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Top Five Ethical Issues in Human Resources

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Introduction Human resources managers face subjective, complex and elaborate roles. Studies and research completed and evaluated demonstrated that HR professionals continuously faced with high and demanding ethical codes upkeep. Ethical issues reveal essential questions about fairness, justice, truthfulness, and social responsibility. Policies linking to legal matters, confidentiality, loyalty, integrity and competency challenge the human resources managers to foresee issues arising. In defining ethics, “Will Durant's (1961) definition of ethics states that it is the study of ideal conduct. Durant's definition has meaning because it teaches that ethics has 2 elements: 1. Knowledge of ethics is not something people are born with; it is …show more content…

380). The following are the steps management can take in handling complaints:
Before concerns are expressed:
a. Encourage the development of moral identity and moral agency;
b. Create a tough anti-retaliation policy that permits disciplining or dismissing employees who retaliate against whistleblowers;
c. Disseminate the policy through the intranet, in orientation materials and elsewhere;
d. Search for and select employees who possess attributes associated with observation of wrongdoing, and whistle-blowing;
e. Orient and train employees about what the organization considers wrongful, and what to do if wrongdoing is observed;
f. Consider building incentives for valid internal whistle-blowing into the reward structure;
g. Monitor the success of the programs and make changes when needed.
Once concerns are expressed:
a. Focus on the wrongdoing alleged in the complaint and not on the complainant;
b. Investigate reports fully and fairly
c. Take swift corrective action when the complaint is well-founded;
d. Provide feedback so that management gets credit for taking action; and
e. Provide multiple communication channels so that employees can choose to report to someone with whom they are comfortable legislation (Miceli, Near & Dworkin, 2009, p. 383). Prospective whistle-blowers should consider whether the conditions associated with justification are present.

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