Human resources are the labour force of an organization. According to Ankur, (2009) , the labour force of an organization possesses creativity, skills, technical knowhow, and aptitude. Ankur further argues that human resources are the total sum of natural abilities, knowledge and skills that are acquired by an individual and are shown by the talents and capabilities of the individual that is employed by an organization. According to Pannington, Mackin and Campbell (n.d) an organization is due to change the life of an employee when executing its functions. This is where ethics comes in. Ethics is concerned with the well-being of an employee and also the employer. In order not to alter the life of an individual, an organization employs policies that will enable it to counter any unforeseen ethical issues. Ethics in human resource management mainly deals with the employer-employee relationship and how dab practices can put one of the parties at a disadvantage.
Human resource management is the effective and efficient management of the labour force of an organization (Ankur, 2009). It ensures that there is good employer-employee relationship in an organization. It also ensures that the human resource of an organization is productive as intended. Human resources also deal with the recruitment of workers to an organization and administration. It also deals with remuneration workers. Due to its complex tasks. It has to come up with appropriate policies and measures to govern its actions. According to Tools and Techniques, (n.d). Human resource planning is the linking of an employee’s abilities and talents to the objectives and targets of an organization. Human resource planning strives to ensure that the abilities of an employee are used to the organization’s advantage. The paper will take a look at ethics and human resource management and human resource planning.
For any human resource management to be successful, ethics must come in handy. Ethics ensures that there is a good relationship in the work environment. Due to the numerous activities which an organization deals with, coming up with policies and activities that are likely to change the lives of their employees is almost impossible. Such activities may include working hours and social activities. The management of an organization may opt to remunerate some employees better than others. It may also opt to promote some employees leaving out others or even target specific employees during layoffs. All these activities are unethical and give rise to harm to those people to whom the activities are done to. Therefore, the organization has to come up with policies that are aimed at ensuring that the organization compensates or does not alter the lives of its employees. Ethics in human resource management is the integration of ethics in human resource management.
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Human resource management calls for a lot for it to be effective. According to Ankur, (2011), human resource management has its scope on three aspects. The first is the personnel aspect. The aspect deals with all the matters concerning a workforce. The second aspect is the welfare aspect. It takes into consideration the working conditions of the employees. These include social amenities, medical care among others. The last aspect is industrial relations which covers the interrelationships in the organization and also relationships with other organizations. In every aspect of human resource management, ethics must be upheld. The well-being of each party should be of importance in the making of any policies that may be intended to regulate the organization’s human resource.
In order to enhance ethics in an organization, an organization must embrace certain principles. According to Schulman (2010), some of the following prescriptions may be used. An organization should always obey the law. Ethics tend to be universal hence by an organization obeying the law in its business; it ensures that ethics is upheld since chances of the business offending people is low. An organization should also come up with a strategy of achieving its goals. In so doing, chances of it having sideway activities which may be unethical are minimized. The organization should als lay down its values and virtues which are meant to be upheld by everyone in the organization.
Emphasis ashould be laid on principles of the organization rather than the rules so as to ensure that ethics are cultivated in the employees and become part of them. Transparency in an organization should be topmost to regulate hidden agendas and bogus deals which tend to breach ethics. Lastly, the organization must uphold the rights and freedoms of employees in the organization. If what provided for by the national laws is followed to the later, chances of unethical deeds are minimal since the rights and freedoms are meant to make the life of an employee as good as possible.
Various countries and organizations have various definitions on what ethics is. However, no matter the location, ethics remains to be a set of values and set by an organization or society and are generally acknowledged by the people (HRM ethics). My opinion is that whatever is good for an employee, it should also be good for an employer. Ethics is mutual, do something good to someone and in return something good is done to him or her. Ethics creates a happy employer and employee hence a successful organization.
Human resource planning is a process concerned with the planning of the current labour force that an organization has and then speculating about the future of the organization with respect to human resource. It concerns itself with finding the right people with the relevant qualities that the organization is seeking for effective running. Human resource planning entails various functions. According to Mayhew, (2011) the crucial components of an effective human resource plan are strategic planning, work force planning and human resource development. In strategic planning, the human resource department of an organization comes up with strategic plans concerning the current labour force and their contribution to the organization.
Strategic planning also ensures that the organization is able to get competent employees who will enable the organization reach its goals. Strategic planning also involves laying down targets and goals that the organization intends to achieve within a given period and matching them to the talents, capabilities and the number of employees that are available at the organization. Strategic planning helps that organization to run smoothly and also be able to counter future problems that may be unforeseen by the management.
Human resource development is the equipping of the employees with relevant knowledge that is required by the various activities of the organization and the current markets. A common form of human resource development is the provision workshops, seminars and other educational programs that are mainly paid for by the organization or partly sponsored. Mayhew, (2011) argues that the human resource of an organization requires knowledge boost in order to know new job skills which have come up with time. Human resource development is an important part of the broader human resource planning and ensures that the organization keeps up to date with the current trends in the market.
Work force planning is concerned with the staffing of an organization (Mayhew, 2011). Staffing involves recruitment, selection and employee retention. Workforce planning also involves keeping track with the changing market, specifying the requirements of new employees and keeping in touch with the graduating students in order to get the best employees. Therefore, work force planning ensures that an organization gets the best people to work for them and ensuring that they retain the good workers. In so doing, the organization boasts of a diversified workforce who has the relevant skills and expertise to move the organization in the right direction.
Due to the important work of human resource planning, a clear process must be laid down in order to plan the human resource of an organization. Sarkssian, (2011) expounds on the steps taken on the process of realize an effective human resource plan. The first step is the designing of a management system. The main aim of a management system is the management of the workforce in order for the organization to achieve its goals. This should be the guiding aspect when designing any human resource planning system. An efficient system should encompass the current and emerging trends in human resource management. Some of the trends include outsourcing, establishing flexible work practices and adoption of information technology in the organization.
This ensures that the organization is able to compete at an equal footing with other organizations in the market. Therefore, a good system must place the organization at a level where it can be able to minimize costs yet achieve its goals. It should be able to enable the organization get the best employees that are available. It also should enhance ethics and ensure that a good employer-employee relationship is established and maintained.
The other step is environmental analysis. This takes into consideration the internal and external factors affecting the organization. The internal and external factors affect directly or indirectly the organization hence proper care must be taken when dealing with them for the well-being of an organization. Environmental analysis therefore involve the placement of an organization is a situation where it is able to deal with change and remain productive or use change in the environmental factors to its advantage and get an edge over its competitors. The second step in planning is forecasting of the human resource demand Sarkissan, (2011). This makes sure that the organization knows the required skills and abilities of the future employees. It also ensures that the organization gets to know the required number of employees when recruiting.
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The other step in the human resource planning process is analysis of supply. This involves analysis of possible number employees accessible by the organization and the skills and experience they posses. The last step in planning is reconciliation and planning. It involves the making of decision from the available information and making a plan based on it. According to Sarkassian, (2011) priority should be given to the key issues in an organization when making the plan. An efficient human resource plan has many benefits to the organization. According to Datapole,(2010), some of the benefits are ; it enables an organization to be able to deal with change s in the market, enables the employees to advance in skills and knowledge, and lastly enables the organization to remain profitable through adoption of cost efficient plans.
Summarizing, human resource management is an important department of any organization. An organization cannot move forward without getting the backing of an effective and efficient human resource management. With the realization of the objectives of human resource management which are: maximizing the use of talented and multi skilled workforce in order to attain the goals of an organization. Establishment and maintenance of a good working structure which will cultivate good relationships within the organization. Enabling individual development of the employees in an organization in order to bring about a proportional growth in the organization. And lastly ensuring that the organization is able to recruit, select and maintain the best professionals to work for the organization.
Ethics must be a part of human resource management. The set values and principles which organization posses must be integrated into the lifestyle of the employees of the organization. This will lead to a situation commonly known as d’ dressing up like an organization which states that an employee of an organization behaves and operates like the organization. Hence an ethical organization results to an ethical organization and vice versa.
Human resource planning enables the organization to maintain a diversified labor force which is equipped with numerous skills on dealing with various outcomes in the job market. Human resource planning enables the organization to keep in touch with the emerging trends in human resource development. An efficient human resource plan should be able to place an organization at the most convenient position of competitiveness and maximization of profit.
Human resource management is changing daily bringing about new trends and practices into the world of human resource management. It is up to the human resource management of an organization to integrate these new trends into their organizations in order to enable their organizations to maintain profitability.