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Agonism and the Possibilities of Ethics for HRM

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  • Carl Rhodes
  • Geraint Harvey

Abstract

This paper provides a critique and re-evaluation of the way that ethics is understood and promoted within mainstream Human Resource Management (HRM) discourse. We argue that the ethics located within this discourse focuses on bolstering the relevance of HRM as a key contributor to organizational strategy, enhancing an organization’s sense of moral legitimacy and augmenting organizational control over employee behaviour and subjectivity. We question this discourse in that it subordinates the ethics of the employment relationship to managerial prerogative. In response, we suggest a different model of the relationship between ethics and HRM—one that finds the possibility of ethics in the contestation and destabilization of HRM. Such ethics arises through resistance to moral normalization and the constraint of freedom and difference. The contribution of our paper is in theorising the possibilities of a relationship between ethics and HRM that does not place HRM at its centre, as chief intermediary of the ethics of the employment relationship, but rather sees HRM as being a powerful player in a set of what Mouffe calls ‘agonistic’ socio-ethical relations. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Rhodes & Geraint Harvey, 2012. "Agonism and the Possibilities of Ethics for HRM," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 49-59, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:111:y:2012:i:1:p:49-59
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1441-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Kostas Amiridis & Bogdan Costea, 2020. "Managerial Appropriations of the Ethos of Democratic Practice: Rating, ‘Policing’, and Performance Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(4), pages 701-713, July.
    3. Afshin Omidi & Cinzia Dal Zotto, 2022. "Socially Responsible Human Resource Management: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    4. George Kandathil & Jerome Joseph, 2019. "Normative Underpinnings of Direct Employee Participation Studies and Implications for Developing Ethical Reflexivity: A Multidisciplinary Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 685-697, July.
    5. Charles Barthold & Peter Bloom, 2020. "Denaturalizing the Environment: Dissensus and the Possibility of Radically Democratizing Discourses of Environmental Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(4), pages 671-681, July.
    6. Geraint Harvey & Andy Hodder & Stephen Brammer, 2017. "Trade union participation in CSR deliberation: an evaluation," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 42-55, January.
    7. Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar & Fahreen Alamgir, 2018. "Ethics of Resistance in Organisations: A Conceptual Proposal," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 31-43, April.
    8. Sanela Smolović Jones & Nik Winchester & Caroline Clarke, 2021. "Feminist solidarity building as embodied agonism: An ethnographic account of a protest movement," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 917-934, May.
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