The Ethics In Which We Work Essays - Ethics, Philosophy Of Life

The Ethics In Which We Work Human Resources The ethics in which we work Through out the course of this class my thoughts and views on the aspect alone of the human resources department has changed. I once thought this was a department that had little to no foothold in the dynamics of a corporation. However it is now evident to me that with out the HR department the entire functionality of any organization would crumble to ruins. For this research paper the assignment was to investigate and research one aspect of human resources; find out how it is operated and how it can be improved upon. I plan to discuss the issue and topic of ethics, and its relation to human resources. I chose this topic because during this trying time that our nation has encountered, I feel ethics needs to be at its strongest standpoint ever. First I will define what is meant by ethics. Ethics is a set of rules or values, often set by society. These are the fibers, which set the standards for our culture, and the paths that form the means to our ends. Even though the atmosphere at the workplace should begin to code the ethical standards and practices, it is the role of HR to spell out these rules in black and white. These can be found in the employee handbook. I decided to peruse through our handbook at work, and not to my surprise the ethical message was either too short or tangled up in legal jargon. That is exactly what the problem is. Society is so far torn from its values that we need, and I say that emphatically, we need something to spell out our moral and ethical codes for us. I spoke with the human resources generalist for our facility; I asked her what she thought about the moral codes of the work place today. I asked her to try her hardest not to confuse the question with a sexual harassment situation. She had the following to say: What values? I had to laugh at this point; just knowing her cynical outlook on things the rest of this interview was bound to be interesting. The rest of the verbatim continued as follows: I remember when values were important, when a handshake meant something. The values not only of Grimes, but in the business arena as a whole has gone to hell in a hand-basket. I asked her what HR is going to do about this, and if it is fixable; her only reply was a nod of the head, and her phone rang. Back to business. I decided to look for a book on ethics to see if the search for hope was futile. The book was called Business Ethics in our Century. It was quite the philosophical piece of literature on the topic. Early on in the book the authors posed a rather interesting question. What would you do if you and another person were interviewing for the same job, and a rumor was going around suggesting the other person was racist, and guilty of sexual harassment, however you knew these allegations to be false? At first I overlooked this question, simply dismissing it for the topic sentence into another section. But after reading more my ethical understanding of how to operate in a business arena became clear to me. At this point I did not pay attention to the fact that work life and home life needed to wield different ethical swords. The societies are very different. So to answer the question about the interview I have written an answer. If I were an ethical egoist, my primary concern would be the betterment of myself through actions that seem to be the only obligation I ought to have. When viewing the meaning behind ethics basically saying that there are certain standards and values that must be maintained in the business world, and a certain level of morals must be attained and attributed. In a situation regarding myself and another prospective for the same position, and the situation pertained to the validity of a rumor stating that my opposition was racist and sexist at a former job. I would simply reply, with my ethical egotistical attitude.