CHAPTER 6

Moral Workforce Planning

This chapter must begin with some critical questions: When was the last time you were evaluated by a third-party entity to get hired by an organization? What procedures did they implement, and what would you like changed for improved efficiency? Do you agree with the criteria that they followed as a recruitment guide for their corporation’s needs? Do you believe that they were aligned with your internal moral principles and the corporate ethical code and that they were in accordance with corporate social responsibility? Did you have the opportunity to express your own beliefs, to be treated equally among rather different candidates, and judged in an ethical climate of communication and behavior?

All the foregoing recruiting issues and queries are crucial for conducting a moral workforce planning exercise, and a practitioner must consider multidimensional factors in the context of developing a moral thinking attitude. For instance, recruitment and selection, employee development, and employee reward policies need an advanced ethical plan on how to rationally exploit resources and improve corporate performance. Thus, a competency-based policy as an option related to business efficiency could deliver results while also being morally valid for both the corporation and society.

There are as many individual differences as there are individuals. Indeed, achieving a sustainable competitive advantage through corporate- specific competencies requires continuous monitoring because competency patterns may change over time (Lado and Wilson 1994). It is impossible and unsustainable to design organizational processes if individuals and other conditions are perceived as being basically the same; thus, people will behave rationally on any demand and corporate challenge, while other conditions remain unchanged. Internationalized training and education have limited the range of skill development, in terms of common educational programs and needs. However, globalization cannot universally erase culture and individual differences at a local level, so even with the very same education and training, or similar environmental information input, two individuals from the same local community will never present identical perceptions and therefore similar behavior.

People management would be tedious if individuals were the same. This is exactly why corporations cannot have a fixed and strict policy for any challenge posed. People cannot simply implement a procedure, particularly in the context of applying business ethics. Each operation is affected by the cultural perceptions in which people were brought up, their values and norms, gender, religion, emotions and feelings, abilities, and the variation of their skills, their intelligence level as well as their capacity for problem solving and abstract thinking, their conscientiousness, personal experiences, acceptance of change, self-awareness and self-management, their consistency over time, their expectations of the behavior of other people, and, finally, the external environment in which they behave, such as the economy, politics, and environmental conditions.

It is not discriminatory when you understand the existence of individual differences. Corporate unethical discrimination is about the unjust and prejudicial treatment of rather different individuals and categories of people. In particular, there are different types of discrimination, based on behavior. For instance, sexual harassment is about unwanted and repeated sexual advances and other physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature, exclusion is about removing from certain individuals the opportunity to do specific tasks and jobs, intimidation is about bullying and threats between individuals or groups of people, incivility is about disrespectful treatment, including aggressive behavior, and, finally, mockery is about making jokes or expressing negative stereotypes that create conflicts between individuals. These unethical behaviors are fundamentally wrong and totally unacceptable, particularly if they consist of repeated actions of the same unethical behavior.

On the contrary, the ability to judge individuals by distinguishing their unique features is critical for providing fair and moral opportunities to everyone, because recognizing the differences of individuals in the context of business ethics leverages rational corporate efficiency. For instance, managing expatriates can be very challenging in terms of business ethics. Expatriates, that is, people working overseas, must be treated fairly as equal members of the corporation and the local society. Whether they agreed on short- or long-term contracts, expatriates must have the opportunity to contribute to the organizational operations by adopting new norms and working in unfamiliar but interesting environments.

The development of programs for expatriate individuals and making human resources available across borders is crucial, because this process enables corporations to increase their productivity levels and share practices. Corporations are exporting their core policies such as selection criteria, job role development, performance indicators, skills development, and training, by transferring knowledge to other individuals and corporations as entities worldwide through human resources. Additionally, it is important and beneficial for organizations to identify emotionally intelligent individuals to be sent on expatriate assignments, because high levels of emotional intelligence have a positive impact on cross-cultural expatriates, their performance, and general living (Koveshnikov, Wechtler, and Dejoux 2014). It is worth noting that some people feel like expatriates even in their home countries, because moving to another city within national borders is not very different from moving to another country entirely.

In any case, moving human resources to other locations for work is an inevitable process that many individuals must cope with. The management of expatriates can be a major factor determining business success or failure, because people must cope with new principles, colleagues, and business culture. It is necessary to treat expatriates and their families fairly, and this requires much more effort than language training alone. Indeed, relying on English as the dominant business language worldwide is inevitable, but this could be disadvantageous in terms of daily communication, which could lead to misunderstandings, particularly when the individual works for a nonmultinational company, where human resources may be required to use only English. Expatriates must challenge themselves with a new culture, including a wide range of information about local history, climate, politics, religion, society, and economics in the context of business, law, practices, and ethics.

It is also important to note that a multicultural approach is essential even for organizations operating locally. Different cultures can be found not only between employees of a multinational corporation, or the management of an organization with subsidiaries, but also among consumers. For instance, a local business in a city must serve the needs not only of local people but also of other individuals such as business partners abroad or tourists, with rather different cultural characteristics. This requires that individuals be well trained in order to behave ethically, equally, and in accordance with the code of conduct governing everyone.

Moral people management requires significant awareness of the motives of individuals. As already mentioned, individuals are different, presenting rather different attributes and personalities (Table 6.1). Motivation theories focus on expectations, goals, and equity of individuals. Maslow (1943) formulated a hierarchy of five needs, comprising physiological (lower level), safety-related, social, esteem-related, and self-actualization needs (higher level). He noted that if the basic physiological needs are unsatisfied, all other needs may become nonexistent or be pushed aside. Also, when a need is satisfied, another need emerges. However, it is possible to be partially satisfied from one need, and thus individuals do not wait until its fulfillment, as there are multiple determinants of behavior. For instance, financial incentives motivate many people, particularly in times of financial turmoil. Thus, given money as a powerful driving force, unethical policies, by providing money on unexpected terms, could be a useful but immoral stabilizing instrument. Money can change behaviors, motivate people with weak personality, and exploit humans in the best interests of the superior.

Table 6.1 Individual variations

Conducting a moral workforce plan is a complex procedure for each organization. It demands a comprehensive strategy on team orientation to fit the right people to the right jobs and provide the proper training. The ability to be a fair member of an entity, with a full understanding of job roles and expectations on communicational behaviors, of the ability to manage and accept change when it emerges through variables such as financial or environmental issues, and of planning and organizing people management is vital for each corporation, so that people can develop trust, commitment, and interpersonal skills. Also, the capability of analyzing situations and evaluating alternatives is critical in a fast-paced business environment; hence, workforce plans must be aligned with logic, creativity, strategic schemes, and rational solutions.

Furthermore, it is very important to build an ethical employer brand, as was discussed in a previous chapter. This consists of a set of qualities and attributes that make a corporation appealing to candidates; creates a business culture of meritocracy, morality, and fairness; supports people as its core element of success; and increases its reputation to society. Organizations have their own core values, and they must be in accordance with generic norms in order to avoid being vulnerable to external criticism or judgment. The corporation must be a great place to work, not a place that someone needs to work due to money-oriented benefits. People need a work environment of excellence, opportunities for equal growth and promotions, an enhanced work–life balance, and a chance to be efficiently involved in corporate operations. Thus, business ethics is one of the most critical factors affecting employee retention and turnover. Indeed, considering ethical fitness, satisfaction and commitment are negatively related to turn over intentions, whereas satisfaction is positively related to affective commitment (Sims and Kroeck 1994). Additionally, other possible reasons for leaving could be the level of ethics implementation, work conditions and corporate climate, financial opportunities, better prospects, safety and security, poor relationships with colleagues and supervisors, the ability to cope with demanding tasks, harassment such as sexual harassment or racism incidents, or other personal reasons such as moving out of the area or pregnancy.

Depending on the corporate type of operations, needs, expectations, infrastructure framework, and other major factors such as its external environment, dealing with ethical workforce planning promotes commitment to the work, and encourages people to want to be part of the organization. Elimination of unpleasant work conditions is a mandatory process, while planning relies on flexible strategy. It is crucial to conduct plans according to different scenarios and prepare the corporation for any potential development. This rational process needs additional attention during workforce planning and research. For instance, it is impossible to recruit identical people, and thus their values and behaviors are different between rather different challenges. So a rational corporate policy could be to identify the core or cell of permanent employees who are essential to the ethical conduct of the corporation. This cell of perceptions must have the key skills needed to spread an efficient business culture to other individuals as well, by applying flexible and adaptable policies. Therefore, this cell of a corporation can enhance business ethics and productivity, and finally create a harmonious system of communication and cooperation between personal perceptions and business culture.

The establishment of a moral workforce planning is very important, as well as the examination of what we want, what we expect, and what kind of skills we need to achieve personal and corporate goals. Behavioral competences, such as moral skills, should be both role specific and related to an individual’s perceptions, because it is crucial to ensure that candidates and, in general, the members of a corporation have the capabilities to fit, support, and enhance the organization’s culture. A candidate’s education and work experience are two of the most valuable elements of a biography; however, business ethics requires a lot more to be applied. If an individual with great attainments has a negative impact on others through his or her communication, behavior, or emotional conflicts, then corporate policies cannot ensure sustainability by themselves.

There are many more things to consider, such as an individual’s intellectual capacity, moral awareness, social behavior (including online social behavior and reactions), communicational skills, availability, mobility, consistency on educational and employment history, acceptability of change and diversity, adaptability (including technology adoption), dependability, influence over other entities, commitment and engagement willingness, emotional stability, appearance, health (mental health related to family or other circumstances), motivation, and determination to develop and succeed. However, these features cannot be recognized equally by any individual, and thus it is important to have the right people in the right positions in order to ensure that they are aligned to corporate policies, so they will recruit candidates with shared perceptions.

It is impossible to attract candidates by placing advertisements mentioning that the corporation needs people with advanced morals. Which candidate will deny this? Furthermore, who will be responsible for identifying the moral level of an individual? Not only is this a demanding process, but technology and advanced machines with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities are working alongside practitioners to analyze a series of attributes and behaviors. Candidates want the job for their personal reasons. Practitioners must be capable of exploiting all available resources to locate the right candidates and treat them fairly and rationally.

Moreover, the individual interview is maybe the most familiar method of selection worldwide. It involves face-to-face communication and discussion of issues about job roles, opportunities, contract terms, and other specialized work conditions and policies. However, an interview alone cannot provide all the important information that a moral workforce plan requires. The predetermined questions cannot cope with real-time description of various topics during a discussion between two or more individuals. Thus, the interviewer must have a strong internal driving force in terms of ethics and an enhanced set of communicational skills to conduct and analyze unstructured interviews. Also, the disadvantage of biased and subjective judgment by the interviewer can lead to undesired actions. Therefore, the discussion must be taken in the context of ethical consideration, from evaluating a candidate to informing him or her of the result, whether positive or negative.

It is important to note that there are intelligence tests as well, but they are mostly useful to identify skills, critical thinking capability, and knowledge capacity, rather than ensuring the moral identity of a candidate. The latter, if he or she is well prepared, can hide unethical behavior and thoughts, and thus open-ended written or oral questions are required to unveil such practices. Preparation is essential, and this indicates that behavioral questions are critical as well. For instance, you can ask the candidate directly whether trust and commitment are important for him or her and how he or she reacts under tremendous business pressure to achieve a result, in the context of being efficient and ethical at the same time. Tests must meet criteria for reliability and validity, because they are helpful when intelligence is a key factor, although they have limits in terms of providing behavioral attributes, as mentioned.

Moral Resourcing Design

Establishing a strong and enhanced business ethics code begins with the development of a moral resourcing design. When a practitioner analyzes corporate jobs, roles, and competencies needed to achieve organizational goals, moral awareness must be a key factor. Designing a job is critical for corporate success and harmony. In particular, not only is designing a moral job crucial, but it fundamentally consists of a multidimensional process of defining a set of tasks and activities that are ethically suitable for both the individual that will accept to do the job and the corporation that designs and offers it. Job description must be aligned with corporate ethical principles, whereas the job role analysis must contain flexible terms reflecting the ever-changing demands and morals.

Undeniably, corporations need different kinds of competencies and human skills for different jobs. However, organizations must not implement policies that are against individuals that cannot follow business change instantly, or that have their unique set of morals or expectations. It is not ethical and fair to modify job roles without communicating the changes to the individuals that they involve or demanding different skills from rather different employees for the same job description and role. It is reasonable to consider personal specifications for setting a different set of rules, but this policy must give everyone equal opportunities without exceptions.

For instance, during an interview it is unethical to treat a potential employee with additional pressure and undue stress, while treating another candidate with flexibility, in order to recruit the individual that you want. Business ethics relies on equality and integrity, not on preferences based on personal perceptions and behaviors of ruling or even manipulating other entities. The job analysis interview must be conducted in the context of moral awareness, promoting logic over control. When you conduct an interview, you must think of the behaviors and questions that you would want to see from your interviewer. Thus, this simple principle helps to identify whether a behavior may be acceptable, at least from one’s point of view, depending on the level of ethical awareness of practitioners.

Interview questions can have a positive or negative impact during the process of selection. Although there are no interview questions that are illegal from an ethical standpoint, there are questions that can make an individual feel disadvantaged and, consequently, make the conversation nonprofessional. This implies that some questions may lead to moral discrimination. Before citing a few examples of questions that are discriminatory, it is important to argue that certain questions may be unacceptable for some individuals, but good to know for others, and in their best interests. For instance, why should the question seeking to know the number of children, if any, be considered unacceptable? If the corporate policies promote benefits for individuals with children, then this must be not only an acceptable question but also an ethical one, because if the practitioner does not ask the individual about his or her personal status, then it could be discriminatory in relation to other individuals who may voluntarily mention that they have children, in order to receive any potential benefits, although the right not to unveil your personal status is always acceptable and morally understandable.

Therefore, questions regarding job role demands and compensation benefits must be addressed in terms of implementing a fair interview policy. Additionally, for most, if not all job positions, it is important to employ people with a minimum educational background needed for a task. This suggests that you have the right to ask for someone’s degree and other qualifications. But is it unethical to ask when he or she graduated from high school or university? For instance, if candidates graduated very many years ago and if since then their experience and positions in which they worked were unrelated to their degree, it could mean that they may now not have the skills they had in the past. This is critical in terms of efficiency, whereas the question of whether someone can perform the duties of the job that he or she applied for could not end with the appropriate answer. Thereby, some individuals reply positively even if they lack the educational or experience background needed. This would mean that some people, in order to be hired and get the job, are lying in an unethical attempt to convince the interviewer. Thus, in the name of business ethics, it is not rational to avoid such questions and make unethical decisions against other individuals and the corporation itself as an entity.

Accordingly, it is important to ask questions about his or her availability and what days and hours they can work, whether there are any specific demands for personal reasons, and whether they are legally eligible for employment in the country that the corporation operates in. In light of this, for some people it is unacceptable to be asked for their citizenship and national origin as a criterion for selection, but this is inevitable because it will be revealed in terms of a contract and other bureaucratic requirements such as tax-related statements and procedures according to national law. Using racially balanced interview panels is critical in order to give an appearance of fairness to all candidates (Prewett-Livingston, et al. 1996), because racial labor market disparities persist across nearly all stages of the employment process (Pedulla and Pager 2019). Also, during an interview it is unethical to ask about their parents’ citizenship or question their financial status in terms of whether they have real estate or other property or ask about their past wages. This is not a job requirement, so it is unethical and unacceptable, while the candidate always has the right not to answer. You cannot ask an individual about which societies or other communities he or she belongs to, but it is very important to ask about membership of an association related to skills that are relevant to his or her ability to perform the job.

Every individual is different, having distinct expectations, and reacts uniquely. Practitioners must increase their capacity to think flexibly, because it is their responsibility to form a communicational style of mutual respect and morality. During recruitment, you must treat candidates with ethical consideration, and keep them informed without undue delay of decisions made about their application, give them feedback about results, unless there are explicit reasons not to do so, provide a reasonable chance and time to ask whatever they want about the job and work climate, and not keep them waiting for the interview. Also, give them accurate and complete information about job requirements and roles and about the terms and conditions of employment. Moral resourcing relies on the practitioner’s ability not to criticize aspects of a candidate’s character and personal experiences, or at least not to express them harmfully to the individuals. Undeniably, when someone meets another individual and starts discussing a variety of topics, sooner or later a comprehensive opinion can be evolved.

At this point, there is a critical question, namely, whether you must cooperate with an individual with whom you have no common reference points. Is it ethically acceptable to believe that two individuals will cooperate smoothly, just because they are required to do so by corporate performance standards? No, this is not a moral resourcing design. Sometimes, you must sacrifice a small part of financial return in order to enhance corporate culture and human well-being, with respect for individual rights, beliefs, self-esteem, communication style, privacy, and autonomy. In any case, organizational policies must not manipulate people into accepting imposed corporate values and principles.

An ethical resourcing design like the one presented in Table 6.2 can be very helpful for implementing rational corporate policies. The description of the main and side activities and duties must be aligned with solid ethical principles, in terms of providing as much information as possible about how to behave and retain a moral act, without harming other entities. Collaboration between individuals must be efficient, and they must agree on the purpose of their activities, priorities, and expectations concerning their outputs or moral standards that they should achieve.

Table 6.2 Ethical resourcing design

The aim of a corporation must be to ensure that it achieves competitive advantage by attracting, retaining, and developing more capable human resources than its rivals. Employing and organizing people effectively is a mandatory process for corporate success. Thus, the workforce must have a wider and deeper range of both skills and internal moral principles in ways that can maximize its contribution to organizational goals. This indicates that corporate decision makers must have the skills needed to resource people whose behaviors and attitudes are within the context of what agents believe to be suitable for the corporation.

If we take this one step further, agents must not hire people that are aligned with their personal perceptions, as this increases the possibility of staffing the corporation with people that cannot cooperate. This demonstrates that you cannot have two leaders for the same task, you cannot employ two technical experts and let them try to compete with each other in unethical practices, and you cannot create a dysfunctional culture with dissatisfied individuals. Therefore, skills hunting is useful just as the first-level approach. You then need to design a rational and moral policy, which involves finding both skills and behaviors that can serve business needs efficiently and negotiating employment terms in good faith.

Workforce and Technological Age

Taking advantage of the smart features of technology, notably artificial intelligence and machine learning, recruitment and evaluation processes can be carried out by automated systems. This implies that the corporation has the capability, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, to authorize technology to act voluntarily, without human intervention, beyond supporting recruiters in making the final decisions (Mantzaris and Myloni 2018). However, will a machine ever be able to measure in computerized data on human creativity, motivation, passion, moral principles, problem-solving capabilities on human issues, judgment, critical thinking, human sense, trust, personality, and emotions? Although artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques are quite capable of doing immersive analysis based on inputted data, human moral thinking cannot be analyzed in algorithms, because it is such a complex and multidimensional process that no human can be conceptualized into machine intelligence.

During workforce planning, we do not need to consider whether the comparative advantages of a robot are more than human or whether the reverse is true, as major moral issues emerge. Instead, we need to focus on optimal efficiency through the resources that the corporation needs, thus developing a plan that enhances both factors equally and ethically. As far as corporate performance is concerned, both humans and machines can add value to an organization, so the combination of both is the key to business sustainability and development in the age of technological explosion. Specifically, moral resourcing is about attracting and retaining high-quality people by giving everyone equal opportunities of employment. However, resourcing in the technological age is about attracting and retaining high-quality, future-oriented, and skilled candidates, in the context of innovative skills, fast-paced learning capabilities, motivation for constant change and self-development, and willingness to contribute to the machine–human relationship.

Attracting candidates is a process that requires flexible and multidimensional corporate policies. As mentioned previously, technology plays a significant role, so practitioners must rationally exploit the available innovative applications. You should not be attracted by candidates that sell themselves by mentioning utopian achievements. Thus, in cases where difficulties in evaluating candidates are being encountered, practitioners must employ technology and expose the real characteristics and achievements of candidates and identify any hidden weaknesses that need improvement. For instance, it is fair to ascertain the validity of their qualifications or expose candidates to short knowledge tests, aptitude tests, intelligence tests, or personality tests. A knowledge test can prove an individual’s current training and capabilities, an aptitude test can explore the extent to which the candidate can do the job, an intelligence test can measure a range of critical mental abilities that enable the candidate to succeed at a variety of demanding corporate tasks, and there are also personality tests that attempt to assess the personality of candidates in an effort to predict and understand their intentions and likely behavior as part of the organization. Additionally, living in the digital age allows one to search for further information on their social network profiles or the candidate’s own blog and other electronic sources. Remember that you must search only for job-related attributes such as achievements, biographical data, publications, or skills and that you must not violate personal information and digital data that are in the context of private life under the auspices of general data protection regulation (GDPR).

It is crucial to consider whether you violate their privacy and personal data. Corporate policies must stop at the point where they violate individual privacy by demanding personal details that are not related or required within the context of employment relationship. Therefore, it is important to develop policies that build trust upon privacy and not make individuals feel uncomfortable about their personal data. In view of this, it is inevitable to avoid data exposure, because in the technological age almost everyone accepts terms and conditions online or offline without even reading them. But, at least in a corporate environment, practitioners must treat their workforce better than a mere means of the system.

Technological advancements such as artificial intelligence can be exploited by avoiding part of the foregoing tests, because smart technology can search online material and summarize the electronic presence of the candidate. However, technology must be well programmed, structured, reliable, valid, and accurate, based on specific criteria, particularly considering data privacy. Therefore, the process for the final selection of the right person for the right job could be done manually, machines being known to be, in some cases, subject to human bias, while reliance on machine automation and automated decision aids can result in automation bias (Wall, et al. 2018), and thus individuals could deceive technology to serve their own interests. For instance, technology cannot completely understand human emotional communication yet, while it is important to consider that there are many promising ways of implementing visualization of a subject’s emotional state in real time through advanced machine learning techniques (Wang, Nie, and Lu 2014). Hence, evaluating applications and candidates with a human sense is a characteristic that could be beneficial even in the age of artificial intelligence, but this must be done through a valuable interconnection with intelligent applications.

Furthermore, because of the amount of information available online and in order to save time and cost, corporate policies could be secured with some alternatives. Practitioners can provide clear statements on what they ask in the initial application and also agree with the candidate that was the best fit for the job to sign terms on potential facts and behaviors that could disrupt and distort corporate culture. This is a rational and ethical policy that facilitates resourcing strategy, while it defends corporate core values and principles. However, as it is impossible to predict any potential future challenges, this process must have flexible characteristics as well, regarding ethical awareness, emerging issues, and mutual interests.

Equal and Ethical Opportunities

Career management, talent management, and people management are categorized into different definitions for the same core factor: the human. This signifies that people are at the epicenter of business operations, and thus their fair and moral treatment is the only way of developing a sustainable business culture and achieving organizational goals efficiently. Shaping the progression of individuals within an organization through rational and moral policies is crucial in order to balance the interests and preferences of both the individuals as members and the corporation as an entity.

Opportunities and guidance must be distributed equally among all corporate members and individuals’ perceptions, expectations, and interests considered in conjunction with corporate needs and goals. This process and policy lead to the development of moral entity consideration throughout the career life cycle of individuals. Opportunities are not just for beginners. Indeed, the entry into an organization is usually the most difficult period of an individual, as he or she must adopt new conditions and become familiar with new roles and tasks. However, opportunities must be equally and morally given to people who are at a midcareer stage, or even at the end of their career.

Midcareer people need opportunities to take further steps and be well motivated, recognized, and rewarded for the progression of their career. If people lose interest at this stage, then it is very tough to return to the previous level of interest, because it requires additional effort to recover. Opportunities such as job rotation, special agreements, or even a move to another corporate segment may be the only way to achieve individual development, at this level of workforce planning. Furthermore, toward the end of the career of an individual, the possibility of being treated with unethical and unequal practices is significant. Many corporations, whether it is an unofficial policy, believe that it is better to convert contracts from full-time to part-time agreements, because they impart flexibility in terms of providing both work opportunities to aged people and room for leveraging younger employees. However, this process may lead to disengagement and decreased commitment levels, while splitting benefits may create additional issues, such as the level of pay. Treating people with respect, given that they are still making a fair contribution to corporate operations, is essential for building a moral culture. Moreover, their experience may be quite important for keeping a well-optimized business, because they can eliminate risks and enhance practices that have proved to be efficient in the past, although this must not eliminate the need for fresh ideas and new approaches.

Career decline is inevitable without the existence of a strong set of rational policies on people management. Growth cannot be enforced. It must be followed by individual willingness for change, expansion, and positive maturation. At the same time, corporate policies must include promotion statements related to specific achievements, thus letting individuals have the opportunity to move from the bottom to the top level of the organizational hierarchy. This can be achieved through the development of advanced skills and knowledge and the establishment of a comprehensive corporate system that rewards those individuals who contribute the most, by implementing fair policies in the context of meritocracy.

Furthermore, it is difficult to forecast the future needs of a corporation in terms of skills, and complicated to forecast the future of the employees in terms of their capabilities as well. Hence, practitioners must develop strategies and policies that plan career paths that the corporation will need in the future, thus securing business sustainability into an ever-changing environment. Here, it is essential to incorporate employee voice strategies to achieve better efficiency, as individuals may have the capabilities needed to exploit any opportunities that are offered. Employees can perform a greater part in the decision-making process by being given the opportunity to enhance policies, discuss the issues that affect them through employee involvement, and contribute to the improvement of the corporation.

This strategy emphasizes mutual gains as both parties are satisfied about the creation of a fair work climate of development, sustainability, and growth. The opportunity to make suggestions and be consulted during decision making is a process that enables employee commitment and leads to an increase in corporate efficiency, as this reinforces employees’ sense of fairness and engenders greater trust in the organization (Rees, Alfes, and Gatenby 2013). Also, the right to veto a corporate decision is important, as well as the right to be well informed about agreements and policy terms. It is unethical to implement practices such as hiring people that you will manipulate for your own interests, without giving them an opportunity to develop their skills and positions. Neither is it ethical to want to be hired only to be part of a corporation with all its benefits and then create conflicts because you never actually wanted to work in such a corporate climate.

Hence, employee contribution must be secured, in an attempt to seek initiatives and handle potential conflicts at work. This process can be time consuming, so it is advisable to approach this by giving individuals enough time to respond to corporate proposals and receive meaningful material to consider. Time pressure can be a disastrous factor. Some individuals cannot deal with time management, deadlines, and processes that may affect other entities because they feel stressed under the pressure of heavy responsibilities. Undeniably, some individuals have a greater impact on corporate decisions than others, yet everyone must have an equal chance to express their willingness to act, such as an initiative.

People respond to conditions differently, owing to a variety of personality traits. For instance, talented individuals have the ability to develop themselves, are motivated, and are naturally curious. Some individuals possess strong emotional intelligence skills, enjoy new challenges and engagements, are confident, determined, have developed communicational skills, can manage stressful and demanding work environments, have advanced learning capabilities, and present creative problem-solving attributes, by adapting to new environmental trends and demands.

In contrast, other individuals need mentors because they want a supervisor to tell them what and how to do something, have less willingness to develop because they are not confident enough to overcome difficult situations, and could end up being a constant negative factor, by generating conflicts with others, in an attempt to feel recognizable and valuable. They are usually averse to change and are afraid of learning new things, because this process arouses feelings of fear and failure, forcing them to avoid such developments, or could end up behaving unethically in order to gain the attention of other individuals, even if this works to their detriment. Consequently, the corporate environment is influenced, shaped, and affected by some individuals, whereas others are followers. This is not a negative issue, because human differences demonstrate the development of such behavioral oscillations.

Concluding Remarks

People management would be tedious if individuals were the same. There are as many individual differences as there are individuals. Therefore, conducting a moral workforce plan is a complex procedure for each organization. A rational corporate policy could be to identify the core or cell of permanent employees who are essential to the ethical conduct of the corporation. In any case, when a practitioner analyzes corporate jobs, roles, and competencies needed to achieve organizational goals, moral awareness must be a key factor. Business ethics relies on equality, integrity, and promotion of logic over control. Practitioners must increase their capacity for flexible thinking but must not allow a dysfunctional culture to be created by unsatisfied individuals. Technological advancements could be used to achieve the best of workforce planning but must be part of a comprehensive decision-making procedure, including human sense. For instance, opportunities and guidance must be distributed equally among all corporate members, as a process that leads to the development of moral entity consideration all through the career cycle of individuals. Furthermore, employee contribution must be secured in the attempt to seek initiatives and handle potential conflicts at work.