Customer Reviews

Ethics and HRD: A New Approach To Leading Responsible Organizations (New Perspectives in Organizati)

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This volume lays out why adding value to our shared society is not only practical, but ethical as well. Almost always missing from the conventional wisdom presented in the HRD literature, Hatcher lays out the case in convincing manner. It should be must reading and action for everyone in the field.

Tim Hatcher's Ethics and HRD is the first book-length treatment of what most would think are two obviously connected areas - business ethics and the development of human resources. In Ethics and HRD, Hatcher identifies the challenges of "globalization, high-speed technological changes, wildly fluctuating economies, a changing workforce, an unstable environmental climate, and erratic politics". Because of these challenges, Hatcher argues that "we have come to a point where we must have people and organizations that do the right thing ..., organizations and leaders that are moral, ethical, and socially responsible". "HRD professionals," writes Hatcher, "have been complicit in helping to create organizations and workplaces that do little to enhance the human spirit or protect the environment". He proposes a new approach to human resources development that synthesizes ethical leadership and social responsibility. Hatcher believes that HRD professionals can play an important role in transforming their organizations into socially-responsible corporate citizens.

Hatcher's Ethics and HRD is written in dense prose, subtle to the point of apparent contradiction at times, with frequent repletion. I am uncomfortable with some of the author's New Age ideas, such as Gaian philosophy and ecopsychology, the study of the "relationship between our psyches, related behaviors, and what is happening in our environment". Nevertheless, for a first book-length treatment of this important issue, there are seminal ideas and much that is suggestive. Chapter 10, The Imperatives of HRD, especially the section "Strategies, Programs, and Interventions," provides excellent practical suggestions and a myriad of ideas for future research.