ETHICS IN HR

Prof. S.Swaminathan
 What is human resource is all
about
• It is all about people
– Employing
– Developing
– Engaging
– Compensating
– Career Advancing
– Balancing (Work-Life)
– Contributing to the Organisational Goals
 Ethics In HRM
• Treatment of Employees with
– Ordinary decency, and
– Distributive justice

• Affirmative moral obligations of the employer

towards employees to maintain equality and
equity justice
 Areas of HRM Ethics
• Basic human rights, civil and employments
rights
• Safety in workplace
• Privacy
• Equality and equal opportunity
• Respect , fairness and honesty based process
in the work place
 Role of HR in promoting ethics
• Communication of HR policies across all levels in the
organisation – open and understood
• Transparency in recruitment and selection process
• No pitfalls in performance appraisal – should be
factual and not based on any partiality or bias
• Advocating equal opportunity
• Clear reward and disciplinary system – avoid “show
me the man, I will show the rule”
• No discriminatory practices based on religion,
gender, caste, creed, place, age, appearance etc
 Role of HR in promoting ethics
• Equal opportunity must be given to every employee
for his advancement and development
• Measure should be taken for the employee safety
while working in the organisation
 Role of HR in promoting ethics
• Equal opportunity must be given to every employee
for his advancement and development
• Measure should be taken for the employee safety
while working in the organisation
 Unethical Practices of HRM
• Employers :
– Creating split in union leaders
– Biased attitude in selection, transfer, promotion
etc
– Off shoring and exploiting cheap labour markets
– Child Labour
– Low wages for contract employees
– Longer and Inflexible working hours
– Putting on more stress on employees for
increasing productivity without support
 Unethical Practices of HRM
• Employers :
– Creating split in union leaders
– Biased attitude in selection, transfer, promotion
etc
– Off shoring and exploiting cheap labour markets
– Child Labour
– Low wages for contract employees
– Longer and Inflexible working hours
– Putting on more stress on employees for
increasing productivity without support
 Unethical Practices of HRM
• Employees :
– False claim of personal details like age,
qualifications
– Producing false certificates
– Using office hours for personal work
– Taking leave without proper information
– Leaving the company without adequate notice
– Making false financial claims
– Suppressing information
 The Last Word
• The organisation must be fair and honest to its
staff. Decision taken by the management must
be ethical and legal

• Similarly, every employee must align with the

organisation and be trustworthy, respect the
levels and be transparent in their dealings