Critically Analyzing the Role of HR Managers in Ethics

This essay critically analyzes the role of Human Resource (HR) managers in upholding ethical standards within organizations. It explores the importance of ethics in HRM, emphasizing ethical standards, awareness, and operational ethics. The analysis delves into ethical dilemmas and lapses, HR ethical issues, and the promotion of fairness and justice. The assignment includes a case study comparing cross-cultural differences in managing ethics between China and Brazil. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of ethics in human resources concerning legal considerations, company reputation, and employee loyalty, providing a comprehensive overview of ethical practices within HRM. The essay highlights the importance of ethical behavior in building a positive work environment and maintaining a company's reputation.

Running head: CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Critically analysis Role of HR Managers in Ethics
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

2CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Critically analysis Role of HR Managers in Ethics.........................................................................2
Role of HR in promoting ethics.......................................................................................................3
Ethical standards..........................................................................................................................4
Ethical awareness.........................................................................................................................5
Operational ethics........................................................................................................................5
Unethical practices of Human Resource Management....................................................................6
HR ethical issues..............................................................................................................................7
Fairness and Justice.........................................................................................................................7
Case study analysis and justified examples on cross cultural differences on managing issues of
ethics by taking countries such as China and Brazil........................................................................8
Cultural similarities between Brazil and China in performing business activities......................8
Cultural differences between Brazil and China for conducting business activities.....................8
Importance of Ethics in human resources........................................................................................9
Legal Considerations...................................................................................................................9
Company Reputation...................................................................................................................9
Employee Loyalty........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference List................................................................................................................................12

3CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Introduction
Human Resource Management is one of the business functions that is related or
connected with managing relations between group of people such as employees, managers and
employers (Wilton 2016). In this particular assignment, main emphasis has been given on
understanding about ethics in human resource in business organization for establishing corporate
culture for driving organizational excellence. The current segment elucidates about ethics and
expressed in value judgments of worth as well as duly or goodness (Reiche, Mendenhall and
Stahl 2016). Ethics cannot be defined and implemented in an appropriate way as it not only
involves thinking but also feeling. Ethics refers as some standardized form of conduct as well as
behavior of individuals that is accepted in a specific field of activity. There are some of the
theories on ethics that give clear picture on the needs as well as necessity of ethics in Human
Resource Management. The theory relates to moral unity as well as amorality. To that, the theory
of moral unity predominantly advocates the principle where the business action need to be
judged by the general ethical standards of the society as a whole (Wehrmeyer 2017). On the
other hand, theory of amorality refers to business that can be amoral and action of business
people that are not abiding by the general ethical standards.
Critically analysis Role of HR Managers in Ethics
On critical analysis, it is noted that ethics in Human Resource Management shows how to
treat employees with utmost courtesy as well as distributive fairness. Human Resource
Management aims at dealing with manpower planning as well as development activities in given
business enterprise (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).

4CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Human resource management plays an important role as it introduces the concept of
ethics as well as highlights the ethical concerns that emerge from recent HRM databases. From
the available information, it reflects the viewpoint where the ethics is treated as a pivotal issue
for the HR specialists (Snell, Morris and Bohlander 2015). There are several ethical frameworks
as well as application in HRM policies that need to be reviewed for getting insights of
information about role of HR managers in ethics. In addition, human resource systems need to
promulgate an ethical culture where the ethics actually pervades selection, performance
appraisal, retention decisions as well as staffing activities and compensation activities.
Furthermore, human resource systems as well as ethical corporate cultures need to be taken into
consideration as partners who get involved in the process for creating competitive advantage for
business enterprise (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
It is important to consider the fact that management of ethics in human resource is treated
under two general categories. The two categories are ethical dilemmas as well as ethical lapses.
In addition, the major ethical dilemmas in Human Resource Management arise from functional
area of business activities. There are several areas of ethical misconduct present in personal
function that takes into account activities such as employment, labor relations as well as health
and safety at the same time (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
Role of HR in promoting ethics
The main role of Human managers is to improve in the recruitment as well as selection
process (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe 2014). They should pursue the recruitment strategy that is
needed for recruitment activities, financial aspects as well as criterion for assortment and
preferences. The HR manager needs to follow situational factors like economic factors as well as

5CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
social factors and technological factors. The HR manager needs to conduct ethics training. This
manager should give equal opportunities to every employee who are working in the company
and looking for advancement and development activities (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
The Human Resource Professionals should make an effort to create an ethical workplace
where employees feel safe to work in that business enterprise. The HR manager needs to abide
by the ethical standards that should be clear and easy to understand (Jamali, El Dirani and
Harwood 2015). The importance of ethics in workplace had been acknowledged by all and for
this reason most of the business organization is recognizing the need to guard against major
misconduct. In that way, small number of organization are engaging ways where they just avoid
any misconduct as well as strive to increase the level of ethical behavior at that place. For this,
the main goal of the business organization should be to provide a principled society where ethics
infuse the way activities is conducted in significant ways (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe 2014).
It is not easy to realize the goal as it is resolute by a grouping of proposal as well as
demand by getting huge sustenance from business enterprise. Human Resources are still able to
fulfill an essential role for promoting ethics within other primary factors as it contributes to an
ethical culture. These factors are ethical standards as well as ethical awareness and operational
ethics (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
“Ethical standards”
The main principle of the principled standards of a company is to offer a clear guide for
performance. In addition, the company needs to properly document the code of values as well as
code of conduct and supporting policies that together comprise a code of ethics. It is mainly
treated as an HR function where HR is placed for ensuring foundation aspects and reviewed on

6CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
annually basis and understanding the effective facet of the ethics programs within business
enterprise (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe 2014).
Ethical awareness
It is important to understand the fact that ethical awareness is one of the essential factors
that serves ways for promoting ethical behavior as well as reducing unethical behavior. For
instance, the principle actually applies in an agency with high levels of principled consciousness.
To that, ethical awareness can be attained by making use of variety of method (Gelens et al.
2013). The mechanism includes assessing as well as checking and reporting on ethical
performance as it advocates by the company. The action taken help in promoting ethical
awareness in the most appropriate way. Human resources manager here is the main contributor
who aims at building as well as maintaining ethical awareness that falls under the scope of
Human resources. The other action is about ethics training that act as a main contributor that help
in driving the process a step further. The next action is leadership where the leaders are
responsible to build ethical awareness as and when required. Human resources need to encourage
ethical activities at workplace by recruiting the top talent that emphasizes upon better equipping
their leaders to become role models (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
Operational ethics
It is important to understand the fact that integrating ethical standards into company’s
operations need to be practiced in the most effective way. This action has a comparative impact
on the ethical standards as well as ethical awareness and principled culture in which it either
supports or underpins the activities. In addition, ethics need to be incorporated by using range of
practices as well as systems and procedures like recruitment checks, promotion discussions;

7CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
ethics attributes as well as performance management system and employee award programs
(Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
Unethical practices of Human Resource Management
 Employers
 Coercion
 Child Labor
 Longer as well as inflexible working hours
 Biased attitude in transfer, promotion and selection
 Creating spilt in union leaders
 Employees
 Showing false certificates
 Undertaking decisions based on their convenience
 False claim of personal details such as age and qualifications
 Government
 Functioning of government offices is not always visible as well as consistent
 Announcing vacancies but not taking any action in future

8CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Ethical issues in HR
Employee Responsibility
Cash and compensation plans
Performance Appraisal Privacy issues
Race and disability Safety and health Employment issuesRestructuring and layoffs
HR ethical issues
Figure: Diagrammatic representation of HR ethical issues
(Source: Chun et al. 2013)
The above diagram shows HR ethical issues. There are several ethical issues that pertain
to attributes such as salaries, annual incentive plans and executive perquisites. In addition, the
HR managers have the responsibility to raise the band of base salaries. HR managers even face
issues at the time of hiring of employees (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
Fairness and Justice
The HR Manager need to be morally accountable for promoting as well as development
fairness and justice for all human resources and business enterprise

9CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
There are several points that need to be taken into account for promoting fairness as well as
justice in business enterprise.
Business enterprise need to realize the intrinsic value of its employees
Treating people with self-respect, sympathy as well as respect for fostering a trusting
work environment that is free from harassment, unlawful discrimination and intimidation.
Business enterprise should be fair as well as honest towards its employees or staff
members.
Decision undertaken by the management need to be ethical as well as legal (Reiche,
Mendenhall and Stahl 2016)
Case study analysis and justified examples on cross cultural differences on managing issues
of ethics by taking countries such as China and Brazil
Cultural similarities between Brazil and China in performing business activities
Both Chinese as well as Brazilians prefer to socialize when they engage in conducting the
business activities.
Both Chinese and Brazilians aim at maintaining business relationships for establishing an
atmosphere of trust.
Face-to-face meetings are mostly preferred by the Brazilians and Chinese as compared to
telephonic communication (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
Cultural differences between Brazil and China for conducting business activities
Individualism versus collectivism- On comparison between countries like Britain and
China, Chinese society is collectivist and Brazilian society focus mainly on individuals.

10CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
In Chinese culture, they do not like if anyone interrupt other person if someone is
speaking. Brazilian people are more tolerable in these activities.

11CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
Significance of Ethics in human resources
It is important to give proper attention to business ethics by the owner or managers. The
human resources mainly function by undertaking wide variety of challenges and take into
account numerous ethical pitfalls. It is important to understand the significance of ethics in
human resources as it is critical for any of the trade owner.
Legal Considerations
It is essential to consider the fact that breaches of ethics in human resources can lead
companies to get hold of lawful problem. In addition, business with inclusive ethics programs
cannot avoid costly trouble in regard to discrimination as well as hostile work environment
issues as it result in lower costs for litigation as well as out of court resolution (Aswathappa
2013).
Reputation of the company
Nowadays, legal trouble can actually initiate additional challenges for the employers as
the news outlets an principles watchdog business enterprise for spreading the word about any
misdeed that takes place in business enterprise. Gaining status as an ethical company as it help to
attract the top talent in the business from wider area where the human resources believes in
finding the most valuable employment association with each other (Reiche, Mendenhall and
Stahl 2016).
Employee Loyalty
It is important to understand the fact that training employees ethically will help in
building long-term employee trust as well as loyalty as it convey a range of different benefits to
company. In addition, loyal human resources even gain more experiences when they work with

12CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ROLE OF HR MANAGERS IN ETHICS
the employers as it allows them to master production process as well as understanding the inner
workings of the business enterprise (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016).
There are no single theories or opinions about ethics in HRM that is purely convincing
for every single person. The requirement like policies and procedures cannot be denied and take
care about activities such as discrimination, union laws, health and safety of employees. The
present study properly explains about ethical standards that guide the practice of Human resource
management. The main principle of the organization is to enhance in the level of dignity of
several harmed parties as well as sustaining in the moral sensibility for performing the tasks and
applying proper set of standards (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). The standards even elucidates
about ethical challenges that results in performing the work of human resource management.
There is an urgent need of priority based selections in the business enterprise where the
management needs to undertake steps for proper selection process in the business enterprise. It is
due to dissatisfaction from some of the group of employees on matters relating to system of
testing and grading in training process, there is a need to undertake measures for testing as well
as grading process in business enterprise (Husselid, 1995). There is a need to undertake some
strategic measures to bring cooperation between employees as well as employers for getting
access to better performance in developing job skills. It is important to aware employees about
the approach of administration where they need to assist with the management for better
performance in the most appropriate way. It is important for all the employees to understand the
system of measuring productivity of employees as well as system to measure the transfer credits
so that they reward real worker who are working hard for the business enterprise. It is the
responsibility of the management to provide safe working environment to the employees so that
all employees feel safe and know the importance of ethics at the time of conducting activities in