Introduction
Every institution or profession where individuals interact creates a foundation to discuss and address morals and ethics. These two themes are vital for maintaining a healthy and thriving workspace environment; therefore, human resources (HR) departments must consider them in their practices. Furthermore, Margherita (2021) states that “disruptive organizational and technological factors are transforming the role and practice of human resource management” (p. 100795).
Indeed, the novel strategies to improve a workplace administration may significantly impact the ethical side, and HR specialists need to develop solid plans to avoid morally incorrect decision-making. It is crucial for the employees to feel respected and valuable at their work, and how their managers assess them significantly influences performance (Margherita, 2021). This paper aims to discuss moral and ethical decision-making practices for evaluation in HR and develop a plan for implementing them into the school leadership as an example.
Moral and Ethical Decision-Making in HR
Morals and ethics address the same regulations based on the basic principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, fidelity, justice, and benevolence. Making an ethically correct decision means that the most appropriate option has been selected from several alternatives, and it is consistent with foundational norms formed by society, culture, or specific organizations (Alizadeh et al., 2020). The challenging aspect of applying that process is that the outcomes might seriously influence an employee’s life, seem unfair to them, or be considered biased (Remišová et al., 2019). Ethical decision-making at the workplace requires an organization to determine its values, expectations, and professional standards to use for administration.
HR specialists participate in the selection, training, evaluation, administration, and retirement of an employee with their actions representing the organization. Consequently, decisions made by that department influence how individuals perceive their workplace and how productive and responsible they are willing to perform there. There are multiple moral challenges faced by HR in different stages of working with employees. Providing an equal range of opportunities, objectively assessing the talent, addressing diversity, setting the optimal labor costs, and establishing fair working conditions are examples of the issues to address from an ethical perspective (Alizadeh et al., 2020).
Consequently, HR departments must be well-educated about the codes of ethics, cultural backgrounds of their employees, organization’s mission, and values, and develop effective administration strategies for proper decision-making.
Ethics in Decision-Making for Employee Evaluation
Employee evaluation is a crucial aspect of HR’s administrative practices where moral and ethical decision-making requires consideration. Indeed, assessing personnel performance requires complex analysis of how they achieve goals, address organizational values, and interact with colleagues (Abdelmotaleb & Saha, 2020). Evaluation is a periodical review based on surveying, checking the rates’ changes, and appraising worker’s activities by their manager (Remišová et al., 2019).
Ethical decision-making means that HR specialist addresses employees’ individual factors, selects appropriate practices to enhance progress, and correctly identifies one’s weak points (Abdelmotaleb & Saha, 2020). The moral aspect is crucial in the evaluation because the process results in promotions, raises, or terminations.
Moral and Ethical Decision-Making for Evaluation in School Administration
Employee evaluation is a crucial aspect of HR’s practices because of their impact on organizational operations and individual performance. School administration represents managers who address educational, financial, operational, and safety. Consequently, a leader must use a combination of ethically correct decisions with the management practices necessary to provide their facility with the optimal learning and working environment. Employee evaluation in such a case would require checking if the outcomes of their subordinates’ activities profoundly impact the educational process and help a school comply with the institutional standards (Davis & Fowler, 2020).
School leaders would need to make ethically correct decisions for managing employees’ positions and progress in the appropriate and objectively fair manner. The challenging aspect of evaluation in HR practices for educational facilities is the diverse backgrounds, skillsets, working experiences of personnel, and the difference in their perception of the effective learning environment.
Decision-Making Plan for Evaluation for School Leaders
Employee evaluation is a crucial administrative aspect where school leaders must consider the ethical foundation for the decisions and outcomes for personnel and the educational process. The assessment plan for this case would be:
- Identify the educational standards a school must comply with to continue operating.
- Determine the areas with issues or low-performance rates, check if the external circumstances influence them.
- Notify the responsible executives and ask them to address the causes of problems.
- Evaluate employees individually based on three aspects: their personal cases, internal rating, and performance.
- Involve other managers in the process and request feedback about the groups or individuals they administrate.
- Prioritize the learning environment optimization in decision-making both for rewarding or regulative practices for the personnel.
- Distinguish the individuals assessing who might be challenging or lead to conflicts, and explore the strategies for achieving optimal results.
- Consider the open communication approach for making ethically correct decisions, and address the employees’ autonomy in choosing how to react to evaluation results.
- Provide all personnel with an opportunity to discuss and dispute any decision, and prepare the argumentation based on the learning environment optimization.
- Make the evaluation practices adjustable to update them in the case if the standards change or discrete situations with employees’ management occur.
The management plan includes practices appropriate for moral and ethical decision-making for employees’ evaluation. Indeed, it is crucial to identify the norms required for proper functioning and equality for all personnel (Remišová et al., 2019).
School leaders can use the standards for educational facilities as the foundation to evaluate employees’ performance neutrally and therefore ethically correct. Moreover, individual assessment as an administrative practice can help avoid the misleading treatment of minority groups’ representatives (Davis & Fowler, 2020). School leaders must be open to discuss their decisions with employees to maintain a healthy working environment and making all personnel feel morally respected (Davis & Fowler, 2020). Lastly, it is crucial to point out that evaluation is a collaborative process, and involving other stakeholders such as departments leaders would make the conclusions more objective. These HR practices can be applied in different administration stages as the appropriate strategies for ethical decision-making at school.
Conclusion
Administrative decision-making is the process that requires combining organizational goals achievement with addressing employees’ well-being and performance. Consequently, HR specialists consider the moral and ethical aspects of their actions in all stages of interactions with the personnel. For instance, employee evaluation practices include analyzing an individual’s background and past achievements rather than comparing the productivity rates based on specific periods.
Furthermore, morally correct approaches have the option for a person to discuss and dispute the final decision. School leaders need ethical decision-making to improve the learning environment and enhance the performance of the personnel in an optimal manner. The management plan for educational facilities’ administration can include mentioning the standards, an individualized way of assessing one’s work, and opportunities for open communication.
References
Abdelmotaleb, M., & Saha, S. K. (2020). Socially responsible human resources management perceived organizational morality and employee well-being. Public Organization Review, 20(2), 385-399. Web.
Alizadeh, A., Dirani, K. M., & Qiu, S. (2020). Ethics, code of conduct and ethical climate: implications for human resource development. European Journal of Training and Development, ahead-of-print. Web.
Davis, D. R., & Fowler, D. J. (2020). Human resources for school leaders: Eleven steps to utilizing HR to improve student learning. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Margherita, A. (2021). Human resources analytics: A systematization of research topics and directions for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 100795. Web.
Remišová, A., Lašáková, A., & Kirchmayer, Z. (2019). Influence of formal ethics program components on managerial ethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 160(1), 151-166. Web.