Ethics: More than filling in forms

1
Ethics More than filling in forms!

• Sue Nichols
• Chair DHREC

2
The ethical imagination thinking about possible
perceived impacts

• Emotional well-being
• Self-image
• Reputation
• Security of employment
• Chances of promotion
• Access to services
• Relationships with management/colleagues/clients

3
Organisational research

• Researching your own professional practice in an
  organisational context
• Researching work practices as an outsider
• Researching clients of an organisation with or
  without involving the organisation

4
Scenario 1

• The student researcher wants to investigate staff
  induction processes in a medium-sized company in
  relation to new staff developing a sense of
  membership of the company.
• She is not a member of staff but has been on a
  work placement with the company as part of her
  studies.
• She plans to report to management.
• One of her research activities will be to observe
  Friday night drinks.

5
Scenario 2

• The student researcher wants to investigate staff
  understandings of quality assurance policies in a
  branch of an IT company.
• He is in a middle management position with a
  responsibility for QA.
• He plans to use semi-structured interviews.

6
Scenario 3

• The student wants to examine the effects of a
  social skills program on homeless youth.
• She is not a youth worker
• She plans to recruit homeless youth by asking the
  youth workers in the service organisation which
  provided the social skills program to contact the
  youth.
• Once the youth workers give her the names of
  these individuals, she will contact them for
  structured interviews.

7
Confidentiality not the same as anonymity

• Particularly in small sites and specialised
  services/roles, participants identities may be
  revealed even when anonymity is observed
• Consider whether you can promise confidentiality
  if not, dont make the promise
• Consider the different risks to confidentiality
  associated with reporting to participants, an
  organisation and in the thesis.

8
Fudging it in aid of getting the truth?

• Not telling participants you are reporting to an
  organisation
• Not telling participants when your study is
  actually an evaluation
• Not telling managers that their staff are
  involved in a research project (eg by direct
  recruiting).
• All of these are questionable practices

9
Managing different timelines

• Timelines of organisational activities which may
  impact on the research (eg by providing narrow
  windows of opportunity for data collection)
• Timelines of organisational approval for the
  research
• Timelines of university ethics approval.
• Make sure you know these timelines and plan
  accordingly.

10
The form!

• Section 1 is a coversheet which records your
  contact details and the title of your project.
• Section 2 is a checklist of yes/no responses
  which identify key issues.
• Section 3 is the proforma which provides the
  ethics committee with more detail about your
  project and particularly your interaction with
  research participants.
• Guidelines to help you complete Section 3 are
  available from the Ethics Officer or the Research
  Services homepage
• http//www.unisa.edu.au/orc/ethics/index.htm

11
ALL THE BEST WITH YOUR RESEARCH