HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management

Introduction

This article highlights two large gaps in the business school curriculum: the neglect of historical and ethical dimensions. An overview is provided of progress made so far in the UK in the evolution of business history as an academic discipline; and also of the take-up of business ethics in university teaching. (Bowie, 2006, 158-172) Both have had some success, but overall the response to these areas has been somewhat lacklustre — at least in the UK. A justification is provided for adding both components to a fully relevant business education.

When the two are combined, the result can be a highly rewarding combination that provides insights that may not be possible for management writers, who work only in the present. Corporate ethics, the social responsibility of companies, disclosure, the environment, the actions of multinational companies overseas, the dilemmas of whistle-blowing, the impact of lobby groups and health and safety issues can all be understood more fully by students if they approach these subjects from an ethical and historical standpoint. (Bowie, 2006, 158-172)

Business Ethics Research

Before business ethics tells managers what they should do, it needs to know the facts and gather the evidence about what they actually do now. This implies engagement with business and managers in their own context and empirical research into what they do, and careful description and evidence gathering. In short, business ethics has to take empirical research more seriously and engage in theory-building that will be more 'grounded' than previously. (Bowie, 2006, 158-172)

Several of the reviews conducted into the methodology of business ethics research have made this important point. Randall and Gibson's review (1990) of 94 business ethics research papers in the USA found that over 80% were based on questionnaire surveys that purported to measure respondents' ethical attitudes. Besides asking questions about the validity and reliability of these questionnaires to get at the real issues of ethical behaviour in business, Randall and Gibson also were concerned that these studies showed a lack of theory development and often had failed to test different hypotheses.

Another review conducted by Robertson (1993) of empirical research papers, published mainly in the Journal of Business Ethics in 1993, noted the preponderance of attitudinal studies based upon survey questionnaires. (Bowie, 2006, 158-172)

She criticized the lack of focus on behaviour and speculated that this was probably due to the sensitivity of the issues involved such that, 'It is probably less threatening for respondents to report their attitudes towards other people's cheating on tests than it is for them to report honestly about their own cheating behaviour'. (Bowie, 2006, 158-172) However, she then notes that in other fields of study, such as criminology, research methods have been devised to elicit information about sensitive behaviour.

For business ethics research to progress, she considered several improvements in methodological approach were required: a greater emphasis needed to be placed on the normative basis of empirical studies, behaviour (rather than attitudes) needed to be established as the key dependent ...