Is HRM Missing in Action? A Case Study Approach to Sexual Harassment in Mining

ABSTRACT In focusing on the contextual aspects of human resource management (HRM), this special issue provides the opportunity to explore HRM in a more nuanced and layered way, as a lived experience that is often overlooked in the academic field of HRM. The paper examines the moral role and responsibility of HRM within organisations. Traditionally, the role of HRM has been on balancing the expectations of the organisation and the well‐being of the employee. However, with the strategic shift of HRM to a more managerialist or strategic partner focus, this has created a subtle but important divergence in how the organisation balances these issues, through its principles, policies and practices. We argue that this shift has the potential to create a lack of checks and balances in the system that becomes apparent when issues or incidents are not addressed but gain momentum due to a lack of (HRM) safeguards. We have titled this ‘HRM missing in action’ as a term exposing HR's lack of input into encouraging management to act in the best interests of all stakeholders and stop negating the responsibility to be the moral compass of the organisation. Using the taxonomy of rhetoric and deceit as a frame, we examine the contemporary issue of sexual harassment in the mining industry. We identify that there is a clear argument to be made that at times HRM is missing in its responsibilities to support employees.