Module-2: Ethics in Functional Areas of Business- Human Resource Management

 Human Resource Management(HRM)  is a  process of Planning, Organizing, Directing and Controlling of procurement (recruitment & selection), development (training), compensation (salary, wages & other benefits), appraisal (actual performance & potential performance), maintenance (welfare & record-keeping), and separation (retirement, resignation, retrenchment, etc) of employees or personnel or HR of the organization in order to achieve personal, organizational and social goals effectively and efficiently. 

•       Two types of functions for the HR Manager are

•       Managerial functions-planning, organizing, directing and controlling and 

•       Operative functions- procurement, development, compensation, appraisal, maintenance and separation

•  Here, the HR Manager is applying all managerial functions positively in each of the operative functions to maintain equity, equality and justice.

•       In some operative functions (compensation, appraisal, maintenance and separation) s/he has to maintain equity, while in some others (procurement, development, etc) s/he has to maintain equality and individual and social justice. It is also implied that HR (employees) must play their duties to achieve the organizational and social goals effectively and efficiently

The HRM responsibilities of every organization have a profound effect on organizations and their internal operations and demonstrate the leaders’ commitment to goals, values, and people (Schein & Schein, 2016).

 HRM is a staff function that supports an organization’s strategic focus, assists departments in achieving their goals, and works closely with the Top Management Team (TMT) in supporting their strategic agenda (Boon, Eckardt, Lepak, & Boselie, 2018).

HRM Ethics is “the affirmative moral obligations of the employer (business) towards the employees to maintain equality and equity justice”.  HRM should not treat people (employees) simply as a means for our own purposes without their full and free consent, because they are ends in themselves.

 

 Major HRM ethical issues arise from Discrimination, Privacy of employees, Fairness of Employment Contracts and Occupational safety

 

1.      Discrimination

•       Race, Gender, and Disability

•       The ethics-based organization should not focus on discrimination while the employees should be appreciated for their contribution to the organization (De Gama, McKenna, and Peticca-Harris, 2012).

•       Include discrimination on the bases of age (ageism), gender, race, religion, disabilities, weight and attractiveness, affirmative action, sexual harassment.

•       Affirmative action refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to increase the representation of particular groups based on their gender, race, creed or nationality in areas in which they were excluded in the past such as education and employment.

•       Reservation policies

•       The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is a legislative act in India that seeks to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work. It was passed by the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament) on 3 September 2012.

•       Laws under Indian Penal Code (IPC)

•       Section 354 (A): A man committing any physical contact, advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures; or demanding or requesting sexual favours; or showing pornography against the will of a woman; or making sexually coloured remarks, shall be guilty of the offence of sexual harassment. (Punishment: Rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years)

•       Section 209: Obscene acts in any public place, singing obscene songs to the annoyance of others (Punishment: Imprisonment for a term of up to 3 months or fine, or both).

•       Section 509: Uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman. (You cannot call her “mast".) Punishment: Imprisonment for 1 year, or fine, or both.)

•       The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act (1987)

•       If an individual harasses another with books, photographs, paintings, films, pamphlets, packages, etc. containing ‘indecent representation of women’; They are liable for a minimum sentence of two years

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013

•       Under the Act, sexual harassment includes:

a)      Physical contact and advances (so, you can’t touch someone inappropriately and think I am innocent because, you know, I didn’t rape)

b)      A demand or request for sexual favours

c)       Making sexually coloured remarks (so, no sexist jokes or misogynist humour)

d)      Showing pornography

e)      Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.

f)       Under the Act, the below five also count as sexual harassment:

g)      Implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in her employment.

h)      Implied or explicit threat of detrimental treatment in her employment

i)        Implied or explicit threat about her present or future employment status

j)        Interference with her work or creating an intimidating or offensive work environment for her (for eg., the St. Stephen’s College sexual harassment case)

k)      Humiliating treatment likely to affect her health or safety.

 

 

               

2.      Privacy of Employees

•       All human beings working with any organization have their personal life. An employee needs the organization to directly or indirectly protect his/her personal life. This personal life includes things like the religious, political and social beliefs etc.

•       There are many ethical issues in HR that are related to health and safety, restructuring and layoffs and employee responsibilities. A debate is still going on whether some activities are ethically permitted and why some are not. Layoffs, for example, are not considered unethical as they were thought of in the past.

•       It is ethical when HR manager do not disclose publically

•       Background Information

•       Drug/Medical Testing Reports

•       Monitoring on/off the job

•       Employee records

 

 

3.      Fairness of Employment Contracts

•       Cash and Compensation Plans

•       There are some general ethical issues pertaining to the employee salaries, executive perquisites and compensations and the annual incentive plans, etc. The HR department is often under pressure to increase the band of base salaries. There is always an increased pressure upon the HR function to pay out more incentives to the top management and provide justification for the same to retain them.

•       Further, ethical issues arise when HR deals with long-term compensation and incentive plans by consulting with the CEO or an external consultant. There is a pressure on the HR managers on favouring the interests of the top management in comparison to that of the other employees and stakeholders.

•       Salary and Wage Administration

•       Paying same remuneration to one who is serious, sincere and hardworking and also to one whose contribution is least.

•       Loss suffering company being expected to declare bonus.

•       Paying at different rate to man and a woman doing the same kind of work.

•       Getting an employee signed on full pay and actually paying him less than that. Ethical Issues (Unethical Practices) in HR

•      Employment Issues

Issues arising from the traditional view of relationships between employers and employees, also known as At-will employment.

Issues relating to the fairness of the employment contract and the balance of power between employer and employee: slavery, indentured servitude, employment law.

Issues surrounding the representation of employees and the democratization of the workplace: union busting, strike breaking.

•      Recruitment & Selection

§  Placing misleading advertisements for jobs.

§  Misrepresenting the requirements of a particular position.

§  Responding to a hiring manager who has asked you to find a way “around” not hiring a qualified candidate for discriminatory purposes.

§  Not reviewing candidates based on their merits.

§  Matching a job with person or vice-versa

§  Role of out side pressures in selection of wrong ones

§  Selecting more than required number of people Recruitment & Selection Ethical Issues (Unethical Practices) in HR

•      Training

    •          When training need of employee is identified on the basis of a single or nebulous factor.

    •       When there is absence of relativity between training purposes and training output.

    •       When the trainees consider attending training programmes merely as a change and a medium of gaining pleasure.

    •       When there is absence of feedback on training

    •       When training is considered as an instrument of individual growth by employees.

    •       When training programme has been ‘finished’ and not ‘completed’.

    •       When training infrastructure is not fully utilised.

    •       When a trainer comes unprepared and completes his task in a hampy campy manner.

    •       When trainers are selected for training programme under pressure of favoritism or nepotism.

    •       When the feedback about the training programme is featured as ‘dull’ ‘monotonous’ and ‘useless’.

•      Performance Appraisal

§  Central tendency, halo effect, mirror personality etc

§  Method of appraisal is not proper

§  Superfluous reporting of his traits to employee is also unfair

 

4.      Occupational Safety

 

Employee’s safety in the workplace is the ethical as well as the human right that should be provided by the organization. It is one of the sensitive factors that cannot be avoided by the organization to their employees (Janssens and Steyaert, 2009)

The three crucial bills :

•       The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020,

•       The Code on Social Security, and

•       The Industrial Relations Code

The new labour code universalises minimum wages, timely payment of wages and gives priority to occupational safety of workers(Sept 2020)

•       Three key labour reform bills that will remove impediments to

•       Winding up of companies and

•       Allow firing of staff without government permission in firms with up to 300 workers from the existing 100, a move aimed at attracting more investments and job creation.

•       Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”.

•       “The Labour reforms will ensure ‘Ease of Doing Business’. These are futuristic legislations to empower enterprises by reducing compliance, red-tapism and ‘Inspector Raj’. The reforms also seek to harness the power of technology for the betterment of the workers and industry both,”

 

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