Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment This page intentionally left blank Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment Edited by Ashly H Pinnington Rob Macklin Tom Campbell Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press, 2007 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2007 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Human resource management: ethics and employment / edited by Ashly Pinnington, Rob Macklin, Tom Campbell p cm Includes bibliographical references and index Personnel management–Moral and ethical aspects I Pinnington, Ashly H II Macklin, Rob III Campbell, Tom, 1938– HF5549.H8427 2007 2006026542 174′ –dc22 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk ISBN 978-0-19-920378-9 (hb) ISBN 978-0-19-920379-6 (pb) 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors would like to thank the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), (Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, University of Melbourne), an Australian Research Council Special Research Centre, which sponsored the workshop on Ethics and Human Resource Management in Sydney, April 2004 Also, financial support was received from UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, for some of the expenses in developing this book The workshop, from which it originated, was administered by Sheena Smith, then a Research Assistant at CAPPE, who also participated in the workshop Our thanks to those who attended the workshop and contributed papers, commentaries, and suggestions: David Ardagh (Charles Sturt University), Lynne Bennington (La Trobe University), Breen Creighton (Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Melbourne), Michelle Greenwood (Monash University), David Guest (King’s College, London), Robin Kramar (Macquarie University), Karen Legge (Warwick University), Gill Palmer (Monash University), Les Pickett (Australian Human Resource Institute), Chris Provis (University of South Australia), Sheena Smith (Australian National University), Bernadine Van Gramberg (Victoria University of Technology), and Adrian Walsh (University of New England) Thanks are also due to Karen Legge, David Guest, and Tony Watson (University of Nottingham) for reviewing some of the subsequent draft chapters for the book This page intentionally left blank CO N T E N TS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Introduction: ethical human resource management Ashly Pinnington, Rob Macklin, and Tom Campbell v ix x xi PART I SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Socio-political theory and ethics in HRM Gill Palmer The ethics of HRM in dealing with individual employees without collective representation Karen Legge HRM and performance: can partnership address the ethical dilemmas? David E Guest Strategic management and human resources: the pursuit of productivity, flexibility, and legitimacy Peter Boxall and John Purcell Ethical employment practices and the law Breen Creighton HRM and the ethics of commodified work in a market economy Adrian J Walsh 23 35 52 66 81 102 PART II ANALYSING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Stakeholder theory and the ethics of HRM Michelle Greenwood and Helen De Cieri 119 HR managers as ethics agents of the state Lynne Bennington 137 The ethical basis for HRM professionalism and codes of conduct David Ardagh 152 viii CONTENTS 10 Engineers of human souls, faceless technocrats, or merchants of morality?: changing professional forms and identities in the face of the neo-liberal challenge Michael I Reed 171 11 Ethical leadership in employee development Ashly H Pinnington and Serkan Bayraktaroglu 190 12 Ethics and work in emergencies: the UK fire service strike 2002–3 Tom Sorell 209 PART III PROGRESSING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 13 HRM, ethical irrationality, and the limits of ethical action Tony J Watson 14 Expanding ethical standards of HRM: necessary evils and the multiple dimensions of impact Joshua D Margolis, Adam M Grant, and Andrew L Molinsky 223 237 15 Strategy, knowledge, appropriation, and ethics in HRM Ken Kamoche 252 16 The morally decent HR manager Rob Macklin 266 Conclusion Tom Campbell, Ashly Pinnington, Rob Macklin, and Sheena Smith BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX 282 292 328 LIST OF FIGURES 4.1 Three critical elements for the viability of the firm 4.2 Critical goals in HRM: a basic framework 68 73 7.1 The relationship between stake, rights, and responsibility 125 9.1 From human goods and needs to embodying social arrangements 155 .. .Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment This page intentionally left blank Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment Edited by Ashly H Pinnington... ethical human resource management Ashly Pinnington, Rob Macklin, and Tom Campbell v ix x xi PART I SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Socio-political theory and ethics in HRM Gill Palmer The ethics. .. HRM and performance: can partnership address the ethical dilemmas? David E Guest Strategic management and human resources: the pursuit of productivity, flexibility, and legitimacy Peter Boxall and