KOSSEK/BLOCK Module 27 9
Ethical Perspectives in Employment Relations and Human Resources Management
Module Purpose and Overview
This module seeks to help students understand some basic core concepts of business ethics and to provide them with descriptions of a sample of strategic ethical challenges in current employment relations. The context is mainly contemporary and the focus is on administrative and strategic issues which human resource (HR) professionals are likely to face. Although there are some references to classical ethics models, the material and presentation are more consistent with late twentieth-century thinking in business ethics.
Thus, the principles of autonomy (of the individual and the group) are presented as tempered by social and professional responsibilities which HR managers have toward other workplace stakeholders. And generally "win-win" perspectives have been presented. Certainly experience shows that permitting one side frequently to totally dominate, or nearly destroy, others often just creates more long-term problems than it solves. And the promotion of ethical positions that recognizes the virtue (whenever possible) in all parties, may in fact promote more harmonious and productive long-term employment relations and enhance quality and productivity.
As noted in the student module, the main objectives of the ethical perspectives module include helping students:
· To gain an appreciation of how ethical concerns arise within workplaces, and why ethical considerations must be addressed by those who manage human resources.
· To learn some basics about the nature of business ethics, primarily as viewed through contemporary Western perspectives, and to contrast ethics, morality, and religious beliefs.
· To note the impact of legal considerations, political correctness, good manners, and gender bias on understanding what might be differently considered to be ethical behavior in the workplace.
· To see that ethical employment conflicts arise between stakeholders, such as groups of employees and supervisors, and within such groups, for a variety of reasons including a total lack of ethics at work or because groups include individuals holding personal values based on different ethical standards.
· To learn how potential workplace conflicts, and ethical challenges for the HR professional, can arise in a wide variety of late twentieth-century daily administrative task and strategic decision-making areas including compensation, promotions, monitoring, discipline, safety, labor relations, and downsizing.
· To practice analyzing and confronting some ethical dilemmas which could potentially challenge HR professionals in two in-class application exercises, and in a sample of additional critical questions and further exercises.
Summary of recommended Readings
The recommended readings list contains a sample of late twentieth-century books and articles that address classic and contemporary ethical concerns in employment relations from both academic and practitioner perspectives. There are numerous other excellent texts in the library, and a growing literature of popular titles on business ethics can be found in paperback in bookstores. Many of these interestingly examine how leading a work organization with heart or soul or adapting the wisdom of ancient philosophers and religions are necessary and practical in the contemporary business enterprise.
Cavanagh's (1990) American Business Values provides an excellent overview on historic and religious roots behind American business values, how business influences personal values and moral judgements, and on contemporary ethical dilemmas in business. Especially useful for assigning to students would be the chapter on how ethical behavior, or its absence, affects the firm's performance and another on how to do practical ethical analysis in today's business world. Schminke (1998) has edited an academic volume titled: Managerial Ethics: Moral Management of People and Processes which could be a useful text for HR classes. It includes chapters focused on key theoretical issues like defining fairness and some which are more practitioner-oriented. The discussions on privacy and electronic monitoring, employee selection, punishments, and using facilitators could prove useful to HR students.
In contrast, Solomon's (1997) It's Good Business: Ethics and Free Enterprise for the New Millennium, and Dalla Costa's (1998) The Ethical Imperative: Why Moral Leadership is Good Business, are popular books written for business managers and executives. In numerous short chapters, Solomon addresses the importance of morality, ethical analysis, and social responsibility to stakeholders and its relationship to profit motives and corporate cultures. His practical discussions and checklists on how to know when one is acting unethical and on rules for ethical thinking and problem solving might usefully be distributed to students as handouts. Dalla Costa provides numerous insider insights to the connection between the spiritual and the commercial and the relationship of the increasingly global economy to ethical practices in big business. He seeks to present a new model for global economic ethics and his suggestions on obstacles to change and necessary steps for successful transformations are thoughtful.
Four articles are included to provide a sampling of recent discussions in journals which focus on, or frequently cover, business ethics. Dunfee and Werhane's (1997) "Report on Business Ethics in North America" in the Journal of Business Ethics nicely reviews the current state of American business ethics and a variety of challenges to managerial integrity and stakeholders' interests. They include some HR issues including diversity and ombudspersons but also discuss ethical concerns in investing, taxes, regulatory responsibilities, and corporate codes of conduct. In contrast, Driscoll and Hoffman (1998) briefly overview for Workforce how "HR Plays a Central Role in Ethics Programs." They suggest that HR managers should take the lead addressing ethical dilemmas and instituting successful business ethics standards and programs. While overly short and simplistic this might effectively challenge new HR students to see their potential importance in articulating a values-based culture at the workplace.
Cunningham's (1998) "The Golden Rule As A Universal Ethical Norm," also from the Journal of Business Ethics, is quite interesting. He reviews the Golden Rule and related Christian and Mosaic thinking as well as ethical concepts found in Aristotle and Confucius. The author attempts to show the practical applications of ethics within the business world and some of the complexity of acting ethically. Minus' (1993) The Ethics of Business in a Global Economy, is an older edited text which could be of assistance to the teacher or students as it effectively contrasts European, Asian and American approaches to business ethics. He has included chapters on Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish and Christian perspectives, and his six business cases are worthy of study.
Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) have addressed one interesting ethical issue in their article entitled "Explaining How Survivors Respond to Downsizing: The Role of Trust, Empowerment, Justice and Work Redesign." This somewhat complex and scholarly article concerns the frequently contradictory reactions of survivors of downsizing experiences. The authors present a typology of survivor responses and two usable diagrams on survivors' responses and attitudes on justice and trust in management. Their article was part of a special topics forum on trust in the Academy of Management Review.
Student Class Assignment
The readings in the student module's Suggested Readings list are intended primarily as background and follow-up readings. Students could be assigned, though, to read some selections from those texts or one of the articles as is noted above. They then could be asked to report on their impressions of the reading in a class session.
Alternately, core concepts areas or some of the strategic issue areas could be assigned to some or all of the students. They could be asked to come up with an example of a problem in that topic area which they have experienced, or which they could easily imagine might arise, in their HR careers. Additionally, students could be assigned one of the Exercises such as contrasting legal and ethical arguments relating, for example, to handling reasonable accommodation challenges, or they could be assigned to research and conduct the suggested classroom debate.
Students could, in addition or instead, be expected to come to class ready to discuss some of the following student module's critical thinking questions which are addressed below in the body of this module and in some of the readings:
1. What sort of differences would you expect to see expressed between an employee and employer if between them
· there was agreement on basic ethical questions? or
· there was not agreement on basic ethical questions?
2. What role might good manners play in the relationship between employees and between employers and employees?
3. How does the history of the relationship between workplace stakeholders affect the ethical perspectives that are adopted by these various parties?
4. What concrete emotions and behaviors might HR professions experience when they know that they, or their employer, have done something ethically wrong?
5. What practical rules might be written that could assist employees and employers to judge whether or not they were engaging in ethical thinking concerning workplace issues?
6. What educational points might be emphasized in training aimed to upgrade the ethical behaviors of the varied stakeholders in the workplace?
Timing the Lesson
The module can be taught in either a single three-hour class period (with one or two very short breaks) or in two 90-minute sessions. Either way the first 90 minutes should be used to discuss the core concepts and to briefly introduce at least a sample of the strategic ethical issue areas. These issues are listed below as though almost all would be covered with equal 5-minute time allocations. Undoubtedly a more interesting class session would result if some areas were given greater attention, and others less, perhaps based on the teacher's or students' interests and experiences. Hopefully the teacher would also be able to provoke a discussion of some of the potential dilemmas (and possibly appropriate responses) confronting HR professionals regarding some of these administrative and strategic issues.
The second 90 minutes should be devoted to having the students work in small groups to discuss suggested questions and then report back on their application case discussion. Obviously if both application cases are assigned more students can be involved and the discussion should entail a more inclusive and wider variety of ethical problems and perspectives. However, then the reports of the answers to the questions for group discussion will need to be briefer (as is suggested below).
Probably the two-session format would be preferable. It would allow for students being asked to work on some of the suggested class assignments noted above. Such reading and thinking should enliven the discussion and deepen the subsequent sophistication of the application discussion and reports.
At the end of this module is a set of transparencies which can be used or adapted for teaching this topic. The overall sequence of the material, the potential transparencies (or slides) available for use, and the suggested timing for the components of this module are as follows:
· Introduction and Overview of Module Slide 1 5 minutes
· Relation to the Frame Slide 2-3 5 minutes
· Contrasting Ethics, Morals & Laws Slides 4-6 10 minutes
· Impact of PC, Manners, Religion & Gender Slides 7-9 10 minutes
· Conflicts Between and Within Groups Slide 10 5 minutes
· Introduction to Strategic Issues Slide 11 5 minutes
· Selection and Promotion Slide 12 5 minutes
· Information Collection and Privacy Slide 13 5 minutes
· Income Differentials Slide 14 5 minutes
· Punishments and Just Cause Slide 15 5 minutes
· Occupational Health and Safety Slide 16 5 minutes
· Employee Involvement and QWL Slide 17 5 minutes
· Labor-Management Relations Slide 18 10 minutes
· Affirmative Action and Seniority Slide 19 5 minutes
· Job Reductions and Creation Slide 20 5 minutes
· Application Case(s)
ü Introduction and Set-up 10 minutes
ü Small Group Discussions 40 minutes
ü Light Duty Group Reports 15 minutes
ü Work-family Conflicts Group Reports 15 minutes
· Conclusion and Debrief 10 minutes
Detailed Teaching Plan
Teaching Notes
This section provides the instructor with a very brief guide of the issues that might be addressed and some ideas on how to cover them. Then it lists the transparency slide(s) that could be used to accompany each topic.
The instructor should briefly overview what is to be covered in the module and list for the students the key purposes and objectives of the session. These are both covered in detail in the introductory section above and could be quickly summarized in lecture format. If the instructor is comfortable enough with the topic she instead could lead the students in a short discussion. This might involve asking students why they feel that ethical perspectives are, or are not, important for the HR professional and the business world, and then the teacher could add any key missing points. (Slide 1)
One purpose of this segment is to provide the students with a connection of the ethics discussion to the rest of the book. The transparency lists a couple of key points relating ethical perspectives to each of the four HR roles discussed throughout the book. Some additional commentary can be found in the student module to supplement the slide if needed. (Slides 2-3)
The discussion of the core concepts begins with definitions of ethics and morals, which is included on the first slide in this section. Then the discussion, and the next slide, contrasts ethics and morals. In the text of the student module some differences are explained. Then some contrasts between law and ethics, which is noted on the following transparency, is provided in the student's module. All of this could be covered in lecture format based on the student text. But the session would probably work very well if the instructor asked students questions. They might be asked whether or not they thought that all of these concepts in theory or in their real life experiences were the same or not. They could be asked to generate examples for each of the contrasts. Or a few examples pulled from the discussion of the application cases could be posed for student reflection and response. (Slides 4-6)
The next three slides discuss the relationship to ethics of political correctness, good manners, religions, and gender differences. The goal is to assist students to understand the inter-relationships of all of these forces and their impact on employment relations. Again, the teacher could cover this material in lecture format, but the additional posing of some questions to the students might increase their interest in the topic. All of these factors should be in the students' experience base, but they may not have thought about their connection to each other or to the everyday business world. (Slides 7-9)