6. Laws, Ethics, and Policies

There are many laws, ethics, and policy concerns in the workplace but some of the ones that effect human resource development (HRD) professionals the most are electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace, whistleblowing policies, and intellectual property rights. HRD professionals can help develop communication materials and strategies to ensure all employees are aware of and understand electronic monitoring policies. They can also help facilitate understanding of whistleblowing policies and try to alleviate the need for such policies by providing ethics and legal training to ensure all employees understand that wrongdoing will not be tolerated. HRD scholars and professionals must develop ways to have a voice in the development of laws and policies that affect employee rights in the workplace so that both the employees and the employers benefit. The power struggle that exists between employees and employers has to be lessened so that productivity is the focus and not laws, ethics, and policy issues.