Name: Md.

Towhidul Islam Shetu

ID: 2015210000019
Course Title: Business Research
Course Code: BUS 3122

As a business researcher how can I am an ethical researcher?

Ethical issues are assuming increasing importance in research, with most research proposals –
even at undergraduate level – needing to be subject to their university's ethics committee and
follow a particular code.

On these pages, we look first at what constitutes ethics in the context of management and social
research, before exploring the various issues that come up throughout the research, from gaining
access to an organization to disseminating the results.

Ethics is about the definition of what is good, and why people choose one form of good over
another – in other words, it is about values and value systems.

Research is about moving forward the frontiers of knowledge, and, in the case of management
research, hopefully also improving human welfare by helping businesses to run better.

Research ethics, therefore, is about how the researcher goes about the business of advancing
human knowledge without doing harm to others. Certain value judgments are made, for example
that people have a right to privacy.

Interest in research ethics has grown considerably over the last ten years: the boundaries as to
what constitutes acceptable practice have tightened, and most universities will tend to have ethics
committees which scrutinize proposals, particularly those which involve the manipulation of
people. Candidates for higher research degrees may be expected to prepare an ethics protocol.

Many of the ethical codes developed for research have been done in the context of medicine and
science, and are concerned with experimental treatment, control groups, etc. The peculiar
characteristic of management research is that it is about people and the way that they interact
with their environment. Ethical issues are therefore likely to be more complex, involving
subjects in a social rather than an individual setting, and use of a range of instruments based on
observation, interviews and questionnaires.

Above all there is a need to balance the behaviour of the researcher and the needs of the research
with the rights of the subject. As a minimum the researcher should avoid harm and treat others as
they would want to be treated. Preferably, however, where research is done in an organization,
part of the objective should be to benefit the organization and its employees. Research should be
based on the principle of doing greater good than harm.

The researcher needs to adopt an ethical approach from every stage of the research from the
initial contact to the dissemination. We shall be looking at requirements in more detail in
subsequent pages. First, though, a brief look at ethics committees and some examples of codes.

For Conducting Research Ethically should pursue the following issues:

 Name: Md. Towhidul Islam Shetu
ID: 2015210000019
Course Title: Business Research
Course Code: BUS 3122
1. Research should be designed, reviewed and conducted in such a way as to ensure
integrity and quality.
2. Both staff and subjects should be fully informed about the purpose, methods and uses of
the research, together with any risk. Where this is not possible, the ESRC has very
precise guidelines.
3. Confidentiality and anonymity must be respected.
4. Participation should be voluntary, without coercion.
5. Harm to participants should be avoided.
6. Research should be independent, and any conflict of interest or partiality should be
explicit.

There have been various attempts to codify the ethical issues involved in research. An early one
is Glass (1966), whose principles are:

 cherish truthfulness;
 Avoid aggrandizement at the expense of your fellow researchers;
 Defend freedom of scientific enquiry;
 Disseminate findings fully.

Russ-Eft et al. (1999) further developed the ethics codes in relations to management science
research, which became the basis of the guidelines of the Association of Human Research
Development. Their principles involve a professional and responsible attitude towards research,
using appropriate means of data collection including adjustment for demographic factors
associated with ethnicity, disability etc., informed consent, avoidance of deception except where
legitimate for purposes of research, and careful interpretation of findings.