Ethical Practice Briefing Paper PDF

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Ethical Practice Briefing PaperPurposeThe purpose of this document is to illustrate the importance of HR in business practice based on ethics and professional values.OverviewEthical organisations follow a set of rules and hold everyone accountable for applying them across company; these rules compre...

Description

Ethical Practice Briefing Paper

Purpose The purpose of this document is to illustrate the importance of HR in business practice based on ethics and professional values.

Overview Ethical organisations follow a set of rules and hold everyone accountable for applying them across company; these rules comprehend the treatment of employees, approach to environment, fair market practices regarding price and consumer treatment. Reports show that ethical companies are more successful in the long run. A misconduct puts everyone at risk – from demoralizing employees, losing reputation and money to litigations. HR’s role in ensuring an ethical business environment is linked to workplace policies, compliance with laws and regulations, amending behaviors. Ethics can be integrated into HR processes like recruitment and induction, inclusion and diversity, learning and development, performance management, reward.

Key Considerations Ethics is about doing the right thing. There are three dimensions in ethics - ability to distinguish right from wrong, commitment to do what is right, and doing what is right. How a company operates and how people act in the workplace should be led by ethical principles and professional values. Ethical principles are the standards set by a company for behaviors and decision-making in matters concerning compliance with laws, protection of confidential data and intellectual property, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement. At the same time ban the conflicts of interest, fraud, bribery, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, inappropriate accounting and use of company funds/assets, incorrect public reporting. Ethical decision-making is the process of assessing and choosing the most ethical alternative consistent with ethical principles. In business these core ethical principles are mandatory: - Honesty and transparency in all communications and actions will result in trustworthiness. - Integrity refers to adherence to a code of moral values and demonstrated consistency between words and actions that will gain the respect of others. - Loyalty is protecting and promoting the legitimate interests of the company and its employees and fulfilling the commitments to stakeholders. - Fairness means inclusion and equity both internally and outside the company. Everyone is treated the same way and encouraged to participate with thoughts and ideas. - Showing respect for others by being considerate of the human dignity and rights, listening without judging, being kind, polite, caring, and compassionate.

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Responsibility by taking ownership of what you do and anticipating the consequences, and accountability for the taken actions. Social and environmental awareness including attention and response to social and climate issues.

Professional values are the character traits adopted and displayed at work. To be a professional requires a certain level of competency, knowledge, education, embracing a code of conduct and ethical standards. There are professional values which are universal and appropriate in any situation, such as reliability, honesty, integrity, objectivity, confidentiality. For HR practitioners work, people, and professionalism are important, aiming to have the most positive impact that creates the most value in each aspect, and promoting better work and working lives. HR’s impact on:  Work is about improving the collective wellbeing, success and productivity of organisations, employees, communities, society.  People means building inclusive organisations that treat people with fairness, developing people personally and professionally to improve organisational sustainability.  Professionalism involves being ambassadors and increasing credibility of the people profession, role models for integrity, leading to better decision-making on topics that affect people, work and change. Eight core behaviors will enable HR professionals to create value for people, organisations and society: 

Ethical practice is having a major effect on people’s lives and the experiences they have at work, as well as the reputation of the organisation.

Nowadays the right option is not always obvious, and often we might face ethical dilemmas in the workplace. Eight perspectives can help arriving to the best decision:

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Professional courage and influence - the courage to speak up in relation to the right things, to admit and take responsibility for mistakes, and to learn from them; influencing others to achieve positive results. Valuing people and their contribution to organisation, building a culture of trust with a shared purpose where people develop, have a voice, and their wellbeing is taken seriously. Working inclusively is to collaborate and listen to each other in spite of geographies and cultures. People professionals will facilitate the cross-boundary work, managing the conflicts in constructive ways. Commercial drive is about business and customer-focused approach; responsibility and commitment to results that create value for people and support the success of the organisation. Passion for learning - commitment to our own and others’ ongoing professional development, opportunities to improve and innovate our work. Insights focused means analysing and understanding the problems and using evidence to formulate insights and solutions. Situational decision-making is about making effective and pragmatic decisions or choices considering the specific circumstances.

Unethical behavior is any action that compromises personal and professional integrity and contradicts the accepted moral norm, whether it’s counterproductive work (fraud, harassment, sabotage, absenteeism, policy violation) or unethical pro-organisational behaviour (price fixing, creative accounting, withholding critical information). There are multiple factors causing unethical behaviors: 1) “Rotten apples” refer to egocentric employees that are more focused on personal advantage than on common good. 2) “Bad barrels” are the organisational contexts that suggest what is acceptable. 3) “Sticky situations” question the moral intensity of the situation and its consequences. The consequences of unethical behaviors on HR could be the following: - Losing reputation, credibility and resources; - Difficulty to attract and hire talent; - Low employee productivity and morale, high absenteeism and turnover; - Ineffective team collaboration; - Toxic workplace. How HR can help building and maintaining an ethical culture:  Consistently enforce codes of conduct;  Communicate carefully about unethical behavior and ethical standards;  Focus on organisational practices that shape the ethical climate;  Promote organisational fairness and challenge negative political behavior;  Understand and manage the impact of individual personality and mood;  Understand and manage the risk factors related to job design;  Ensure targets are realistic and that reward is linked to multiple complementary outcomes;  Create accountability and introduce checks in decision making;  Empower employees to speak up and provide safe whistleblowing practices.

HR activities are not only subject to ethics and code of practice but also to legislation. For example, the provision of treating people with fairness is complementary with labor legislation, including the minimum wage, the overtime payment, the benefits, the hiring and exit procedures, the leave requests, health and safety, the anti-discrimination laws. The HR professionals must transpose and ensure the conformity to labor legislation within the company formally via official channels, as well as informally via networking. HR professionals will demonstrate positive working relationships through:  Listening skills when clarifying problems is necessary, asking for different opinions and checking details and facts, avoiding assumptions;  Contributing whenever the case by communicating effectively in a calm, clear and adapted to the audience manner, based on facts.  Accepting distinct points of view as pieces of information when working in a team, valuing individual diversity, avoiding bias, mutual trust, fairplay, negotiation skills, conflict resolution.  Showing sensitivity to others – empathy, compassion, concern for others. For example, when a colleague’s work performance is not the usual one, try to understand the motives and offer help.  Showing respect by being present and supportive, thoughtful of others' feelings and boundaries, kind and polite to each other, doing what’s right. For example, a manager shouldn’t play favorites, and a promotion or salary increase will be granted based on merit.

Conclusion The people professionals will embed the profession’s code of conduct and organisational ethical standards for effective decision-making and sustaining an ethical workplace.

Bibliography https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/ethics https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/ethical-principles-in-business https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/professional-values...