ETHICS IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Introduction:
 The scope for the application of ethical practices in human resource management
is vast and varied.
 In fact human resources are an important form of resources in any business
organisation. Some of the unethical practices originate and expand in managing
human resources.
 It is the responsibility of managers to create a work environment which supports
ethical behaviour and discourages unethical behaviour.
 Setting ethical goals alone is not enough.
 The manager should follow the ethical goals in daily corporate life.
 The managers should pay more attention to what they do than what they say.
 They should take advantage of opportunities to demonstrate the ethical conduct.

I. Reward systems:
 The reward systems play an important influence on the behaviour of the people at
work.
 According to reinforcement theory, people are likely to behave in the way
they are
 rewarded.
 The people in business organisations are constantly on the lookout of information
about
 rewards and punishments.
 People perform according to the reward.
 The rewards have to be explicit.
 The organisations should set ethical Pygmalion effect.
 In terms of ethical Pygmalion effect, expectations for ethical behaviour are to be
set high and people are expected to achieve high standards.
  There is an extension of reinforcement theory called social learning theory

 In terms of social learning theory, people learn from observing the rewards
and punishments of others.
 The workers are constantly on the lookout for information about rewards as well
as punishments. If the workers see that others get away with unethical practices
like lying, cheating or stealing, they also try to follow these behaviour patterns.
 In the short period, it is difficult to reward the ethical behaviour. In the long run
rewards can be offered to ethical behaviour.
 On the other hand, punishments can be given then and there. The punishment
should be
 administered fairly. The level of punishment should be in proportion to the level
of unethical act. Through one punishment other workers are also corrected. At any
cost, unfair punishment should be avoided.

II. Cashand incentive plans:

The employees should be given fair wages related to standard of living. If workers and
employees are not given fair wages, we cannot expect ethical practices from them. They
will take the undue advantage of this situation for poor work, absenteeism, stealing and
other unethical practices.
For equal work there should be equal pay. Inequalities in wages are not justified for the
same type of job. The average incomes of white American families for a long time have
been above those of non-whites. The average black family's income was 63 percent of the
average white family's income in 1998.
Ethics requires incentives for better performance and more qualifications. Moreover,
discrimination is also based on gender in terms of wage payment. According to one study
women earn only 60 per cent of what men earn in farming and forestry. In the
U.S.A.women managers are not being promoted from middle-management positions into
senior management posts. It is also true that women believe only certain jobs, such as
secretary or kindergarten teachers are appropriate for women. Many women choose those
jobs which are relatively easy to leave and reenter. Many women choose their jobs
because they have limited demands and allow them time to raise children and take care of
the family. But wage differentials cannot be accounted for simply on the basis of such
factors. All the studies show that only a portion of the earnings gap can be accounted for
the basis male and female differences in education. Work experience, work continuity,
self-imposed work restrictions and absenteeism.
Incentives and rewards playa key component in any performance management system.
The new forms of motivating employees are coming up. In the present environment
characterized by globalization, privatization, and liberalization, the traditional incentive
schemes are not suitable. Some of the non-monetary incentives are gift voucher, citation,
quality award, R&D award, Good Health award, Long Service award and creativity
award.
Compensation management is integrated with business and human resource management
strategy. Therefore, the reward systems should be integrated with the overall business
plan and strategy.
The merit rating procedure should be done in an ethical way. Let us take the case of sales
people. The job factors of a sales person are sales promotion, realization of outstandings,
goodwill calls, after-sales service and investigation of complaints. All these takes tasks
have to be taken into account in merit rating.
A well defined and designed incentive and reward systems can increase productivity.
There should not be any ambiguity in defining the concepts in incentive and reward
system.
The following guidelines are necessary for the ethical implementation of a good incentive
scheme:
(a) The desired behaviour at all levels should be supported.
(b) The policy should be clearly articulated. The recipients should know what is being
rewarded and why?
(c) The scheme should be adaptable to changing business conditions.
(d) The scheme should be regularly reviewed for effectiveness and achieving the desired
results.

III. Discrimination:
Discrimination is wrong because it violates a person's basic moral rights. According to
Kantian theory, human beings should be treated as ends and not merely as means.
The utilitarian argument against sexual discrimination is based on the idea that a society's
productivity will be optimized to the extent that jobs are awarded on the basis of
competency. Different jobs require different skills and personality traits if they are to be
carried out in a productive manner. Naturally jobs should be assigned to those individuals
whose skills and personality traits qualify them as the most competent for the job.
Discrimination leads to decline in productive and hence unethical.
In many countries including developed countries, discriminatory practices are found in
recruitment, screening, promotion and conditions of employment.

In developing countries the following discriminatory practices are followed:

 Faulty screening.
 Unfair interview.
 Wrong recruitment.
 No consideration for seniority in promotion.
 Discrimination in wages.
 Discrimination in bonus.
 Discrimination in treatment.
 Forced resignation.
 Denying or delaying retirement benefits.

IV. Performance appraisal:

Performance appraisal is a good mechanism to control people. If people get what they
want, they should give what their employers want. Performance appraisal is one
mechanism to make sure that people at every level do things the way their employers
want them to do.

The following are the objectives of the performance appraisal:

(1) To control the behaviour of the employees by using it as an instrument for rewards,
punishments and threats.
(2) To make decisions regarding increase of salary and promotions.
(3) To place people to do the right type of jobs.
(4) To find out the training and developmental needs of the employees.

Unethical practices in performance appraisal:

(1) Rewards, punishments and threats should be used in a positive way. If these things are
used in a negative way, it would affect the morale of the employees.
(2) It is easy to assessjob-knowledge, technical skills and leadership abilities. But certain
other dimensions like honesty, dependability and sincerity cannot be exactly measured.
(3) Threats are often used by the managers related to targets, reduction of wastage etc.
But threats have very little value in terms of productivity.
(4) Most employees fail to perceive the value of the rewards they get. Apart from salaries
and promotions, there are other factors like improvement in work conditions, welfare
measures, personal touch and job challenge.
(5) The effectiveness of performance appraisal is that it should be done in a most
confidential way. If an employee has to change his behaviour, he must see the need for it
and should be aware of the direction in which he should change. Very often performance
appraisal has not been done in a confidential way.
(6) Imposing training is a waste. The employer himself should be in a thorough need for
training.
(7) Key Performance Areas have to be identified both by the employers and employees.
Joint efforts have to be undertaken for the performance of key areas both by management
and employees.
(8) Performance appraisal can work effectively only if upward communication is
encouraged in organisations. Unfortunately many companies are not encouraging upward
communications.

The employers should be willing to receive negative feedback and use it for corrective
action. The best way for openness and trust is by being open and trust.
Above all, self appraisal should not be self glorification. If the manager wants his
strengths to be recognized by others, he should be willing to recognize the strengths of
his subordinates.

Sexual harassment:
Women in all societies are subjected to sexual harassment. The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission published a set of guidelines in 1978.
The guidelines state:
"unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other verbal and physical
contact of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when
(1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition
of an individual's employment,
(2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for
employment decisions affecting such individual, or
(3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an
individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working
environment".
Sexual harassment is a violation of the moral standards of utilitarianism, rights, justice
and care.
Legislation and education are necessary for eliminating this problem.

Questions
Section 'A'
(1) Define reward systems. (2) What is an incentive plan?
(3) What is discrimination? (4) Define performance appraisal.
Section 'B'
(1) What is social learning theory?
(2) What are the guidelines for the ethical implementation of a good incentive scheme?
(3) What are the objectives of performance appraisal?
(4) Discussthe unethical practices in performance appraisal.
Section 'e'
(1) Examine the unethical practices in human resources management. Suggest suitable
measures for the elimination of these unethical practices.