Ethical HRM and IT Industry

What is Ethics in HRM?

 (Anon., n.d.)

‘Ethics is a special branch of philosophy that focuses on the questions related to morality, that is concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong; fairness and righteousness’ (Anon., 2018)

Positive Impacts on an IT Organization 

“Treating employees ethically can garner long-term employee trust and loyalty, which conveys a range of distinct benefits to employers. Loyal employees gain more experience working with their employers, allowing them to master production processes and more fully understand the inner workings of the firm. This can increase employees' productivity and efficiency over time in addition to keeping recruiting and training costs under control.” (Thompson, 2019)

In the IT industry, employee retention is one of the key features of a successful organization. Treating employees in a way that they want to be treated will help to enhance the relationship between the employee and the organization. This will inadvertently improve the productivity of the employee. IT industry is depending on the timely delivery and the product quality, increasing productivity will also increase project success.

“Employees stay longer and produce better results than those disturbed by their employer's shady behavior, according to research done by the Ethics Resource Center. According to these findings, unethical companies have a difficult time retaining workers. A high turnover rate eats up a company's budget and time, both of which impact business success. On an individual level, being an ethical employee enhances your chances of keeping your job.” (Kaput, 2019)

Ethical Issues in HR

Cash and compensation plans

Most of the IT organizations are paying high wages to their employees, to enhance the employee retention most companies are intended to conduct annual salary reviews. Most of the time, these kind of things will end up with ethical issues as employees may dissatisfied with there increments and they tend to believe in top management is getting more incentives that them.

Race, gender and Disability

“In many organizations till recently the employees were differentiated on the basis of their race, gender, origin, and their disability. Not anymore ever since the evolution of laws and a regulatory framework that has standardized employee behaviors towards each other. In good organizations the only differentiating factor is performance!” (Juneja, 2016)

Even though there are some issues which raise due to HR ethics, the ethical behavior of an organization will improve the productivity, efficiency, and profitability. Employees will remain in their position for a long period of time.

Are you satisfied with the ethics in your workplace?

References

Anon., 2018. UKessays. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/critical-analysis-of-ethics-and-hrm-management-essay.php
[Accessed 06 06 2019].

Anon., n.d. Printerest. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/495818240196227142/visual-search/?x=10&y=10&w=322&h=329
[Accessed 06 06 2019].

Juneja, P., 2016. Management Study Guide. [Online]
Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/ethical-issues-in-hr.htm
[Accessed 06 06 2019].

Kaput, M. B., 2019. Chorn. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/workplace-ethics-contribute-success-13871.html
[Accessed 06 06 2019].

Thompson, J., 2019. Chorn. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-ethics-human-resources-12780.html
[Accessed 06 06 2019].

How Employee Empowerment affect IT Industry?

What is Employee Empowerment?

 (Anon., 2018)

“Employee empowerment is giving employees a certain degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific organizational tasks. It allows decisions to be made at the lower levels of an organization where employees have a unique view of the issues and problems facing the organization at a certain level.” (Grimsley, 2018)

How it affects on an IT organization?

In the IT industry, all the employees are well educated and talented, where most of the value the power of decision making as well as better integrity. When the employees are lack of these abilities, they eventually leave the company and it will make significant impacts on the organization. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to this.

Advantages

1. Improve the responsiveness towards the issues and problems that an organization is facing (Toporek, 2016)
2. Increase productivity
3. Improve employee commitment towards achieving the organizations’ goal since employees can take some degree of responsibility in the decision made towards goal achievement (Wroblewski, 2019)

Disadvantages

1. “While the handing down of responsibility promises to improve speed, agility and productivity, a concern is that decisions are now being made by less experienced and less expert personnel. This can increase the number of mistakes made and put reputation at risk” (Williams, 2019)
2. Lack of coordination can occur, for example, in an IT organization coordination and teamwork, is a must, if someone is trying to make the decision themselves it will lead to failing a whole project. In order to achieve this, proper training is a must.
3. The professional relationship may blur since the empowerment will change the hierarchical management structure to a flattered one.

Taking all these pros and cons into account, let's see how this affects an IT organization? IT organization depends on the projects or a relevant product. Teamwork and product coordination is a must to meet the deadline successfully. Hence, enhancing the empowerment of employees will improve the responsiveness, productivity and commitment to achieve the goals of the project.

In my organization, there is a considerable power of autonomy is given to each and every employee and the management always consider even the temporary employees when making decisions. Even though, the company maintained a flattered managerial structure relationship between these two groups is not affected.

Are you satisfied with the employee empowerment of your organization? if not make some suggestion here

References

Anon., 2018. YOKOTEN. [Online]
Available at: https://yokotenlearning.com/2018/04/01/a-trip-to-lowes-and-a-lesson-on-employee-empowerment/
[Accessed 04 06 2019].

Grimsley, S., 2018. Study.com. [Online]
Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/employee-empowerment-definition-advantages-disadvantages.html
[Accessed 04 06 2019].

Toporek, A., 2016. TalentCulture. [Online]
Available at: https://talentculture.com/how-employee-empowerment-impacts-culture/
[Accessed 01 06 2019].

Williams, B., 2019. ForwardFocus. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forwardfocusinc.com/inspire-leaders/the-pros-and-cons-of-employee-empowerment/
[Accessed 05 06 2019].

Wroblewski, M., 2019. Chron. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/empowerment-employees-becoming-important-organizations-11542.html
[Accessed 02 06 2019].

Impacts of culture towards an IT organization.

What is culture?

(Moy, 2018)

“It defines the environment in which employees work. Company culture includes a variety of elements, including work environment, company mission, value, ethics, expectations, and goals.” (Doyle, 2019)

In most IT organizations, they tend to follow a relax and free environment towards its employees in order to enhance efficiency. These type organizations are filled with knowledge workers; hence, they prefer the freedom and it will in return improve productivity and efficiency.

Why company culture matters?

When the company culture fits with employees, workers are more likely to enjoy their time in the workplace. On the other hand, if you work for a company where the culture does not fit you, you are far less likely to take fare less please out of your work.

When employees are fit with their culture, then productivity also gets increases while enhancing the ability to create innovation. This also improves employee retention.

For example, at IFS, one of the leading ERP solution providers in the world, have a culture where employees are required to dress in smart casual dresses and they have flexible working hours up to some extent. Furthermore, in emergency situations or urgent family needs, they are allowed to work from home.

Due to these types of benefits, almost all the employees are tightly bound with the company’s culture, hence the employee retention is high, which is the most significant factor to an IT organization. For example, at IFS normal employee retention time is 11 years by 2918.  (Rathmann, 2018)

What can a bad culture cause?

Lack of growth

With a bad company culture, employee turnover rate will get high and then the companies’ profits will also lose the target. Company will have to struggle with the recruitments and training  

Careless Approach

“Working in a poor organizational culture promotes careless behavior by its staff. There is a lack of ethics that discourages workers from paying careful attention to duties and customer service. The atmosphere is casual to the point where careless behaviors such as using profanity, dressing inappropriately and expressing thoughtlessness in client interactions pervade. Professionalism suffers greatly in this type of workplace environment.” (Mooney, 2018)

Neglectful Attitudes

Poor culture means a lack of leadership in getting work done, this will in return leads to negative attitudes on employees. These kinds of attitudes will delay the jobs, lowering productivity and effectiveness.

Taking all these factors into account, it is proved that proper company culture is a must for a successful business. When it comes to the IT industry, better productivity, timeliness, and product quality is a must. Hence, it is recommended that all the IT organization should have its own culture where an employee can fit in easily.

What about your own organization or your company? Are you happy with the company culture you experience now? If not, what are the changes you expect from your organization?

References

Doyle, A., 2019. Careers. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-company-culture-2062000
[Accessed 02 06 2019].

Mooney, L., 2018. AZcentral. [Online]
Available at: https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/poor-company-culture-affect-employees-4410.html
[Accessed 02 06 2019].

Moy, J., 2018. Medium. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/@jonmichaelmoy/fostering-a-sustainable-company-culture-a55efd0421e5
[Accessed 02 06 2019].

Rathmann, C., 2018. THE IFS BLOG. [Online]
Available at: https://blog.ifsworld.com/2017/12/is-bad-software-driving-away-your-best-employees/
[Accessed 4 6 2019].