HR function is the conscience of the organization. HR managers operate within social, structural, political, and economic limitations and are unable to make entirely free
ethical choices. In today's high-pressured environment, HR must make it clear for employees that ethics come before deadlines or bottom lines. Many believe that HR plays a tangential role in the ethics debate, but that simply isn't true. Human Resources can help design programs, advise on strategy and consult on investigations, as well as play an ongoing role in educating and training workers about ethics. The basic values of the company must be visible. Human Resources insures they are visible and communicated during the selection process, employee interview, orientation sessions and performance reviews to create a culture that emphasizes ethics.
The paper discusses insights garnered from a wide range of disciplines and debates, for example, stakeholder theory, utilitarian philosophies, Aristotelian concepts of virtue and capabilities, human rights and also the determinants and its affect on Ethics in HRM. Ethical HRM is a complex and multifaceted matters in which there are no easy solutions and few evidently correct answers. There is substantial complexity of the ethical choices that arise with respect to HRM, the difficulty of determining the morally best HRM strategies. Cultivating ethical sensitivity and ethical reasoning amongst HR managers would go a long way to achieve Ethical practices in HRM. Procedural justice and Heller's framework could be used as moral compass to the HR managers towards Ethical Human Resources Management. Concluding, achieving Ethical HRM is not a destination, it is a continuous journey ........... It's an elusive moving target.
Contributed a Chapter titled, 'Ethical Perspectives in HRM' In 'People Management', IMED Pune, dedicated to their Chancellor