278 PROGRESSING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
require them to ignore diversity and demand people follow a closed set of
concrete norms and values. Such a demand in modern organizations where
often people have diverse backgrounds would likely create significant levels
of resistance. Rather, the appeal will acknowledge and recognize the differ-
ent values people hold and the various ways people wish to behave while,
nevertheless, advocating the importance of not breaching certain overarching
norms. These norms because they are universal in modern communities are
likely to resonate with the many people HR managers must deal with and,
thus, are less likely to generate strong resistance.
Fourth, Heller’s reliance on the idea of an existential choice will be useful
to HR managers because it does not require them to engage in lengthy and
heated debate aboutwhysomeone should do the right thing. For example,
as Heller asserts we live in an age where many question the authority of
religion. ExpectingallHR managers to adopt and successfully advocate a set of
moral norms and values because they represent the word of God is, I suspect,
somewhat unrealistic. Many people demand more earth-bound reasons. As
stated earlier, many HR managers appear to rely on the assumption that good
ethics pay and this is an earth-bound reason. However, as I have argued, such
a claim is at least suspect, for some HR managers too optimistic, and at the
very least, requires stronger moral inquiry and justification.
The idea of decency taken as a matter of existential choice does not require
appeals to religion or to empirical verification that decency will ‘pay-off’.
Moreover, it is an appeal to what I suspect is a commonly held view that
one should do the right thing because to not do so means being untrue to
oneself, lacking integrity, or undermining one’s own dignity. In the interviews
I held, HR managers made links between the idea of existential choice and
upholding their own values. They argued that they would find it difficult to
live with themselves if they did not do the right thing. In addition, integrity
was identified as an important moral norm and defined,inter alia,asabout
holding onto and following one’s own ethical values.
Adding to the usefulness of Heller’s approach to HR managers here is that
while the existential choice does not require an appeal to the divine it does not
exclude such arguments. Heller suggests inAn Ethics of Personality(1996) that
many moral philosophies, be they religious or secular, can serve as a crutch.
The central concept is that being decent is a fundamental choice. If such a
choice is aided by a person’s theology, so much the better. This I suggest opens
the door for religious HR managers to accept Heller’s approach to grounding
morality. They might argue that ultimately choosing to be decent is about
choosing to live with God’s will, but clearly this does not undermine the
importance of the moral choice. Likewise, I suggest that it increases the likeli-
hood that the HR manager’s advice will be taken seriously by other managers
whose morality is theologically grounded. Finally, Heller’s approach does not
exclude a partial and measured appeal to possible benefits in performance