Chapter 7

Ethics in
Performance
Management
 Chapter 7
Content LH 3
• Principles,
• Ethical Issues & Dilemmas in performance
management;
• Developing Code of Ethics in performance
management;
• Performance Management in MNCs. Case discussion.
 Chapter 7
Concept
• Ethics is a system or code of moral standards of a
particular person, group or profession. Ethics may
be defined as the actions an individual take on
himself to ensure his continued survival across the
dynamics.
• In essence, it deals with whether to perform
certain kinds of action or not in line with what is
acceptable to the society as a whole. Therefore,
ethics is the process of deciding as to what is good
for human beings.
 Chapter 7
Concept
• “Ethics may be defi ned as a process whereby we
choose between competing moral and/or economic
values.”
– Dave Kinnear 2002
• Ethics is a process of rational thinking
aimed at establishing ‘what values to hold and
when to hold them’.
 Chapter 7
Concept
• Ethical behaviour of an organisation is a key
essential for doing business in today’s
competitive market. Ethical behaviour plays
an important role in the organisation’s overall
success.
• ‘A corporate ethics programme is made up of
values, policies, and activities which impact
the propriety of organisation behaviour.’
 Chapter 7
Principles
• An ethical performance management system directs its
employees to respect the core values of the organisation so
that ethics practiced by the organization is in conjunction
with its environment. On the other side, the organization
respects its employees and provide good working
environment.

• An ethical performance management system is designed to

make transparency in its operation. All the parties involved
in performance management system respect each other’s
needs, values, and preoccupations.
 Chapter 7
Principles
• An ethical performance management emphasizes individual
responsibility for personal decision making, behaviour, and
action rather than collective responsibility.

• An ethical performance management system put emphasis

on employees respecting and actively considering the ethical
concerns and issues of all stakeholders, rather than
focusing merely on shareholders alone.
 Chapter 7
Principles
• An ethical performance management seeks to build or
change culture to a state in which the vision of the
organization includes its employees, its customers, and the
society at large. The organization’s values and norms support
employee’s decision making, behaviour, and actions
consistent with an ‘ethical’ vision.

• An ethical performance management system provide fair

and free environment to its employees so that employees
can get the opportunity to scrutinize the basis upon which
the important decisions were made.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
• Many managers talk about ethics but do not recognize or
act upon ethical issues in their day-today managerial
responsibilities.
•
• Most ethical questions arise from people relationships
within the organization.

• Recent survey results in one large organization indicate

that only 26% of managers believe they are recognized
and reinforced for their ethical decisions and behaviors.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
• Some of the ethical issues and dilemmas are listed
below:
Performance Appraisal:
• Performance appraisal lends itself to ethical issues.
Assessment of individual’s performance is based on
observations and judgement.

• HR managers are expected to observe the performance

in order to judge its effectiveness. Often managers tend
to rate those employees highly whom they consider to be
their loyalists.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
• Some of the ethical issues and dilemmas are listed
below:
Performance Appraisal:
• They inflate their performance ratings and reward them
for performance they have never exhibited, or perhaps
could never deliver.

• Such managerial unethical behaviours and actions have a

detrimental effect on the rest of the employees including
performers.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Value Conflict:
• Every organisation has its own set of core values and the
organisation expects that its employees should honour and
practice these values.

• On the other hand the employees also have their own set of
values and goals.

• They want follow their own value rather than the

organisation’s values.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Politics on Workplace:
• Workplace politics is the major concern in these days.
According to a survey it is estimated that 18 per cent of an
administrator’s time is spent resolving conflicts among
employees.
•
• It states that use of such intentional behaviour is designed
to acquire power or to protect their self interest.
•
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Employee Engagement:
• Many talented employees’ shows dis-interest to their jobs.
They tried to maintain the minimum level of performance to
hold on to their jobs.

• They spent their times on other unnecessary activities.

• Example: Employees using their organization’s Internet

access for personal purposes during work hours results in
productivity losses.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Taking Unnecessary Credit:
• Many managers show their employees work as their own.
They take unnecessary credit of their employees work.

• These managers are either incompetent or dislike the work,

and manipulate their subordinate’s good work as their own.

• These kinds of issues adversely impact the performance of

employees.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Illegal and Unethical Practices:
• These kinds of activities include feudal treatment given to
employees, bribery, backstabbing, offi ce politics, etc.

• All these activities affect the outcome of performance

management.
•
• According to a survey of Ernst and Young, India maintains
comparatively higher fraud levels at 42 per cent with global
level of 27 per cent.
•
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Illegal and Unethical Practices:
• Such unethical managerial behaviour has a devastating
impact on the morale, motivation, commitment, and the
performance of employees.
 Chapter 7
Ethical Issues and Dilemma
Multiple Loyalties:
• Many people feel an obligation to promote the interests of
special groups or friends.
•
• Loyalty is an ethical value. However, the primary loyalty is
to the code of ethics and the public good.
•
• The obligation can become unethical when it extends to
making sure that a special group or individual benefi ts at
the expense of other groups
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
• The HR professionals are responsible for developing and
maintain the code of ethics for performance management in
the organisation.

• Therefore, it must be realized by HR professionals that

they should follow certain ethical principles for ensuring
credibility of performance management system in their
organizations.

• The given below are the key guidelines to maintain an ethical

performance management system in the organisation.
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
HR Responsibility:
• HR professionals are responsible for adding value to their
organisations by developing HR functions.

• HR professional are responsible for maintaining the balance

between the performance improvement and ethical behaviour in
the organisation.

• The HR professionals shall act as ethics custodian for the

organisation and train and develop human resources for dealing
effectively with relationship issues of morality, integrity, and
honesty with other stakeholders particularly customer, suppliers,
and society at large.
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
Developing Standards:
• Human resource professionals must strive to meet the highest
standards of competence and ethics and keep abreast of organizational
strategy, mission, and objectives on a continuous and consistent basis.

• They must drive ethics training of top managers and employees on a

wide scale and educate them on the significance of ethics in attaining
high performance standards.

• Through performance management system, HR professionals shall

transmit ethics to employees, managers, and external stakeholders.
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
Ethical Leadership:

• Human resource professionals must exhibit individual

leadership in making performance management a truly
business aligned, transparent, and credible management
endeavour.

• They should act as an ethics communicator for their

organisations.
•
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
Fairness and Justice:

• There should be fairness and justice in respect of rewards

and recognitions for employee’s work achievements and
their contribution in improving the organisational
competence and performance.

• Human resource professionals are ethically responsible for

promoting fairness and justice in the organisation. They
must enable a culture where ethical behaviour and action is
a key performance criterion.
•
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
Conflict Management:

• Human resource professionals must safeguard the interest

of all stakeholders to eliminate the conflict arising between
manager-employees, employer-employee and employees-
organization on certain issues related to rewards and
recognition etc.
 Chapter 7
Developing Ethics
Transferring Information:

• Human resource professionals should ensure truthfulness of

communication in respect of performance feedback and
counselling and help top leadership in taking informed
personnel decision.
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
• MNC is a company that has business activities beyond its
domestic borders.

• MNCs operate in a number of countries for various business

and competitive reasons.

• Corporate strategy varies based on the extent to which an

MNC wants or needs to adapt practices to local conditions.
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
• Performance management (PM) is a strategic HRM process
that enables the MNC to continuously evaluate and improve
individual, subsidiary unit, and corporate performance
against clearly defi ned, preset objectives that are directly
linked to company strategy.
•
• A number of studies have suggested that, provided the
design and implementation of PM are appropriate, it has the
potential to affect employee attitudes in a way that makes a
significant and positive contribution to company
performance.
•
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
• Performance management as a strategic human resource
management process enables the MNC to continuously
evaluate and improve individual subsidiary unit.
(Lindholm 2000)

• Effective performance management is important as a

competitive advantage.
•
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
What are the external factors affecting the local
performance?
• External factors affecting local performance include
economic circumstances, competition, demographic,
supporting infrastructure, unions and national culture.

• There are major differences in implementation on the

international operations, even if the goals and purpose is
quite the same as in the domestic. One thing that affects
this is the degree of support and interaction with the
parent.
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
The goals comprise two domains: evaluation and
development.
• Evaluation Goals
• The evaluation goals in the international environment
include:
• 1. providing feedback to employees at all levels so they will
know where they stand
• 2. developing valid bases for employment decisions involving
pay, promotion, job assignment, retention and termination
• 3. provide a mean to warn employees about unsatisfactory
performance
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
The goals comprise two domains: evaluation and
development.
Evaluation Goals
The evaluation goals in the international environment include:
• providing feedback to employees at all levels so they will
know where they stand
• developing valid bases for employment decisions involving
pay, promotion, job assignment, retention and termination
• provide a mean to warn employees about unsatisfactory
performance
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
The goals comprise two domains: evaluation and
development.
Development Goals
1. helping employees at all levels to improve their performance
and develop their professional skills
2. diagnosing individual and organizational problems
3. enhancing commitment to the organization through
discussion of career opportunities, action plans and need for
training and development 4. using recognition to motivate
continued or improved high performance
 Chapter 7
Performance in MNC
The four dimension of culture which are
related to work behaviour are as follows:
Individualism versus collectivism
Power distance
Masculinity/femininity
Uncertainty avoidance