Ethics is critically important to the effective practice of HRM. Ethical decisions and actions lead to greater trust and engagement within organizations and allow for all types of information to emerge, which is important for effective decision making. Given the importance of ethics to HRM, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which is the world’s largest professional society for human resource management, developed a code of ethics. We encourage you to read this code of ethics whether you are an aspiring manager or HRM professional or one who is seasoned. The core principles noted are easily transferable to different organizational roles, and following them can help you avoid serious problems as you are faced with ethical dilemmas and decisions throughout your career. The six core principles described in the code provisions include the idea that professionals should engage in their work with a focus on professional responsibility, professional development, ethical leadership, fairness and justice, conflicts of interest, and use of information.

Questions 

1. Describe a hypothetical scenario in which you would benefit from applying certain principles from the SHRM Code of Ethics.
2. Choose a business situation from the news or the HR literature where principles from the SHRM Code of Ethics could have made a difference. Specifically, what did the decision makers do right, or what could they have done better?