone and learning new ways of tackling matters affecting the employer company.
A crucial requirement in human resource practice is the practice of ethical leadership. The position of a human resource officer exposes them at the verge of dealing with several departments, and thus experience in leadership is required in dealing with the different departments. As leaders, human resource managers are faced with events that cause a severe dilemma of coming up with crucial decisions (Jamali, Dirani and Harwood, 2015, p. 130). For example, the human resource manager has to make decisions that are not spelled out in the employment contract forms. The requirement that human resource officer uses sense rather than following the laid-down procedures may lead to over-stepping into areas that should be dealt with by different departments. For example, a human resource officer could be faced with a situation where one of the employees has been involved in domestic violence. The decision that the human resource officer has to make is whether or not the officer should report to the police or should wait for other parties to take responsibility. The decision to report the case to the police will, of course, have several impacts that include the destruction of the relationship between the human resource manager and the employee, or probably friends to the employee, and a disruption of the normal functioning of the company. As a leader, the human resource should be careful in handling the issue to avoid causing inconveniences to the company while addressing issues that do not involve the company. A human resource officer should be able to balance the ethical business requirements and the legal requirements that apply to the surroundings of the business.
The decision-making process of a human resource department should be guided by legal requirements and ethical practices. The judgments in cases causing conflicts between employers and employees should not be based on the personal opinions of the human resource officers. The reconciliation process in the event of conflicts should only follow existing legal procedures and ethics should prevail above any decision agreed. For example, a company cannot fail to adhere to regulations set by a government just because the employees are not comfortable with the regulations. Instead, the human resource department should devise ways on how to make the employees comfortable with adapting to new legal requirements. Also, the human resource department should always be ready to deal with exceptional behaviors from employers. In case employees show unexpected reactions to certain company decisions, then ethics should prevail rather than the company’s pride. For example, a company could announce a wage increase to its employees; however, some employees could choose to ignore the increase following the belief that an increase in social cuts accompanies an increase in wages. Ethics dictate that the decisions made by the employee to prefer lower wages with lower social cuts to higher wages with lower social cuts should be respected without a bargain.
Fairness and justice should be a benchmark for human resource practice. Human resource officers are tasked with the responsibility of creating an environment that allows the growth of every individual to their full potential. In reality, a human resource officer should treat an employer and an employee as two equal parties that depend on each other for survival (Van, Bakker, and Nishii, 2016, p.141). In the event of conflicts, the human resource should not be compromised by loyalty to the employer into making wrong decisions that harm the employees. Since the human resource officer is at a position where the goals of both the employer and the employee are well understood, it becomes the role of the human resource officer to make boundaries for the pursuit of the different goals. The human resource manager should give an environment that allows either the employer or the employee to achieve the goals set out at the time of employment. In practice, the human resource should acknowledge the worth of every individual in the system and treat the interests of each with the utmost respect. The human resource should desist from relying on personal opinions while making crucial decisions. Also, practices like favoritism and corruption should not be associated with the human resource department since the reputation of the company greatly lies in human resource management. The maintenance of fairness and justice should be evident right from the employment desk to the cases that involve sacking or laying-off workers. During employment, the human resource department should hire individuals depending on the qualifications for the job and the skills and experience possessed by the applicants. Cases of corruption in the hiring process should not be allowed. In the event a case of sacking employees arises, the human resource department should ensure that sufficient evidence is available before making any decision. Also, a company might decide to lay off workers to cut on costs. However, the decision to lay off workers should only be made if the company does not have another option and the company should ensure that proper compensation is done.
Human resource officers always deal with complex issues. The human resource profession is not a straightforward career, and in most cases, human resource officers are tasked to solve dilemmas (Buettner, 2015, p. 4610). Being in direct connection with the people employed by the company, the human resource managers have to bridge numerous pitfalls that risk destroying the reputation of a given company. In day-to-day practice, human resource officers have to remain on the right side of the law despite the challenges facing the profession. The human resource officers are tasked with protecting the company’s reputation no matter what situation comes on board. Despite the high expectations set by the company towards making profits, human resource managers always face a challenge of keeping the employees’ loyalty towards the company. Whenever employees are treated with a high ethical standard, the company is assured of a long term employee trust accompanied by a wide range of benefits. An example of benefits enjoyed by keeping loyal employees is the case of suppliers of consumer goods. Efficient marketing strategies function well in cases where the company has developed strong customer relations due to loyal employees. The efficiency of a human resource department will depend on the development of a working ethics program that can be used to avoid any deviations from what the company defines as being ethical. Generally, the human resource department should be engaged in coming up with a working, ethical program.
The operation of human resource personnel is based on several theories of practice. The theory of performance and the motivational theory are critical in convincing chief executive officers on the need to put employees before the desire to make profits. The performance of employees is related to the performance of the management in that; employees will not see the need to perform well in a company with reluctant management. The management should always work to set the pace that should be followed by the employees. The performance of the employees once improved gives a real rise in the profits obtained, and thus the company should be interested in improving the working conditions of the workers. A company that aims to make profits without considering the interests of the workers ends up suffering from rebellion and the profits are lowered instead (Zavyalova, Kucherov and Tsybova, 2017, 4). On the other hand, motivation comes in to improve the production level of the available labor. A company might decide to motivate the available staff to work more instead of increasing the workforce. Motivation can be done by helping the employees to meet their basic needs so that concentration is directed to the performance of the company instead of the struggle to meet one’s basic needs.
In sum, the human resource profession is one of the most sensitive departments in the operation of any firm. Human resource practitioners are responsible for assessing the ability of a company to employ the available human capital to generate revenues efficiently. Therefore, organizations tend to give attention to the human resource as a way to measure the value of the workforce employed. Further research should be done to assess how human resource officers should balance their duty towards the company and the legal requirements. Also, the boundaries should be stated on the extent to which the roles of the human resource should go in matters that do not directly affect the company. The human resource department should work hand in hand with the directors to balance between profit-making and keeping the employees loyal.
References
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Jamali, D.R., El Dirani, A.M. and Harwood, I.A., 2015. Exploring human resource management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSR‐HRM co‐creation model. Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(2), pp.125-143.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Stone, D.L. and Deadrick, D.L., 2015. Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp.139-145.
Van Woerkom, M., Bakker, A.B. and Nishii, L.H., 2016. Accumulative job demands and support for strength use: Fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), p.141.
Zavyalova, E., Kucherov, D. and Tsybova, V., 2017. Human Resource Management at Russian Companies—Leaders of the Global Economy. Форсайт, 11(4 (eng)).