Posted: November 12th, 2022

Human Dignity and the Common Good in Human Resource Management

Human Dignity and the Common Good in Human Resource Management
The principles of human dignity and the common good are significant in managing people within an organization. The common good should be applied in human resource management at a workplace, in job design, staffing/recruitment, training and development, compensation and benefits, promotion and performance appraisal, and downsizing, layoff, and outplacement. The virtues that play a role in ethically conducting these practices are justice, gratuitousness, and truthfulness. These elements should respect human dignity and the common good in subsidiarity and participation. The paper presents some of the relevant Catholic Social Teaching (CST) in the management of people.
According to the CST human dignity considers all persons as worthy regardless of creed, color, and race. Discrimination is not allowed when managing people in a work or any other environment. All people have a right to be accorded and treated with dignity in all circumstances, that is, dignity treatment is not earned. There is an argument that the economy is for people and not people for the economy. Also, in authenticating developments of people, an excessive focus on maximizing profit is not the best since burdens or rewards are never distributed justly. Following the human dignity principle, exploitation of workers in the developing countries to achieve a cost advantage is precisely unethical. In the same manner, it is an ambiguous violation of the principle when creditors charge premium credit rates to the people who struggle to manage their debt loads.
The principle of the common good, on a similar note, identifies that the social rules should be used to the benefits of the commonwealth. The compensation workers receive from their workplaces should be enough to provide the most necessities like food, shelter, education, affordable healthcare, et cetera. The idea of the common good affirms the rights attached to ownership of property. In a work environment, the organization should set clear rules on occupation and safety health. A violation of such requirements can lead to harm to the workers, consumers or even the premises itself, and sometimes families are negatively impacted due to the likely loss of their loved ones. Violation of the principles set for the common good can also affect the society due to increased medical costs. The common good should be a consideration in any assessment, for a positive outcome.
Everyone has a fundamental right to work. These rights should be protected by the business people/human resource manager at a workplace. These rights include the minimum human condition and a just salary. The HRM should also design and organize for promotions to render the human development of an organization’s employee. Also, the job design should incorporate the primacy of God as well as family and children. For this reason, the worker should be allowed to hallow the day of worship.
The management of organizations is expected to properly deal with issues of diversity management, deception, and truthfulness, abusive contracting, unfair discrimination, and privacy. During staffing and recruitment, the HRM must exercise the process in a manner that considers all applicants as equal to avoid deception and unfair discrimination. Moreover, the filtering of candidates should be conducted in a way that upholds truthfulness and justice. Also, during the selection process, the panel should consider not only the technical skills but also the applicants’ moral dispositions. During the same process, all unfair biases such as racial, nationality, culture, gender, among others must be discouraged. Lastly, if it would be necessary to search for any information, the same must be conducted in a manner that respects privacy and upholds human dignity. A common good requires that managers inform the rejected candidates the reasons for not being hired, and advise them on the jobs they might fit.
During this time, managers should highlight the values on their subordinates, and train and develop them in a manner that would facilitate their productivity and enhance their technical skills. Managers should train with an attitude to support, promote, and develop following the principle of subsidiarity. This method gives the superiors a chance to help their subordinates to become better people. In an organization, training and development depict a distributive justice. Besides an inclusion of technical skills, training should also integrate moral elements of human developments.
The profits people get while working in an organization have a great positive impact on the employee turnover, motivation as well as performance. The aim of the common good in compensation should not only aim at remuneration but also involve conduciveness that forms part of people’s developments. To improve the common good, an acceptable principle requires that manager ensures regulatory environment between the workers and employers by fulfilling the legal, social justice, distributive, and commutative needs. Morally, the employers should provide to employees with salaries that would sustain their lives and maintain their families as dictated by the moral laws and human dignity.
In conclusion, human dignity and the common good are crucial when dealing with people. Business people should apply humane approaches in manage workers within their businesses. The principles foster good relations.

Reference
Salamanca, A. M. (2015). Managing People Humanly: Some Catholic Social Teaching Considerations for Human Resource Management.

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