Unit 1 (P 8) HRM in Context: Ethical issues in HRM

Ethical issues in Human Resource Management

• Ethics refers to a system of moral principles - a sense of right and wrong, and goodness and badness of actions and the motives and consequences of these actions. In the business, manager must draw their ideas about what is desirable behavior from the same sources as anybody else would draw.
• Ethics means making decisions that represent what you stand for, not just what the laws are (a behavior might not be defined as illegal, yet be unethical).
• Ethics is an individual personal belief about a behavior, action or decision is right or wrong.
• Ethical values channelize the individual energies into pursuits that are benign(compassionate) to others and beneficial to the society. Ethical issues abound(flourishing) in HR activities, such as remuneration, labor relations, health and safety, training and development etc. This article offers insight into a detailed discussion of how ethical issues related to HR situations.

1. Cash and Compensation Plans: There are ethical issues pertaining to the salaries, executive perquisites and the annual incentive plans etc. The HR manager is often under pressure to raise the band of base salaries. There is increased pressure upon the HR function to pay out more incentives to the top management and the justification for the same is put as the need to retain the latter. Further ethical issues crop in HR when long term compensation and incentive plans are designed in consultation with the CEO or an external consultant. While deciding upon the payout there is pressure on favouring the interests of the top management in comparison to that of other employees and stakeholders.
2. Race, gender, age and Disability: In many organisations till recently the employees were differentiated on the basis of their race, gender, origin and their disability. Not anymore ever since the evolution of laws and a regulatory framework that has standardized employee behaviours towards each other. In good organisations the only differentiating factor is performance! In addition the power of filing litigation has made put organisations on the back foot. Managers are trained for aligning behaviour and avoiding discriminatory practices.
3. Employment Issues: Human resource practitioners face bigger dilemmas in employee hiring. One dilemma stems from the pressure of hiring someone who has been recommended by a friend, someone from your family or a top executive.Yet another dilemma arises when you have already hired someone and he/she is later found to have presented fake documents. Two cases may arise and both are critical. In the first case the person has been trained and the position is critical. In the second case the person has been highly appreciated for his work during his short stint or he/she has a unique blend of skills with the right kind of attitude. Both the situations are sufficiently dilemmatic to leave even a seasoned HR campaigner in a fix.
4. Privacy Issues: Any person working with any organisation is an individual and has a personal side to his existence which he demands should be respected and not intruded. The employee wants the organisation to protect his/her personal life. This personal life may encompass things like his religious, political and social beliefs etc. However certain situations may arise that mandate snooping behaviours on the part of the employer. For example, mail scanning is one of the activities used to track the activities of an employee who is believed to be engaged in activities that are not in the larger benefit of the organisation.Four aspects of privacy that an individual may want to protect from any indiscretion:
• Physical inviolability, or the right to a personal space;
• Social inviolability, or the individual’s freedom to interact with anyone he pleases in his private life;
• Informational inviolability or the individual's right to decide how, when and to what extent their personal data may be made available to others;
• Psychological inviolability, the individual's right not to be compelled to disclose private thoughts and feelings.
5. Employee Responsibility: Moral obligations of the employees:Like in the case of the employees’ rights, the employees’ duties to their employers are included in the work contracts, according to current legislation and internal regulations of the various companies. However, beyond the legal framework, certain moral duties of employees to the firms where they work are being shaped, duties that are sometimes controversial.
6. One of these duties is loyalty to the firm. A company that offers job security, support and understanding at difficult times for employees has every right to expect from them a certain degree of fidelity and loyalty. The problem in question here is: How far should this corporate loyalty go? What happens when the conduct required at the workplace is contrary to widely accepted moral standards in society or the individual's ethical standards? For example, what happens if the company violated laws on toxic emissions and this comes to the attention of employees? Is it morally allowable for the employees to denounce this felony or would this be an unacceptable deviation from standard corporate loyality?
7. Safety and health: The right to humane working conditions, in which the psychosomatic health and integrity of employees is not endangered, is one of the ethical issues concerning the status of employees. In the case of occupations involving considerable risk taking, the ethical Principle of fully aware consent must be respected. This involves informing the employees about the dangers they run by accepting the job. From a survey made by the Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions we can see that most employees work in unfavorable environmental conditions (too hot, too cold or too polluted) and in positions that involve either added fatigue or strenuous physical effort. Work generates over 42% of the cases of back pain and excessive fatigue of Romanian respondents.
8. Layoffs or Redundancy: Layoffs, are no more considered as unethical as they were thought of in the past.Legal Considerations Breaches of ethics in human resources can lead companies into a world of legal trouble, in both the civil and criminal arenas. Breaches of ethics in the HR department are more likely to be reported by victims to the Better Business Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or other regulatory agencies than those committed in other areas, such as product development or accounting. Companies with comprehensive ethics programs in place can avoid costly trouble regarding discrimination and hostile-work environment issues, resulting in lower costs for litigation and out-of-court settlements. 

Long Question:

1. " Today manager is believed to be more ethical, than before". Do you agree or disagree. Give reasons to justify.

Short Question: 

1. Point out any other ethical issues occurring at work place other than mentioned above. 
2. Give nine different example to clarify each of the above ethical issues.

Unit 1 (P 7) HRM in Context: Environment of HRM in Nepalese Organization.

Environment of Human Resource Management in Nepalese organization

1. The diversity has flourished in Nepalese organizations: Nepalese organization is characterized by people having varied culture, social, and religious backgrounds, multiple and conflicting goals, and attitudes. 
2. Faster changing conditions and increase in external pressure: Government regulations, competitive pressure, unionization of employee have exerted a strong influence on the functioning of HRM by many Nepalese organizations.
3. Increased focus towards social obligation: HR manger in Nepalese organizations are bound to evaluate social impacts of their business and HR decisions, e.g., lay off, pressure to hire local people ethnic groups, women and minorities.
4. Significant Development, improvement and enforcement of Acts : Government of Nepal (GON) has come out with a set of rules and regulation of the employment policy of organization through act like Labor act,  Union act, minimum wage directives, bonus act, etc.
5. Growth of unions and industrial relations: Freedom to form and collectively raise voice to the upper management and government by unions has considerably increased and improved.
6. Changing employee standard and professionalism: Entry of educated young mangers, more career orientation, entry of women and protected groups, more participation in decision making and job involvement.
7. Changing in employees’ roles ,values and work expectation: Emphasis on quality of work life, equity and justice in work and rewards, participative decision making.etc

Long Question:

1. "Today HR in Nepalese organization are more loyal to their skill than to their employee". Do you agree with the statement or not. Explain with reasons.
2. " Growth of multiple unions and challenge to address their demand by management and government, reflects industrial relation in Nepalese context. Give you views.

Short Question:

1. State any two environment of HRM in Nepalese organization. Other than mentioned above.

Unit 1 (P 6) HRM in context: Changing world of work and role of HR Professionals

The changing world of work: 

1. The bargaining power of the workforce is significantly rising.
2. At work place HR is viewed as a source of competitive advantage.
3. Greater employee involvement: delegation, decentralization, work teams. goal setting, training, empowering employees, more participation in decision making etc. The new organization structures are built with many teams, where everyone is marching as leaders. Tomorrow’s organizations will have an even greater emphasis on teams. Involving employee allows them to focus on the job goals, with greater freedom, employees’ are in a better position to develop the means to achieve the desired ends. Useful involvement requires demonstrated leadership as well as supportive management.
4. Greater influence of technological innovation :Technological environment include the methods, techniques and approaches adopted for production of goods and services and its distribution. Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation.
5. Economic pressure and demands for higher quality are even turning routine work into something thought requiring.
6. More open system perspective: Interaction between organization system with the external environment is widening.
7. Diversity at work palace: (generation collision, personal characteristics that make the workforce heterogeneous) melting pot approach is replaced by recognition and celebration of differences, who celebrate differences are finding their profits to be higher. Work force diversity requires more sensitive to the difference that each individual or group bring to the work setting. Employer must deal with different values, needs, interest, and expectations of employees and must avoid any practices or action that can be interpreted as being sexist, racist, of offensive to any particular group and of course must not legally discriminate against any employee. Employer also must find easy assist employees in managing work life issues.
8. More mobility or workers due to globalization.
9. Change in value of work (perception regarding job, and job security). Today employee regard work as a platform for professional and career growth. They seek for learning opportunity at work.people are loyal to their skill not to their employers.
10. Flexible work design practices where one goal is ones job // Concern for work/ life balance: Employee increasingly recognize that work is squeezing out their personal lives, and they are not happy about it, e.g., an employee’s relationship with her manager used to be the number one reason for leaving an organization; now the reason most cited is lack of employer work schedule flexibility. A majority of college and university students say that attaining a balance between personal life and work is primary career goal. They want life as well as a job. Organization that fails to help their people achieve work / life balance will find it increasingly hard to attract and retain the most capable and motivated employees. Many Gen Xers  and Gen Yers  are passionate about their careers, wont sacrifice family and leisure for their career. This becomes a difficult balance for employers to maintain as the lines between employees work and personal lives blur in the face of a demanding competitive environment.
11. Frequent organization restructuring:  Challenge is to deal with human consequences of change, loss of loyalty, people looking for new jobs, people insecurity towards job.
12. Concern for continuous improvement: today organization view work place as a continuous learning platform. Where organization and people learn and upgrade themselves to cope the challenges of the present and future environment.

The changing role of Human Resource professionals

The role of HR professionals is changing due to the changes occuring at the workplace, above mentioned points are some changes which gradually brodened the horizon of HRM. The role of HR manager is changing as follows:

1. Staff Role: Traditional advisory role where HR manger performed staff specialists’ role. They assisted and advised manager of HRM matters and top management in formulation of HR policies and plans. They assisted line manager to comply with legal provisions related to HR.
2. Line Role: This is decision making role where HR manager perform line managers role within the HRM department. They direct work of subordinate and perform planning, organizing, directing and controlling functions.
3. Integrative Role: this role focuses that the HR objectives, policies, procedures and programmes were consistently carried out by line manager throughout the organization. The basic objective is to coordinate all the activities related to HRM.
4. Strategic Role: Objective is to formulate and implement people strategies under two specific roles.
1. Follower Role: HR manager prepare programs to implement organizational strategies.
2. Partner Role: HR manager play an equal partner in the formulation of organizational strategies.

Long Question:

1. "Work life balance is frequently addressed issue for the job satisfaction of employee". Do you think it is important for the issue? Give your reasons.
2. The bargaining power to employee are increasing in today's work place. Explain.
3. "Melting pot approach is replaced by recognition and celebration of differences, who celebrate differences are finding their profits to be higher". Clarify the statement.

Short Question:

1. State any two changes occurring at the work place, which is not mentioned above.

Videos to watch and review:

1. The Future Of Work
2. Employee Engagement - Who's Sinking Your Boat?

Unit 1 (P 5) Generation Gap in the workplace

Characteristics of different generation of people at the work place

Videos on youtube.com to watch and enhance understanding on four generation of employee at workplace.

1. Characteristics of the Four Generations in the Workplace
2. Managing Four Generations in the Workplace (Part 1)
3. Managing Four Generations in the Workplace (Part 2)
4. Baby boomers, Generacion X, Generacion Y y Millennials

Long Questions:

1. Millennials are hard to mange and get work done form them. Give your views
2. Millennials are sighted as the laziest generation. Do you agree or disagree?

Short Questions:

1. Which generation is difficult to motivate?
2. Point out a distinct characteristic of each four generation?

Unit 1 (P 4) HRM in Context: Personnel Management Vs Human Resource Management.

Personnel Management Vs Human Resource Management

Long Question:

1. Development of HRM is credited to changes in environment. Explain the statement.
2. "Shifting form Pluralist to Unitarist perspective". Do you think HRM is devaluing the fundamental principle of Pluralism? Explain with a suitable example.

Short Question:

1. State any two differences between PM and HRM, other than which are mentioned above.

Unit 1 (P 3) HRM in Context: Importance and Function of HRM

Importance/ significance/ need of HRM

1. Achieve Objective: - HRM helps a company to achieve its objective from time to time by creating a positive attitude among workers. Reducing wastage and making maximum use of resources etc.
2. Facilitates professional growth: - Due to proper HR policies employees are trained well and this makes them ready for future promotions. Their talent can be utilized not only in the company in which they are currently working but also in other companies which the employees may join in the future.
3. Better relations between union and management:-Healthy HRM practices can help the organization to maintain co-ordinal relationship with the unions. Union members start realizing that the company is also interested in the workers and will not go against them therefore chances of going on strike are greatly reduced.
4. Helps an individual to work in a team/group:-Effective HR practices teach individuals team work and adjustment. The individuals are now very comfortable while working in team thus team work improves.
5. Identifies person for the future:-Since employees are constantly trained, they are ready to meet the job requirements. The company is also able to identify potential employees who can be promoted in the future for the top level jobs. Thus one of the advantages of HRM is preparing people for the future.
6. Allocating the jobs to the right person:-If proper recruitment and selection methods are followed, the company will be able to select the right people for the right job. When this happens the number of people leaving the job will reduce as the will be satisfied with their job leading to decrease in labor turnover.
7. Improves the economy :-Effective HR practices lead to higher profits and better performance by companies due to this the company achieves a chance to enter into new business and start new ventured thus industrial development increases and the economy improves.

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/61824962/7/Objective-of-HR

Functions /Scope / Components of HRM:

The scope of HRM refers to all the activities that come under the banner of HRM. Some of the major activities are as follows

1. Human resources planning:-Human resource planning or HRP refers to a process by which the company to identify the number of jobs vacant, whether the company has excess staff or shortage of staff and to deal with this excess or shortage.
2. Job analysis design:-Another important area of HRM is job analysis. Job analysis gives a detailed explanation about each and every job in the company. Based on this job analysis the company prepares advertisements.
3. Recruitment and selection:-Based on information collected from job analysis the company prepares advertisements and publishes them in the news papers. This is recruitment. A number of applications are received after the advertisement is published, interviews are conducted and the right employee is selected thus recruitment and selection are yet another important area of HRM.
4. Orientation and induction:-Once the employees have been selected an induction or orientation program is conducted. This is another important area of HRM. The employees are informed about the background of the company, explain about the organizational culture and values and work ethics and introduce to the other employees.
5. Training and development:-Every employee goes under training program which helps him to put up a better performance on the job. Training program is also conducted for existing staff that have a lot of experience. This is called refresher training. Training and development is one area where the company spends a huge amount.
6. Performance appraisal:-Once the employee has put in around 1 year of service, performance appraisal is conducted that is the HR department checks the performance of the employee. Based on these appraisal future promotions, incentives, increments in salary are decided.
7. Compensation planning and remuneration:-There are various rules regarding compensation and other benefits. It is the job of the HR department to look into remuneration and compensation planning.
8. Motivation, welfare, health and safety:-Motivation becomes important to sustain the number of employees in the company. It is the job of the HR department to look into the different methods of motivation. Apart from this certain health and safety regulations have to be followed for the benefits of the employees. This is also handled by the HR department.
9. Industrial relations:-Another important area of HRM is maintaining co-ordinal relations with the union members. This will help the organization to prevent strikes lockouts and ensure smooth working in the company. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61824962/7/Objective-of-HRM

Long Question:

1. "In today's competitive scenario organizations give credit to HRM for success"  Do you agree or disagree with the statement.

Short Question:

1. State any four importance of HRM, other that what is listed above.
2. State any two activities performed by HRM, other that what is listed above.

Unit 1 (P 2) HRM in context: Nature and Objective of HRM

Nature/ Characteristics/ Features of HRM:

HRM is process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each are met. It tries to secure the best from people by winning their  cooperation. In short, it may be defined as the art of procuring developing and maintaining good relationship with competent workforce to achieve the goals of an organization in an effective and efficient manner. It has the following features, or characteristics, or nature:

1. Pervasive force: HRM in pervasive in nature. It is present in all enterprises. It permeates all levels of management in organizations.
2. Action oriented: HRM focuses attention on action, rather than on record keeping written procedures or rules. The problems of employees at work solved through rational policies.
3. People oriented: HRM is all about people at work both as individuals and groups. It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results. The resultant gains are used to reward people and motivate them toward further improvements in productivity.
4. Future oriented: Effective HRM helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing for competent and well motivated employees.
5. Development oriented: HRM intends to develop the full potential of employees. The reward structure is tuned to the needs of employees. Training is offered to sharpen and improve their skills. Employees are rotated on various jobs so that they gain experience and exposure. 
6. Integrating mechanism: HRM tries to build and maintain cardinal relations between people working at various levels in the organization. In short it tries to integrate human assets in the best possible manner the service of an organization.
7. Comprehensive functions: It is concerned with managing people at work. It covers all types of personnel. Personnel work may take different shapes and forms at each level in the organizational hierarchy but the basic objective of achieving organizational effectiveness through effective and efficient utilization of human resources remains the same. 
8. Auxiliary service: HR departments exist to assist an advice the line or operating managers to do their personnel work more effectively. HR manager is a specified advisor. It is staff function.
9. Continuous functions: HRM is not a one shot deal. It cannot be practiced only one hour each day or one day a week. It requires a constant alertness and awareness of human relations and their importance in every day operations.
10. Mutuality oriented: It concerns in achieving both organizational and employee objective and creating harmonious relation between them.  

((http://www.citeman.com/11262-nature-of-hrm-human-resources-management.html#ixzz2035lvDy7))

Objectives of HRM:

1. Societal Objectives: The societal objectives focus on social and ethical responsible for the needs and  challenges of society. While doing so, they have to minimize the negative impact of such demands upon the organization. The failure of organizations to use their resources for society benefit in ethical ways may lead to restrictions. For example, the society may limit human resource decisions to laws that enforce reservation in hiring and laws that address discrimination, safety or other such areas of societal concern.
2. Organizational Objectives: The organizational objectives recognize the role of human resource management in bringing about organizational effectiveness. Human resource management is not an end in itself; it is only a means to assist the organization with its primary objectives. Human resource department exists to serve the rest of the organization.
3. Functional Objectives: Functional objectives try to maintain the department’s contribution at a level appropriate to the organizations needs. Human resources are to be adjusted to suit the organizations demands. The department’s level of service must be tailored to fit the organization it serves.
4. Personal Objectives: Personal objectives assist employees in achieving their personal goals, at least insofar as these goals enhance the individual’s contribution to the organization. Personal objectives of employees must be met if they are to be maintained, retained and motivated. Otherwise, employee performance and satisfaction may decline giving rise to employee turnover. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61824962/7/Objective-of-HRM

Long Questions:

1. Discuss about the challenges faced by HRM in fulfilling societal objective.
2. "Personal objectives of employees must be met if they are to be maintained, retained and motivated". Justify the statement.
3. HRM is pervasive and continuous in nature. clarify.

Short Questions:

1. State any three new feature of HRM, which are not mentioned above.
2. Give the example of objectives to be achieved in all the" Four objective of HRM".

Unit 1 (P 1) HRM in Context: Concept of HRM

Concept of HRM

1. " HRM is a process consiting of the acquisition, development, motivation, and maintenance of human resource". Decenzo / Robbins.
2. "HRM is the design of formal systems in an organization to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish the organizational goals". Mathis, Jackson, 2007
3. "HRM is a management function that helps manager to recruit, select, train and develop members of an organization". K. Aswathappa.
4. “HRM refers to the policies and practices involved in carrying out the ‘people’ or human resources aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training and appraising.”Human resource management". –Gray Dessler.
5. "The purpose of HRM is to ensure that the employees of an organization are used in such a way that the employer obtains the greatest possible benefit from their abilities and the employees obtain both material and psychological rewards from their work". (Graham, 1978)
6. “A strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical in achieving competitive advantage”. Bratton and Gold, 2003
7. "It is concerned with philosophy, principles, policies, and practices related to human aspects of management".Govinda Ram Agrawal
8. "Organization needs people and people need organizations. HRM is concerned with managing people in the organization. It is important management function to work with and through people".Govinda Ram Agrawal 
9. Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization.
10. "HRM as art and science". The art of managing people by recourse to creative and innovative approaches; it is a science as well because of the precision and rigorous application of theory that is required.
11. Organizational effectiveness depends on the performance of people working in organizations; humans are the source of competitive advantage (must add +ve value, must be unique, imperfectly imitable, and cannot be substitute with another resource). HR today is viewed as strategic resource.
• Human resources are people who are ready, willing and able to contribute to organizational objectives. It creates harmony between the objectives of organization and the individual.
• Human resources are people having competencies in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude, experiences, self motivation and potential for growth.
12. The key concept of HRM are: (Govinda Ram Agrawal)
• Human focus: Treats human as an important asset.
• Management Function: performed by all levels of managers
• Continuous commitment: Ensure not only present but also future.
• Dynamic: Affected by change in the environment.
• Mutuality oriented: Promotes mutuality between employers and employees.

Review question:
Long

1. Management is art of getting things done through others. Does this statement mean Management is an art of manipulation of HR . Justify.
2. Humans are the source of competitive advantage and severely affects the organizational performance. Clarify.

Short

1. What is Management?
2. What is Human Resource?
3. What is Human Resource Management? 

Videos to watch and review:

1. Reinventing Management for the 21st century, Gary Hamel