The article reviewed is titled ‘Reflections on the ethic in recruiting foreign-trained human resources for health.’ It is a research paper conducted by three authors, Vivian Runnels, Ronald Labonte and Corine Packer. The academic journal is published in the ‘Journal for human resources in health.’ The copyright and publication dates are 2011.
Background of the authors
Vivian Runnels: She is an assistant researcher working with the Globalization and Health Equity Research Unit. Before joining her present organization, she was a researcher and operations director at the Centre for Research on Community Services at the University of Ottawa.
She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in population health at the University of Ottawa. She has a master’s degree in disability management in work and rehabilitation from the City University. She has conducted various researches on food insecurity, health inequalities and other topics. She is registered as rehabilitation professional (RRP).
Ronald Labonte: He is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa and he is currently the chair of the Canada Research in Globalization and Health Equity, an organization that is at the Institute of Population Health.
Before his appointment as a professor, Labonte was the founder and director of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU). Labonte is a renowned publisher and contributor on health and community development issues. He has several books on his account.
Corine Parker: She is a researcher at the Institute of Population Health at the University of Ottawa. She has done extensive researches on international migration of health professionals, women rights and reproductive health among other surveys.
She has been a consultant with the Netherlands Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign affairs, Council of Europe, UN Commissioner for Refugees and the Netherlands Institute of Human rights. She is a holder of M.A in Applied Population Studies from Exeter University.
She also has a M. Phil in International Relations from Cambridge University and a Ph. D in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University. She has authored two books, co-edited two and contributed to other scholarly works.
General contents of the article
This article explores the fairness and ethical issues in hiring of health professionals from foreign countries in the Canadian health sector. The article is a research approved by the University of Ottawa Research Ethics Board. It involved interview of recruiters of health human resource in various Canadian provinces. Data collected was on advertising strategies and ethical considerations utilized in the entire hiring process.
The report postulates that human resource managers or hiring managers do not directly recruit people from some regions or organizations. They just provide information and they do not solicit for employees. According to the report, there are policies on ethical recruitment that must be followed.
The recruiters are so committed to excellence of their organizations that they observe an exemplary, respectful and professional recruitment process. According to the recruiters, equity and fairness in the recruitment process means avoiding bias and being responsible (Runnels, Labonte & Packer, 2011).
The report gives rise to two major forces in the recruitment process. The forces are market forces and ethical considerations (Runnels, Labonte & Packer, 2011).
People who meet the criteria for recruitment should be recruited irrespective of their origin. Another issue discussed is the issue of measuring and forecasting the shortages of human resources in organizations. This method should be conducted ethically without consideration of personal interests.
From the academic journal, one can conclude that there are various ethical issues and considerations in the hiring process. These issues are set in order to guide recruiters to recruit in a fair manner. Fairness is described as giving equal opportunities to all (Runnels, Labonte & Packer, 2011). All qualified people should be given a chance to be recruited.
A good recruitment process that observes ethical issues is advantageous to a company since it results to qualified employees and enhances the corporate image of a firm. Despite the necessity to follow the ethical guidelines in recruitment, there is moral hazard of human resource managers trying to advance their personal interests in the recruitment process.
Human resource managers try as much as possible to follow guidelines on ethical recruitment process. This is because the consequences of not following the guidelines are severe (Winstanley & Woodwall, 2000). However, there are some incidences where the human resource managers fail to observe ethics in recruitment.
This is occasioned either by failure to understand the ethical recruitment process guidelines or the aim of advancing personal interests (Koster, 2007). In these incidences, human resource managers accept bribes, recruit friends and family members even if they are not the best candidates and fail to give all the people equal chances among other practices.
These cases are few due to the enactment of human resource management rules and policies within organizations. Hence, recruiters or human resource managers observe fairness and ethical issues in the recruitment process.
References
Koster, M. (2007). Ethics in human resource management. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.
Runnels, V., Labonte, R. & Packer, C. (2011). Reflections on the ethics of recruiting foreign-trained human resources for health. Human resources for health, Retrieved from https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-4491-9-2
Winstanley, D. & Woodwall, J. (2000). Ethical issues in contemporary human resource management. London: Palgrave Macmillan.