Importance of Ethical Dimensions to Strategic HRM in Future - Essay Example

? Importance of ethical dimensions to strategic HRM in future Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) is one of the vital areas of organizational functions. In simple words, HRM is the process of employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in accordance with the job and organizational requirement. Hiring of the people, developing their resources through training, utilizing them by placing them in appropriate places and sustaining their services with respect to needs of the organization etc are some of the vital functions of HRM. The entry of globalization has brought many changes in business world in the form of cross cultural businesses, outsourcing, offshoring etc. Based on the new developments in the business world, HRM strategies are also undergoing drastic changes at present. Earlier, HRM functions were labeled as personnel management. Later, it acquired the form of human resource management. Now instead of HRM, Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is gaining grounds in organizations of the modern world. The core of SHRM is to prepare the employees in accordance with the strategies of the organization. The integration of the employees in to the main streams of organizational activities is a modern day business strategy. Along with the expansion of human resource management or strategic human resource management, lots of ethical problems are also arising. When organizations move into foreign markets, they must adapt to communication, culture and human resource issues. Domestic business and international businesses have more differences than similarities. Moreover, ethical dimensions of HRM would be more significant in cross cultural businesses than in domestic businesses because of the huge differences in cultures between countries. “Education, social standing, religion, personality, belief structure, past experience, affection shown in the home, and a myriad of other factors will affect human behaviour and culture” (Encina, 2007). Most of the current organizations have extremely diverse workforce and hence the interests of these diverse workforce may often been clash each other. Strategic HRM policies should be formulated in such a way that all the employees working in an organization get equal opportunities and fair treatments. “Ethical conventions should be fully addressed by the HRM profession and ethics be integrated into the strategic HRM process” (Carey, 2011) Business ethics was not much interested in the issues relating to the ethical management of employees till recent times. “Apart from the development of ethical awareness among managers and the ethical dimension of change management processes, there has been little debate around the ethical basis of much HR policy and practice” (Winstanley & Woodall, 2000, p.1). However, current business Gurus are aware of the necessities of managing employees in an ethical way for the sustainment of their business. This paper briefly analyses the ethical dimensions of strategic HRM in future Ethical dimensions of strategic HRM in future The work culture in different countries are different and hence while employing diverse workforce, an organization may face clashes between the interests of diverse employees. For example, Americans like to work under a stress free environment because of the immense freedom they are enjoying in their country because of democracy. However, Chinese may not enjoy such freedom in the work places of their country because of the tight communist administration. An American working in China may face extreme difficult situations in China because of the contrasting business management philosophies he may face in China. Strategic HRM should give more focus in such areas in order to reduce the stress levels of the diverse employees. “There is a powerful argument that the wider economic system and ultimately the business organisations within it exist to serve human and societal needs rather than the opposite” (Winstanley & Woodall, 2000, p.4). Even though man, material, machine and money are the most vital resources of an organization, manpower seems to be the most important one. No other organizational resources can be mobilized or utilized in the absence of effective manpower resources. In other words, management of manpower resources determines the success and failures of a business. Current organizations have realized the importance of manpower resources more than the organizations of a couple of decades before. Only the satisfied employees will work hard or increase their productivity for the organizations. One of the major ethical HRM problems, organizations may face in future could be about providing flexible working hours to the employees. “'Flexibility' in variable pay systems or in the contract of employment and 'high commitment' work practices raises ethical questions about practices as varied as `presenteeism' and long working hours” (Winstanley & Woodall, 2000, p.4). Flexibility in working hours is one of the most important demands of the current employees. Most of the current employees are complaining about the work-life imbalances. Lengthy working hours often create problems for the employees in finding enough time to spend with their families. On the other hand, organizations are facing skilled manpower shortage at present and this problem could be exaggerated in future. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the organizations to reduce the workloads or the working hours of the existing employees. Strategic HRM should give more focus in addressing the above issue. The success of strategic HRM may rest on how well it can balance the needs of the organization and the needs of the employees in future. HR policies and practices are often been treated differently by different line of managers and employees. A CEO, an HR professional, a line manager and a worker may have different views and concepts about HR policies and procedures. A CEO always interested in safeguarding the interests of the organization and hence he may always argue for providing lengthy working hours to the employees. The workers often interested in reducing the workloads or working hours. On the other hand, the line managers and the HR managers should safeguard the interests of the organization and the employees. In short, different people in an organization may have different perceptions about the HR policies and procedures and the success of strategic HRM depend on how well the HT managers were able to manage the needs of the organization and the employees without sacrificing the interests of both. Krishnan (2005) has pointed out that “performance measurement takes place on many more dimensions and it is therefore more challenging to align individual and business interests” (Krishnan, 2005, p.3). The interests of the workers and that of the organization should go hand in hand so that both the workers and the organization will benefit from it. But in many cases, the interests of the organization and the interests of the employees are contradictory. For example, modern organizations will ask the workers to stay back for overtime works. But frequent overtime work may destroy the work-life balancing of the employees. So, employees may resist against such tactics of the organization. The HR department should work effectively in such cases, in allotting the works to the employees without causing many damages to the interests of the employees. A desire to 'capture hearts and minds' in the service of corporate goals has extended the focus of training and development activity beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge and skills into shaping values and attitudes, by means of new techniques of value and culture change. None of these issues are merely issues of organisational justice. They also raise questions about the scope of employer duty of care, about individual rights to autonomy privacy, dignity and self-esteem, and the boundaries between organisational demands and employee subjectivity (Winstanley & Woodall, 2000, p.4-5). Employee retention is one of the major problems faced by the current organizations. Current organizations are spending huge amounts for the training and the development of the employees. Training is the core of preparing or making an employee useful to the organization. “Training is a learning process that involves the acquisition of knowledge, sharpening of skills, concepts, rules, or changing of attitudes and behaviours to enhance the performance of employees” (Introduction Of Training, 2007). Training helps an employee to realize his mission properly and also the easy ways to reach the targets. Most of the youths who joins an organization as a fresher, may not have much ideas about the organizational environments. Whatever they learned from the institutions might be the theoretical part and the practical part begins when they start their career in an organization. Training is the only option for the employers to make the fresh candidate suitable for their organization. The do’s and don’ts of the organization, organizational behaviour, culture, objectives etc can be provided to the employees only through training. However, there are many cases in which employees quit the organization in search of better opportunities after acquiring additional skills through training from their present organization. The ethics of asking the employees to serve the organization for a particular period is often a controversial subject. Many of the organizations are taking bonds from the employees before giving training in order to ensure their services at least for a fixed period even though the employees are not much interested in giving such a guarantee to the employers. HRM has two important functions; one with respect to the organizational needs and the other related to the individual needs of the employees. HR department acts as the bridge between the organization and the employees. The needs of the organization and the needs of the employees may not go in one direction always. The HR department should make sure that the organizational goals were met without sacrificing the interests of the employees. The role of the Human Resource Manager is evolving with the change in competitive market environment and the realization that Human Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire consequences, as their competitors may be outplaying them in the strategic employment of their human resources (Dr. Chan, 2009) Confidentiality of information is another major ethical problem faced by current HR managers and employees. Employees don’t want to inform their managers that they are searching for better opportunities. On the other hand, HR managers should be aware of such intentions of the employees in order to retain the employees. The retention strategies adopted by the HR managers may not be employee-friendly and hence no employee would like to inform his managers about his intentions to leave the organization. In short, confidentiality of information is vital to the employees and the managers. The major ethical question relevant here is; up to what extent the HR managers can use force to retain the employees. From an HR practitioner’s perspective, multiple values present in the practice of HRM, namely, efficiency, competitiveness, care and justice. As long as HR managers are concerned with both the management of systems and the management of people, it is difficult to see how they could give up any one of these values (Marshal, 2007) Current organizations try to improve their performances by improving areas like the efficiency of the workers, quality of the products or services, customer services, and innovation. All these four building blocks of corporate success need the human element and hence modern HRM strategies give more importance to these parameters. Human element is vital in ensuring the corporate success. Efficiency of the workers is important in improving the productivity of an organization. Efficient workers will always be an asset for an organization whereas inefficient workers create problems to the organization. Only the efficient workers would be able to maintain good quality of the products or services offered by an organization. Moreover, efficient workers sometimes add some innovative elements to the products or services offered by an organization and the organization could be benefitted out of it. Human capital theory refers to the increase in productivity and efficiency of workers by increasing the level of cognitive stock of economically productive human capability which is a product of innate abilities and investment in human beings (Olaniyan & Okemakinde, 2008, p. 158). Efficiency of a worker depends on many factors and the attitude of the worker is one among them. Attitude of the worker can be modified only through the modification of his cognitive activities and for that purpose human capital theory proposes training and education. Globalization brought many changes in international business circle and most of the big business organizations are operating in a diverse environment now. Outsourcing and offshoring are some of the prominent business strategies adopted by organizations at present to exploit the opportunities provided by globalization. Domestic business and international businesses have more differences than similarities. It is difficult to establish a business in a foreign country because of differences in culture, organizational setups, linguistic differences, legal problems, environmental problems, labour problems and infrastructure problems. In all the above cases, local expertise is necessary for an organization to operate successfully in a foreign country. Many of the employees are working in different countries at present because of the internationalization of business. For example, many of the Indian IT professionals visit countries like America, UK, Germany etc for different types of project works. Same way Americans visit many foreign countries in order to establish their businesses in those countries. In all these cases, the HR department is responsible for giving adequate training to the employees on deputation to foreign countries. According to David A Victor (2009), Language, Environment, Social organizations, Contexting, Authority, Nonverbal behaviours and Time concepts are different in different countries (Victor, 2009). The HR professionals should be aware of these differences and they should give adequate training to the employees on deputation to foreign countries. However, many of the current organizations are not giving such training to the employees and hence the employees facing lot of culture related problems in foreign countries. It is ethically wrong to send employees to foreign countries without providing them enough training. “The view that employees are legitimate stakeholders in the organization is often taken for granted either explicitly or implicitly in both the fields of HRM and business ethics” (Greenwood & De Cieri, 2005, p.3). Employers often define the norms and procedures in order to safeguard their interests. They will define employees as part of the organization at least on papers in order to put more responsibility upon the shoulders of the employees. However, while distributing the profits, they will never consider the employee needs favourably. It is the duty of the HR professionals to define the roles of each employee clearly to them and also to ensure a fair deal of employees by the organization. Conclusions Human resource management is facing lot of challenges at present and these challenges seem to be increasing day by day. Cross cultural business is growing and management of a diverse workforce is extremely complicated. It is the moral responsibility of the HR professionals to ensure fair dealings to all the employees irrespective of their religion, culture, race or gender. Manpower availability is also decreasing day by day. It is ethically wrong to ask the available employees to work for longer periods since such tactics will affect the work-life balance of the employees. HR professionals are responsible for safeguarding the interests of the employees and that of the organization. The CEO and the employees may have contrasting objectives and the major challenge which is going to be faced by the HR professionals is how to satisfy the employees and the CEO, without sacrificing the interests of both. References 1. Carey L.E. (2011). Ethical Dimensions of a Strategic Approach to HRM: An Australian Perspective[Online] Available at: http://apj.sagepub.com/content/37/3/53.abstract [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 2. Dr. Chan, A (2009). The Challenges of Human Resource Management[Online] Available at: http://www.zeromillion.com/business/hrm.html [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 3. Encina G. B. (2007) Cultural Differences? Or, are we really that different? [Online] Available at: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article01.htm, [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 4. Greenwood M & De Cieri, H (2005). Stakeholder theory and the ethics of human resource management, [Online] Available at: http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mgt/research/working-papers/2005/wp47-05.pdf [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 5. Introduction Of Training, (2007), [Online] Available at: http://traininganddevelopment.naukrihub.com/training.html [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 6. Krishnan, R.T. (2005). Linking Corporate Strategy and HR Strategy: Implications for HR Professionals. Emerging Asia: An HR Agenda, New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2005. 7. Marshal P. (2007). Business ethics and the future - The Fifth Paradigm? [Online] Available at: http://www.hrinz.org.nz/system/knowledge_base/Articles.asp?RD=1&Id=216&Type=Article [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 8. Olaniyan. D.A & Okemakinde. T (2008), Human Capital Theory: Implications for Educational Development, European Journal of Scientific Research. Vol.24 No.2 (2008), pp.157-162, 9. Victor D. A. (2009). Cross-Cultural/International Communication. [Online] Available at: http://www.enotes.com/biz-encyclopedia/cross-cultural-international-communication [Accessed on 28 January 2011] 10. Winstanley D. & Woodall J. (2000). The ethical dimension of human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal. London 2000.Volume:10,Issue:2 Read More