Business Ethics and the Hr Role: Past, Present, and Future
HR. Human Resource Planning › Vol. 28 Nbr. 1, January 2005
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Summary
Inherent in the term "business ethics" is an unavoidable tension: Managers must continuously balance the needs of the organization and its stockholders with the needs of other stakeholders. Despite this tension between competing interests, today's business leaders can model behaviors and create a corporate culture that support ethical business practices even while making their firms more competitive in the marketplace. Business and HR leaders can model behaviors and create corporate practices that reduce unethical business practices even while making their firms more competitive in the marketplace. Despite the impression that U.S. companies are less ethical than ever, they have actually enjoyed progress in this area over the last couple of years, a trend that will continue if employers remember the lessons of the recent past.
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Business Ethics and the Hr Role: Past, Present, and Future
Inherent in the term "business ethics" is an unavoidable tension: Managers must continuously balance the needs of the organization and its stockholders with the needs of other stakeholders. Despite this tension between competing interests, today's business leaders can model behaviors and create a corporate culture that support ethical business practices even while making their firms more competitive in the marketplace.
The first step in any recovery process is admitting you have a problem, and businesses have a problem with ethics. It is not just a matter of some arrogant, immoral executives at a few companies getting greedy and cooking the books. The problem is more basic than that. The hard truth is that natural, unavoidable tension is inherent in the term "business ethics"-a tension that stems from conflicts between the interests of companies and their employees, customers, and the greater society (Columbia, 2001).Although society wants companies to create many well-paying jobs, those same organizations want to limit compensation costs and raise productivity levels. Customers want to purchase goods and services at low prices, but businesses want to maximize profits. Society wants to reduce pollution levels, but businesses want to minimize the cost that environmental regulations add to their operations.Because these conflicts are fundamental to the nature of business, managers must continuously and consciously balance the needs of the organization and its stockholders with the needs of other stakeholders, including workers, customers, and the larger community. Managers must also balance their personal needs and desires against those of their ...See the full content of this document
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