Human Resource Management Ethics and Professionals’ Dilemmas: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

The global nature of competition, new and ever changing employee expectations, changing societal values and constant revisions of employment law have propelled human resource management (HRM) as one of the critical business function for continued organisational competitiveness in contemporary times. This increased importance of HRM has arguably added new set of responsibilities with wide-ranging implications for HR professionals. In specific terms, the emergence of HRM as a panacea for integrating business strategy and people management has exposed personnel practitioners to a new set of role demands, professional challenges and management expectations. The ethical implications of these demands and expectations are significant and needs to be critically analysed. But whilst there has been an increasing interest generally in business ethics amongst scholars and practitioners, the employment of people in contemporary times, gives rise to unique and critical ethical dilemmas on the part of HR practitioners which have been largely ignored. This is a significant gap in the literature which needs to be addressed. This paper makes a contribution towards addressing this gap. Synthesising literatures in HRM, philosophy and management studies, the paper critically examines frameworks, contemporary debates and emerging themes around HR ethics, raising a number of fundamental issues that should be addressed by scholars, in line with the changing realities of contemporary business environment, particularly the management of people. The main aim of this analysis is to highlight some of the emerging or sometimes ignored aspects of HR ethics with a view of situating a future research agenda to help identify appropriate conceptual lenses and realistic strategies for addressing issues of practitioner dilemmas in contemporary people management.

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