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Ethics of Business Research

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Ethics of Business Research

RES/351

January 18, 2016
Harold Graff

Ethics of Business Research

The most ideal approach to characterize ethics is standards for behavior; what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior (Resnik, Ph.D.). From the International Educational E-Journal, “ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and apply to people who conduct scientific research or other scholarly or creative activities. There is even a specialized discipline, research ethics, which studies these norms” (Resnik,Ph,D). Business research ethics should include honesty, intregrity, no discrimination, legality, and animal safety (as needed) to name a few.
Business Research Project Currently I work for an afterschool program with the local school district called ACE 21st Century. We collaborate and contract with many different vendors to provide a wide scope of enrichment and academic activities to over two dozen schools; elementary through high school. At the moment we are working on bringing a great summer program to our students. Unfortunately it has not been the smoothest process. As we strive to continue school day learning, we rely heavily on results from standardized test given to our students throughout the school year. Not only that, we also administer our own test based on the curriculum we’ve created. Once all grades have been finalized and entered, our technicians are able to pull that information for the children that are enrolled in our programs. It is then passed along to the Site Coordinator (SC) of each particular school and it becomes their responsibility to use that information accordingly. After an audit of the data technician’s report, it was found that several SCs were manipulating the students test scores to make them higher than the actual grade received. For the Texas Education Agency (TEA), it looks like the students were improving tremendously when in all actuality there was little to no improvement.
Unethical Research Practices By manipulating the student data, the coordinator made it appear that the students within their particular program were making great improvements as a result from the curriculum we’ve given them. Which in return, we’d hope their improvements in our program would also show in their school day curriculum. The Site Coordinators are practically lying to all parties involved. It is not okay to change the data because it no longer shows the true results of the test subject.
Who does it affect? It may seem early to plan a summer program but with budgets and the amount of time it takes to produce a quality program, all parties have to make a move now. To better serve our students we need the most accurate data. While we try to make summer as fun as possible, learning is still our main concern and by changing the student’s grades means they don’t receive the help and support they may need to succeed. Giving fake results and numbers can also eliminate the program from receiving grant awards from the state and the city. Those grants are used to fund our programs and job positions. Laying about grades also makes the program, as a whole, look terrible in the eyes of the public, our funders, and partners such as the school day staff, vendors, students and their parents.
Resolution
After making this discovery, we had to restructure the workflow within the department. Site Coordinators are no longer allowed to enter the students, that job is now a part of the data technician’s workload. Since the data technician pulls the information directly from the school district’s data base, it is easier to catch any discrepancies between the two data bases. Also, more internal audits are being done to double check everyone’s work and to be sure all data is being used and entered into the system properly.
Conclusion
Manipulating the student data is very unethical because it gives false results and puts the entire program at risk of losing funding and the correct student support. As mentioned business research requires honesty and integrity, which was obviously disregarded in the actions of the Site Coordinators.

References
Resnik, J.D., Ph.D, D. (2011, May 1). National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Retrieved November 21, 2015, from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/
Singh, A. (n.d.). Ethics of Psychological Research. International Education E-Journal, II(IV). Retrieved November 22, 2015, from http://www.oiirj.org/ejournal/oct-nov-dec2013/edu/16.pdf?&session-id=3648097d0c941f9b8895f26a493434f5

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