The Moderating Role Played By Human Resource Department in Promoting Ethics: A Case Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Bulawayo.

Abstract

As background to the study it can be stated that the ethical conduct of employees in an organisation is of paramount importance to the successful operations of an organisation. HRM through its functional activities, recruitment, training, performance management, etc. has a role to play as organizations address ethical challenges and as many strive to become ethical organizations. The main aim of the paper is to find out the moderating role played by HR in promoting ethics in the pharmaceutical industry in Bulawayo. The motivation for this study is based on the question of whether the functions of HRM lead to good establishment of ethical organisations in the pharmaceutical industry and, if such is the case, what benefits would this bring to the pharmaceutical industry. Quantitative research was used collect data. The stratified sampling method where questionnaires were used as the main measuring instrument, with 60 questionnaires being distributed was used. The research results substantiate the fact that the HR departments of the surveyed organisations did implement specific ethics interventions with the majority of respondents acknowledging the importance of ethical behaviour in the organisation. However there were a few ethical issues that need to be reconsidered, i.e. equal opportunity where it was noted that the industry was not evenly balanced with more that 70% of the workforce being male. It was also found out and recommended that the organisations under study take issues of compensation and rewards seriously as this had a negative effect on employee motivation. This recommendation came after it was noted that most employees were not happy with the delay in implementing new Collective Bargaining Agreement in their organisation.