Ethical Challenges in Human Resource Management (Essay Sample)

Ethical Challenges in Human Resource Management
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
Ethical Challenges in Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to the formal systems which are responsible for managing people in an organization (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004). Notably, the focus of HRM is not on an individual member in an organization. Instead, it entails human resources practices and methods which regard staffing, compensation, performance, and the way a person gets incorporated in an organization adopts the organization's culture and exits it. On the condition that all aspects are efficiently managed, the organization will be able to realize a competitive advantage. However, one of the vital factors in HRM is critical consideration of the ethical concerns.
Ethics in HRM
The basis of any corporate mission, goals, or objectives is the ethics (Michael Bendixen & Abratt, 2007). To achieve goals in an organization, it is necessary that every department in the organization contributes including marketing, production, or finance. By definition, ethics refers to the study of the standards and behavior related to moral judgment. Every person in business or society needs to employ ethics in their undertakings.
First, ethics is a fundamental need for every person primarily since they have to endorse the fact that any decision they make may affect different people. HR managers express a need for feeling proud of the employees in an organization that has high respect in the marketplace. Second, ethics is essential for creating an excellent public image which attracts customers. In the past, companies accused of being unethical ended up with a bad reputation. For instance, McDonald's has been the most successful companies until concerns about the preparation of food emerged (Grant, 2000). Since then, it has been struggling to maintain its name in the market. Third, ethics play a vital role during the process of decision-making and leads to value-driven and sound choices.
Ethical Issues in HRM
Operation of human resources across geographic boundaries proves as a challenging issue for man businesses. HR managers usually look for skilled labor in the host countries, and the accompanying challenges include language barriers, cultural differences, laws about employment in the local countries, and the distinctions in business etiquette (Mahroum, 2002). To overcome these challenges, organizations engage skill to limit the organizational operations within the appropriate practices.
Job Design and Restructuring
Job design is a typical course of action and, therefore, does not attract any unethical issues. However, when a company finds that it needs to redesign its structure, it may end up laying off employees or downsizing the staff. Restructuring is relevant mainly due to the limited administration or the fact that particular employees become redundant. As alternatives to the job design, it entails job redefinition, enlargement, simplification, or empowerment (Ugboro, 2006). In regards to job redefinition, the organization may change the management or decide to encompass new technology. Either way, there is a risk of affecting the integrity of specific employees. Similarly, an enlargement at the workplace may serve as a benefit to the leadership but lower the morale of employees. Again, simplification involves the use of technology to enhance the efficiency at the workplace. In most instances, it ends up replacing the jobs of employees, and they lose their jobs. Empowerment of the employees involves equipping them with additional skills relevant in the workplace (Russell, 2001). Some people may perceive this as a cynical gesture towards their performance.
Human Resource Planning
In basic terms, HR planning is a human resources process of moving from a particular workforce position to the desired place in a firm (Jabbour & Santos, 2008). The purpose of planning is to ensure that there is neither overstaffing nor understaffing which may be problematic. Fundamentally, it assists in providing that there is an excellent supply of skilled and motivated employees to fulfill both organizational and personal goals. In the case that the HR department does not carry out this process appropriately, it may raise ethical issues. By all means, it is morally right to plan human resource for the future which is advantageous to companies. But it may also lead to grave effects if there are mistakes even if it not intentional. For instance, a company may decide to execute merger and execution but choose not to interfere with the workforce. In such a situation, both organizations may note results of a significant percentage of employees exceeding 50 years. After a decade or thereabout, the company may record a severe issue of shortage of skilled and experienced employees.
Recruitment
Every organization recruits employees to increase the workforce to fill in the various positions in a company. There are two primary recruitment sources including internal and external sources (Cable & Turban, 2001). First, internal sources entail current and past employees, people who depend on the retired employees, and deceased employees. The act of heavy dependence on the internal sources for recruiting employees is deteriorating. Initially, it involved benefits like employee commitment, simplicity, maintaining good terms with the trade unions, and buoyancy. Additionally, employees recruited in this process would be easily controlled. However, with the rising need for highly-qualified and talented personnel and the risk of inbreeding which is a characteristic of the traditional system of recruiting (Horta & Yudkevich, 2016), such would hinder the growth of firms. Critical issues to determine the nature of recruitment process include the level at which it is just to replace internal employees since they have a long relationship with companies. Another vital aspect is the impact on the career of a person and the cost of maintaining them.
Dealing with Trade Unions
Trade unions have an enormous influence in most countries all over the world (Michael E Porter & Kramer, 2018). They are responsible for enlisting constituents in growing sectors and establish enhanced collective bargaining strategies on a global scale (International Labour Organization, 2007). Often enough, they claim to have objectives including democracy, greater pragmatism, and freedom of the workers. Unions are responsible for dealing with issues which affect the society and employees. As their role, they disregard anomalies reported in compensation, the welfare of the employees, and promotions. If the manager of the human resources department wishes to have simple industrial operations, they have to establish good relations with the leadership of various unions.
Culture
Culture is a sensitive issue when referring to the leadership ethics in multinational corporations. In many instances, a uniform code of ethics is not applicable to both the parent and foreign countries where the organization conducts business (Wood & Logsdon, 2005). As such, the HR ought to ensure they have adequate cross-cultural training and make an attempt to ensure that the operations in other countries are congruent with the values and ethics of the parent company. The HR manager ought to ensure that the company embraces both conservatism and liberalism depending on the country where global business is conducted (Lantos, 2011). Indeed, it is crucial to develop overseas employees to make them qualified in case the company wants to promote employees.
Training and Development
Training is a process of increasing the knowledge that an employee has about their job which purposes to impart the workforce with new skills in their fields (Garg & Ratsogi, 2006). On the other hand, development is a continuous process of learning, getting the necessary education, and training. Unlike training, development is a long process programmed to assist the workforce in learning the relevant skills and abilities to achieve particular goals. The modern industries necessitate continuous training and development to cater the changing market economies, increasing complexity in technology, and personal aspirations of workers. Some of the ethical instances include the absence of relations between the intentions of training and its results, lack of feedback during the process, lack of adequate structure to support this process, lack of a clear distinction between finishing a project and completing it (Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2003). All in all, it the responsibility to ensure that this process is smooth.
Work Integration
Currently, a significant number of organizations face a challenge of involving employees in the various activities, chiefly when it consists of an expatriate in a host country trying to make critical decisions. The HR ought to understand that employees determine the satisfaction of customers and should, therefore, be considered in the various job undertakings. Workers are in a strategic position to make the right decisions concerning multiple issues since they have direct experience. However, sometimes the leadership does not consult them in specific activities primarily due to language and cultural barriers. Fundamentally, this is unethical since they have more knowledge and would offer better advice. Also, they have direct involvement in achieving the company objecti