The processes of staffing and recruiting should be considered in terms of how those processes impact the composition of the workforce eventually hired. Many organizations are obligated to comply with equal employment and affirmative action (AA) requirements so that certain classes of people, especially minority members, women, and disabled individuals, are not discriminated against in hiring practices. Findings of unlawful employment discrimination can lead to costs in court settlements, bad publicity, and employee ill will. Finally, once applicants for positions have been attracted to the organization, they must be evaluated and assessed in terms of their relative fitness for assuming the duties of the open position. There are a variety of selection devices that can be used for this purpose.
In the hiring process, ethical issues are important as they determine rights and ensure equal treatment of job seekers. By far the most common selection device is the personal interview. In this intentional conversation, the interviewer supposedly gathers sufficient information about the applicant to render an assessment of the person’s qualifications. There are a variety of other, more effective selection devices available for selecting job applicants. These methods include work samples, paper and pencil tests, assessment centers, structured interviews, and biodata. Generally, these methods require the applicant to demonstrate the skills and abilities necessary for successful job performance. Providing the talent needed to perform the work of the organization is a critical human resources task. The position of customer service representative involves servicing and selling a variety of products to customers. There is a large amount of direct customer contact, either in person or over the phone. The service representative is expected to learn about all the products offered. As part of customer servicing, the service rep may be involved in product returns or handling customer complaints (Schuler, 1998).
In discussing ethics and social responsibility issues as it applies to the hiring process, three words (ethics, morals, and ethical) will be frequently used. Ethics means the system or code of human conduct, with the emphasis on the determination of what is right and wrong. With these three definitions in mind, the next step is to apply them to defining ethical conduct. Ethical conduct, however, goes beyond legality and is more comprehensive. If Ethical behavior is legal behavior plus some other element, then it is important that this additional element be identified, if possible. ethics and codes of ethics are important for the modern workplace because they determine organizational behavior patterns and establish positive culture and relations. Acting as a top-level manager, I can say that ethics is crucial for the workplace because it determines the values and principles of organizational behavior. At first blush, many people will probably agree that this additional element is the collection of moral principles and values of what is right and what is wrong and what is good and what is bad, as determined by group behavior or by some member of the group.
For every person in the organization, it is important to recognize that ethics is a core of business philosophy and interpersonal relations. Without ethics, the company will fail to meet communication norms and will be unable to establish positive human relations with partners and clients. Business ethics in the workplace is based on Christian moral principles and doctrines. The Judeo-Christian ethic is generally considered to be the foundation of Western ethical and moral standards. The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are firmly ingrained in this ethic as is the Protestant work ethic and faith, love, charity, fairness, and justice. The problem today is that much of this basic truth has either been distorted, corrupted, or applied only under certain circumstances or to the other person. It is not difficult to get most people to agree with the Ten Commandments, or at least on Commandments 5 through 10; that is, to agree with them in general or as they might apply to someone else. They will agree that no one, including themselves, should steal someone else’s automobile; but, what about a pencil or pad of paper from work, making personal long-distance telephone calls on the company phone, padding the expense account, or taking home a company computer for their use and “forgetting” to take it back (Schuler, 1998).
The ethical dilemma concerns the employment of a low-skilled employee but a highly motivated one. This person was an excellent professional in the field of IT technology but the company’s management was conscious about his former deeds. On the other hand, there was no reason to decline this employee because he performed excellent results during the interview. In part, this interest has focused on how the self-assessment rating process can be improved. Just as in the case of supervisory rater training, it may be possible to improve self-rating effectiveness through training. By training the employee to do a better job in evaluating his or her performance before the review, the employee may form a more realistic view of performance and be more ready to discuss how to improve. Evaluation of skills is a natural and necessary part of organizational life and forms the cornerstone to many basic human resources management practices. Despite its central role in the HR drama, the reviews of performance appraisals have been mixed, at best. In particular, problems in rater accuracy and consistency, negative impacts on employee commitment and motivation, poor administrative choices for system design and operation, and faulty rating scales all work to compromise the potential value that appraisals can provide. A large amount of research in this area does point the way to how appraisals can be improved. Such practices as job analysis, aligning purpose with the process, and more frequent feedback are all essential steps forward. The company decided to hire this employee and gave him a training course to improve his skills and knowledge. In particular, rater training is yet another piece of the improvement puzzle. Training raters on how to observe and evaluate behaviors reliably can be done by presenting vignettes of performance for common evaluation and discussion in a training set. An emerging step in this same direction is self-assessment training. Here, employees learn how to rate themselves more accurately and adjust their expectations accordingly. Performance evaluations are not a perfect process that produces only positive outcomes. Because appraisals are so critical to many of the other HR functions, finding and instituting ways to make the process work as effectively as possible is a major concern of the human resources management function.
Because of the depth and complexity of many of these subject areas, only some of the more pertinent aspects of each area will be discussed. Working to achieve equal employment opportunities in the workplace and overcome job discrimination through affirmative action programs is an important social responsibility of most companies. By picking the right requirements it was possible to reject certain groups of people. Finally, the courts have redefined employment discrimination also to mean “unequal impact.” Ethical values and virtues are held by the intellectual authority figures in the accounting community. These professionals have succeeded in the profession and hold the highest positions in their respective offices. This does not imply that each one who succeeds in accounting possesses all the virtues. Rather, it means that as a group these persons possess all the virtues and, further, we would expect a successful individual to possess or at least appear to possess most of them. To state that a particular virtue is not found among the highest levels of the profession is to imply that virtue is not held by the profession itself.
References
Schuler, R. (1998). Managing Human Resources. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing.