Leadership Matters
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By Brenda Clark, CHRE

Organizations today need to shift from short-term to long-term thinking, taking into account a much broader, multi-stakeholder view of the world in decision-making.



Organizations must move from “accounting” to “accountability” – a new perspective that considers not just financial stakeholders, but customers, suppliers, the community, the environment and, first and foremost, our own employees.

That was a key message of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) CEO Peter Cheese’s opening remarks at the 2015 CIPD annual conference I attended in November in Manchester, UK. These remarks underpin a new focus the UK HR body is exploring as it develops an updated direction for the HR profession and its members in that country.

“We know there’s no one-size-fits-all model for great HR, and we need to adapt our HR practices to the context and needs of our workforces and organizations,” Cheese told delegates. “But our actions and decisions must be guided and framed through principles and values that drive good, ethical and sustainable business. These principles should provide the framework for HR to support the judgments and compromises organizations must make.

“Ultimately, we need a new definition of what it means to be an HR professional, with a greater focus on clarity of professional capability and purpose, and a strengthened ability to provide trusted and credible advice to businesses, whatever the circumstances,” he said.

CIPD is exploring this new thrust around “principle-based HR” as part of its broader Profession of the Future strategy – work and research that will help define how the HR profession can champion better work and working lives for all stakeholders. After an extensive research project (From best to good practice HR: developing principles for the profession) that examined the changing nature of HR and how potential guiding principles would be developed, its next steps include defining the principles and then equipping HR professionals with the knowledge, skills and expertise to apply those principles in practice.

Competence and ethical responsibility

CIPD’s new direction is recognition that, in a profession where business decisions have profound impacts – on workers, communities, the environment, suppliers/vendors and society – competence is not enough. CIPD understands professionalism as something that goes beyond just professional competency. What makes a profession is the combination of competence and ethics for the good of society. A key CIPD concept is situational judgment, where competence and principles combine for ethical decision-making in a given circumstance. Principles are the how ethical responsibility works – and that, in essence, is where it all comes together.

CIPD is still developing its principles, but from its work to date, it is clear they will consider ideas such as HR serving society as a whole; not treating people as a means to an end; striving for fairness in considering the interests of all stakeholders; considering both short- and long-term perspectives; and not compromising principles.

HRPA and ethics

The Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) is also taking steps towards enhancing the professionalism of the HR profession, including an updated HR competency framework that tests an updated body of knowledge, and the ability to apply that knowledge, at escalating levels of HR practice; as well as a government-sanctioned regulatory framework that grants HRPA powers to regulate its members in the public interest. Public interest – mandating that members abide by a Code of Ethics and Rules of Professional Conduct that ensures respect for human rights, equity, dignity and respect in the workplace – is essentially the same as the CIPD’s new direction around HR and ethics.

The good news is that the professionalization of HR continues on both sides of the Atlantic, with mutual understanding that professionalism must be anchored by both professional knowledge and ethics.

Brenda Clark, CHRE is chair of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA).

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