Unit 3
Ethical
Concerns in Human Resource Management
Pauline R. Lopez
Ethical Concerns in Human Resource Management
Most if not all work environments
have dissatisfied employees. Employees
that have ideas for change, but those ideas are not met with consideration. Abraham Lincoln stated that “[y]ou can [please]
some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some
of the people all of the time, but you can never [please] all of the people all
of the time.” (Monqur, 2012). Of
course, President Lincoln originally used this quote to address fooling people
instead of pleasing people, however, for this assignment, the word has been
changed to pleasing people, but specifically, how to manage change, in an
ethical manner, in an environment that is resistant to changing the status quo.
Human Resource (HR) as a profession has been evolving into an
organization partner, but as professionals, they will have to confront the fear
of change, not only in themselves, but also the fear or resistance of their
stakeholders, who are their employers and herein rests the dilemma. How does HR remain true to its values while
asserting its strategic presence, without fear of job loss, verses the fine line that can occur between
connecting with an organization and alienating the stakeholders that employee
them.
Patrick (2001) stated that for change to occur, there must be
stakeholder and employee “…cooperation, collaboration, and co ownership of
others” (p. 1). Change is a combined
effort that creates an environment that is open to best practices in creative
thinking and communication. Resistance to change is manifested in those who will not
agree on a plan for change, yet have no alternatives, or those that cannot
visualize the change and so discredit it.
The dilemma between adding value and confronting the resistance
discussed above can cause ethical concerns for HR professionals especially with
high unemployment rates and corporate downsizing. Fear of being disconnected, people pleasing or
getting so frustrated with stakeholder and employee resistance, is a sure way
not to add value. HR professionals
cannot work for change if they are not educated and trained to know all the
factors that occur with change, such as how to meet resistance and the fear that comes with change. Last, without a strategy to understand
resistance, HR will not achieve its goals and will try and please all of the
people all of the time and this will create an ethical dilemma that will add to
the resistance itself. This translates
to becoming part of the problem, and not a partner in the solution.
References
Monqur,
M. (2012). Abraham Lincoln. The
Quotation Page. Retrieved from: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27074
Patrick, F.
(2001). Taking advantage of resistance to change (and the TOC thinking
processes) to improve improvements. Retrieved from
http://www.focusedperformance.com/articles/resistance
No comments:
Post a Comment