Developing Effective HRM: Ethical Considerations and Business Value

This report explores the critical role of ethical leadership and professionalism in Human Resource Management (HRM). It emphasizes the growing need for HR professionals to uphold ethical standards and create ethical organizational cultures, especially in the wake of financial crises and scandals. The report discusses key qualities of an HR professional, including ethical and social responsibility, commitment, expertise, situational judgment, and strong moral values. It highlights the importance of HR professionalism in building trust and credibility, challenging established practices, and offering critical perspectives on creating sustainable organizational value through people. Furthermore, the report addresses the need for HR to balance its focus on business partnering with its social roles and ethical concerns. It also provides insights on developing a more effective human resource department by focusing on both effectiveness and efficiency, leveraging technology, improving processes, and developing HR talent. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of a good HR department in providing guidance and strategic decision-making during times of crisis.

Running head: Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
In the wake of financial crisis and scandals in several organizations, there is a growing
need for professionals to provide leadership and uphold ethical standards. Priority should be
given to create ethical cultures in organizations wherein profits would be important but not at the
expense of workers and society. The HR profession should develop its expertise in organization
and human behaviour and use that to create business solutions that benefit the stakeholders of an
organization (Suseno & Bao 2014). In any profession, professionals are bound to face conflicts
of values between various stakeholders of an organization. One should be able to apply
situational judgments and display moral integrity. This helps organizations create long-term
sustainability.
Effective Qualities of an HR Professional : An HR professional should have
ethical and social responsibility. An HR professional should also have a sense of commitment.
He or she should possess a body of skills and expert knowledge and continue to develop both
personally as well as professionally. An HR professional should display situation judgement and
have a strong sense of identity. It is important for HR professionals to maintain strong moral and
ethical values so that when their members apply their expertise in any given field they are
automatically trusted (Balthazard 2015).
Human Resource Professionalism: The CIPD is developing a model on what it
takes to be a professional. It is creating a new structure of specialized principles to build
professionalism in the HR community. This report is meant for HR professionals and is meant to
help them to uphold ethical and moral values in the organization. Professionalization is a process
that takes time since professional tactics develop gradually over a period of time. The elements

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of professionalism include body of expert knowledge and skills, ethical responsibility, social
responsibility, self-regulation, identity, situational judgement, service orientation and continuing
professional development (Balthazard 2015). An HR professional is not just about showing
expertise and skill but knowing where to apply that knowledge. An HR professional should be
sensitive to the ethical choice that are available and that is what makes the advice of a HR
professional trustworthy and relevant (Suseno & Bao 2014). HR professionalism is all about
building trust and credibility by displaying courage and capability to challenge established
practices, norms and offer business leaders a plethora of critical perspectives on how to create
organizational value which is sustainable through people. HR professionalism entails that an HR
professional possess maturity and self control. The ten elements of HR professionalism include
scholarship, integrity, honour, leadership, pride, independence, spirit and enthusiasm, civility and
collegiality, service to the public good and balanced commercialism (Balthazard 2015).
In the past few years, HR has been criticized for downplaying the ethical considerations
and the voice of the employee. The primary focus has instead been to show the value that HR
creates for a business. HR has shifted from its people-centred approach towards a focus on
organizational influence. However since HR professionals are responsible for making decisions
that affects the lives of workers, it is important that HR professionals understand the sensitivities
that come with managing people rather than solely focusing on the business profits of an
organization. It has been argued that HR plays a lot of emphasis on focusing on the business
partnering role, thereby neglecting its social roles and ethical and moral concerns.
HR managers need power and authority to overcome the ambiguities in their roles and
this can be done through two processes called Conformist and Deviant innovations. Professionals
who report a stronger sense of meaning in their work identify more strongly with their

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organization and their profession. HR professionalism can be said to be a result of qualifications
and experience, with integrity and credibility being the primary qualities. The erosion of trust in
society following a plethora of scandals has further necessitated the need for ethical business.
People should be able to rely on HR professionals and trust them to make the right decisions
since they are unable to do so on their own. Having specialized knowledge thus comes with
power and it is a moral responsibility to ensure that one does not misuse that power. HR
professionals have a moral obligation to not only garner profits for its shareholders but do so in
an ethical manner, keeping in mind the needs of other people and society at large.
Developing an Effective Human Resource Department: A more effective
human resources department can be developed in several ways. The two types of service that a
human resource department provides is administrative and strategic (Balthazard 2015). At the
beginning, it is important to develop efficiency and effectiveness on technical aspects of human
resource, following which I should try to comprehend the core business and use the combined
knowledge of technical competencies and the employees to influence the direction of the
business and its goals. The key is to understand that every area of a company is different and
requires a unique sense of support and the requisite skills. A lot of listening should take place at
every level, I should listen to employees, and I should give interaction with the employees from
various departments a priority and I should also take all of that into account while understanding
the various patterns in an organization. HR is a role that is full of responsibilities and I have to
pay attention to the needs of the company and the goals of the company while ensuring that
employees meet their rights and needs. Being a part of the HR department I have to be
responsible for the compensation and benefits of its employees to the leaders of the company. I
need to understand the business as a whole and develop various approaches on retention and

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attraction to meet the needs of the business. An HR department should look forward. Since it
possesses the knowledge of the entire company, the HR of an organization can use the
knowledge of the business to contribute to the strategic development and direction of the
company as well as to the growth of the company.
In order to add value to the organization and its employees HR professionals must focus
primarily on what it delivers. This can be done by focusing on Effectiveness and Efficiency.
Focus on Effectiveness: I can achieve Effectiveness by using new technology,
process improvements, a variety of outsourcing approaches, new metrics of HR services and by
developing HR talent with an insight into business. By focusing on effectiveness, I can measure
how their work improves strategy execution, business and HR efficiency, productivity and
commitment of the employees working in the organization and the capacity for continuous
learning, growth and change.
Focusing on Efficiency: It is important that organizations focus on the efficiency of
its business and employees. This is based on the principle that HR professionals will create value
for business through the allocation of HR resources. For example, many companies invest a lot
of resources both in terms of money and manpower to create training programs which aid in the
development of its employees. While this is good, I should be smart in allocating resources so
that the group will perform more efficiently.
Conclusion:
While both effectiveness and efficiency is good on its own, a combination of
effectiveness and efficiency is needed to provide value to an organization. It is very important to

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have a good HR in an organization, so that in times of crisis, the senior executives of a company
can turn to the HR professionals for guidance, advice and strategic decision-making.

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REFERENCES:
Balthazard, C., 2015. Successful Professionalization: What Can We Learn From Forsyth &
Danisiewicz (1985)?.
Suseno, Y. and Bao, C., 2014. HR Professionalism in Foreign-invested Enterprises in China.