HRM and Ethics

Human resource management (HRM) – as a field of research, study, and practice – has been immersed in ethical issues from its inception. By its very nature, the management of humans as resources raises ethical considerations. Surprisingly, ethical analyses of HRM have been limited in scope and prominence. Traditionally, ethical examinations of HRM have tended to focus at the microlevel: justice‐based principles of fairness and equity have been applied to specific HRM practices (e.g., recruitment and remuneration) and rights‐based principles have been considered with respect to employment issues (e.g., privacy and whistle‐blowing). In contrast, attempts at macrolevel ethical analyses of HRM have developed critiques of “soft” and “hard” HRM and advanced a pragmatic pluralist approach using stakeholder theory. More recently, internationalization of labor markets, shifts in employment (and concomitant employee experiences), and the prevalence of strategic human resource management ( SHRM ) have brought about a rejuvenation of interest in the ethical analysis of HRM. Future research is likely to focus on the experiences of HR practitioners; the role, meaning, and position of HR in the organization; the relationship between HRM and local/global society; and the interplay among these.

Business · Business ethics · Human resource management · Internationalization · Political science · Public relations · Remuneration · Sociology · Ethics in Business and Education · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Workplace Spirituality and Leadership

• Runt Redux

  Open Access•Edmund Heery•Work and Occupations•2008

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