Definition of Ethical issues and Dilemmas

Business Ethics and HRM

Ethics is creating a frame work of values and principles to help us make a decision of what to do or what ought not to do in different situations posed with moral questions. Ethical issues abound in HRactivities. Areas of ethical misconduct in the personal function include employment, remuneration and benefits, labour relation, safety, training and development.

The two core areas in HRM are people and managing people to maintain optimum performance. In other words, people and people who manages them. Ethical issues in performance management are in both sides.

Let us first explore the HRM side. The managers and the concepts of HRM.

It has been a complaint from the day one that, workers are exploited. Even in this book, what all we have explained contemporary thinking on HRM are mostly applicable only to white collar jobs or what we calls as employees in general, not including workers, blue collar people. Industrial relations authors are always raising the ethical issue of workers exploitation.

This question arises when they are provided with a chance to voice out their needs. When we talk about human resource as an asset that is kept as inanimate resource when it comes to workers. Human resource is not weighing human in the same scale.

Human resources are segregated according to the ‘value’ and treated in different methods. As it is a vast area for discussion, let us see some small examples of ethical issues in India.

Workplace safety: In developing countries like India, the workerswho do scavenging work, cleaning drainages are highly prone to risks and still it is a pathetic question that whether the safety equipments are provided to them according to the provisions stated in law.

Diaspora of construction labourers: Groups of people from northand east are fast migrating to other parts of the country to be employed in the growing construction industry. They move on with the projects with their family. The education and future of the children of those families are not a part of the responsibility of the employer.

Gender discrimination: It is said that women constitute a majorcontributor for the GDP of the nation. The discrimination and workplace violence are major ethical issues in this regard. A recent news article in “the Hindu” stated that the women employees in ‘All India Radio’ are fighting for a committee to hear their grievances of workplace violence.

Wide spread hues and cries are heard, irrelevant of cadre and designation of the women. Whether employer and HRM in all the industries are attending to the ethical issue is again a question mark.

Monetary exploitation: The pay package and wages paid – are theyproportional to the profit earned by the corporations is a big question. It is to be based on their performance and job – is the traditional thought.

The Management gurus claim that the profit un-proportionate to the employees pay is not earned by the owners without the support of the employees. Hence, they have a say in the profit.

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in Performance Management

A performance management system should work on principles of ethical considerations leading to transparency and respect for all. Employees affected by decisions made on their performance should have a right to know the ‘how’ & ‘why’ of the decision thereby leading to transparency.

Procedures should be implemented fairly to avoid bias on any basis and there should be mutual respect for each other’s needs as well as for every individual of the staff and management side. Business managers often use staffing measurements to conduct performance appraisals, which determine the level of employee performance.

Managers also use performance appraisals to reward positive employee performance and suggest improvement in areas where employees are lacking. Several measurement options are available for determining staff performance levels. Business owners and managers must act ethically when measuring staff performance because many elements of work life hinge on the results, such as pay increases, promotions, demotions, layoffs and firings.

The area of performance appraisal is the most attacked victim of ethical issues and dilemmas. Starting from hiring and placing the employees, HR is prone to unethical practices. But, when it comes to recognition of the job done any unethical practice is not well digested by the affected employees. The appraisal system should be effective and error proof to sustain the trust of employees in the performance management system and on the organisation too. Here are some essential characteristics to maintain the ethical character of performance management system.

Reliability and Validity

Appraisal system should provide consistent, reliable and valid information and data which can be used to defend the organization-even in legal challenges.

If two appraisers are equally qualified and competent to appraise an employee with the help of same appraisal technique, their ratings should agree with each other. Appraisals must also satisfy the condition of validity by measuring what they are supposed to measure.

Standardization

Appraisal forms, procedures, administration of techniques, ratings, etc should be standardized as appraisal decisions affect all employees of the group.

Legal Sanction

It should have legal compliance with the legal provisions concerned of the country.

Open Communication

Most employees want to know how well they are performing on the job. A good appraisal system provides the needed feedback on a continuing basis. Managers should clearly explain their performance expectations to their subordinates in advance of the appraisals period and try to improve their performance in future.

Employee Access to Results

Employees should receive adequate feedback on their performance. Employees’ performance can be improved only if they are also accessible to review the results of their appraisal.

Due Process

Formal procedures should be developed to enable employees to pursue their grievances and having them addressed objectively, who disagree with the appraisal results. Performance appraisal should be used primarily to develop employees as valuable resources only then it could show promising results.

Ethical Dilemmas

Believing Ethical values, practicing ethical values, following ethical values and standing by it at critical situations is all different. The scenario posed in front of an individual is more powerful than the code of conduct believed and followed.

We call this situation as dilemmas. Even, Most of the organisation that boasts of having an ethical code of conduct properly procedurised and followed struggle to decide on certain situations to approach with ethicality.

Most of us would like to think we would behave ethically in any given situation, but the boundaries are not always so clear cut at work. Sometimes, the employees and managers at a work place confronted with ethical dilemmas breakdown or quit, not able to withstand their decisions, to decide whether their decisions are right or wrong.

Let us see some simple ethical dilemmas:

You have completed the task of your colleague who was hospitalised for a week. During appraisal, superior forgot this and have added that job completion to your friend’s job log. What would you do –be a truthful person and inform the superior about the work you have done and be the reason for a remark in friend’s appraisal report or keep quiet and let it go?

You work in Computer processing section and in a position of handling performance reports. A small mouse click of yours can change your colleagues work performance chart to higher levels and give him incentives and increments. Your manipulation can go easily unnoticed as there are thousands of reports in the organisations and the monitoring system is not efficient in your place. Would you do it? Or will you ask for such a favour to your friend?

Area between Theory and Application

The grey area between what we believe in and what we do in certain situations are vast. Sometimes, what we believe in as our individual value system blinds us to see that others obviously see as wrong. The sensitive area like performance appraisals gets severe blows and criticisms due to this blind eye of the manager or the deciding authorities.

I think most of you would remember one incident in the great epic Mahabharatha – Dushasan tried to disrobe Draupadi in the King’s court. People who were witnessing this shameful act were not commoners, but the great personas like PitamagarBheeshma, great guru Dronacharya and Kripacharya. Still, they didn’t condemn the act. The one who raised his voice against the sin is Vidhura. He questioned Bheeshma on his silence, mentioning his nobility and knowledge. But, Bheeshma answered that he was not able to act against the wicked people’s inhuman acts.

Vidhura then stated that “ The one who does, the one who encourages, the one who watches, the one who watch and witness in silence and the one who does not express disapproval despite knowing the act is wrong – all these people are equal to the guilty”

You would have heard this in other tones – as a popular quote of Martin Luther King Jr. It goes like this “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

The area between the concepts and values we believe and grow into and the ground reality is always shaded and tough to pass through. It is up to the leaders, decision making managers and the employees of an organisation to create a guiding light in circumstances where ethical dilemmas arise. For example, Tata group of companies has Ethical codes, procedures and policies to enable the people in the organisation to decide when they stand in this grey area.

The system of our lives and the society that adopts us into it is no different from us. It is one and the same. It is us, who has to think and decide on which side we should be and how we want us to be identified.

Here I have tried to construct some scenarios that we face often in our organisations. Hope this will give you a clear picture to understand the grey area better.

CASE SCENARIOS

Read each of the small case under each heading and answer the questions given below:

Need and Competency

VenuRao is a smart young man, coming from an educated and well off background. He completes his tasks on time and labelled as a star performer by his superior. Subash is his team mate, good in learning and job performance though not up to the level of Venu and comes from a rural background. Team leader knows both of them personally, as he believes in bonding of team members. Subash’s parents in his village fellsick and the expectation on Subash’s presence and income were growing day by day.

The team leader got stuck one day when he has to narrow down one of his subordinates for a promotion and transfer. Subash has not requested him for his transfer to the city near his village. Actually, this point is impressive for him on subash characteristic.