Ethics and Performance Management (PM) Structures: Case Study of Midwestern Mining Company’s Previous and Future PM Structure

Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) practices within an organization can be viewed from an ethical perspective. This chapter will begin by discussing the connection of ethics with HRM, HRD, and performance management (PM). It will introduce both a micro- and macro-ethical perspective. It will then consider a specific case of the Midwestern Mining Company (pseudonym), a leading producer of minerals in North America, within those perspectives. In order to create an ethical performance management (PM) structure, the HRM/HRD function within the company had to look at the following: goals of PM, main issues of their current structure, principles, and potential type of PM structures to be adopted. Several issues arose with the previous structure. One of these issues has to do with the lack of attention to ethics. Then there will be a description of the practices used in its revised PM system. In addition, this work will also examine the related issues of corporate sustainability and the organization’s code of conduct. Lastly, implications for future research are presented.