A CALL FOR HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT CODE OF ETHICS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

In my book, My Boss, the Bully, I explain the vices associated with bullying at the workplace in more detail in a very practical manner following my own personal experience under a bully boss. Whilst I fought my case through to the courts and eventually won it almost 5 years down the line after resigning alleging ‘Constructive Dismissal’, it was a journey ingrained with nightmares and sleepless nights with near fatal consequences. The climax of it all was when I witnessed a colleague living with disabilities, wheel chair bound, going up to the first floor on her back to collect a resignation letter, written on her behalf by the employer after some trumped up charges. To this day, my colleague has not recovered from the pain and trauma.

The lack of proper guidelines at the workplace as well as general ethical code of conduct governing corporate governance around HR Management in general, makes it very difficult for employees to air out grievances with confidence that their issues will be dealt with fairly, transparently and professionally. As an HR Practitioner, I knew and was convinced what happened to my colleague and to me was grossly improper and defeated any normal reasoning capacity. However, despite the fact that the means to get justice were very restricted, the resolve to get justice done especially for my colleague gave me the resolve and hope to continue soldiering on against all odds.

Whilst many people may have the mistaken view that bullying is only present at the school grounds among students, it is indeed a reality at the workplace. Bullying at the workplace refers to demeaning and degrading acts on another being, that can be expressed verbally, in writing or physically. It involves shouting obscenities in private or in the presence of others, misuse of power, using threats, harassing staff and belittling them. It is a complete show of disrespect to another being and is unprofessional. Bully bosses are present in today’s contemporary organizations and they are very difficult to please no-matter what effort the victim puts in to correct the perceived wrong doing by the bully.

The effects of incessant exposure to such bosses results in feelings of anxiety, sorrow, depression, eating and sleeping disorders and fear. All of which are a sign of high stress levels on the part of the victim. Subjects can become bitter, lose confidence and show signs of reduced self-esteem. Staff exposed to bullying feel uncertain, insecure and lack confidence, usually resorting to silence even in cases where they feel grossly abused. The fear of the retaliation by the bully boss leaves relations generally constrained, tense and uncomfortable.

However, when confronted head on in private, most bully bosses can show signs of cowardice to the extent of asking for forgiveness from the victim. It is just that due to the high levels of fear especially that of job loss, most staff seek alternative means to escape the bully boss. The most common being looking for alternative employment. Unfortunately, the labour market can be quite dry and alternative opportunities may not come up easy, which can result in the victim so badly affected to the extent of being ineffective in terms of work performance.

To worsen the matter, most organizations do not have clearly defined procedures of the recourse affected staff can take hence they suffer in silence. Whilst the world over, such fields like Financial Management, are highly regulated with strict code of ethics on corporate governance, it is not the same with the human resources management function. The labour laws are there but do not go to the same depth as to clearly define the dos and don’ts on the ethics of people management. That gives some conducive grounds on ill-treatment of people at the workplace. It is high time the HR field was regulated in-terms of the ethics code of conduct. Any people found ill-treating others should be brought to book.

I however applaud most People Management Institutions for setting up the Chartered HR Practitioner Certification. I however challenge the HR practitioners to start thinking along the lines of setting up guidelines on ethical people management. There should be clearly defined people management practices governed by strict corporate governance prescriptions to guide, direct and regulate HR Practitioners.  Perpetrators of bad HR Corporate Governance should be expelled from the profession and not be allowed to practice in the same way as the Chartered Accountants, Lawyers, Auditors etc. The Chartered HR Practitioner should provide the panacea of what professional, ethical Human Resources Management is like. Unethical practitioners should be disqualified through deregistration as well as naming and shaming!