Ethical Practice Flashcards
What are the three sub-competencies in the Ethical Practice competency focus on the ways HR professionals participate in creating and supporting an ethical organization?
Personal integrity, professional integrity, and ethical agent
HR professionals model ethical conduct and the organization’s values in all their actions. They strive to be ethical and admit their shortcomings. They are courageous in pointing out to others—including senior management—ways in which the organizations and its members are not meeting the ethical norms and the organization’s values.
Personal integrity
HR professionals demonstrate awareness of and commitment to ethics in their work. They apply their Business Acumen competency to understand ethical risks in their industries. The types of ethical challenges an organization and its HR function face will vary by organizational activity and employee jobs. As part of building their Business Acumen, HR professionals should make it a point to learn their organizations’ particular ethical vulnerabilities.
Professional integrity
There are certain actions HR can take to support the organization’s ethical goals. For example, they can communicate ethical expectations to all new employees and administer those expectations consistently. They can create the means for employees to report ethical issues and maintain confidentiality. They can ensure that all HR policies and processes are ethical and compliant.
Ethical agent
What are the steps of a basic framework for ethical decision making?
- Recognize ethical situations as they arise
- Establish the facts about the situation
- Evaluate the ethical dimensions of possible actions
- Apply relevant codes of ethics and behavior to the options
- Consult with others
- Make a decision, own it, and learn from one’s mistakes
What are the various moral codes of approach that one can evaluate actions ethically?
- Utilitarian approach
- Rights approach
- Justice approach
- Common-good approach
- Virtue approach
argues for the path that provides the greatest amount of good for the greatest number.
Utilitarian approach
examines whether a decision violates any basic human right, such as a right to truth, privacy, or physical well-being.
Rights approach
examines the degree to which an action might be preferential or discriminatory.
Justice approach
considers the impact of the decision on the entire group (or society, in more general terms).
Common-good approach
asks whether an action will promote or obstruct the decision maker’s character development and the character development of those affected by the decision.
Virtue approach
supports trust in relationships with stakeholders, who could be business associates, investors, governments and communities, and employees.
commits an ethical organizations to disclosing details about dealings, transactions, or processes to those who have a vested interest
provides assurance when behaviors cannot be witnessed and it cannot be verified that they comply with laws, rules, or policies.
Transparency
situations in which a person or organization may benefit from undue influence due to involvement in outside activities, relationships, or investments that conflict with or have an impact on the employment relationship or its outcomes.
Conflicts of interest
reflect a commitment to truthfulness and fairness, abiding by social and business norms. requires an avoidance of conflict of interests and the use of bribery.
Honesty
exchange of anything of value to gain greater influence or preference. It is a challenge in all businesses, but it can be a particular challenge for global organizations.
Bribery
Steps to implement a sustainable anti-corruption program will vary across multinational enterprises, but they typically include:
Identifying specific risk areas where payments are made (e.g., promotional expenses, travel and entertainment, facilitating payments, charitable donations, lobbying).
Instituting effective controls concerning the method and location of all payments.
Providing culturally appropriate training and communication programs.
Embedding disciplinary mechanisms within the business model to help mitigate areas of risk.
Implementing robust monitoring, detection, and auditing processes.
Periodically reassessing all corporate governance and compliance programs.
refers to the treatment of personal information that has been disclosed to another person (e.g., one’s doctor, lawyer, or financial advisor) or organization (e.g., one’s employer or a hospital). Maintaining confidentiality is the agreement to not share or make public that information.
Confidentiality
What are the protected rights of employees that ethical employers must provide?
Creating a safe working environment, maintaining a fair working environment, and protecting employee privacy
can be defined as principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior. should reflect the needs, concerns, and values of the organization that creates, adopts, and uses it.
Code of conduct
can help an organization promote ethical behavior by communicating to all its members the organization’s commitment to certain values, by defining behavioral expectations for all employees, and by providing direction to all employees when they are faced with ethical decisions.
A written code of conduct
What are the two parts of codes of conduct that serve to communicate values and to guide actions?
Values-based and rules- based
Communication from leadership reflecting commitment to the code and its enforcement.
The organization’s mission statement and/or vision statement.
A broad statement of organizational values and principles.
A more detailed statement of the organization’s ethical obligations to all its various stakeholders.
Values-based code of conduct
thical and conduct guidelines (e.g., policies regarding conflict of interest, bribery/corruption, confidentiality, privacy, harassment).
Examples of ethical and unethical behavior to help employees recognize a potential risk or conflict when it arises and questions employees can ask themselves to assess the ethical impact of their actions.
Rules of conduct required to comply with laws and regulations. This may be a function-specific document.
A description of the enforcement process, including how suspected violations should be reported, how and by whom reports will be investigated and assessed, and how employees will be penalized for violations.
Rules-based code of conduct
What are the five basic steps of code creation (or revision)?
- Gather information
- Draft and review
- Adopt the code formally and communicate it to the organization
- Monitor enforcement
- Evaluate and revise the code periodically
