Justice in the workplace? : Normative ethics and the critique of human resource management

This paper is concerned with recent attempts to appropriate normative ethics as a medium for engaging critically with the practice and theory of human resource management (HRM). Focusing particularly on arguments for justice and rights in the workplace, the limits of foundationalist critiques of HRM are explored. The discussion suggests a future direction for the critical study of HRM in the present economic and political conjuncture. Critical scholars of HRM are invited to give further consideration to their aims and objectives and the manner of their intervention in current debates, in a discussion which highlights the importance of politically and rhetorically sensitised management scholarship.