Ethics in Research for Organizations of All

Ethics in Research

For organizations of all types, the last three decades have been crucial in changing the manner in which organizations interact with each other, stakeholders, the government, and themselves. Most of these changes occurred because of the evolution of globalization, which after the Cold War, increased cooperation between nations and regions while, at the same time, increased stakeholder expectations, opened hundreds of new markets, and now requires that organizations operate on a new level. Particularly after the Enron scandal, stakeholders expect more transparency and honesty from organizations. In fact, a recent survey found that 74% want to know more about the ethical stance and nature of a company prior to purchasing from them. At the same time, 92% of FTSE 100 companies provide no metrics, benchmarks, or quantitative measurements within their annual report (Suter, 2012).

Because of advances in technology and communication, this has also bled over into how businesses and organization approach research and the expectations of stakeholders within that genre. The ideas of interconnectedness and consequentialism are part of a more philosophical way of looking at organizations. For instance, deontology, or duty-based ethics is from the Greek word "deon" meaning duty or obligation. This is a true basis for research ethics in that it helps one understand that we must look at more than the result of the research, but rather the means (methods) in which it was constructed. Actions, in deontology, are as important as results (Gutman and Thompson 2004). Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, found that actions are only ethical if they are universal, reversible, and allow for respect toward the individual. Kant's theory is a variation or derivation of the "Golden Rule" which instructs people to "treat others as you would want them to treat you." Some form of this rule is part of all the world's major religions (White, 2009).

Since we are a part of a capitalistic society, as capitalism matured, so did some of the ethical issues surrounding research (use of human subjects, methods, etc.). Ethics in research is a way to apply morality and ethical principles within the field. Any institution can use research for good or bad purposes, or can perform that research in a manner that manipulates others, which for some, can damage autonomy and access to the truth. This is often seen when individuals think about advertising or marketing research, but has bled off into other forms of research, which are then seen as manipulative (Schneider, 1983).

All research activities begin with a question. Research, in its most basic form is the process of answering that question, or questions. Academic research, though, is a systematic process of collecting and analyzing information so that it increases the understanding of the phenomenon under study. Regardless of the complexity or nature of the research project, there are at least eight characteristics that help define the process:

There must be a viable question or issue for research to occur.

That question(s) must be articulated clearly.

The scientific method should be followed.

Usually research needs sets of sub-problems to clearly articulate a primary hypothesis.

The hypothesis should guide the research.

Both qualitative and quantitative research requires using the hypothesis to guide the process.

Interpretation and analysis are assumed as part of the research process (Leedy and Ormrod, 2009).

While there has been an on-going philosophical battle between quantitative and qualitative research; both research activities begin with a similar premise: asking a question (hypothesis), following a specific plan of investigation, collecting data in an unbiased manner, reviewing and analyzing that data in a scholarly manner, then disseminating that research to the field. Thus, research requires the use of the scientific method for validity. This is a systematic process that is both systematic and formalized. The key is the formal and recognized process that attempts to be as objective as possible. Procedures, for instance, may differ between sociology and biology, but the basic structure of the research should be equal so that collected results may be shared multidisciplinary (Leedy & Ormrod, 2009). More recent scholarship holds that quantitative research should have both a holistic and sequential perspective. It is not enough to apply mathematics or statistics to research data without having a contextual approach, which becomes one of the defining challenges for quantitative structure. This provides the core paradigm for quantitative research: the interplay among variables after they have been operationalized by the researcher (Robson, 2011).

However, regardless of whether one uses a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method research approach; there are several standard issues that are important when dealing with the overall process of research basics. Ethics, for instance, is the study of the morality of behavior (input and output) of individuals by looking at their motivations of behavior, point-of-view, and analysis in action that affect their own individuality and that of others. It is clear that ethical issues are present in any type of research. By the very nature of research, the process often creates tension between the aims of the research and the overall hypothesis and the rights of participants. To uncover the gist of the truth, the researcher must not only encourage the participants to act and report truthfully, the entire basis of extrapolation of the data and use of the materials in a scholarly manner presumes that the research be done in an ethical and truthful manner. In many cases, there are human rights, behavioral and/or medical issues upon which to focus; in our case the ethical paradigm is primarily psychological. In fact, the nature of ethical issues within qualitative research is subtle and, according to many scholars, quite different than in quantitative research (SA Health Info, 2010).