National institutions in the United Kingdom
National institutions in the United Kingdom include law enforcement, parliament, and the British monarchy (Weir & Beetham, 1999). The law enforcement institution is associated with the British and Irish Ombudsman Association, the police, the majesty’s court service, the Scottish legal aid, and the United Kingdom crime prevention. On the other hand, the parliament is associated with the House of Lords and the Members of Parliament. The British monarchy is one of the oldest national institutions in the United Kingdom. The British monarchy is synonymous with the royal family and the queen.
Historical background
The formation of the United Kingdom in 1707 was after the political merger of both England and Scotland (Colley, 2005). The two countries had led to the formation of Great Britain before Ireland became part of the union. From the historical records, the stability of the United Kingdom was developed after years of civil wars. Eventually, the dominance of the British Empire was a historical achievement in the late 1700s (Colley, 2005). The dominance of the British Empire as a stable political outfit was evidenced during the First and Second World War. The United Kingdom’s influence over global politics has been a force to reckon over the years.
Ethics and values
The law enforcement institution in the United Kingdom is driven by values and ethics of professionalism, integrity, respect, customer service, responsibility, and accountability (Lawton & Doig, 2006). On the other hand, similar ethics and values are evidenced by the UK’s parliament. Such ethics and values are guided by principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership. On the other hand, ethics and values from the British monarchy are based on Victorian morality. In this context, the monarchy’s ethics and values are guided by the principles of sexual restraint, intolerance to immorality and crime, and a strict code of conduct. The presence of moral guidance based on religion is a common feature in the British monarchy.
Impact of the national institutions’ ethics and values on HRM practices
The United Kingdom’s ethics and values have a positive impact on human resource practices in the country and multinational corporations. In this regard, the importance of establishing an ethical culture in organizations is vital in controlling systems, human behavior, and capital. National ethics and values play a critical role in assessing the organizational capacity to perform within the confines of diverse cultures (Wilton, 2010). Moreover, the institutional values and ethics are a basis of comparing the managerial expectations and performance from key stakeholders. The importance of shaping behavioral value especially from the employees is highly influenced by the existing national ethical principles. National ethics and values are critical in influencing leadership skills among human resource managers (Wilton, 2010). It is easier to apply national ethics and values in controlling diverse human personnel through process development and improvement. In addition, the element of quality improvement can be integrated into human resource management practices by establishing common goals and objectives.
National ethics and values impact HRM practices by promoting employee motivation, review, training, and retention. National ethics and values offer human resource managers with effective strategies of orienting new employees into organizational culture. National values and ethics are critical in influencing work-level task discussions, interpersonal relationships and communication skills.
Ethics and values from national institutions are effective examples of how human resource managers should approach responsibilities with consistency (Wilton, 2010). In addition, national values and ethics imply the significance of developing an ethical institution using a framework of tools, inputs and a support system. The relevance and stability of ethics and values in national institutions signify control and trust of the human capital. From this perspective, growth and development of the human capital is highly appreciated to achieve optimal effectiveness.
Influence over expatriates and citizens
The influence of national values and ethics on expatriates and citizens working for multinational corporations in the United Kingdom offers both opportunities and challenges. In most cases, expatriates find an opportunity to integrate and learn from foreign cultures, ethics and values. From this perspective, the expatriates’ cultural competency improves for the benefit of the multinational company. The United Kingdom’s national values and ethics have a positive influence on expatriates who believe in morality. Apparently, the United Kingdom’s national institutions have embedded values and ethics on moral conduct. The importance of the multinational corporations in adhering to a country’s moral conduct is of national interest to the United Kingdom. In addition, the expatriates’ organizational commitment is assessed from adherence to values and ethics of the host country.
On the other hand, citizens working for a multinational corporation integrate with expatriates and learn foreign cultures. In this context, the importance of entrenching good communication skills and interpersonal relationship is emphasized. The United Kingdom’s national values and ethics allow multinational corporations to operate under the principles of honesty, integrity, respect, accountability and professionalism. Both the expatriates and citizens can improve an organization’s productivity and performance by integrating the diverse cultures. Nonetheless, the integration of expatriates’ cultures, values and ethics with those of the host country is a challenge.
References
Colley, L. (2005). Britons: forging the nation, 1707-1837. New York, NY: Yale University Press.
Lawton, A & Doig, A. (2006). Researching ethics for public service organizations: the view from Europe. Public Integrity, 8(1), 11-33.
Weir, S & Beetham, D. (1999). Political power and democratic control in Britain: The democratic audit of the United Kingdom. London, LDN: Psychology Press.
Wilton, N. (2010). An introduction to human resource management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.