HRM AND PERFORMANCE: ETHICAL DILEMMAS 53around the question of the relationship between HRM and performance,
which can serve as a focal point for analysis. Indeed, I have argued elsewhere
(Guest 1997) that this has becomethekey research issue in HRM. Behind this
issue are a set of familiar ethical questions about managing with the consent
of the managed and how that consent is obtained.
There is already quite an extensive literature on ethical aspects of HRM
(see, e.g. Legge 1995; Winstanley and Woodall 2000b) that debate different
ethical positions. These are covered in other chapters and will not be raised
here. Instead, this chapter will explore aspects of the theory and research about
HRM and performance by addressing four core issues that raise potential ethi-
cal questions. The first concerns the criticism that while HRM claims to be pri-
marily concerned with the management of people, in practice it largely ignores
workers. In contrast, a second criticism sometimes levelled at HRM is that far
from ignoring them, it reflects a rather subtle approach to the exploitation
of workers. A third issue concerns the status of the evidence base of research
on HRM and performance and the temptations and dangers of presenting as
fact research that is at best provisional. Finally, there are some largely ignored
issues around the application of HRM and in particular the challenges of
applying in organizations an approach that emphasizes the importance of an
integrated HR system. These are ethical issues that potentially affect academics
who write about and research HRM, policymakers, professional bodies, and
some academics who are part of the advocacy of HRM and those such as
consultants, managers, and again some academics who are interested in the
application of HRM. A later section of the chapter will take these themes a little
further by exploring how far the pursuit of high performance and employee
well-being can be a feasible ethical goal, more particularly in the context of a
pluralist, or what will be defined as a partnership perspective.
Human resource management ignores workers
This rather paradoxical assertion can be traced back to the roots of contem-
porary interest in HRM and performance. Some of the earlier work on HRM
and performance had its roots either in business schools where there was a
particular interest in strategy rather than employment and employees; or in
labour economics where the starting point was often assumptions of rational
behaviour and a focus on productivity. The lack of concern for workers was
reflected in the initial models of HRM and performance. Essentially, these
models were concerned with the relationship between aspects of strategy,
including HR strategy, HR practices and outcomes. This was the case in early
studies by Arthur (1994) and Ichniowski, Shaw, and Prennushi (1997) in
strip steel mills, by MacDuffie (1995) in the auto industry, and by Huselid