Harm of efficiency oriented HRM practices on stakeholders: an ethical issue for sustainability

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore psychological, social and work related health aspects of harm imposed on stakeholders, such as employees, their families and communities, by organizations while using efficiency based human resource management (HRM) practices. Design/methodology/approach – The ethical issues of negative externality (NE) or harm of HRM practices are scrutinized using ethics of care for a stakeholders' perspective. Further, the conceptual framework of NE of HRM is used to analyse the psychological, social and work related health harm of one of the strategic HRM practices, work intensification, a widely used practice to improve the efficiency of employees. Findings – It is evident from this article that NE of work intensification has become the major contributor to the psychological, social, and work related health aspects of harm on the stakeholders, and they as third parties render the costs for managing this harm. Research limitations/implications – The harm indicators and the associated costs are drawn from published research that was not conducted for the purpose of identifying the harm of the NE of HRM practices. Hence, it is suggested that it would be useful to develop a tool to measure the harmful effects of HRM practices on the stakeholders. Practical implications – The analysis of NE of work intensification can help managers to be proactive in introducing sustainable HRM strategies so as to minimize the harms of NE of HRM practices. Originality/value – The framework of NE of HRM provides a new insight that overutilization of human resources for maximizing an organisation's profit has an unsustainable impact on society.