Ethics & Business Research

Ethical considerations are essential to any form of research, including business related projects. Beyond the requirements of Federal Regulation 45 CFR 46 Protection of Human Subjects, the business researcher must typically manage the ethics of working with a site partner. This module discusses the ethics considerations for the researcher and the rights and obligations of study participants and site partners. 

Learning Objectives

• Understand the basic requirements of the federal regulations for Protection of Human Subjects 
• Understand the rights and obligations of study participants including 
• Understand the rights and obligations of site partners including
• Understand the ethical obligations of the researcher including

Basic Requirement of the Federal Regulations for Protection of Human Subjects

From the 1930s to the 1970s researchers in the United States conducted a study of the effect of syphilis on the body by recruiting black men, infecting them with syphilis, leaving them untreated, and recording the effects. The outrage at the unethical treatment of these human subjects sparked the development of the US code for ethical treatment of human subjects (Emanuel, Abdoler, & Stunkel, 2010).  This code is a federal law, and its regulations are administered by the Office of Human Research Protection. This federal agency oversees the Institutional Review Boards at universities across the country, which must verify that the research plan complies with the standards of ethical treatment of human subjects (Emanuel et al., 2010). Every research project at Grand Canyon University that involves any interaction with humans on any level must be approved by the GCU Institutional Review Board. 

The code is built on seven principles to protect study participants. The study must have social value, should be based on scientific validity, and should use far subject selection in both recruiting and in determining who can participate in the study (Emanuel et al., 2010). Additionally, ethical treatment requires that there be a favorable risk-benefit ratio for participants, the study be subjected to independent review by an Institution Review Board, the participants provide informed consent, and that research respect study participants at all times (Emanuel et al., 2010). 

These principles are intended to ensure ethical treatment of study participants. It is the right thing to do, but it also ensures the sustainability of research. If potential participants did not have the assurance that they would be treated ethically, no one would participate in the studies and research could not be conducted. 

Business research may seem far removed from the treatment of subjects in a medical study where people’s lives and health may be at risk. But the concerns stretch far beyond medical research to include any type of unethical treatment that could cause embarrassment, financial damage, job loss or other harm to participants in the business research study. Zikmund, Babin, Carr, and Griffin (2013) cites three real life examples. Executives place a hidden microphone in the employees’ coffee room to capture union members’ conversations. An accounting researcher throws out the questionnaire of one CPA firm of the 100 sampled because he believes the firm is inefficiently managed. A bank manager asks a researcher to undertake a research project for political purposes. All are examples of ethical issues in business research, all relate to human subjects, but they require expanding that definition far beyond the mistreatment of subjects in a medical experiment. Ethical considerations related to business research fall into three categories: Rights and obligations of participants, of site partners, and of the researcher. 

Rights and Obligations of Study Participants

The rights of study participants are the subject of much discussion. The single obligation of study participants is to provide honest cooperation in the study, after having provided willing consent to participate. This hinges on informed consent, the expressed or implied acknowledgement waiving the individual’s right to privacy when they agree to participate in a research study (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

The study participants’ right to privacy gives them the fundamental right to choose whether to participate in the study in the first place. It further gives participants the right to leave the study or break off an interview with a researcher. In general, the better the participant understands the nature of the study from the outset the lower the risk for study “dropouts”. 

This raises the second right of the study participant, to be dealt with truthfully and transparently. Lying to subjects to obtain informed consent is clearly inappropriate, but deception may also include misrepresenting the purpose of the study. Even discrete silence may constitute deception (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

Finally, the participant has the right to be informed. This includes the right to be informed as to the purpose and sponsorship of the study. Beyond that, it also includes the right to be informed of study results (Zikmund et al., 2013).

Rights and Obligations of Researcher

As discussed previously, the researcher is bound by federal law and general codes of ethics to ensure fair treatment of study participants and site partners. Misrepresenting the true purpose of the study is unethical, as discussed previously. But of particular concern in business research is the tactic of disguising a sales tactic as business research. The goal of business research should remain scientific inquiry, and incorporation of sales ploys is unethical and illegal (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

This leads to a second obligation of business researchers, to approach the research and report the findings objectively. Researchers should take care to be sure that data are correct and must not intentionally manipulate findings to prove a particular point (Zikmund et al., 2013).

Finally, the researcher has an obligation to protect the confidentiality of study participants and site partners. For study participants this right to confidentiality becomes particularly important for study participants since site partners may wish to use a list of study participants as a list of sales leads. For the site partner, the researcher is obligated to protect any information about the company’s business dealings from dissemination to other companies or third parties (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

Rights and Obligations of Site Partners

Site partners who have agreed to participate in the study have an obligation to provide honest cooperation. This includes providing reasonable access to people and documents as agreed, but it goes well beyond that. 

Business research is particularly vulnerable to the temptation for site partners to attempt to influence the research results to reflect favorably on the business. The goal of both the researcher and the site partner must be to seek truth objectively. This should begin with a full and open statement of the problem and estimate of the time and other resources needed, to be agreed to by both the researcher and site partner before the study begins (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

Conclusions must be based on the data. A researcher must not provide conclusions not warranted by the data; the site partner must avoid misuse of study findings. Misuse may include deceptive statements of study findings but can also include blocking dissemination of unfavorable study results (Zikmund et al., 2013). 

Scenario: ABC Consulting

Regardless of the format of the research, there are ethical consideration that must be adhered to in any research setting. Protection of the participation is a critical consideration. This includes the identity of each participant, as well as protection of their dignity and beliefs. Both qualitative and quantitative research must provide protections for each participant in any research study.

In a study of the company, some participants may feel uncomfortable talking about changes in company policies. This might impact some data collected. In this scenario, the survey data collected from the quantitative study was collected anonymously. For the qualitative interviews, all responses were de-identified, by removing any reference that could be used to determine any one participant’s responses

For Further Study

Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (Common Rule): https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/regulations/common-rule/index.html

Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects: https://youtu.be/-O5gsF5oyls

Research Ethics: https://youtu.be/Ir3VvYNzHeM

Ethics: Human Subject Research: https://youtu.be/e0uydNe4cQo

Seven Principles for Ethical Research: https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you/guiding-principles-ethical-research

Trust in Research – The Ethics of Knowledge Production: https://youtu.be/JSV4VZ8gdUQ

Research Ready: Publication Ethics: https://cirt.gcu.edu/research/developmentresources/research_ready/publicationready/pubethics

Ethics Toolkit: https://www.elsevier.com/authors-update/story/early-career-researchers/the-importance-of-learning-about-ethics-standards

Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1804120/

References  

Emanuel, E., Abdoler, E., & Stunkel, L. (2010). Research ethics: How to treat people who participate in research. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center Department of Bioethics and Foundation for the NIH.

Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods: Cengage Learning.