This document discusses moral principles and frameworks for addressing ethical dilemmas in human resource management. It outlines five moral principles - utilitarianism, rights, distributive justice, care, and virtues - that can be used to facilitate moral judgments about whether actions are ethical or unethical. Each principle is examined in 1-2 sentences with examples of how it could apply to workplace situations involving issues like safety standards, discrimination, privacy, and fairness. The document concludes that applying a framework of moral principles can help HR managers make wise decisions when addressing ethical dilemmas while balancing ethics and organizational profits.

1. Moral principles Framework for
Human Resource Management ethics
Aakanksha Dangwal
Ex. researcher
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2. Table of content
S. No. Title Slide No.
1 Ethical issues 3
2 Root Cause of ethical dilemma 4
3 Examples of unethical issues 5
4 Solution of Ethical Dilemma 6
5 5 Moral Principals in HRM Ethics 7
7 Conclusion 13
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3. Ethical issues in Organisation
 A recent survey done by Society for Human Resource
Management found following ethical issues in the workplace :
• Violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• Violations of the Occupational Safety.
• Employees receiving gifts or entertainment in violation of the
organization's policies.
• Employees engaging in fraud, accepting kickbacks or bribes &
lying to supervisors.
• Abusing drugs or alcohol, lying on reports or falsifying work
records & conflicts of interest.
• Stealing, altering the results of product tests and misusing
insider information.
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4. Root Cause of ethical dilemma
 Human resource professionals reported in a survey that they
felt pressured by managers to compromise the Organisational
ethical conduct in order to achieve business objectives.
 Human resource professionals have following issues while
complying with ethical standards:
• feelings that nothing would be done if they disclose unethical
part.
• fears of retribution or retaliation.
• lack of trust in the organization's procedures.
• no one else in the organization cares about ethics.
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5. Examples of unethical issues from
different areas at workplace
 Management hides the nature of dangerous chemical used at
the plant from workers also does not look after over safety
standards.
 MNC’s fire all the employees and shut down a plant &
relocate the same plant in a location where they get cheaper
labour & less governmental regulation.
 Managers are involved in discrimination including sexual
harassment at workplace.
 Management place security camera’s in restrooms to check
employee theft that violates privacy right of employee.
 Management Underfunds an employee pension plan.
 Management do not comply with OSHA & other safety law.
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6. Solution of ethical dilemma
 The solution is moral principal : Guidelines that facilitate moral
judgements weather some action is ethical/unethical?
 These 5 moral principals have been studied by philosophers
(Pojman, 1989) & they are
 Supported by reknown reserachers & philosophers as well.
 Used at workplace although the manager using these principals
might not be familiar about its empirical authenticity.
 Examine ethics from different perspective.
 5 moral principals are as folllows :
 Utilitarian.
 Rights.
 Distributive Justice.
 Care.
 Virtue.
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7. 1. Utilitarian
“The morally correct action is the one that maximizes net
social benefits, where net social benefits equals social
benefits minus social costs.”
Characteristics :
• Focuses on result & not on the means/ methods used.
• Focuses on social benefit & cost rather than Private benefit &
cost.
• It includes good & harm including human life.
• Good & harm are considered as future perspective.
• Objective is to create most good & least harm rather than
creating more good than harm.
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8. 2. Rights
 Reversibility: Are you willing to perform the action, if the
roles were reversed? Ex. Manager is delegating a task to his
subordinate which deals with unsafe condition but manager
himself would not perform the tasks if the roles are reversed.
So, This kind of action would be unethical to take.
 Universalizability: The person who is performing the action
might consider the consequence if everyone in the firm do
the same action. Ex. Manager is hiding relevant fact from his
subordinate. What would happen if all the employees hide
the relevant facts from each other. So, this kind of action
would be unethical to take.
 Respect and free consent: Treat with respect and have free
consent . Ex. Manager is hiding the nature of chemical from
workers without their consent. This would be unethical to
take. 8

9. 3. Distributive Justice
“The morally correct action is the one that produces a fair
distribution of benefits and costs for everyone who is
affected by the action.”
Theories :
 Egalitarianism : Everyone should receive the same
compensation regardless of the facts of their employment.
 Capitalism : Fair distribution of benefits in accordance with
their contribution.
 Socialism: Individual with greater need should receive more
benefit. Ex. an employer who is offering child care assistance
benefit program might be seen as fair by a socialist even
though other employees who do not have children do not get
the benefit.
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10. 4. Care
“The morally correct action is the one that expresses care in
protecting the special relationships that individuals have
with each other.”
Characteristics :
 It involves caring, showing partiality for the people with
whom one has concrete special relationships.
Ex. Family, friends, coworker.
 Need to attend to our own needs as well as the needs of the
people in our web of relationships.
 Caring for others does not mean encouraging them to remain
dependent on our care.
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11. 5. Virtues
“The morally correct action is the one that displays good moral
virtues, and does not display bad moral vices.”
 Virtues such as benevolence, civility, compassion,
conscientiousness, cooperativeness, courage, fairness,
generosity, honesty, industriousness, loyalty, moderation, self-
control,self-reliance, or tolerance.
 Vices such as cowardice, deceit, dishonesty, laziness, neglect,
or selfishness.
 Take the action that displays virtues, not vices.
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12. Conclusion
 HRM is rich in ethical dilemma .
 The solution is to apply moral principal framework .
 HR Manager has to take a wise decision how he can apply
those principals to practical situations.
 HR Manager has to comply both ethics as well as following
organisational profits.
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13. Thank You
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