Human resource and ethics

Human resource and ethics

The ethical culture of any organization tells much when it comes to company values. The ethics code is an avenue used in expressing the real benefits to achieve the set goals. In the recent debate on business, ethics have been mainly centered on the ecological and social responsibility of the organization. In modern companies, ethics continues to be an internal concern for organizations. Most organizations have prioritized the interests of the stakeholders at the expense of the workers who are tasked with ensuring the organization’s goals are attained. The human resource continues to play a pivotal role in the daily running of the organization. In any form of organization or business, the employers usually have the upper hand over other people in the organization since they are the ones who govern the connection between the employees and themselves.

Business ethics are a set of principles or rules that governs an organization. In business, it is a set of codes of conduct that are to be adhered to while doing any form of business. Ethics help in setting standards for an organization and helps in differentiating between right or wrong. Ethics is always influenced by situation, time, and place. In any business, there is the need for balancing the desire to make profit and stakeholder’s needs. Business ethics takes into consideration the following factors:

• A business should have a level ground for everyone.
• For proper implementation of ethics in an organization, the conduct of conduct should cover everyone irrespective of their position in the organization. In case of violation, there is need to have a reward of punishment attached.
• Any violation of code of conduct should be detected at the earliest stage and the necessary measures taken to curb the situation.
• Organizations have their code of conduct based on the perception of what is right.

Every organization have their sources of business ethics with majority drawing their code of conduct from culture, religion, and law.  The human resource manager need to be well conversant with values that come from those sources.

Religion

Religion forms the oldest foundation of ethical inspiration. There are numerous religions in the world but all of them are in agreement on certain principles. They do dictate to businesses what is right or wrong. Most religions emphasis on an orderly society which understand its social responsibilities and by doing so the church would have created their code of conduct.

Culture

Culture is a shared belief by a certain group of individuals. Culture is mainly composed of preferences, ideas, values, concept of morality, code of conduct, and perception.  Culture helps employees to prioritize organizational goals over individual interests. It acts like a mechanism of shaping attitudes and behavior of employees. Culture helps in instilling business ethics on the employees.

Law

The laws in place usually have impacts on the human behaviors.  The code of conduct set by the laws are binding and it is the role of the organization to abide by those set laws. Despite their social responsibility to abide to those laws, some business enterprise ends up breaking the set laws. Business enterprises may break the law through tax evasion, pollution of the environment, poor quality, and overpricing of goods and services.

Importance of business ethics

Most employees prefer working in an organization that they can be proud of and respect since they prescribe to their code of conduct. Employees love to work in an organization that take care of its social responsibilities. The human resource managers have the responsibility of ensuring that they create such an environment. A good business ethics helps to win public trust. The society have tendency of subscribing to products from organizations that they deem to be honest and they get value for their money. Effective code of conduct will help in winning the trust of the employees. The code of conduct creates a common language, goals, and values which are crucial for any organization.

A good business ethic will not guarantee profitability for any organization. Organizations with good ethical background tend to lose money in the short term but gain success and profitability with time. An ethical organization will always come to the aid of any society where government have failed to honor its responsibilities.

Top management of any organization usually have an influence on ethics since they are the people tasked with formulating, adoption, and communication of the code of conduct. Regardless of what the employee does or says most people believe it is a clear manifestation of their believes on a certain issue. They are to ensure that communication reaches all the employees in the organization for better implementation of the policies. Manager regularly review the company handbook whenever there is a new training of the employees. The communication can be done through staff or company meetings. In most organization, the human resource managers usually report to the top management whenever there is a rogue employee in the company and it is that level of management that will determine the kind of punishment. It is expected of them through the conviction that they will be able to the organization’s standards. Failure to have any form of punishment might lead to employee’s adopting the trend.

Employee evaluation, reward, and promotion provides an open opportunity for managers to impact ethics. After a successful recruitment process by the relevant people, decision to hire usually lies on the top management. In order to maintain their integrity, it is the responsibility of them to ensure that the best candidate is given the jo opportunity. There are organizations that permit the managers to give incentives or rewards in form of gifts or small cash to the performing employees. Rogue mangers would favour their loyal friends in the company thereby compromising their integrity. Unfair treatment of employees might lead to division amongst the employees and therefore, jeopardizing the operations of the organization.

Human resource management entails employee management, planning, and other employee activities in any organization. It is a department in an organization where ethics normally plays a fundamental role since they deal with industrial relation, safety, health, compensation, and development issues. Ethical issues have proven to be the most difficult to deal with since they cover a vast area. Below are some of the issues that the department usually have to grapple with during its operation.

Race, disability, and gender

There are organizations that treated their employees differently depending on the race, origin, gender, and disability. The same applies when it comes to promotion or giving rewards to performing employees. However, this are qualifications that has been passed by time and most employers seek qualified personnel in terms of performance.

Cash and compensation plans

There are ethical issues associated with employee’s salary, compensations, and annual incentives. Normally, there is an increasing pressure on the human resource management to increase incentives for the top management and provide justification for that action. Rogue managers would champion their individual interest at the expense of the employees who are tasked with doing most of the works.

Employment issues

Human resource department plays a pivotal role in recruitment and retention of staffs. They normally find themselves in dilemma by trying to balance all factors for them to get the best workforce for the organization. They are always under pressure to hire someone recommended by the top executive or a friend or someone very close to them.  During the recruitment process, they find themselves giving job to qualified personnel but upon realization some may have fake documents.  Human resource managers need to maintain high level of integrity but some do fail the test by succumbing to the pressure.

Privacy issues

Most employees love some of their information provided during recruitment process be kept a secret. The company can protect that information both directly or indirectly and the whole responsibility usually lies on the human resource department.