Ethics in HRM

Ethics in HRM

Ethics has been defined differently by various scholars. Kidder, Rushworth (2003) contends that ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending ideas of right and wrong conduct. Greenwood (2007) notes that ethics investigates issues such as how best do people live, and what behaviors are acceptable or not acceptable in any cultural environment. Legge (2005) notes that the practice of ethics is aimed at identifying and resolving challenges of morality by determining what is good or evil, right or wrong, virtuous or vice, justice and criminal. From these definitions it can be deduced that ethics determine acceptable conduct in HRM functions. Many studies advocates for the HR officers to take responsibility in promoting ethical behaviors that support organizational goals and societal ethical expectations of the business (Feldams, 1996).

Many researchers have stressed over time the importance of HRM in developing and sustaining ethical culture in organisations ( Parboteeaha et al, 2014). However, clarity is needed in the way moral dimensions in HRM can play a role in the process. Guest (2007) claimed that implanting ethics into HRM dimensions through acceptable firm interventions and developing further benevolent ways in which organizations operate is perceived by workers as new approach to HR sensitive and responsible organizations. Employees will accept that HRM can effectively contribute in developing and sustaining ethical principles, moral culture and ethical climate that support performance (Baker, 2006). Entrenching ethical orientation in every purposeful dimension of HRM is indispensable for organizations now than ever before.

Principles of ethics in HRM

Critiques of ethics in HRM have questioned the objectivity of the principles of ethics in that they are claimed respectively to be imperialist, inapplicable, inconsistent and inadequate in their interpretation and application in people management (Solomon, 1984). If applied as they were then they permit prejudice, and such may be the basis of conflict of interest that can overrule professional or behaviour judgements in HR functions (Beauchamp and Childress, 2009). That to keep up professional knowledge and skills ethical principles may not be suitable for current HR practice because there are in place company policies and legislations that guide interactions with employees hence ethics is inapplicable (Higgins, 2005). That the respect of employee confidentiality of information acquired by HR as a result of professional practice envisaged by ethics unless where a legal or professional right or duty to disclose such information is sought is inconsistent with the technological advancement especially where the information is nowadays open and readily available on world wide web and that makes ethical standards for HRM unnecessary in this age (Schaffer, 2012).

Values and Ethics in HRM

Values are the elementary beliefs that guide or inspire attitudes or actions. Values give pointers for conduct and facilitate us to work out what set of values are important to us (Bruno, 2000). Values describe the individual qualities we propose to guide our actions, the type of person we wish to be, the way in which we wish to treat ourselves and our interaction with the society. Values are essential to ethics and are concerned with human actions and therefore the choice of these actions. Ethics evaluates those actions, and therefore the values that underlie them by determining which values ought to be pursued, and which of them should not. Values can be described as those things that are vital to or esteemed by a person, collectively or an organization. In discussing values and morals there are various, frequently used terms with similar implications as values thus, morals, standards, basics and ethics. Taylor and Halstead (1996) characterize values as principles, crucial feelings, beliefs, benchmarks or life positions which act as a common conduct, as a reference point in decision making, or the assessment of convictions, or actions. Values are the beliefs of what a corporation stands for, and need to be the premise for the behavior of its people

REFERENCES

• Kidder, Rushworth (2003). How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living. New York: Harper Collins.  p. 63. ISBN 0-688-17590-2.
• Greenwood, M., and De Cieri, H. (2007). Stakeholder theory and the ethics of HRM. In A. Pinnington, R. Macklın, and T. Campbell (Eds.),  Human resource management: Ethics and employment (pp. 119-136). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Legge, K. (2005) Human Resource Management: Rhetoric’s and Realities; Anniversary Edition. Palgrave Macmillan.
• John Newton, Ph.D. ( 2000). Complete Conduct Principles for the 21st Century . ISBN 0-9673705-7-4.
• Parboteeaha, K.P., Serikib, H.T. and Hoeglc, M. (2014), Ethnic diversity, corruption and ethical climates in sub-Saharan Africa: recognizing the  significance of human resource  management, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 25, No.  7, pp. 979- 1001
• Guest, D. (2007): HRM and performance: can partnership address the ethical dilemmas? In: Pinnington, A., Macklin, R., Cambell, T.(eds):  Human Resource management. Ethics and  employment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 52-
• Baker, T. L., Hunt, G. H. and Andrews, M. C. (2006), Promoting Ethical Behaviour and  Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: The influence of Corporate Ethical Values,  Journal of Business Research, 59, 849-857.

organisational culture

What is organisational culture?

Organisational culture is a widely used term but one that seems to give rise to a degree of ambiguity. (Watson, 2006) emphasizes that the concept of culture originally derived from a metaphor of the organisation as ‘something cultivated’. For the past number of decades, most academics and practitioners studying organisations suggest the concept of culture is the climate and practices that organisations develop around their handling of people, or to the promoted values and statement of beliefs of an organisation (Schein, 2004). (Schein, 2004) highlights that ‘the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture; that the unique talent of leaders is their ability to understand and work with culture; and that it is an ultimate act of leadership to destroy culture when it is viewed as dysfunctional’. Culture therefore gives organisations

 Types of organisational culture

It is important to note that there is not just one organisational culture. It is widely recognised by the academic literature that different organisations have distinctive cultures. Also, there may be more than one culture within organisations.  (Bradley and Parker, 2006)  One classification of culture types is proposed in Competing Values Framework , based on work by (Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983).  [See Figure 1].

Figure 1: The Competing Values Framework of Organisational Culture

Source: cited in Bradley and Parker(2001) and adapted from Zammuto and Krakower (1991)

Theories of Organisational Culture

Just as there are differing perspectives on what organisational culture is, there are differing perspectives regarding how it functions. (Denison, 1990) identifies four basic views of organisational culture that can be translated into four distinct hypotheses:

1.       The consistency hypothesis – the idea that a common perspective, shared beliefs and communal values among the organisational participants will enhance internal coordination and promote meaning and a sense of identification on the part of its members.
2.      The mission hypothesis – the idea that a shared sense of purpose, direction, and strategy can coordinate and galvanize organisational members toward collective goals. 
3.       The involvement/participation hypothesis – the idea that involvement and participation will contribute to a sense of responsibility and ownership and, hence, organisational commitment and loyalty.
4.       The adaptability hypothesis – the idea that norms and beliefs that enhance an organisation’s ability to receive, interpret, and translate signals from the environment into internal organisational and behavioral changes will promote its survival, growth, and development.

Increasing Importance of Organisational Culture

 (Schein, 2004) suggests that organisational culture is even more important today than it was in the past. Increased competition, globalization, mergers, acquisitions, alliances, and various workforce developments have created a greater need for:

• Coordination and integration across organisational units in order to improve efficiency, quality, and speed of designing, manufacturing, and delivering products and services
• Product innovation
• Strategy innovation
•  Process innovation and the ability to successfully introduce new technologies, such as information technology
• Effective management of dispersed work units and increasing workforce diversity
• Cross-cultural management of global enterprises and/or multi-national partnerships
• Construction of meta- or hybrid- cultures that merge aspects of cultures from what were distinct organisations prior to an acquisition or merger
• Management of workforce diversity
• Facilitation and support of teamwork.

In addition to a greater need to adapt to these external and internal changes, organisational culture has become more important because, for an increasing number of corporations, intellectual as opposed to material assets now constitute the main source of value. Maximizing the value of employees as intellectual assets requires a culture that promotes their intellectual participation and facilitates both individual and organisational learning, new knowledge creation and application, and the willingness to share knowledge with others. Culture today must play a key role in promoting:

• Knowledge management
• Creativity
• Participative management
• Leadership

References

·          Barnhart, R.K. (1988) ‘Entries for ‘Structure’ and ‘Culture’’, Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, Edinburgh:Chambers cited in Watson, T.J. (2006).

·          Schein, E.H.(2004) Organisational Culture and Leadership, Third edition, San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

·          Bradley, L. and R. Parker (2006) Do Australian public sector employees have the type of culture they want in the era of new public management? Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), Vol.65, Issue 1 p.89-99, Australia: Blackwell Synergy, http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/ abs/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2006.00474a.x

·          Quinn, R.E. and J. Rohrbaugh (1983) ‘A spatial model of effectiveness criteria: Towards a competing values approach to organisational analysis,’ Management Science 29: 363-377, cited in Bradley, L. and R. Parker, (2006) Do Australian public sector employees have the type of culture they want in the era of new public management? Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), Vol.65, Issue 1 p.89-99, Australia: Blackwell Synergy, http://www.blackwellsynergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467- 8500.2006.00474a.x

·          Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. (1992) Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector, Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley, cited in DuGay (2000) and Bradley and Parker (2001).

·          Zammuto, R.F. and J.Y. Krakower (1991) ‘Quantitative and qualitative studies of organisational culture,’ Research in Organisation Change and Development Vol 5:pp. 83-114, cited in Bradley, L. and R. Parker, (2006) Do Australian public sector employees have the type of culture they want in the era of new public management? Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), Vol.65, Issue 1 pp.89-99, Australia: Blackwell Synergy, http://www.blackwellsynergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467- 8500.2006.00474a.x

·          Denison, D.R. (1990) Corporate culture and organisational effectiveness. New York: Wiley

·          Denison, Daniel R. 1990. Corporate Culture and Organisational Effectiveness. New York: John Wiley & Sons

·          Schein, Edgar H. 2004. Organisational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers

Learning and Development

Characteristics of a learning and development strategy

A learning and development strategy should be business in the sense that it is designed to support the achievement of business goals by promoting human capital advantage. But it should also be people, which means taking into account the needs and aspiration of people to grow and develop. Achieving the latter aim, of course, supports the achievement of the former.

Elements of the learning and development strategy

• The learning and development philosophy of the organization.
• The aims of the learning and development strategy.
• The priorities for learning and development.
• How, broadly, it is intended these aims will be achieved through the creation of a learning culture, formal learning and development programmers, coaching, personal development planning, and self-directed learning.
• The responsibilities for learning and development as shared between top management, line management, individual employees, and members of the HR or learning and development function.
• The resources required for learning and development – financial budgets, training facilities and external help.
•  The success criteria for learning and development.
• How the effectiveness of learning and development in meeting these criteria will be measured and evaluated

Developing a learning culture (Reynolds, 2004),

• Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
• Empower employees – provide ‘supported autonomy’; freedom for employees to manage their work within certain boundaries (policies and expected behaviors) but with support available as required.
• Adopt a facilitative style of management in which responsibility for decision making is ceded as far as possible to employees.
• Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where learning capabilities can be discovered and applied,
• Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging employees to identify options and seek their own solutions to problems.
• Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with time, resources and, crucially, feedback.
• Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models: ‘The new way of thinking and behaving may be so different that you must see what it looks like before you can imagine yourself doing it. You must see the new behavior and attitudes in others with whom you can identify (Schein, 1990).
• Encourage networks – communities of practice.
• Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that produce problems rather than facilitate work.

The implications of learning and development research, Harrison (2005)

It has not yet yielded enough clear evidence of a direct link between individual learning and improvements in organizational performance (however that is defined). However learning and development activity does consistently emerge as a crucial intervening factor. In the Bath studies two HR practices were identified as being particularly powerful in influencing employee attitudes and creating positive discretionary behavior: careers (in the sense of a ‘developing future’) and training. In other words, the learning and development processes that help to activate the people performance link are those that ‘hold the promise of learning to do things better, or doing new things. It is the sense of progression and purpose that is important, especially in linking to organizational commitment (Purcell et al 2003, p 73).

References 

• Reynolds, J (2004) Helping People Learn, CIPD, London
• Schein, E H (1990) Organizational culture, American Psychologist, 45, pp 109–19
• Harrison, R (2005) Learning and Development, 4th edn, CIPD, London
• Purcell, J, Kinnie, K, Hutchinson, S, Rayton, B and Swart, J (2003) People and Performance: How people management impacts on organisational performance, CIPD, London

JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction is imported to employee feels self-motivated, content & satisfied with his/her job. Job satisfaction happens when an employee feels he or she is having job stability, career growth and a comfortable work life balance.

 Despite it’s wide usage in scientific research, as well as in everyday life, there is still no general agreement regarding what job satisfaction is. In fact there is no final definition on what job represents. Therefore before a definition on job satisfaction can be given, the nature and importance of work as a universal human activity must be considered.

Different authors have different approaches towards defining job satisfaction. Some of the most commonly cited definitions on job satisfaction are analyzed that follows.

Hoppock defined job satisfaction as any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental Circumstances that cause a person truthfully to say I am satisfied with my job (Hoppock, 1935). According to this approach although job satisfaction is under the influence of many external factors, it remains something internal that has to do with the way how the employee feels. That is job satisfaction presents a set of factors that cause a feeling of satisfaction.

Vroom in his definition on job satisfaction focuses on the role of the employee in the workplace. Thus he Defines job satisfaction as effective orientations on the part of individuals toward work roles which they are presently occupying (Vroom, 1964).

EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction causes a series of influences on various aspects of organizational life. Some of them such as the influence of job satisfaction on employee productivity, loyalty and absenteeism are analyzed as part of this text.

The preponderance of research evidence indicates that there is no strong linkage between satisfaction and Productivity. Satisfied workers will not necessarily be the highest producers. There are many possible moderating variables, the most important of which seems to be Rewards. If people receive rewards they feel are equitable, they will be satisfies and this is likely to result in Greater performance effort. Also, recent research evidence indicates that satisfaction may not necessarily. Lead to individual performance improvement but does lead to departmental and organizational level Improvements. Finally there are still considerable debate weather satisfaction leads to performance or Performance leads to satisfaction (Luthans, 1998).

REFERENCES

Hoppock, R. (1935). Job Satisfaction, Harper and Brothers, New York, p. 47

Luthans, F. (1998). Organizational Behavior, 8 Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston, p. 147

Vroom, V.H. (1964). Work and motivation, John Wiley and Sons, New York, p.99

Managing employee relations in sri lanka

The ways in which employee relations are managed will depend on whether or not trade unions are recognized. To a large extent day-to-day management is carried out informally.

Managing with trade unions

Trade unions can be recognized with full negotiating and representational rights, or they can only have representational rights, in other words the right to represent employees over grievances, disciplinary matters and redundancy. Trade union members may also take part in joint consultation, and act as health and safety or learning and development representatives.

Ideally, managements and trade unions learn to live together, often on a give and take basis, the presumption being that neither would benefit from a climate of hostility or by generating 300 HRM Practice constant confrontations. It would be assumed in this ideal situation that mutual advantage comes from first, acting in accordance with the spirit as well as the letter of agreed joint regulatory procedures reached in collective agreements, and second, believing that with goodwill on both sides, disagreements can be settled without resource to industrial action. In practice, both parties are likely to adopt a more realistic pluralist viewpoint, recognizing the inevitability of differences of opinion, even disputes, arising because the interests and viewpoints of employers and employees can never be identical.

 In the 1960s and 1970s things were different. In certain businesses, for example the motor and shipbuilding industries, hostility and confrontation were rife. And newspaper proprietors tended to let their unions walk all over them in the interests of peace and profit.

Times have changed. Trade union power has diminished in the private sector, if not in the public sector. Managements in the private sector have tended to seize the initiative. They may be content to live with trade unions but they give industrial relations lower priority. They may feel that it is easier to continue to operate with a union because it provides a useful, well-established channel for communication and for the handling of grievance, discipline and safety issues. In the absence of a union, management need to develop alternatives, which can be costly and difficult to operate effectively.

Managing without trade unions

 Managements can manage perfectly well without trade unions. It may make no obvious difference to many employees, but some will not do so well. (Millward et al., 1992) established the characteristics of union-free employee relations from the third Workshop Industrial Relations Survey:

·         Employee relations were generally seen by managers as better in the non-union sector than in the union sector.

·         Strikes were almost unheard of.

·         Labour turnover was high but absenteeism was no worse.

·         Pay levels were generally set unilaterally by management.

·         The dispersion of pay was higher, it was more market related and there was more performance-related pay. There was also a greater incidence of low pay.

·         In general, no alternative methods of employee representation existed as a substitute for trade union representation.

·         Employee relations were generally conducted with a much higher degree of informality than in the union sector. In a quarter of non-union workplaces there were no grievance procedures, and about a fifth had no formal disciplinary procedures.

·         Managers generally felt unconstrained in the way in which they organized work. Employee Relations 301

·         There was more flexibility in the use of labour than in the union sector, and this included the greater use of freelance and temporary workers.

            ·         Employees in the non-union sector are two-and-a-half times more likely to be dismissed                       than those in unionized firms, and the incidence of compulsory redundancies is higher. 

.

The survey concluded that many of the differences between unionized and non-unionized workplaces could be explained by the generally smaller size of the non-union firms, and the fact that many such workplaces were independent, rather than being part of a larger enterprise.

 Another characteristic not mentioned by the survey is the use by non-unionized firms of personal contracts as an alternative to collective bargaining.

What is the Trade Union law in Sri Lanka?

(employers.lk,2019) Under the Trade Union Ordinance of 1935, a “trade union” is defined as any association or combination of workmen or employers, whether temporary or permanent, having among its objects one or more of the following objects:-

• the regulation of relations between workers and employers, or between workers and workers or between employers and employers; or
• the imposing of restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business; or
• the representation of either workers or employers in trade disputes; or
• the promotion or organization or financing of strikes or lock-outs in any trade or industry or the provision of pay or other benefits for its members during a strike or lock-out, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions;

A “worker” is defined as any person who has entered into or works under a contract with an employer in any capacity, whether the contract is express or implied, oral or in writing, and whether it is a contract of service or of apprenticeship, or a contract personally to execute any work or labour and includes any person ordinarily employed under any such contract, whether such person is or is not in employment at any particular time.

References

1. Millward, N, Stevens, M, Smart, D and Hawes, W R (1992) Workplace Industrial Relations in Transition, Dartmouth, Hampshire

2. http://www.employers.lk/trade-unions-ordinance-i

ADVANTAGE OF JOB DESIGN

Job design

Job design is the process of formation of structure to work activities. This is a systematic process of organizing specific job. It is thus, the logical sequence of job analysis which provides the job related data and skill requirement of the incumbent.

ADVANTAGE OF JOB DESIGN 

Job Satisfaction

Job  satisfaction  is  defined  as  the  positive  and  negative  attitudes  that  the  individual  has  for  his/her  work (Koustelios and Kousteliou, 2009). (1976, as  cited  in  Zournatzi  et  al.,  2006, p.  19) Locke  has identified  job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's work or work experience. The fact  is that  there  is not  a  single and  unique  definition for  job satisfaction,  since  it is  a  multidimensional concept,  as indicated by Zournatzi et al. (2006). Job satisfaction is related to the productivity and efficiency of worker absenteeism and staff mobility, and depends on factors such as the content of the work, and the context in which work is carried out (Koustelios and Kousteliou, 2001). Additional  factors  associated  with  job  satisfaction are  the  reduction of  errors  in the  workplace,  and the  intention  of employees to leave their jobs (Zournatzi et al., 2006). Furthermore, according to the international literature, the factors that contribute  to  the  job  satisfaction,  is  their  involvement  and  participation  in  the  decision  –  making  process  of  the organization (Shuck et al., 2011; Greasley et  al., 2005; Joensson, 2008), the ability to  perform  one’s tasks effectively and in accordance to ones perceptions of self efficacy (Greasley et al., 2005), the workplace climate (Shuck et al., 2011), the economic  incentives  (Stringer  et al.,  2011),  achievement,  interpersonal  relationships,  and  general working  conditions (Halepota  and Shah,  2011).  Especially in  the leisure  services,  such as  sport,  Young et  al.  (2013) argue  that  working conditions, work environment and resources and employee benefits are related positively to job satisfaction. In relation to the above analysis, job satisfaction is closely related to both role ambiguity and role conflict, which are in turn related to job design. The role ambiguity is associated with the uncertainty experienced when the employee does not know the requirements of his/her work, how to achieve them and how he/she expects others to  behave in the same work. The role conflict exists when different people or different groups of persons with whom the employee interacts (e.g., family, colleagues, friends, parents) have conflicting expectations for behavior (Amarantidou and Koustelios, 2009). The study of  Ayub and Rafif (2011) concluded  that there is  a positive  correlation between job satisfaction  and motivation. Various factors, both tangible and intangible, affect the satisfaction that individuals derive from their work. For example, Schultz  and Schultz  (1998,  as cited  in  Ayub and  Rafif,  2011) advocate  that job  satisfaction  include the  positive  and negative feelings of employees about  their jobs,  where motivation plays a crucial role. For this reason, the next section discusses the various motivation theories, so as to better understand the important role of job enlargement and design on employees’ motivation.

References

1.   Amarantidou,  S., &  Koustelios,  A. (2009).  Differences  in the  levels  of job  burnout, role  ambiguity and  role conflict in physical education teachers. Management of Sport and Leisure, 6:2, 20-33 ,/m                               

2.   ousteliou, I. (2001). Job satisfaction and job burnout in the education. Psychology, 8:1, 30-39

3.   Stringer, C.,  Didham, J., &  Heivananthampillai, P. (2011). Motivation,pay satisfaction, and  job satisfaction on front – line employees. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 8:2, 161 – 179

4.   Shuck,  M.B.,  Rocco,  T.S.,  &  Albornoz,  C.A.  (2011).  Exploring  employee  engagement  from  the  employee perspective: implications for HRD. Journal of European Industrial Training, 35:4, 300 – 325

5.   Greasley,  K., Bryman,  A.,  Dainty, A.,  Price,  A.,  Soeanto,  R., &  King,  N.  (2005).  Employee  perceptions of empowerment. Employee Relations, 27:4, 354 – 368

6.   Joensson,  T. (2008).  A  multidimensional  approach  to employee  participation  and  the association  with  social identification in organizations. Employee Relations, 306, 594 – 607

7.   Halepota, J.A., &  Shah, N.  (2011). An  empirical investigation  of organizational  antecedents on  employee job satisfaction in a developing country. Transforming government: People, Process and Policy, 5:3, 280 – 294