ETHICAL BASIS FOR HRM PROFESSIONALISM 163clearer and easier if HRM could invoke professional status? Is it possible
and indeed desirable to bring into being any absent features? I would argue
in the affirmative. Such a move is desirable because the HRM and ethics
literatures show that HR practitioners do face dilemmas of a professional
type, many involving lack of clarity with respect to roles and responsibilities
in contexts involving conflicts of organizational, civic, and individual need.
These conflicts are in effect ‘where the rubber of social policy hits the road of
application’ (Ardagh and Macklin 1999; Macklin 1999). These conflicts can
only be resolved by an ethico-political analysis, by reference to the human
goods of the practice, its institutions, sector, and domain norms, and by
casuistry.
I take an HR practitioner to have at least the following features: HR practi-
tioners deal with that aspect of the organizational task which requires some-
one authorized to find and appoint staffand ensure that people do execute
tasks and successfully meet the organization’s needs. Such a role requires:
(a) Designing, identifying, and filling jobs and running systems; (b) Main-
taining and developing stafflearning and skill at all levels; (c) Performance
management; and (d) Monitoring and mediating fair relations between all
staff, outside stakeholders, and their use of resources and the environment
(De Cieri and Kramar 2005).
Role (a) includes such things as job design, recruitment, induction, and
redundancy; (b) is concerned with maintaining motivation, training, and suc-
cession planning; (c) implies setting reasonable and fair criteria for, and judg-
ing, performance; and (d) involves managing conflicts between the officers
in the various levels of authority set down by the corporate structure, external
perceptions of corporate repute, and evaluation of the organization’s use of the
environment. Rolesb–drequire the trust of others in the HR practitioner’s
moral integrity. They require precise definition of the professional expertise
that must be demonstrated wherein failure means the practitioner will risk
facing accusation of malpractice or negligence.
Organizations can be ascribed goals and needs analogically, and HR practi-
tioners must meet these organizational needs (Ardagh 2001), as well as some
of the personal needs of employees (e.g. fair treatment, safety, and the power to
acquire their personal goods). It is clear that their role is replete with ethically
demanding concerns. Needs are met at both personal and organizational
levels. The HRM role can meet the most important criterion for a
profession—the pledge of wise and ethical need satisfaction and service to
clients. To performb–dabove well, an HR practitioner must be an intelli-
gent, articulate, and ethical persuader. In addition, the practitioner must be
respected and trusted as a negotiator and conflict resolver, capable of inspiring
people by invoking a clear vision of the best the organization can achieve,
building an ethical culture, and monitoring the fairness of its social and
environmental behaviour.