Ethics are crucial in HR management, particularly in areas such as hiring, discrimination, sexual harassment, and privacy issues. HR managers must base their decisions on merit, not bias, and not abuse their position for personal gain. Failure to apply ethics can lead to incompetent employees and reduced productivity.
The role of ethics in HR management is simply the fact that ethics are the main cornerstone of the entire HR management practice. Indeed, human resources (HR) deals with the personal aspects of the enterprise and touches on many issues that require the application of ethical standards. Some of the areas that demonstrate this include employee hiring and promotion, discrimination, sexual harassment and privacy issues, as well as the practice of stated occupational safety and health standards.
One of the main functions in the HR department is hiring workers. This is an important responsibility that has many ramifications for future employees who may benefit from getting the job or becoming unemployed. The HR manager, who often has the final say when it comes to deciding who to hire, must be truly ethical in the hiring process. He or she must ensure that people are hired based on merit, not personal or professional bias, preference, or bias. For example, if a male HR manager is faced with the decision to hire one out of two women, she must ethically base her final decision on the more qualified of the pair and not the more attractive.
Human resources managers and other hiring decision makers should not abuse their position by seeking to use it as a means to sexually harass prospective or current employees. For example, applying ethics requires that the HR manager should not solicit sexual favors from desperate applicants in exchange for job promises. Managers should not solicit sexual or other favors from workers in exchange for keeping their jobs or continuing to receive certain benefits.
Of course, the role of ethics in human resource management would not be complete without the important issue of discrimination, such as those based on religion, gender, disability, race, physical attributes, sexual orientation, political affiliations, or even something as trivial as sports team supported by a potential employee. Sometimes, the decision on who to hire depends more on the inclinations of the HR manager than on the needs of the organization. Any organization where HR processes are not firmly rooted in ethics will ultimately suffer in terms of incompetent employees and a reduction or lack of production capacity.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
