Table of Contents
Part 1
Code of ethics is a principle guide that is designed to aid professionals in conducting their business with integrity and honesty (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). A document of the code of ethics may outline the values and missions of a business organization, ethical principles based on the organizations key values, standards, which professionalism should be upheld, and how the professionals are required to approach problems.
A code of conduct entails the employer expectations and therefore it defines the acceptable mannerisms and behavior (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). The code of conduct differs with the code of ethics in that it has information concerning an individual behavior in a job. The code of conduct also contains offshoot information from the ethics code of the company. Many institutes require their employees to sign a code of conduct since it is a legal agreement between the employee and the employer.
Purpose
The code of conduct purpose is to maintain and develop the standards of conduct that are acceptable to customers, company, and other employees. The conduct code mainly entails the behavioral guidelines, which are consistent with the policies of the company and thus shows how the company perceives their image (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). Therefore, the code of conduct serves as a reminder to the employees of what is expected from them and that their appearances, actions, conduct, and demeanor may affect their careers or even the company status.
Despite the code of ethics addressing the internal conduct it primarily centers on what the employees are expected to do when engaging the customers on centric activities. Therefore, the code of ethics establishes standards through which employees can be held accountable. Ethical codes cover restrictions that are against the trading of insiders for co-operating employees (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). In contrast to code of conduct, the code of ethics lays more emphasis on maintenance of integrity in all public interactions in order for the company to maintain its public reputation
Importance
The importance of a code of ethics is that it guides all managerial decisions made. It does this by creating a common framework through which all decisions of a company are founded which leads to cohesiveness in the company. The cohesiveness helps the employees to understand their boundaries of the company. The code of ethics also aids in the setting of standards for external interactions with stakeholder (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). In most instances, the code of ethics helps in protection of the company’s reputation and the legal standing of the company in the event that there is a breach of ethics by employees.
The code of conduct of the employees ensures that there is career growth and also provide benefits to the company after the long run. Therefore, the code of conduct ensures that the employees attend their work on time and that they respect their employers (The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics, 2006). The code goes a long way in building the value systems of the employees.
Part 2
There are many areas involved in recruiting and ethical issues often arise. These areas include; how candidates are located, how positions are presented to a candidate, and how the interviews are conducted. However, it is vital noting that there are no generally accepted ethical or value guidelines for the recruiting (Nguyen NT, 2012). In this case, some companies and institutions establish guidelines and put them down on paper. Written guidelines help the recruiters and the human resource department in doing the right thing.
I would use the following in making ethical decisions during the hiring process
- Job advertising- job advertisement could be used to directly reflect the responsibilities, duties, and competency of the position being advertised. This makes sure that I am not faced with an ethical dilemma because the advertisements have had misleading copies.
- Transparency- I would be providing accurate information about the job in the offer. These allow the employee to have the ability to evaluate his position and know what he or she is engaging in. However, total disclosure would include the company’s privacy protection policy.
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The above methods are both legally and morally acceptable to the community. This is because as a resource manager who is responsible for hiring I am ethically bound to oversee the recruitment process with objectivity, honesty, and consistency. Through this, the above methods can protect the ethical integrity of the hiring process and therefore avoid actions that would jeopardize or put the company at risk.
It is important to note that hiring situations bring about ethical dilemmas (Nguyen NT, 2012). Candidates should be judged on their abilities to perform a certain job. Therefore, each person who is involved in the selection decision should shun unintended bias which may result from the unauthorized access to the candidate on the internet. Hiring based on merit upholds ethics and integrity of the process of hiring
In most cases, ethical decisions are not all black and white since it involves making a decision between two actions which seem to be equally right. However, an essential requirement is to talk about the issues which help in working through appropriate courses of action. In the end, all members of the human resource ought to ask themselves if they have done more harm than good to the company and candidates. Thinking and acting ethically is not always without ambiguity but by a person acting ethically, he is able to maintain and build a reputation, and integrity (Nguyen NT, 2012). Ethics is an important ingredient in the long-term success of individuals.
- Nguyen NT, Basuray MT, Smith WP (2012) Ethics in employee selection: A case for improving awareness. Proceedings of the Institute of Higher Education–The 7th International Conference Williamsburg, VA–March 7-9.
- The Senate Code of Official Conduct: Select Committee on Ethics. Publisher Not Identified, 2006.