Can HR ever be ethical?

Following on from last week’s post What is HRM? I asked the students for their opinions on whether HR can ever be ethical. If you are interested in the background to this lecture, please refer to last year’s blog post.

Yes, HR can be Ethical

This year there was a much clearer swing towards ‘yes’, although, as with last year, most of the yes answers were qualified ones, i.e. that HR can only be ethical when certain conditions apply. Unlike last year, three of the fifteen ‘yes’ answers were absolutely certain that HR is ethical, exemplified by this comment,

‘I think it’s ethical all the time’

The remaining responses falling into this category were yes followed by an ‘if’ or a ‘but’. Two started without the yes with something akin to, ‘In order for HR to be ethical it needs to….’. In total these answers posited a wide range of conditions to be met if HR is to be ethical including allowing everyone to contribute, having strong policies, procedures and values, and considering impact on different stakeholders. A handful of responses (5) noted that ethics are dependent on points of view of the ‘ethical standpoint’ of HR, the company owner or general business culture, and in particular;

‘It can be ethical if is used in the correct business culture that is people focused rather than results driven.’

Maybe HR can be Ethical

I put five responses which weren’t clearly a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ into the maybe category. The main thrust of these answers is that HR ‘tries to be ethical’ but is prevented from doing so because of company goals. Therefore, HR can never be 100% ethical. For example;

‘Although Human Resources tries to be ethical, it’s impossible for it [to] be 100% since they’re hired by the company.’, and;

‘HR tries to be ethical but will never manage 100%, this is often because HR can be company focused over employee’

No, HR can’t be ethical

This year only three answers fell into the clearly ‘no’ category. However, two of these followed on from the ‘maybe’ category that HR could never by ‘fully ethical’. The reason proposed here however was that not everything is within HR’s control, and thereby it is ‘impossible’ for HR to be ethical. One answer added that HR was, ‘too complex to be fully ethical’.

This leaves just one answer which is true ‘no’. I think this is my favourite answer, because it addresses (one of) the elephant(s) in the room which HR is still struggling to resolve while espousing ethical principles;

Can HR ever be ethical? ‘Not whilst the gender pay gap is still about’.

Thanks to the all the students who took part in this exercise and agreed for their comments to be put on the blog.

If you are interested in a humourous take on this week’s topic, check out this comic!

What is HRM? 2018

It’s that time of year again when I ask students to submit their comments and ideas about the fundamental basis of HRM. It’s pretty hard to believe that my last posts on the blog were of the exact same questions last year – that’s PhD life for you! At least this gives us an interesting ‘baseline’. Here’s a direct link to last year’s blog on the question of ‘What is HRM?’.

Saying that, this is obviously not an academic study; more like a barometer of the opinions of the HR professionals and managers of tomorrow. The group have mixed experiences of HR – from undertaking a year-long placement in industry, to only learning about it from a textbook.

There are some key similarities to last year, but also some differences as well. First with the similarities.

HRM is there to ‘manage people’

As with last time, comments alluding to HR’s role in ‘managing people’ were a prominent theme, being referred to in at least 10 comments (some comments could be related to more than one theme). This year it was more expected, after last year I expressed surprise that students would see HR as undertaking this role, rather than line managers. Some of the comments even referred to HR ‘using’ employees, including;

“humans need to be run and managed, same as other processes”, and;

“[The role of HRM is to] organise an effective way of using employees”

Let’s hope we can develop a more critical perspective on this via this week’s lecture on HR Ethics, where I outline Greenwood’s critique that to treat people as resources, in same way as furniture or computers, is unethical.

However, what distinguished these comments from last year is that some of them had a much more strategic dimension, although this was often related to performance, for example;

“HRM is an approach to employment management that seeks to use the workforce in a way to gain competitive advantage.”

It would be interesting to see whether the ‘managerial’ perspective is affected if the ‘M’ was dropped from HRM, leaving the question as, ‘What is HR?’.

HRM does Admin

Similar to last year, a large number of comments referred to what HR ‘does’. Again, training and development was one of the main functions mentioned. Recruitment also got a lot of mentions. Interestingly, ‘motivation’ was frequently mentioned within this category. Perhaps this is indicative of a perceptible shift this year towards HR being seen as the “people service”, which I discuss below.

Noticeably absent this year were references to HR as a strategic function per se. Yes, we don’t cover HR strategy until the following lecture, but this is exactly the same as last year. Instead, there were a few comments related to strategy being something that HR does, or produces, for example, HR undertakes, ‘Strategic Business Planning’. There were a couple of comments about HR’s role in aligning people with business objectives;

“[HR’s role] is to support people to deliver business objectives” and;

“Look after employees to ensure alignment with business objectives”

But this wasn’t enough to make it a theme in it’s own right this year.

HRM looks after employees

Building on that last comment above, a key theme this year is HR as ‘the people service’. That HR’s role is to ‘support’ employees was mentioned in 5 comments. That HR was there to support the business was only mentioned in one. HR’s role in ‘looking after employees’ also got a couple of mentions. I find this interesting, as this was relatively absent last year. Hopefully is an emergent trend that will challenge the perception that HR manages and uses employees.

The Balanced Perspective

The lecture went on to question how HR balances the often contradictory organisational demands with employee demands. Obviously no matter how sympathetic HR is to employee concerns, they remain on the organisation’s payroll. Some students were already thinking in this vein before the lecture commenced;

“HRM [is the] people function [and] the balance between the organisation[‘s] strategic goals and its employees”, 

“[HR’s role is to] support people to deliver business objectives”, and;

“HRM manage employees but also support the business”

The management perspective showing itself again there in the last comment. Let’s finish, though, with the inspirational thought that HR(M) is the;

“Backbone of business”

Thanks to all the students who took part in this exercise and for agreeing that this could be discussed on the blog.

Can HRM ever be ethical?

This post is part of a mini series in which I am engaging the students from my module in answering fundamental questions about HRM. The module is critically focussed (rather than mainstream), based on the necessity that HRM reflect and critique it’s own practices in order to improve. The aim of the series is to gather the views of the HR professionals of the future and generate some discussions inside and outside the classroom; the latter hopefully engaging some existing professionals. This second post follows on from last week’s question; What is HRM?

What is HRM?

For those of you who aren’t aware, I run a module for students in the final year of their undergraduate degree called Employee Resourcing and Development. In order to differentiate the module, as well as building on the student’s knowledge from their first two years of study, I have been developing a more critical (as opposed to mainstream) focus.

#durhamminersgala 2017 favourite snaps

The Durham Miner’s Gala is one of my favourite days of the year. I have been attending most of them for around 13 years. I love the brass band music, the colourful banners and the history of the event. This year I decided to take a camera and try to capture some of the atmosphere. Here are my favourite personal pictures from the day.

From Political Economy to the Job Centre

Last week I attended the Critical Management Studies conference, hosted by Edge Hill University in the faded grandeur of the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. It was my second time visiting the city and also my second academic conference. Although my stream had the rather intimidating title of Political economy, value and valuation: Advancing contemporary critiques of capitalism and exploring alternatives, it was really useful not only to get feedback on my own paper, but also to find out about current research in this field.

Hrpotential’s Key Themes ufhrd2017

Having just returned from the Universidade Europeia in Lisbon, I am keen to share my learning from attending my first academic conference; the University Forum for Human Resource Development.

The Art of Seeing

Some time ago I read a neuroscience book that suggested a technique for seeing issues from another person’s perspective. The process, accompanied by an explanatory diagram, involved imagining yourself physically occupying the same space as that person, as well as subsequently picturing yourself as an impartial observer. This was supposed to occur as you were interacting with said other person, which the book reassured would become easier with practice. Despite the impossibility, in my opinion, of accompanying all these difficult tasks at once, it completely ignores the important cues that people give regarding their potential feelings and behaviour, both verbally and physically.

Place Based Leadership

“The social world is accumulated history” (Bourdieu, 1986)

“The social space we occupy has been historically generated.” (Skeggs, 1997)

One of the best parts of research is when you stumble across one or two pieces of information that enable your current thinking to ‘fall into place’, even if this is only temporary. That was the feeling I got when yesterday when I came across these two quotes in quick succession. They’re from two of the theorists that I see as being central to my thesis. When this happens, it can be interesting to consider the process of crystallisation behind such moment of clarity. 

My Own Reflection

I’m currently reading Roald Dahl’s Matilda with my middle daughter. I smile, not just at the funny parts, but when Matilda is curled up with her nose in a book while the rest of the family is watching TV. Certainly my parents were not like Matilda’s, but I do remember them making objections to me doing the same, particularly in social situations.