2. ©The Work Foundation
Stephen Bevan
Director, Centre for Workforce Effectiveness
The Work Foundation &
Honorary Professor Lancaster University
The Ethical & Moral Contract

3. Themes
• A crisis of trust in Institutions?
• HR as ‘Moral Compass’?
• ‘Good Work’ & Engagement
• Reconnecting with Business ‘Purpose’
©The Work Foundation

4. ©The Work Foundation
Crisis of Trust In Our Institutions?
• Issues of business purpose and leadership,
and of morality, transparency and trust:
– The Banking System
– The Catholic Church
– BP – Gulf of Mexico
– Political Institutions

5. HR as ‘Moral Compass’?
©The Work Foundation
Leadership
Development
Executive
Remuneration
Complicity
through
Inaction

6. Traditional ‘Ethical stewardship’ role of HR?
• Employment regulation: minimum standards
of conduct with an ethical underpinning based
on standards of decency and fairness
• Dealing with managers who have an
impatience with the 'restrictive rules' of HR
• What is the HR role when there is something
more sinister or systemic going on in a
business?
©The Work Foundation

7. Example 1: Leadership Development
• HR knows the leadership competencies,
behaviours and values which drive employee
engagement and deliver high-performance
working
• Process for appointing the most senior leaders
can sometimes ignore all of this good evidence
and use different criteria
• Can be a point at which HR influence over good
practice evaporates
©The Work Foundation

8. Example 2: Executive Remuneration
• Are the deliberations of remuneration committees are
informed in any substantive way by the advice of HR
specialists?
• Risks of bonuses or share options containing
‘perverse’ incentives or focusing too much on short-
term gain or ignoring the wider principles of
distributive justice within the business
• HR faces a big challenge if it is to re-establish a
credible and moderating influence
©The Work Foundation

9. Example 3: Complicity Through Inaction
• Many HR professionals have seen systematic
bad practice in recent times
• Others may have felt unable to challenge
unethical decisions which have been driven
by aggressive business targets or the
clamour for survival
• Would more willingness to speak out by some
in HR roles might have had a mitigating
effect?
©The Work Foundation

10. HR as ‘Moral Compass’?
©The Work Foundation
Today’s crisis of confidence in
business ethics is the true test of
whether HR has any strategic
influence over business strategy
and corporate behaviour

11. ‘Good Work’ and Engagement
©The Work Foundation

12. ©The Work Foundation
A working definition of “Good Work”
• Employment security
• Control over the content & pace of work
• “Task discretion” and interesting/challenging work
• A proper balance between effort and reward
• Procedural justice
• Learning & growth opportunities
• High trust relationships (“social capital”); collective
and individual voice

13. ©The Work Foundation
Meaning & Purpose

14. ©The Work Foundation
More than just a job…
• It’s hard to imagine ‘good work’ that is
meaningless
• People are looking for more than a job - they
are seeking meaning from the work they do
• This principle applies universally
• Financial goals may well be intrinsic, they are
not sufficient as a definition of purpose

15. ©The Work Foundation
The Explicit ‘Deal’

16. ©The Work Foundation
Pay is important….but
• …other factors matter to people too, such as
• Transparency, fairness & justice at work
• Mutuality – with a focus on ER
• Flexibility
• Investment in skills, diversity and
employability

17. ©The Work Foundation
‘Fairness’ – Key Concepts
• Justice (balance; procedural; distributive)
• Meritocracy
• Due desert for discretionary effort
(“I eat what I kill”)
• Proportionality
• Equity?

18. ©The Work Foundation
The Implicit ‘Deal’

19. ©The Work Foundation
Investing in Engagement
• Starting point for engaging employees is making the
connection to the purpose of the organisation and
their part in it
• Leaders must convey this purpose with clarity,
consistency and authenticity
• Line managers are key to achieving the potential
double benefit of improved performance and an
engaged workforce who feel, with conviction, that the
organisation is a good place to work

20. ©The Work Foundation
Job Quality
• Autonomy
• Task discretion
• Variety
• Control
• …all strongly linked to discretionary effort,
performance, retention and both physical &
mental health and resilience

21. ©The Work Foundation
UK workers report limited job control
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
SE
NL
AT
DK
FI
MT
DE
LU
SI
BE
HU
FR
EE
EU-27
IE
IT
CZ
SK
PL
LV
PT
RO
UK
CY
BG
EL
LT
ES
Source: European Working Conditions Survey

22. ©The Work Foundation
When Work Goes

23. ©The Work Foundation
Is Any Job a ‘Good Job’?
• Just how much work means to people is clear
when there is no work
• Redundancy and ‘Good Work’ are not
incompatible
• Financial crisis has highlighted many
examples where open dialogue, flexibility &
giving employees a voice has cushioned the
blow of job loss

24. ©The Work Foundation
Employability
• Is employability becoming the contemporary
definition of ‘security’ in the world of work?
• Role for modern Unions?
• Access to skill development & re-skilling
• The way an employer handles redundancy is
the acid test of its claim to be a ‘good work’
organisation, rather than a negation of it

25. ©The Work Foundation
A Challenge to Business

26. ©The Work Foundation
A Great Place to Work?
• How confident are you that your senior leadership does
a good job of connecting people to the purpose of the
organisation?
• How much would prioritising and promoting a stronger
culture of transparency enable you to enhance
employee trust and engagement?
• In a world where employees want more flexibility,
autonomy, voice and opportunities for development and
personal growth, how adequately is your organisation
responding?
• How much are the principles and practice of ‘good work’
evident in your approach to managing job losses and
redundancy?

27. www.theworkfoundation.com
©The Work Foundation