Research a current ethical issue affecting a selected business
Current ethical issues in by rebecca bernstein on november 29, 2016 / posted in ss ethics can be defined as “the application of ethical values to business behavior,” explains the institute of business ethics. To understand how to effectively implement good ethical practices within organizations, managers and employees can familiarize themselves with the types of ethical issues facing businesses tanding ethical issues in gh the concept of corporate social responsibility (csr) is now commonplace, it wasn’t always so, according to an article in the university of pennsylvania’s online research and business analysis journal. A study done by cone communications found that 91 percent of global consumers expect companies to operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. Ninety percent also said they would boycott a company if they learned of irresponsible or deceptive business s these potential impacts, there are other valuable reasons for companies to follow good business ethics. They include the ability to attract talent and limiting financial liability within their t ethical issues in following are five issues currently facing businesses in the ethical networking sites are one of the most commonly used features of the internet. Although it is nearly impossible to curb their use, many issues can arise from employees having access to websites such as facebook and twitter. Companies can address their concerns by creating policies that outline appropriate social media use and expectations for how these sites can be used professionally to meet their llance and the rapid rise of surveillance technology, businesses face the challenge of balancing individual employee privacy with protecting the health of their companies. To make their companies as transparent as possible, leaders can emphasize the practice in all facets of their operations including employee conduct, internal culture and corporate gh many companies attempt to address issues of child labor, violations still persist. This is particularly true in large companies where leadership is far removed from manufacturing and other ground-level operations, reports harvard business review. All too often businesses practice “willful ignorance,” only fixing issues when they arise instead of taking proactive approaches. In james brusseau’s book the business ethics workshop, he explains that companies seeking answers to this dilemma would do well to explore alternative energy generation, participate in cost-benefit analysis studies on environmental protection and express corporate responsibility to both their partners and the r study of business tanding ethical concerns is a key element of running a successful, trustworthy enterprise. Individuals seeking to gain further knowledge about balancing these complex issues can do so by earning their online business degree at shorter university. Options include the online associate’s degree in business, online bachelor’s degree in business and online mba. Shorter university offers small class sizes and experienced instructors, providing students with the support they need to forge ahead in their l issues in l issues in marketing arise from the conflicts and lack of agreement on particular issues. Parties involved in marketing transactions have a set of expectations about how the business relationships will take shape and how various transactions need to be conducted. Each marketing concept has its own ethical issues, which we will discuss in this ng ethical problems in market research has experienced a resurgence with the widespread use of the internet and the popularity of social networking. It is easier than ever before for companies to connect directly with customers and collect individual information that goes into a computer database to be matched with other pieces of data collected during unrelated way a company conducts its market research these days can have serious ethical repercussions, affecting the lives of consumers in ways that have yet to be fully understood. Further, companies can be faced with a public backlash if their market research practices are perceived as ng the market cal practices in marketing can result in grouping the audience into various segments. Selective marketing may be used to discourage the demand arising from these so-called undesirable market segments or to disenfranchise them es of unethical market exclusion may include the industry attitudes towards the gay, ethnic minority, and plus-size in advertising and the early days of existence of corporations, especially during 1940s and 1950s, tobacco was advertised as a substance that promotes health. Of late, an advertiser who does not meet the ethical standards is considered an offender against morality by the ity is a major point of discussion when ethical issues in advertising content are considered. Violence is also an important ethical issue in advertising, especially where children should not be affected by the select types of advertising may strongly offend some groups of people even when they are of strong interest to others. Electronic spam and telemarketing also push the limits of ethical standards and legality in a strong e − shills and astroturfers are the best examples of ways for delivering a marketing message under the guise of independent product reviews and endorsements, or creating supposedly independent watchdog or review organizations. It is a non-sustainable business model that promises the participants payment or services, mainly for enrolling other people into the scheme; it does not supply any real investment or sell products or services to the business practice demands the initial investor or the "captain" to enroll other people for a fee to them who again will further enroll more people in order to be paid by the are various forms of unethical business practices related to pricing the products and rigging is a type of fraud in which a commercial contract is promised to one party, however, for the sake of appearance several other parties also present a ory pricing is the practice of sale of a product or service at a negligible price, intending to throw competitors out of the market, or to create barriers to entry. Pmcid: pmc4263394ethical challenges of researchers in qualitative studies: the necessity to develop a specific guidelinemahnaz sanjari,1 fatemeh bahramnezhad,1 fatemeh khoshnava fomani,1 mahnaz shoghi,2 and mohammad ali cheraghi31nursing phd candidate, school of nursing and midwifery, tehran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran2assistant professor, school of nursing and midwifery, iran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran3associate professor, school of nursing and midwifery, tehran university of medical sciences, tehran, ponding author: mohammad ali cheraghi, address: school of nursing and midwifery, tehran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran. Which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited article has been cited by other articles in ctconsidering the nature of qualitative studies, the interaction between researchers and participants can be ethically challenging for the former, as they are personally involved in different stages of the study. The present paper aimed to discuss the necessity to develop explicit guidelines for conducting qualitative studies with regard to the researchers’ role. For this purpose, a literature review was carried out in domestic and international databases by related care providers who carry out qualitative research have an immense responsibility. As there is no statistical analysis in qualitative studies, the researcher has to both evaluate what he or she observes and to interpret it. Providing researchers with the necessary skills and applying stringent supervision can lead to better extraction of reliable information from qualitative studies. This article presents a debate in order to illustrate how researchers could cover the ethical challenges of qualitative studies and provide applicable and trustworthy chers face ethical challenges in all stages of the study, from designing to reporting.
These include anonymity, confidentiality, informed consent, researchers’ potential impact on the participants and vice versa. It seems of paramount importance that health care providers, educators and clinicians be well informed of all the different aspects of their roles when acting as qualitative researchers. Hence, these adroit roles need to be well defined, and the use of practical guidelines and protocols in all stages of qualitative studies should be ds: qualitative research, ethical challenges, researcher’s role, guidelineintroductionin the recent millennium, the constant trend of change in the demands of the community as well as transforming the trend of knowledge production has highlighted the necessity for researchers to adopt a more comprehensive approach. Increasingly, many academic disciplines are utilizing qualitative research (qr) as the qualitative method investigating the why and how of the process of a developed concept (1, 2). Qualitative research is sometimes defined as interpretive research, and as interpretations can be incorrect or biased, the findings may be controversial (3). However, qualitative research is not only useful as the first stage of quantitative research, but can also play a key role in ‘validating’ it or in providing a different viewpoint on the same social phenomena (4). Given that the researcher is considered to be the research instrument, and the plan of inquiry needs to be developed and altered as the study progresses, a qualitative researcher cannot depend upon traditional approaches to address certain concerns such as bias and credibility. Therefore, learning from a series of mistakes is often considered an integral part of qualitative research (5, 6). This study, a literature review was carried out in international electronic databases including pubmed, web of sciences, cumulative index to nursing and allied health literature (cinahl), scopus, ebsco, embase and science direct without any time limitation, using the search terms “qualitative research”, “researchers’ role”, “ethical challenges” and “ethical guidelines”. These keywords were also searched on national electronic databases including scientific information database (sid), iran medex and medical articles library (medlib) using the same s of the present article endeavor to shine a light on the ethical issues affecting researchers and propose strategies to face the ethical challenges of qualitative studies, so as to provide applicable and trustworthy outcomes. This could be the basis for the formulation of specific ethical guidelines in this overview on qualitative research in health careup to the 1970s, qualitative research was solely employed by anthropologists and sociologists. Research has been conducted in the field of nursing in order to identify, describe and explain related concepts, experiences and phenomena and to develop the nursing knowledge. Since 1970, qualitative research has been performed to achieve the concepts of patient care and other main perceptions in the nursing profession. Of researchers in qualitative studiesin the case of nurses who perform qualitative research, ethical issues are raised when the nurse-patient relationship in the research area leads to some degree of therapeutic communication for the participants (9). Thus, nurse researchers must be aware of the impact of the questioning on the participants, and in order to decrease such harmful effects on human subjects, the “reflexive approach” is recommended (10). In the qr procedure the researcher is involved in all stages of the study from defining a concept to design, interview, transcription, analysis, verification and reporting the concepts and themes. Therefore, whenever instruments are involved in qualitative research, a human being will be an integral part of the process (12). Is argued that humans have increasingly become the “instrument of choice” for naturalistic research due to certain characteristics: they are highly responsive to environmental stimuli, have the ability to interact with the situation, pull together different pieces of information at multiple levels simultaneously, and perceive situations holistically; moreover, they are able to process findings the instant they become available, can present immediate feedback, and feel unusual responses. Nevertheless, researchers need to improve the abilities that make them appropriate human instruments and consequently, their interpersonal skills are of major importance in natural settings and study processes (table 1) (13, 14). 1researcher’s role in qualitative methods at a glanceethical challenges in qualitative studies:the researcher-participant relationshipthe relationship and intimacy that is established between the researchers and participants in qualitative studies can raise a range of different ethical concerns, and qualitative researchers face dilemmas such as respect for privacy, establishment of honest and open interactions, and avoiding misrepresentations (19). Ethically challenging situations may emerge if researchers have to deal with contradicting issues and choose between different methodological strategies in conflict arises. In such cases, disagreements among different components such as participants, researchers, researchers’ discipline, the funding body and the society may be inevitable (20, 21). Some important ethical concerns that should be taken into account while carrying out qualitative research are: anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent (22). To richards and schwartz’ findings (22), the term ‘confidentiality’ conveys different meanings for health care practitioners and researchers. For researchers, however, the duty of confidentiality is less clear and involves elaboration of the form of outcome that might be expected from the study (22, 23). Researcher must endeavor to minimize the possibility of intrusion into the autonomy of study participants by all means. When highly sensitive issues are concerned, children and other vulnerable individuals should have access to an advocate who is present during initial phases of the study, and ideally, during data gathering sessions. It is sometimes even necessary that the researcher clarify in writing which persons can have access to the initial data and how the data might be used (24, 25). Consent has been recognized as an integral part of ethics in research carried out in different fields. For qualitative researchers, it is of the utmost importance to specify in advance which data will be collected and how they are to be used (26).
The principle of informed consent stresses the researcher’s responsibility to completely inform participants of different aspects of the research in comprehensible language. Clarifications need to include the following issues: the nature of the study, the participants’ potential role, the identity of the researcher and the financing body, the objective of the research, and how the results will be published and used (27). Many people consider it necessary to participate in research that their peers, community and/or society may benefit from. Therefore, qualitative health researchers need to clarify that the research they carry out will benefit science and can contribute to the improvement of health policy (5). The principle of ‘no harm’ to participants ought to be considered by researchers, who should be aware of the potential harms that might be inflicted upon study subjects. Researchers have the responsibility of protecting all participants in a study from potentially harmful consequences that might affect them as a result of their participation. It is getting increasingly common for research ethics committees to seek documented proof of consent in a written, signed, and ideally, witnessed form. Researchers can only do their best to protect their respondent’s identity and hold the information strictly confidential as there would be no guarantee for it otherwise (29). Therefore, researchers should seriously consider the potential impact they may have on the participants and vice versa, and details of such interactions should be clearly mentioned in research proposals (23). Overall, the role of the researcher as (a) stranger, (b) visitor, (c) initiator, (d) insider-expert or other should be well defined and explained (3). As brenner quoted kvale state that, preparing an ethical protocol can cover issues in a qualitative research project from planning through reporting (30). Gathering and data analysisin qualitative research, data are collected with a focus on multifaceted interviews and narratives to produce a description of the experiences. The researchers, therefore, play the role of a mediator between the experiences of the respondents and the community of concerned people (28, 31). The post-interview comment sheet could assist the researcher to note the feelings of informants, as well as interpretations and comments that occurred during the interview (32). In health care research, the problem may be even more exaggerated as the researcher is sometimes the health provider as well (33). When a researcher aims to study the culture of certain people, living amongst them is inevitable. This method of collecting data is a subject of debate from an ethical point of view. Physical presence of the researchers within the culture requires them to be responsible for their role and potential consequences on the field. Researchers can benefit from supervision sessions directed at learning, mentoring and skill development, all of which can foster their ability to carry out research without risking their health. Adequate professional supervision (which may be outside of the university) can be of service to researchers in dealing with the potential stress associated with the study (35 – 37). These steps include participant observation, ethnographic record, descriptive observation, taxonomic analysis, selected observation, componential analysis, discovering the cultural theme, cultural inventory, and finally writing ethnography (38, 39). Should always be aware of the precise reason for involvement in a study in order to prevent undesirable personal issues. Interviewers should be properly scheduled to provide the researcher with sufficient recovery time and reduce the risk of emotional exhaustion, while allowing ample time for analysis of the objective and emotional aspects of the research. It is also necessary for the researcher to be familiar with signs of extreme fatigue and be prepared to take necessary measures before too much harm is done (40 – 42). It is argued that qualitative research that deals with sensitive topics in depth can pose emotional and other risks to both participants and researchers. Clear protocols for dealing with distress should be in place so that both parties involved in research can use them if necessary. It is not usually easy to predict what topics are likely to lead to distress, and researchers should therefore receive sufficient training in predicting traumatic tive measures for researchers who carry out sensitive qualitative studies should include official arrangements for a peer support program consisting of a list of researchers who are involved, or a constellation of researcher support activities aiming at improving psychological fitness in the form of a professional confidence building module. Other such measures include offering adequate supervision to provide opportunities for self-development and self-care, and facilitating the process of self-reflection and gies for emotional distancing need to be considered and adopted if the research topic or participants have the potential to be emotionally challenging. Measures must also be taken so that levels of self-disclosure, objective displays of emotion during the interviews, and strategies to end the relationships are well defined and of the most prominent tasks of qualitative researchers is to minimize the flaws in observation and endeavor to gain truthful knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary for researchers to continuously update their investigation skills in terms of methodology and find novel techniques to better carry out studies in the field of health and explained before, qualitative research is carried out in natural settings, which requires researchers to work in close collaboration with other members of the team and under direct supervision to discuss and resolve issues as they arise.
Therefore, development of practical strategies and communicating them to researchers can be of great benefit and assist them in conducting more perceptive qualitative studies. It is noteworthy that such research should be directed towards making a difference in people’s lives, improving care delivery in different settings and at all levels, and providing a framework for health sciences without any ethical a result of the extensive body of research in the field of medical sciences, patients comprise a large proportion of the public who are frequently subjects of studies. Research ethics committees are formed to provide independent advice to participants, researchers, funders/sponsors and healthcare organizations on the extent to which research proposals comply with universally endorsed ethical the history of social and medical science, there have been a few research studies that seriously injured people, and many more in which their welfare was not sufficiently protected. To return to the matter of privacy, the researcher should not rely solely on the informant to identify possible intrusion, but needs to work at anticipating it in advance. Confidentiality does not necessarily preclude intrusion, as anonymity by itself is not enough to protect a person’s privacy or prevent disclosure of personal issues. Investigators should refrain from soliciting private information that is not closely related to the research ering the aforementioned challenges, it is recommended to conduct further research in order to provide meticulous and explicit ethical protocols, guidelines and codes with respect to qualitative ledgmentsthe authors would like to offer special thanks to dr. The role of the researcher in the qualitative research process: a potential barrier to archiving qualitative data. Conflicting notions of research ethics: the mutually challenging traditions of social scientists and medical researchers. Research on difficult family topics: helping new and experienced researchers cope with research on loss. Being in, being out, being with: affect and the role of the qualitative researcher in loss and grief research. See our privacy policy and user agreement for ch methodology ethical issues in research an this document? Related slideshares at ch methodology ethical issues in research an hed on sep 2, you sure you want message goes e engineer at vag polytech private polytech private issue in you sure you want message goes you sure you want message goes sity of sity of t at college of at catholic ch methodology ethical issues in research an fy and explain any 6 ethical considerations in research. Discuss the possible consequences of violating research ethicsintroductionethics refers to moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of an individual orgroup. Researchers have responsibilities to their profession, clients, and respondents, andmust adhere to high ethical standards to ensure that both the function and the information arenot brought into disrepute. Chicago, illinois) hasinstituted a code of ethics that serves as a guideline for marketing ethical decisions. Thecouncil of american survey research organization (casro) has also established a detailedcode of marketing research ethics to which its members recent years ethical considerations across the research community have come to theforefront. There has also beenenhanced concern for responsible behaviour within the workplace many large organisationsare expressing a desire for higher ethical standards in any research project and in the waybusiness is done. This increased concern for accountability in these spheres has led to a highdemand for good ethics where it comes to any research as well as access to and themanagement of information. This current reconsideration of research ethics matches acontemporary mood in both the public and private sector and is helping to enhanceresponsible tion of terms: research? Goodwill- this is the goodwill of the individual respondents for their willingness to volunteer personal information on their awareness, attitudes and behaviours trust- decision makers trust researchers to provide accurate information professionalism and confidentialitythis paper discusses the importance of ethics in research, ethical considerations researchersmust observe and the consequences of violating them. Research must be conducted in a safeand ethical paper discusses six ethical considerations in research and the consequences of violatingthem. The author feels that when carrying out research it is extremely important that theresearch is conducted in a safe and ethical manner. Researchers must ensure that the rightsof the research subjects are not violated in any way. All researchers have good intentions, but if they are not careful, their studies can place individuals in situations that involve risk" (gall: 1996). Data collection, and analysis, subject selection, research procedure, credibility of the researcher and the worth of the study are all ethical issues that those wishing to perform a study face. Often researchers are the victims of poor planning or inexperience and their subjects suffer for it. Informed consenta researcher should have the permission of the people who they are studying to conductresearch involving them. When carrying out a research, one should be sure they are not taking age of easy-to-access groups of people (such as children at a day-care) simplybecause they are easy to ethical conduct suggests that it is the duty of researchers to preserve and protect theprivacy, dignity, well-being and freedom of research participants. This means explaining topotential participants the purpose and nature of the research so they can freely choosewhether or not to become involved. Such explanations include warning of possible harm andproviding explicit opportunities to refuse to participate and to terminate at any the research involves students and minors, permission should be obtained from theparents and guardians.
Parents orguardians shall have the right to withdraw their children from the research project at any all types of research require permission or informed consent however—for example, if oneis interested in analysing something that is available publicly (such as in the case ofcommercials, public message boards, etc. Invasion of privacy and confidentialityin the case of marketing research, many consumers feel positively about it and believe that itserves a useful purpose. Some actually enjoy being interviewed and giving their r, others strongly resent or even mistrust marketing research. A few consumers fearthat researchers might use sophisticated techniques to probe their deepest feelings and thenuse this knowledge to manipulate their buying. Respondents may have been taken in by previous research surveys that actually turnedout to be attempts to sell them something. Still other consumers confuse legitimate marketingresearch studies with telemarketing efforts and say ‗no‘ before the interviewer can even , however simply resent the intrusion into their private opinions and perceptions. Increasing customer resentment has become a major problem for theresearch business that deals with respondents‘ information has to take privacy issues researchers view privacy as way to gain competitive advantage as something that leadsconsumers to choose one company over another. The best approach is for researchers to askonly for the information they need, to use it responsibly to provide value, and to avoid sharinginformation without customers‘ types of research, such as surveys or observations, should be conducted under theassumption that you will keep your findings anonymous. A researcher must let the subjects know whether theresearch results will be anonymous or researcher must agree not to reveal the identity of the participant to anyone other thanthe researcher and his staff who have access to the dents are more willing to express their views and opinions if they know that theinformation is going to be used in a confidential manner (i. The participation will not result inthe respondent becoming subject to sales calls, political lobbying or fund raising the identity ofindividuals from whom information is obtained in the course of the research project shall bekept strictly confidential. At the conclusion of the project, any information that reveals theidentity of individuals who were subjects of research shall be destroyed unless the individual ned has consented in writing to its inclusion beforehand. Deception is allowable when the benefits outweigh the occurs when researchers present their research as something other than what it ion should be minimized and when necessary, the degree and effects must bemitigated as much as possible. To the extent that concealment or deception is necessary, theresearcher must provide a full and accurate explanation to participants at the conclusion of thestudy, including counselling, if appropriate. An example is when a researcher pretends to bewho they are not in order to study a certain class of method can also result in a serious invasion of privacy and the researcher obtainsinformation they would probably never have known. The researcher should take the responsibility to protect thesubjects from whatever harm which might befall them e. The researcher must put in place measures to ensure data is protected fromunauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction of or, s must not be falsified. What was observed or what the researcher was told must bereported in an honest and accurate manner. Affiliation and conflicts of interestsethical implications arise when research is finally underwritten by a source that has a vestedinterest in the results. Research studies can be powerfulpersuasion tools; companies often use study results as claims in their advertising andpromotion. Today, however, many research studies appear to be little more than vehicles forpromoting the sponsor‘s products. In fact, in some cases, the research surveys appear to havebeen designed just to produce the desired results. Subtle manipulations of the study‘s sampleor the choice or wording of questions can greatly affect the conclusions some cases, so-called independent research studies are actually paid for by companies withan interest in their desired outcome. Small changes in the study samples or in how results areinterpreted can subtly affect the direction of the izing that surveys can be abused, several associations have developed codes ofresearch ethics and standards of conduct. However, in as much as legislation is put in place,unethical or inappropriate actions cannot be totally eradicated. Each company must acceptresponsibility for policing the conduct and reporting of its own marketing research to protectconsumers‘ best interests and its uences of violating ethicsthere are drawbacks to violation of ethics. An example is given of the methodologicalargument against deceptive research which contends that deception increases the suspiciousness of future research subjects, thereby exhausting the pool of naïve participants (ortmann & hertwig, 1997). View reflects the concern that as the incidence of deception continues to rise; participants‘growing sophistication about deceptive practices may cause them to behave unnaturally in theresearch. Expectations could have a counter-productive effect on future research projects andtheir results, and also motivating individuals to behave in ways that do not reflect their naturalbehaviours or compelling them to behave in uncooperative ways in active attempts toundermine the research. That in light of research showing that consumers evaluate some unethical practices (such as misrepresentation of interview length or study purpose) as inappropriate, it is feared that they not only will be less likely to participate in future research, but that their research experience will negatively influence their image of the study sponsor, at least in commercial market research contextsit is further argued that the very practice of violating ethics and of justifying such procedurescan weaken researchers‘ respect for their participants and undermine their own integrity andcommitment to the truth. At the same time, the public‘s confidence in research projects and inthe credibility of those who engage in it is likely to be weakened, thereby jeopardizingcommunity support for future researches.
If ethics are violated the respondents feel denigratedand this may create anger and hostility in the participants hence jeopardizing sionsimply put, ethics in research involves considering what is right or wrong, and then doing theright thing -- but "the right thing" is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of ing learning course - linkedin course - linkedin heavin the thinkable course - linkedin l issues in uction to research al-qura university faculty of in research ppt by sent successfully..
