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Ethical Issues In Human Resource Management

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promote an emotional distance and lack of respect for others, and particularly for those who are relatively more disadvantaged (Munro 1998).
To avoid a descent into nihilism, Bauman proposes that the way out of the dilemma is through encouraging development in others of what he calls the ‘moral impulse’. His post-foundationalist approach to ethics endeavors to overcome some of the inevitable confusion created by empirical relativism and moral uncertainty by inviting individuals to transcend their egoistic moral understandings of the social self and consequently, act more caringly and responsibly towards others (Benhabib 1992; Legge 1998a, 1998b; Letiche 1998; Willmott 1998).
In general, we are not ‘against ethics’ as such although all are …show more content…
Human resource managers are responsible for recruitment, selection, orientation, performance evaluation, training and development, IR and health, and safety issues (Boxall and Purcell 2003). As should be patently clear from this list, HRM is a sphere of activity where many of the central ethical issues pertaining to employers and employees arise. What kinds of issues are relevant for HR managers in determining the ethics of work undertaken in the market context? The first question that one might legitimately ask here is whether it is even possible to talk of ethics in a context where market relations are …show more content…
This inquiry has focused on the organizational engagement of employees, and the responsibility of the organization towards its employees, with no mention of the reverse. This is despite the fact that the notion of employee engagement has an inherent two-way connotation. Also, the significant debate on the moral responsibility of employees towards their employers has been neglected.
Setting the discussion in this manner may be justified by its descriptive validity. It is the organization that sets the agenda. It cannot be assumed that engagement involves an equal dialogue between partners. The ground rules for engagement are more likely to be set by the dominant player (in the absence of an independent referee). It is the behavior of the organization that is, in general, the focus of the organization and its stakeholders. The development of the constructs as descriptive, however, has obvious

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