Ethics

Management refers to the act of organizing, controlling, directing and staffing carried out by managers in an organization. Managers have the responsibility of ensuring that all the resources of an organization are well managed in a manner likely to increase the shareholders wealth. The major aim or goal of the organizations is to increase productivity, ensure survival and increase the overall profitability. Managers are given the role of ensuring that this is achieved and they are accountable to the shareholders who are their employees. While carrying out or executing their duties, managers are faced with many ethical and legal challenges. Human resource management is one of the most important functions but also the most challenging for many managers due to the ethical dilemmas associated with it.

Ethical Issues in hiring
Recruitment and selection are among the two major challenging roles carried out by human resource managers and which attracts various ethical issues. Recruitment means the art of attracting or looking for the right persons to fill vacant positions in an organization. Candidates are either selectedrecruited from external markets or from an organization via promotions. The selection process then takes over from the recruitment process. This process deals with choosing the right, qualified and competent persons from applications submitted and selected in the first phase of the recruitment process. The selection leads to incorporation of new employees to an entity.

One of the major ethical issue related to the recruitment and selection process is the demand or pressures placed on managers to either hire a relative, a friend or a relative to a prominent person within or outside the organization. Such pressures lead to ethical and moral dilemmas as well as legal issues on part of human resource managers. A manager is faced by an ethical dilemma on whether to employ the rightfully qualified and competent person or to give in to the pressures. This also has legal implication. A manager may feel that he or she has moral obligation to help his or her relatives or his superiors relatives. This on the other hand raises ethical concerns pertaining to employment and fairness. According to the equal employment opportunity laws of the United States, all applicants are supposed to be given equal chances and opportunities in matters relating to recruitment and selection. This law covers individuals seeking for jobs as well as those seeking for promotions. These people covered by this act have the right to sue a manager if they feel justice and fairness is not carried out during the recruitment and selection process. With pressures mounting on managers especially from prominent people and business executives, a manager is faced by a major ethical dilemma.

Another ethical issue related to the hiring process may arise as a result of faked credentials being submitted by potential employees during the recruitment and selection process. Human resource managers have a role of ensuring that only the best and most qualified individuals are hired for a particular position. However, with advancement of technology, chances of fake credentials being offered by applicants are very high. While an applicant may have faked his credentials so as to increase his employment chances, he or she may subsequently prove to be very productive in an organization. Ethical issues arise when the management later realizes that the presented credentials during the interview were faked or doctored. Morally, ethically and legally, employees found to have committed such acts are supposed to be fired from an organization with immediate effect.  Ethical dilemmas arise from the fact that such employees may have already proved to be essential and productive and an asset to an organization. They may also be a source of competitive advantage given their creativity and innovativeness. Managers are faced with ethical issues of whether to fire them or retain them despite the fact that they got the employment using unfair means of faking their credentials thus denying more qualified applicants a chance of getting the employment. Management is supposed to show high level of integrity, ethics and socially responsible behavior. Morals, ethics and law demand for the firing of individuals found to have gone against the ethical standards of job hunting. On the other hand, managers have a duty of maximizing shareholders wealth and adding value to the society by offering high quality products and services or value for their money. Ethical issues may arise when carrying out such duties may be thwarted by firing of persons found to have faked their credentials during the hiring process.

Labor laws advocating for protection of marginalized and underrepresented individuals in workforce also pose ethical issues to managers. Various industries have come up with affirmative actions that advocate for protection of discriminated and marginalized individuals. Some agreements go further to stating the number of positions such individuals should have at any given time in an organization. Ethical issues that arise during the hiring process emanate from lack of skills versus adherence to such policies and agreements. In some cases, the marginalized or underrepresented groups may not have the experience necessary for a particular post while other individuals may posses such skills. According to the affirmative action in an industry, managers may be forced to recruit less experienced persons although this may tamper with the overall performance of an organization thus going against the duty and responsibility of managers of maximizing the wealth of shareholders.

While working as an assistant human resource manager in a busy accounting firm, we encountered an ethical issue related to selection and recruitment functions. A vacancy arose following an early retirement of one of the senior accountants thus necessitating recruitment process to be undertaken. After careful discussion with the human resource department and the senior management team, it was agreed upon an external recruitment was necessary so as to add new skills and experience to the accounting department. One of the directors of the company had his nephew who had worked for an auditing firm for several years and he wanted this person to take this position. A lot of pressure was mounted on the recruitment team, of which I belonged, and a decision had to be made. An advert was put across and many applicants including the nephew turned up for the interview. However, it was found out that from the applicants, one lady was more qualified for the post than the nephew although the director kept on insisting that his nephew be taken. This was an ethical dilemma that required careful assessment and consideration. According to the equal employment opportunity laws, all individuals have to be given equal opportunities during the hiring process and only the best should be taken. Based on this law, we made a decision to hire the lady who was more qualified than the directors nephew. To some extent, the director was furious but we had acted ethically and according to the employment laws.

Conclusion
Recruitment and selection process are very sensitive functions carried out by managers in an organization. They have various ethical and legal issues that if not carefully handled may cost a company greatly. While addressing the ethical issues relating to the hiring process, managers should consider the legal aspect of the issues and the various laws related to such ethical issues. Managers should not give in to demands that go against their professional ethics, business practices and the law during the hiring process.