The Ethics of Human Resource Management: An Impossible Position

In the human resources (HR) field, there has been much written about the role of ethics. This may in part come from a perspective succinctly put by Kockan (2004) that HR has a special professional responsibility in balancing the needs of all stakeholders. This rather than the ethical perspective on issues is the starting point and focus of this chapter. Whilst the conceptual underpinnings of the theories of ethics go back centuries, less attention has been given to the evolution of Human Resource Management (HRM) as a framework and perspective which has emerged out of the industrial revolution. Specifically, the changing nature of the role particularly in the last 40 years and its positioning within organisations and for stakeholders, we argue this has a significant bearing on how ‘ethical’ decision-making involving HRM is made. As such, we explore the development of the HR role and function and by implication the changing focus of ethical decision-making. Using a taxonomy by Ekuma and Akobo (2015), we explore the notion of ethical decision-making and HRM from two established perspectives. The first is the strategic HRM approach and the second is the emerging Sustainable HRM perspective. Through these lenses, we hope to highlight the evolution and nature of HRM decision-making and ethics.