RMIP
Ethics in Business Research
Overview
• Cases which transgress ethical principles
• Different stances on ethics in business research
• The significance and operation of four areas in which ethical
concerns particularly arise
• Some of the difficulties associated with ethical decisionmaking
• The political context of business research and the ethical
concerns this raises
Ethical issues
• How should we treat the people on whom we conduct
research?
• Are there activities in which we should – or should not –
engage in our relations with those people?
Ethical stances
• Universalism
o Absolute rules about un/acceptable conduct
• Situation ethics
o Case-by-case assessment
o Does the end justify the means?
• Ethical transgression is pervasive
o Virtually all research involves some ethically
questionable practices
Ethical Principles
Based on Diener and Chandall (1978) there are four main aspects to be considered:
• whether there is harm to participants;
• whether there is a lack of informed consent;
• whether there is an invasion of privacy;
• whether deception is involved.
Harm to participants
• Potential harm to participants:
• Physical
• Damage to self-esteem
• Damage to career prospects
• Revelation of their identity/ breach of confidentiality
• Stress
Informed Consent
• Research participants must know that they are participating in a
research study and what the research process is, but implementing
this principle is easier said than done.
• It is extremely difficult to present prospective participants with
absolutely all the information that might be required to make an
informed decision about their involvement.
• In ethnographic research, the researcher is likely to come into
contact with a wide spectrum of people, and ensuring that
absolutely everyone has the opportunity for informed consent is
not practicable, because it would be extremely disruptive in
everyday contexts.
Invasion of privacy
• Privacy is very much linked to the notion of informed consent.
• The research participant does not revoke the right to privacy entirely by
providing informed consent.
• Covert methods are usually deemed to be violations of the privacy
principle.
• The issue of privacy is invariably linked to issues of anonymity and
confidentiality in the research process.
• Researchers may be asked to sign confidentiality agreements.
Deception
• Deception usually means we present our research as something other than it is,
so that participants will respond more naturally.
• Deception means not telling the whole truth, while not actually telling a lie.
• We must be vigilant in keeping deception to a minimum and, when it is
necessary for the research, mitigate its degree and effects as much as possible.
• Apart from moral objections to deception, research participants can become
wary of being fooled or tricked into providing data.
• This can have potential legal implications.
So why should there be a problem?
• Unfortunately, a lot of writers about ethics in business
differ about what is and is not ethically acceptable.
•The same issues arise persistently.
• Certain research methods have a bad name because they
are identified with a few extreme cases.
•The real problem is that the potential to behave
unethically in research is constant and it does not just
depend on particular situations or methods.
Legal considerations
The 1998 Data Protection Act states that personal data must be:
• obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purpose and not
further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or
those purposes;
• adequate, relevant, and not excessive in relation to the purpose or
purposes for which they are processed;
• not kept longer than necessary.
Copyright is an intellectual property right, extending to interviews – in which the
interviewee keeps the copyright to the spoken words. Permission is needed from
the interviewee in order to share these data.
Regulation (EU) 2016/679
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-eu_en
Difficulties of ethical decision-making
• The boundary between ethical and unethical practices is
not precise.
• The potential for deception/lack of informed consent
pervades most social research.
• There is insufficient guidance on marginal areas of
research (but be familiar with the existing guidelines).
• Internet-based research provides new ethical dilemmas,
for which we are still debating solutions.
Key Points
• Focus mainly on relations between researchers and research participants.
Other ethical issues can arise in the course of business research.
• While the codes and guidelines of professional associations provide some
guidance, they often leave the door open for some autonomy with regard
to ethical issues.
• The main areas of ethical concern relate to: harm to participants; lack of
informed consent; invasion of privacy; and deception.
• Covert observation and certain notorious studies have been particular
focuses of concern.
• The boundaries between ethical and unethical practices are not clear cut;
writers on social research ethics have adopted several different stances in
relation to the issue.