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The transformation of the welfare and personnel officer into the human resource manager has left unresolved tensions between the 'soft' and 'hard' faces of Human Resource Management (HRM). These tensions have an ethical dimension. In particular, they raise questions about the coexistence of the values of efficiency and fairness and, ultimately, the ethical values that define HRM as a profession. The ethical management of human resources is complex and yet the ethical dimensions of the strategic HRM paradigm and the role of HRM in operationalising ethics in the workplace have received little attention in the literature. This paper seeks to address that gap. Two key recommendations are that ethical conventions be fully addressed by the HRM profession and that ethics be integrated into the strategic HRM process.