Ethical Issues and Management
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When serving in management a person wears many different hats and plays many different roles. One of the most important roles and responsibilities is that of hiring new employees. When acting in the capacity of a hiring manager they are charged with the responsibility of hiring persons who are qualified for the positions for which they are hiring and someone that will support the companys visions and values. Throughout the hiring process hiring managers must ensure that no comments, actions or decisions are made that could be ethically questionable. As well, the hiring manager and organization should ensure that all employment regulations set forth by the government are being followed and have checks and balances in place.
Ethics play a major role during the hiring of employees. To be successful as a hiring manager making decisions that are sound and ethical is necessary. One of the moral and ethical issues that a hiring manager faces is discrimination against race or age. Both of these issues are protected classes by federal law. So not only would the hiring manager be looking at ethical issues but also discriminatory practices against federal law. An example of age discrimination would be to have an older more qualified person apply for a position, but the hiring manager hires a lesser qualified younger person to do the job because they do not feel the older person will be able to do a good job due to age.
Another ethical issue that hiring managers may face would be nepotism. Nepotism is showing favoritism towards a friend or family with no merit. A ethical conflict involving nepotism would be if a hiring manager used their influence to get a friend or relative hired that did not have the merit or know how to do the job. To prevent this type of issue there are steps that hiring managers and Human Resources departments can take. One such step would be to review the policies involving nepotism and making sure that all hiring managers are aware and understand the policy. Another step would be that if an issue did arise that the Human Resources department is made of aware of the issue and that they quickly resolve the issue.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are many regulations that are in place concerning the hiring of employees that involve federal laws. One such law is the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) “which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination” (EEO, 2010). This is particularly important to a hiring manager because they want to ensure that when hiring someone that they are offering comparable pay based on merit and gender. The second law is Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (EEO, 2010). This is also a law that a hiring manager should be familiar with. This is important because when hiring someone they need to be sure that they are being fair in their hiring and not discriminating based on any of the five protected classes. The next law is the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA); this law “protects