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BUSINESS ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT: HSBC GENDER PAY GAP

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BUSINESS ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT: HSBC GENDER PAY GAP
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Business ethics and responsible management: hsbc gender pay gap
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BUSINESS ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT

HSBC GENDER PAY GAP









INTRODUCTION

The business ethics is one of the important concerns in the business for the successful operation of a business for the long term and work as guidance in the business situation. The business ethics is the disciple that deals with bad or good, wrong, and right with moral obligation and duty. Ethics is also a code of conduct that guides an individual in dealing with the situation. This is related to social rules which influence the people in dealing honestly with all other people. In the report, the gender pay gap of HSBC is discussed with issues and recommendations with the use of the ethical theories.

PART 1

  1. ETHICAL DIMENSION OF THE ISSUES FROM THE CASE

As for the success of a business, ethics is one of the positive behaviors in which morals aspect and ethical responsibilities are included. As if business follow the all ethical rules and regulation then it also has many advantages for success, this also helps business to build positive images by avoiding the unethical business activity which is a gender pay gap of men and women working and their remuneration and wage gap. The report focuses on HSBC's ethical problem of the gender pay gap(Pozgar, 2019).

ETHICAL PROBLEMS

I
n the HSBC's organization, there are issues of men and the women's earnings in the UK which affect the reputations of the bank in the market. The gender pay gap is one of the rising concerns for equal opportunity, discrimination, as per the UK government there are fewer women as compared to men in leadership positions. In the HSBC 81% of the female staff is hired in lower-middle or lower quarter in top quarters and in upper-middle-class, there are only 30% of female employees. In the 2018 as per the UK women employees receive a bonus pay of almost 70% as lower than men. In the UK there seen a gender pay gap that includes 2.2% in median hourly and women 2.2% as compared to men. Women reflect 18.4% of less pay compared to men(Jackson, 2019).



BUSINESS ROLE IN SOCIETY

The business plays a very important role in becoming the socially responsible as its roles are not just to make a profit but also to give timely back to the community. This gives services and goods to customers, as they contribute to the local community by payment and with economic infrastructure to their suppliers like local taxes, shareholder, employees as they contribute in solving the social outcomes, they also are accountable to economic impact(Jackson, 2019).

The gender pay gap issues also impact and contribute to women in financial struggles and homelessness for the women those entering retirement. This issue also discourages the women from working in HSBC as in the business world this is old stereotypes that the men are still have their own rules in business world and women also cant occupy the leading positions. In the HSBC good progress on reducing the gender pay gap also not become good that violating the common concept of the CSR practices which is not implemented as there is very poor demonstrating unfair treatment and poor governance role of employees. The CSR policies were also taken out the self – interest which purely maximization of profit while wrapped the social reasonability policies(Pozgar, 2019).

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

The stakeholders are groups or individuals who can benefit from organizations or it can also be harmed.

The gender pay gap issue is affected by HSBC stakeholders are -

The potential Investors are likely to refrain from HSBC investing and the one those who know about the unethical pay practices in HSBC may withdraw their name from HSBC investors, the UK gender diversity also showed organization needs improvement in their gender diversity(Pozgar, 2019).

Customers the HSBC consumers are also focused on ethical behavior of business, the gender pay gap also lead to a loss in the revenue and negative publicity. The tangible steps are also taken by HSBC for addressing issues and also attract customers(de Wert and Dondorp, 2016).

Government the HSBC also should publish their yearly report as per government as they are accompanied by the narrative explaining of the company. This also releases the guide of the practical measures which help the organization in addressing the issues of the gender pay gap. In this HSBC also fail to submit the human and equity right commission that also does investigation in enforcement action in HSBC them(Hofmann, 2017).

Jobseeker also impacts pay equity of the company and engages employees, retain, ability to attract employees, as per the survey many of applicant also check gender pay gap of an organization before making decisions of work. In organization long term the HSBC also talent pool for reducing people interested this also affect applicant due to HSBC reputation and performance(de Wert and Dondorp, 2016).

The Employees are one of the important stakeholders and the lower women's wages also affect employees and contribute risk of poverty and pension contribution. In the organization, if pay practices of is favorable to the men it is unmotivated and make a female feel unfair about their job this also affects the productivity and profitability of the organization(Hofmann, 2017).

EXAMPLE

As per that the company average paid and financial sector the women are also paid 81.9 % as per every man earned in the 2018. In this year the UK showed the improvement that women received in then 2017, that is 81.6%. Then in the financial sector gender pay gap also reported worst in the market. So, the public sector companies also have more of the gender pay gap and their females are paid less compared to the male workers(Pozgar, 2019).









RECOMMENDATIONS

Some of the recommendation to the HSBC Company so that unethical practice can be avoided in business is –

  • The female employees should be given leadership development programmers and career planning by targeted training and coaching targeted mentoring for the female employees(Pozgar, 2019).

  • There should be very transparency in the rewarding process, pay, and promotion in these managers also making the promotion of female employees and give family-friendly benefits so a female can be appreciated.

  • HSBC should also appoint the diversity manager so, they can monitor the diversity and talent management in the organization for reducing the risk which is the basis on manager decision making as they are accountable and assessed(Hofmann, 2017).

  • The female employees should also encourage the work life balance for talent retaining female employees, so HSBC to make prioritize promoting and fostering the providing transparent, healthy work environment and also fair wage that gives the benefit of packages available for retaining and attracting workforces(Martinez-Martin and Kreitmair, 2018).



  1. ETHICAL THEORIES

In the organization ethical theory is applied so, that business ethical practices and its activities in the workplace. The 2 ethical theories which used in an organization so, business unethical practices that are avoided both negative and positive in the workplace. The 2 ethical theories are ethical care theory and utilitarianism(Martinez-Martin and Kreitmair, 2018).

UTILITARIAN THEORY

Utilitarianism is the theory developed by Mill and Bentham that rests and is based on the principle of action is the morally right which produces a great amount of the goods on the greatest amount of people. This theory emphasis on characteristics measures like certainty, richness, closeness, duration, intensity, and purity at the time of considering the utilitarian principle(Moon, and Nolan 2019).

As per the Utilitarianism theory perspective issue of the gender pay gap that is not right morally, as negative consequences on HSBC employee's majority, and also maximizes the happiness and well being of employees. As the productivity and happiness of employees get affected by right and wrong action of the organization(Moon, and Nolan 2019). The employee's feeling of unhappiness and the dissatisfaction affect the employees because of the gender pay gap(Berreby and Ganascia , 2017).

BENEFITS OF UTILITARIAN THEORY

The benefits of Utilitarianism theory is it is used in business as per specific circumstances and this is not concerned with the short term results. With help of the Utilitarianism theory, the solution is also found by reducing the issues of the gender pay gap in HSBC the assessment of consequences with any of action that is considered while addressing all issues of stakeholder and business. In this resource is being one of the financial and also HSBC female employee’s beneficiaries(Berreby and Ganascia , 2017).

LIMITATIONS OF UTILITARIAN THEORY

As per the Utilitarianism theory, the element which not considered on the majority of employees happiness and also affects employees overall experiences and many of this also creates the unrealistic society prospective and do not solve the future circumstances of the company(Kara, 2017).

THEORY OF JUSTICE

The theory of the justice presents an organizational normative approach that depends on how the society should be like as per original positions this is with reference to the economic, political, and social system. The justice also concurrent with fair treatment of the everybody as per certain situations and how fairly and equally all are performed(Jackson, 2019). This also developed two of an outline of theory as per sides of fairness -

Fair procedures – This is that each and every one of the employees is free for getting rewards as per their efforts.

Fair outcomes – In this consequence are distributed very justly as per merits and needs.

The HSBC job seekers have the right to protect, respect, and also facilitate their employees in unbiased recruitment, transparent, fair, and selection process. The theory of justice also states that action should be violated and impact on greater goods(Forcehimes, 2017).

BENEFITS

The benefits of the justice theory are it helps an organization in the context of a job application, employees, customers and help HSBC in reducing the problem of the gender pay gap and also a risk of the reverse discrimination in which women are given equal treatment and given proper experiences and training so, female employees should also be given equal pay compared to male employees(Kara, 2017).

RECOMMENDATIONS

In the HSBC organization both the theory discussed above can be applied so that they can resolve the issues of gender pay equity and also increase the profitability and performance of the organization with moral practice and ethics. To the female employees, flexibility could also be provided based on the above discussed theory by improving their innovativeness and skills. This also helps an organization to treat male and female employees equally. This also helps in improving the skills of problem-solving so; performance can be increased for female workers(Gates-White and Buckley, 2017).



REFERENCES

Berreby, F., and Ganascia, J.G., 2017, May. A declarative modular framework for representing and applying ethical principles. In 16th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems.

Cox, D.J., 2020. Descriptive and normative ethical behavior appear to be functionally distinct. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Lee, W.W., 2020. Ethical Computing for Data Protection. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 11(1), pp.43-58.

Martinez-Martin, N. and Kreitmair, K., 2018. Ethical issues for direct-to-consumer digital psychotherapy apps: addressing accountability, data protection, and consent. JMIR mental health, 5(2), p.e32.

HSBC (2019) UK Gender Pay Gap Report Available at: https://www.hsbc.com/our-approach/esg-information (Accessed at: 28 Dec 2020)

HSBC (2020) About Us Available at: https://www.about.hsbc.co.in/ (Accessed at: 28 Dec 2020)

Jackson, B.L., 2019. Ethical principles in the modern world. LOGOS, UNIVERSALITY, MENTALITY, EDUCATION, NOVELTY. Section Social Sciences, 8(2), pp.63-75.

O’Brien, J.J., 2019. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR ETHICAL PRACTICE. Ethical and Legal Issues in Student Affairs and Higher Education, (5), p.8.

Pozgar, G.D., 2019. Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Rodger, D. and Blackshaw, B., 2017. An introduction to ethical theory for healthcare assistants. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 11(11), pp.556-561.


PART 2

In this part concept of integrity, compliance and the ethical leadership management also discussed of ethical leaders for performing the ethical work in the effective ways. In this the personal reflection and the ethical leadership management also discussed(O’Brien, 2019)

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT

The leadership is a process by which other activities are influences by achievement and goal setting. The leadership styles also showed as –





Figure 2 – Forms of the leadership style

Sources-( O’Brien, 2019)

The ethical leadership theory also outlines the personal characteristics of the person that contribute to the effective leadership. Ethical leadership also encourages and shows the standardized behavior in collaboration, communication, the process of decision making, actions. Two of the approaches also discussed for managing the ethical culture such as cultural learning and culture change which unfold two of the ethical leadership method. The leader's role as per culture change is articulating the organization's standards and values which aspires and also motivate and inspire the employees by following their leads. In this ethical leadership also stands for two of elements the one is a moral person that includes individual traits like integrity and honesty and the other is a moral manager that show the organization concern for values and ethics and develop the principle which guides the action of employees. As per the perspective of cultural learning, the ethical leader is more preoccupied with the free moral agents and fostering the employee’s autonomy(Waymack, 2016).




















Figure – Contrasting analysis of the unethical business conduct

Sources -(Dignum, 2019).



The ethical leadership is the positive organizational culture that stimulates the employee’s tendency and satisfaction, by putting in the extra effort. Then the second idea is of supportive organizational culture that cultivates the sound ethical leadership. In the organization's top level of management, they are tolerant of unethical culture, and the ethical leader that also do wrong practices unequal pay between female and the male employees and their reward system which effect the organization goodwill and the productivity(Dignum, 2019).

Ethical leadership management impact is –

Individual well-being – The ethical leader's important responsibility is marinating the workplace positive atmosphere so that it helps an organization to enhances the coordination and the level of cooperation in the workplace so that employees feel motivated all times and also give their best in work productivity and towards achieving the goals of an organization. All the employees get positive influences if the atmosphere of the workplace is good and healthy(Vettical, 2018).

The energy of the team – In this ethical leader involves the code of conduct and collaboration with the team as this helps to create a good bond with employees and help in understanding them much more by boosting their existing morel of employees. As when employees of an organization work as a team this helps in achieving success and also enhancing the organization's overall performance(Lee, 2020).

The organization's health – The ethical leader also takes care of the employee's positive attitudes and also improves an organization's overall health and performance. The employee's productivity also gets increased as per the working environment by giving equal treatment and respect to each other by sharing their ideas and opinions with each other to understand each other more and better. The level of the respect and mutual trust also get build among the employees in an organization as they are from the various age, gender, backgrounds this also help an organization in achieving the company overall goals and objective to gain a good brand image of the organization(Vettical, 2018).

INTEGRITY AND COMPLIANCE

The integrity is one of the important traits of the ethical leader that plays a very important role in taking care of the ethical code of conduct that is followed and the place of the organization. Integrity concept is termed as seeking consistency and sound judgment as to value and moral principle in action and thought. In integrity, the rules and standards are set for the organization to bring the sound business uniformity and also management in an organization. For ensuring the business ethical management organization should apply an approach of compliance that prevents, foresees, punishes, and identifies violations as per the law. In the compliance workers and members of an organization are also forced for taking care of the ethical code of conduct and also behave very ethically so, that conflict can be avoided and organization misunderstanding can get cleared so, employees can lead their operation in a smooth manner(Cox, 2020).