ethics and hr

Managers profit from illegal use of insider stock information and even college students seem to have become caught up in the wave where studies show significant increases in cheating on tests. Concern over this perceived decline in ethical standards is being addressed by organizations, and companies are relying on Human Resource (HR) to build an ethical culture. Human Resource departments are creating codes of ethics, introducing ethics training programs and hiring ethics officers. Why is ethics important to Human Resources? When employees in organizations make decisions to act unethically, they affect not only the company itself, but also its shareholders, employees and customers. Employees make a myriad of choices every day in businesses -- if unethical, they can damage a company's productivity, profits and reputation.

Unethical decisions can come in many forms: the employee who conducts per

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Approximately 37% of all ethics inquiries involve HR issues, and that means ethics officers must consult with HR and use their expertise to interpret regulations, resolve disputes and consult on ways to reduce future problems. In the empowered workplace where decisions are being forced down to the very lowest level, the employee must understand the importance of making that decision right the first time. However, winning the ethics battle isn’t only about how an organization punishes those who engage in unethical behavior, but how the company rewards both good and bad behavior. In order for the code to be effective, HR should be careful not to omit important issues such as personal character matters, product safety, product quality, environmental affairs, or civic and community affairs. Bottom line, an effective ethics program builds morale of employees because most employees like to work for corporations they think are ethically intended.

How can HR teach ethics? Human Resource departments across the U. This test teaches employees steps to determine if a decision is ethical. It encourages morale because a good ethics program supports such morale builders as openness and honesty.

Ethics are free -- the HR department has to put forth the effort to communicate, educate, and train its employees on the importance of their decisions. This can strengthen their confidence when they have to take ethically correct stances that may not be popular. The primary debate is whether or not you can actually teach ethics. Companies with ethics programs find that many “unethical” decisions are not of deliberate commission, but of ignorance. In most companies today, the competitive advantage rests on the shoulders of it's employees. sonal business on company time to the line worker who fails to report a product flaw just to meet a deadline, and even more serious, the manager who profits from illegal use of insider stock information.

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Approximate Word count = 1903
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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