Building an Ethical Culture
The role of HRM
Professor Pauline Stanton
School of Management
Do we have a problem?
How do we respond?
Blame, name and shame…….and jail?
……..regulate, regulate regulate
……………………..more codes of conduct and compliance
………………………... more policies and procedures
………we undermine trust and create risk averse organisational cultures
Role of HRM
Designing and implementing best practice recruitment and selection,
promotion, performance and reward
Developing Codes of Conduct, disciplinary procedures
Role of Leadership
‘The tone from the top’ ‘Walking their talk’ Graycar and Kelly 2014
Signalling theory: the strength of the HRM system
Distinctiveness: the features of the HRM system that capture the
attention of staff and arouse interest in the goals: visibility,
understandability, legitimacy of authority, relevance
Consistency: how the HRM message is encoded and interpreted:
instrumentality, validity, consistent HRM messages
Consensus: agreement amongst employees on the perception of cause
and effect relationship: agreement amongst principle decision makers,
fairness (distributive, procedural and interactional)
Bowen D and Ostroff C (2004) Understanding HRM-firm performance linkages: The role of the ‘strength’ of the HRM
system” Academy of Management Review 29(2): 203-221
Distinctiveness
People know what is expected, why it is important and that the policies
and processes are relevant and meaningful – otherwise they ignore
them
If there are no policies and line managers hire and fire – Wild West as
managers do their own thing – led to inconsistency ‘its not fair’
If there are too many policies and processes – policy overload –
managers do their own thing – work arounds
Consistency
The policies are integrated and pull in the same direction
People are rewarded for the right behaviours not the wrong ones
People see the value of HRM systems and processes to help them do what they need to do
Consensus
Agreement – engagement with staff
Shared decision making
Organisational Justice
-
Procedural
-
Distributive
-
Interpersonal
Leadership at all Levels: ethical challenges facing line managers
We might have to deal with large scale theft or fraud
But often it is more about
Difficult behaviours – bullying, unprofessional emails, moonlighting and misuse of company time or
resources, the old mates/family network
Such difficult behaviours if left unchallenged lead to a toxic culture – staff don’t like it – mistrust,
undermines team spirit
What don’t line managers challenge difficult unethical behaviours?
It’s too hard
I won’t get support from above
I have no real evidence only hearsay
The union will get involved
It will take too much of my time
I don’t know what to do and how to do it
It will go away
What can HRM practitioners do?
Not just focus on training……
Instead work with the line managers to identify and advise – build relationships with line managers –
be at their side – brainstorm possible outcomes and pitfalls
Make sure that they have sensible, practical support
Don’t always be the expert – find help from the right people
Work with the leadership team to provide the tone from the top
An ethical culture is about openness and transparency
It is also about trust
Leadership at all levels as managers walk their talk
Questions and Comments?