This document discusses ethics in management research and development. It begins by defining ethics and ethical principles, which guide moral behavior and should apply universally. It then discusses reasons for ethical business behavior, such as fulfilling public expectations and improving employee productivity. The document outlines ethical principles for research, including respecting human dignity, privacy, and obtaining informed consent. It also discusses balancing potential harms and benefits of research. Finally, it compares issues around qualitative versus quantitative research methods and the obligations of researchers, research subjects, and clients.

1. Ethics in Management Research
and Development
PRESENTATION BY:
ISAAC A.RENSON
CHARITY CHEPCHICHIR
BARACK WALUVENGO
AFTEEN

2. Introduction
 What is ethics?
 What are ethical
principles
 Ethical business
behaviour
 Brief history of
evolution of ethics in
research
 Ethical principles
 Ethics in research
 Qualitative vs
quantitative data

3. What is ethics?
 Societal norms adopted by a group
– A conception of conduct that is right or wrong
 Deal with fundamental human relationships
 a universal human trait

4. Ethical Principles – What are they?
 Guides to moral behaviour
– Good: honesty, keeping promises, helping others,
respective rights of others
– Bad: lying, stealing, deceiving, harming others
 Universality of ethical principles: should apply in the
same manner in all countries, cultures, communities
 Relativity of ethical principles: vary from country to
country, community to community

5. Ethical Relativism
 Is Defined by
– Various periods of time in history
– A society’s traditions
– The special circumstances of the moment
– Personal opinion
 Meaning given to ethics are relative to time,
place, circumstance, and the person involved

6. Reasons for Ethical Business
Behaviour
 Fulfill public expectations for business
 Prevent harming others
 Improve business relations
 Improve employee productivity
 Reduce penalties
 Protect business from others
 Protect employees from their employers
 Promote personal morality

7. Business Ethics Across Organizational
Functions
 Accounting ethics – honesty, integrity,
accuracy
 Marketing ethics
 Information systems ethics

8. Ethics in Research – Why?
 To protect rights and welfare of research participants
and
 To protect the wider society or community within
which the research is being conducted

9. Mechanisms of Protection
 Ethical regulations or guidelines
 Law
 Universal principles of human rights

10. Ethical Principles
 In research, help to make and to justify decisions
 Are abstract and difficult to implement in practical
situations
 Key phrases:
– Voluntary participation
– Informed consent
– Risk of harm
– Confidentiality
– Anonymity

11. Ethical Principles Guiding Research
 Respect for human dignity
 Respect for free and informed consent
 Respect for vulnerable persons
 Respect for privacy and confidentiality
 Respect for justice and inclusiveness
 Balancing harms and benefits
 Minimizing harm
 Maximizing benefit

12. 1. Human Dignity
 Two essential components
– The selection and achievement of morally acceptable ends
– The morally acceptable means to those ends
- Protect the multiple and interdependent interests of
the person (bodily, psychological, cultural integrity)

13. 2. Consent
 Presumption that individuals have capacity and right
to make free and informed decisions
 Your research cannot proceed without informed
consent by the research subject
 Consent must be maintained throughout

14. 3. Vulnerable Persons
 Ethical obligations towards vulnerable persons:
 Entitled to special protection, special procedures to
protect their interests based on grounds of human
dignity, caring, solidarity, fairness to special
protection against abuse, exploitation, discrimination

15. 4. Privacy & Confidentiality
 Fundamental to human dignity
 Standards protect the access, control,
dissemination of personal information
 Helps to protect mental, psychological
integrity

16. 5. Harms and Benefits
 Balance critical to ethics of human research
 Foreseeable harms should not outweigh
anticipated benefits
 Harms-benefits analysis affects welfare and
rights of subjects

17. 6. Justice and Inclusiveness
 i.e., fairness and equity
 Procedural justice
– Application process
 Distributive justice
– Harms and benefits

18. 7. Non-malfeasance
 Duty to avoid, prevent or minimize harm
 No unnecessary risk of harm
 Participation must be essential to achieving
scientifically and societally important aims
that cannot be realized without the
participation of human subjects
 Minimizing harm requires smallest number of
human subjects that will ensure valid data

19. 8. Beneficence
 The duty to benefit others
 The duty to maximize net benefits
 Produce benefits for subjects themselves
and other individuals
 Produce benefits for society as a whole and
for the advancement of knowledge (usually
the primary benefit)

20. Qualitative vs Quantitative Data
 Quantitative
– Logic rests on generalizability & representativeness
– Sample size is criterion for judging rigour
– Respondents can refuse to answer questions
 Qualitative approaches
– Designed to best reflect experiences
– Therefore most qualitative research less formally structured
– Logic rests on notice of saturation – the point at which no
new insights are likely to be obtained
– Saturation guides sample size

21. Qualitative Issues
 More invasive therefore ethical issues more
subtle
 Tendency to investigate more completely
 Reliance on observations, interviews,
stealthy methods can lull subjects
 Easy to violate confidentiality and trust
 Power and status differentials

22. Confidentiality & Anonymity
 Quantitative
Techniques
– Can be easier
– Anonymity of the firm
sometimes impossible
– Pseudonyms common
but do not eliminate
problem
 Qualitative Techniques
– Smaller sample sizes
– Informed consent more
critical
– Problems with data
presentation/ publication

23. Obligations of the Researcher
 Follow code of ethics
– Objectivity
– No misrepresentation
– Preserve anonymity and confidentiality

24. Rights & Obligations of Subject
 Right to informed consent
 Obligation to be truthful
 Right to privacy
 Right to confidentiality
 Right to no harm
 Right to be informed

25. Rights & Obligations of Client (User)
 Ethical conduct between buyer and seller
 Obligation to reduce bias
 Do not mis-represent data
 Privacy
 Commitment to research
 Pseudo-pilot studies

26. Language
 The language you use is very, very
important. What may be clear to you may
not be clear to the reader. The reader, who
is your prospective participant, is in a
different world than you – don’t expect the
reader to read your mind, to know your
intentions…

27. Questions?
all the best in your
exams