TO WHAT EXTENT CAN HUMAN RESOUCE PROFESSIONALS ENCOURAGE AN ETHICAL CULTURE IN THIER FINANCIAL ORGANISATION IN THE UK

Finance is a powerful industry. Commodities that support developing economies are priced through financial trades. Markets that hold pension funds rise and fall. Carlyle, an English political commentator of the 18thcentury stated that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It is well known that Power without responsibility could turn into tyranny, which is why regulation is needed to control the power monster. Ethical issues in the financial services sector are of concern to everyone, even those outside the industry, as we are all directly or indirectly consumers of either financial services, or products and services which rely on the financial industry for support. The industry is massive and it comprises various institutional segments such as banks, securities firms, mutual fund organizations, and investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds,mortgage lenders— any many others in the financial arena. Ethical issues finance professionals face today have not changed much and are very similar to those faced by financial advisers, fund managers and analysts working in the financial markets decades, or even centuries ago. Looking closely at the history of ethics in financial markets, this profession has indicated that history does repeat itself. Hence financial organisations have realised the importance of establishing an ethical culture in the organisation. Studying the role of the Human Resource professionals in promoting ethics is an emerging research topic due to the heavy influence that Strategic human resource practices are thought to have on employees. Human resource professionals are now seen as business partner’s essential for transforming traditional human resource management. As an illustrative example of the utility of this practice, a pragmatic study was conducted on the opinions of a wide range of human resource professionals in the United Kingdom on their attitude on ethical culture in the financial industry and how to cultivate it. Schein’s Model on organisation culture being segregated into three different levels has been combined with strategic human resource practice to formulate a framework for HR professionals to influence culture. Finally, a thorough analysis of the extent to which Human resource professionals can promote an ethical culture in the financial industry has been performed. This specifically focuses on a few HR practices like training, hiring, compensation, mentoring, creating organisation values, maintaining organisation ethical polices, and evaluating and establishing role models. This directly influences employee behaviour and creates the desired impact on the financial organisation's culture. Though unethical behaviour cannot completely be eradicated from the system this paper investigates the extent to which these practices can influence ethical culture in the finance industry