34 SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Broad traditions in socio-political thought impact on the policies and
solutions created to manage the inevitable ethical dilemmas at work. Many
of the legislative and managerial policies that have been developed to help
regulate the workplace have their roots in broad ideas about the nature of
social organization, the legitimacy of different types of social conflict, and the
roots of social justice. An analysis of socio-political theories and ideas can pro-
vide a useful bridge between the more abstract philosophical theories about
ethics, and the concrete policy prescriptions that are found within HRM. An
understanding of the impact of these broad sociological and political theories
can also throw light on the contextual limits of particular HRM prescriptions.