8

HR managers as

ethics agents of

the state

Lynne Bennington

Introduction

Corporate governance and ethics are hot topics in both the popular press and
in the academic management literature. Codes of conduct are burgeoning yet
we still hear about amazing corporate collapses in which senior management
not only failed to comply with various laws but has even failed to comply
with, or enforce, its own code of conduct (Meisinger 2002). These codes are
often developed and maintained in HR departments, and HR practitioners are
often responsible for management-level ethics awareness programmes (Wiley
2000). In general, though, HRM is rarely mentioned in any of the reports
on ethical failures. Similarly, HR textbooks have tended to omit any serious
discussion of ethics (Marchington and Wilkinson 1996; Payne and Wayland
1999; Winstanley and Woodall 2000a). Notwithstanding these points, ethical
conflicts are potentially of serious concern to employee HR managers.
At the professional level, most HR associations have ethical behaviour
as one of their key policies and some even include promotion of ethical
behaviour in their objectives. In fact, the president of the Society for Human
Resource Management in the USA, the largest American HR association with
well over 100,000 members (Wiley 2000), argues that it is the professional
duty of HR managers to promote ethical business practices and to contribute
tothe‘ethicalsuccessof...organizations’(Meisinger2002: 8). This core prin-
ciple of the Society has associated guidelines on professional responsibility
that include ‘adhering to the highest standards of ethical and professional
behaviour; complying with the law; striving to achieve the highest levels of
service, performance, and social responsibility; advocating for the appropriate
use and appreciation of human beings as employees; and advocating openly
and within the established forums for debate in order to influence decision-
making and results’ (SHRM 2004).
Fisher, Schoenfeldt, and Shaw (1999: 19) provide more precise behavioural
guidance for HR practitioners and specify the following duties for employees