The significance of Human Resource Management (HRM) can hardly be overrated; it allows companies to locate the means to reinforce the staff’s performance by identifying the tools or enhancing employees’ motivation. However, the change of behavioral patterns encouraged by the company managers may come at a price of the staff members’ individuality. Unless the approaches that permit organizations to retain an ethical approach when promoting certain organizational behavior patterns are identified, considering the current concept of HRM as valid and ethically unambiguous cannot be viewed as a possibility.
The concept of HRM has gone a long way from its initial and a rather broad definition of the relationship management process in the workplace setting to the current concept of shaping people’s attitude toward their company role and responsibilities. Tracking down the history of the phenomenon, one must give the developers of the Michigan Model of Strategic Human Resource Management credit for creating the framework that would later on be used as the foundation for designing further HRM strategies.
At present, for instance, the tendency for driving a thick line between the so-called “Hard” and “Soft” HRM approaches has emerged. The hard one stems from the above-mentioned Michigan Model, whereas the soft one focuses on the needs of employees as individuals. More importantly, the latter approach seems to have been given priority in the contemporary business world due to the emphasis on the needs of employees that it allows for. Apart from creating premises for the benefit of the organization, it serves the needs of the employees, thus, creating a delicate balance in the workplace.
It should be noted, though, that the concept of the HRM is often looked down upon as the phenomenon that may impede the progress of an organization. Specifically, its consistent focus on the economic aspect of relationships between the members of an organization may create the environment in which further exploitation becomes dangerously possible. Despite the development of countless HRM theories, the lack of room for the further understanding of actual human interactions clearly is a reason for a major concern.
Even the advancements that have been made to make the specified aspect of HRM evolve, such as the identification of four key roles of an HR management, have not helped the problem much. For instance, the above-mentioned redesign of the HR manager’s roles and their further identification as a business partner, an administrative expert, an employee champion, and a change agent was not helpful enough, as the roles and their significance had not been outlined well enough.
Herein the significance of the critical approach that challenges the stale principles of the mainstream HRM practice lies. Unless one starts questioning the very foundations of the current HRM concepts, the problem regarding the lack of concern for the individual needs of the staff members is going to grow. Consequently, the critical approach toward HRM has been developed as opposed to the mainstream one. As the existing blind spots in the target area show, HRM researchers should shed more light on the issues such as the connection of the corresponding HRM strategies to a large variety of discourses and rhetorical approaches.
The specified strategy, however, is often viewed as inferior to the theory of the ethical HRM, which, in its turn, allows for a micro-focus on the needs of each employee, therefore, contributing to the improvement of the staff’s performance and the increase in their motivation rates.
A detailed ethical analysis of the existing HRM practices and the theories of HRM proves that there is a strong necessity to maintain ethical integrity in the management of relationships between the members of the organization. At this point, the significance of compartmentalization deserves to be mentioned. Typically defined as the defense strategy that allows blocking one’s perception of a cognitive dissonance, the specified phenomenon is widely used in the workplace to prevent the instances of staff dissatisfaction.
However, as the representatives of the HR department shift to pursuing the goals of the company and neglect the ones of the employees, they abandon the concept of compartmentalization, which leads to a consistent downgrade in the ethical aspects of the company’s operations, particularly, the foundation for the decision-making process. The application of the above-mentioned approaches leads to the location of the corresponding responses.
To be more specific, it is expected that the promotion of the target strategies will trigger the response involving a dialogue between the self-absorbed atomistic self and the concern for other people as well as their opinion, therefore, creating premises for a responsible attitude. To increase the rates of both staff’s performance and their satisfaction, a company must work towards the promotion of CSR and promoting the idea of working towards a common goal. As soon as the members of an organization realize that the entrepreneurship leaders are aware of their personal needs and are ready to accept the corporate values, the organization is likely to succeed in creating a strong team of competent and loyal employees.
