Ethics and spirituality in the workplace: The growing role of the business case in reforms

Abstract

Purpose

Draws attention to recent broad trends in UK employment regulation that refocus the emphasis in employment rights away from a primary concern with safeguarding collective rights toward a more differentiated approach privileging more individual concerns.

Design/methodology/approach

Seeks to explain the reasons and consequences of this development.

Findings

Argues that rights are defended on the basis of their ability to secure greater employee motivation and productivity.

Practical implications

Explains that this is a business-case defense rather than a requirement for social justice.

Social implications

Advances the view that modern Conservatives see society as made up of a broad range of actors and not reducible to state action.

Originality/value

Claims that the extension of the minimum period of employment required before an employer may be taken to tribunal to two years, together with a greatly increased fee required to bring a case, mean that cases are much more difficult to make.

Citation

Freeman, T., Kunter, A., Douglas, C. and Roper, I. (2015), "Ethics and spirituality in the workplace: The growing role of the business case in reforms", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 43-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-05-2015-0092