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Human Resource Management in a Compartmentalized World: Whither Moral Agency?

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  • Tracy Wilcox

Abstract

This article examines the potential for moral agency in human resource management practice. It draws on an ethnographic study of human resource managers in a global organization to provide a theorized account of situated moral agency. This account suggests that within contemporary organizations, institutional structures—particularly the structures of Anglo-American market capitalism—threaten and constrain the capacity of HR managers to exercise moral agency and hence engage in ethical behaviour. The contextualized explanation of HR management action directly addresses the question of whether HRM is inherently unethical. The discussion draws on MacIntyre’s (Philosophy 74:311–329, 1999 , After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Duckworth, 2000 ) conceptualization of moral agency within contemporary social structures. In practice, HR managers embody roles that may not be wholly compartmentalized. Alternative institutional structures can provide HR managers with a vocabulary of motives for people-centred HRM and widen the scope for the exercising of moral agency, when enacted within reflective relational spaces that provide milieus for critical questioning of logics and values. This article aims to contribute to and extend debate on whether HRM can ever be ethical, and provide a means of reconnecting business ethics with longstanding concerns in critical management studies. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

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  • Tracy Wilcox, 2012. "Human Resource Management in a Compartmentalized World: Whither Moral Agency?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 85-96, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:111:y:2012:i:1:p:85-96
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1440-1
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    Cited by:

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    4. Beatriz Maria Braga & Eduardo Camargo Oliva & Edson Keyso Miranda Kubo & Steve McKenna & Julia Richardson & Terry Wales, 2021. "An Institutional Approach to Ethical Human Resource Management Practice: Comparing Brazil, Colombia and the UK," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 57-76, February.
    5. Michelle Greenwood & R. Edward Freeman, 2018. "Deepening Ethical Analysis in Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 1-4, January.
    6. Gry Espedal & Arne Carlsen, 2021. "Don’t Pass Them By: Figuring the Sacred in Organizational Values Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 767-784, April.
    7. Nicholas Burton & Mai Chi Vu, 2021. "Moral Identity and the Quaker tradition: Moral Dissonance Negotiation in the WorkPlace," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 127-141, November.
    8. George Kandathil & Jerome Joseph, 2019. "Normative Underpinnings of Direct Employee Participation Studies and Implications for Developing Ethical Reflexivity: A Multidisciplinary Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 685-697, July.
    9. Kelly Thomson & Joanne Jones, 2017. "Precarious Professionals: (in)Secure Identities and Moral Agency in Neocolonial Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(4), pages 747-770, December.
    10. Mari Huhtala & Päivi Fadjukoff & Jane Kroger, 2021. "Managers as Moral Leaders: Moral Identity Processes in the Context of Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 639-652, September.
    11. Marco Guerci & Adelien Decramer & Thomas Waeyenberg & Ina Aust, 2019. "Moving Beyond the Link Between HRM and Economic Performance: A Study on the Individual Reactions of HR Managers and Professionals to Sustainable HRM," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 783-800, December.
    12. Anthony Asher & Tracy Wilcox, 2022. "Virtue and Risk Culture in Finance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 223-236, August.
    13. Minna-Maaria Hiekkataipale & Anna-Maija Lämsä, 2019. "(A)moral Agents in Organisations? The Significance of Ethical Organisation Culture for Middle Managers’ Exercise of Moral Agency in Ethical Problems," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 147-161, March.
    14. Michelle Greenwood & Harry J. Van Buren, 2017. "Ideology in HRM Scholarship: Interrogating the Ideological Performativity of ‘New Unitarism’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(4), pages 663-678, June.
    15. Rasim Serdar Kurdoglu & Nüfer Yasin Ateş, 2022. "Arguing to Defeat: Eristic Argumentation and Irrationality in Resolving Moral Concerns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 519-535, January.
    16. Robert Couch & Caleb Bernacchio, 2020. "The Virtues of Equality and Dissensus: MacIntyre in a Dialogue with Rancière and Mouffe," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(4), pages 633-642, July.
    17. Paulina Roszkowska & Domènec Melé, 2021. "Organizational Factors in the Individual Ethical Behaviour. The Notion of the “Organizational Moral Structure”," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 187-209, July.
    18. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-13, August.

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