Ethical and sustainable HRM Flashcards
What are the shifting tides of HRM?
- Industrial welfare (19th to early 20th century: Better recognition of welfare of workers)
- From 1802 in UK (1874 in NL): First legal restriction on working hours for children.
- 1919: International Labour Organization founded.
What is the pluralist view?
- 19th - Early 20th century Industrial welfare: Better recognition of welfare of workers
🡪 HR originated in the early 20th century with the focus on industrial welfare (🡪 industrial revolution).
🡪 This evolved into a more structured approach to managing employees, which was the origin of SHRM which recognizes that individuals provide strategic value to the organization.
🡪 Changing working conditions
🡪 More organized labour; division between management & employees
🡪 Social reformers: we have to do something about it - Mid - late 20C – Personnel management: Introduction of structures to manage employees.
🡪 Personnel policies & procedures
🡪 1919: the first time beyond national organisation taking about labour regulations on global scale.
What is the unitarist view?
- Late 20C – HR management: decline of trade unions.
🡪 HR becomes more managerial.
People staring using HR management - Late 20C - Early 21C – Strategic HRM: Recognition if strategic value of employees.
🡪 People bringing strategic value & help putting structure in place to put into practice.
What is the stakeholder view?
Now – Mutual gains??: Questioning whether we are being too managerialist?
🡪 At the moment there is a growing body of interest questioning whether we are being too managerialist – can we instead focus on managing employees so that we can provide mutual gains.
What does pluralist view entails? Parkes & Davis (2003) and Winstanly and Woodall (2000)
It recognises both the need for productive labour, and the well-being of employees (these might be opposed).
–> HR has a welfare role.
What does Unitarist view entails? Parkes & Davis (2003) and Winstanly and Woodall (2000)
People are source of strategic advantage and should be managed as such.
–> HR is representative of management.
What does stakeholder view entails?Parkes & Davis (2003) and Winstanly and Woodall (2000)
Employees participate in decision-making, meeting their needs..but not at the expense of the need of the employer.
–> HR facilitates mutual gains.
What is the basis of Dundon & Raffety’s claims?
Provocative paper: What is the point of HR if we only treat them as resources?
Claims: 1. Reward strategies: Individual pay above collaborative 2.Talent management 3. HPWS => Hyper-individualism => Free market ideology
Downsides:
- Individuals treated as commodities – costs to be reduced in order to benefit the organization 🡪 if something is not cost-effective, they get rid of it.
- -> Made worse by ill-defined or imprecise measures and practices. - Even with HPWP managerial definitions of wellbeing might not align to employees 🡪 hard to define what they are looking at.
- Focus solely on shareholders is not sustainable for business or society 🡪 obsessing shareholder value can be detrimental.
What is HR Professional’s role?
- Establish and reinforce ethical standards:
- Reinforcement through standard procedures:
- -> Recruitment 🡪 not free from bias, but minimize it
- -> Training on expectations and standards 🡪 behavioural expectations
- -> Performance and reward management 🡪 patriot things - Specific formal policies - e.g.
–> Whistleblowing: ‘‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action.’’ - Near and Miceli (1985)
🡪 Current members who are left
🡪 Courage a culture of people who support practices
E.g. illegal things or ethically wrong
–> Anti-bribery
–> Corporate social responsibility - Courage to challenge:
- Beyond passive reinforcement, HR professionals also have an active role to play in establishing and role modelling ethical standards.
🡪 this is a passive approach, but also courage to challenge actively the ethical standards
What is important to set standards?
OR
How can HR develop a reputation for being ethical?
HR is important to set standards. It is about role-modelling the behaviour of moral person and moral manager:
Consistently leads by:
- example
- acts with integrity and independence
- applying sound personal judgement in all interactions.
- Moral person: Manager acts with integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness, treating others with respect and dignity
- Moral manager: Visibly role modelling ethical conduct, applying a reward system to hold everyone accountable, and regularly and openly speaking to employees about the importance of ethical values 🡪 moral conduct
- -> To be seen as an ethical leader, a manager needs to embody both a moral personhood, and be seen as a moral manager or else be seen as hypocritical
- -> Courage does not have to be something ethical, but implications for HR. If you show courage and confidence to speak up, and challenge others even when confronted with resistance or unfamiliar circumstances.
Why do HR professionals fail to challenge?
- Issue is less about lack of willingness or apathy
🡪 stop reputation damage & nobody is worried about the victims. - More about organizational support, fear of retribution, or disloyalty (as representative of management)
🡪 misplaced feelings of disloyalty.
HR and ethical stewardship?
🡪 Integrity is a good predictor of ethics
1. Personal factors: predicting being whistle blower (personal ethical standards, personal protection, courage to speak out, active, not passive- support needed)
2. Organisational factors: having HR exec-level helps & top-down and bottom up approach
(Ethics related policies and practices (e.g. whistleblowing, behaviour expectations; HR exec-level representation, Senior role models, employee participation)
3. Contextual factors: believing in ethical behaviour helps & crafting a safe place to talking to people helps (ethnical culture, norms: managerial language & behaviour; manager and coworker support; embedded into business model, not just ‘right thing to do’)
What is the HR professional’s role?
- Establish and reinforce Ethical standards.
- Whistleblowing procedures = enhanced feeling of safety, security, and freedom from persecution
-The more ethical policies an organization has (e.g. horizontal alignment) – the more likely organisations are to see ethical behaviour.
- Courage to Challenge
- Leading by example (role-modelling)
- Creating a supportive climate
- Positioning of HR in organization (level of power) is also likely to be a factor 🡪 to put HR to have decision-making responsibilities
What does sustainable HR entails?
UN sustainability goals of which 4 are directly related to HR practices:
- Goal 5: Gender equality
- Goal 10: Reduced inequalities
- Goal 3: Good health and wellbeing - Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all stages. E.g. family member caring, such as fair pay
- Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth - Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment, and decent for all (people manage these decisions)
=> “HR has an important part to play in sustainability” - Boudreau & Ramstad (2005)
Business Drivers For Sustainable HRM?
- Attracting and retaining talent (‘employer of choice’)
- Maintaining employee health & safety
- Investing in long-term skills development of workforce
- Supporting employee work-life balance
- Managing an ageing workforce
- Creating trust
- Exhibiting corporate social responsibility
- Maintaining high quality of life for employees
