Dismissal policies: Ethical boundaries and legal frame

Abstract

The present study argues the importance of ethical principles in human resource management systems, especially in decision making and treatment of employees during involuntary dismissals in reference to the Greek legal deregulations and local business practice. The fundamental conceptual ethical theories, Kantianism and Utilitarianism are presented. The role of HR Professionals, as well as Direct Managers during Dismissals is argued and a fair decision making and process frame for ad-hoc dismissals and redundancy conduct is developed. The introduction of a Termination of Employment Request (TER), as a necessary HR tool to preserve ethical conduct of ad-hoc dismissals is further applied in a real business case and comparative analysis is presented to prove that there is an Organization’s social responsibility to establish HR Policies that protect the psychological contract more than legal regulations.