A moral principles framework for human resource management ethics

This paper argues that the analysis of ethical issues in human resource management is legitimate and important. It argues that the theory of ethical relativism should be rejected and that it is meaningful to search for universal moral principles. It then presents a comprehensive framework for making judgments about human resource management ethics that consists of five complementary moral principles that have been developed and studied by philosophers: utilitarian ethics, rights ethics (using Kant's categorical imperative), distributive justice ethics, care ethics, and virtue ethics. It illustrates the application of the moral framework by analyzing the ethics of deceiving employees about the hazardous nature of chemicals in the workplace, the ethics of discrimination in employment, and the ethics of sexual harassment.