Free Essay

Ethics of Business Research

In:

Submitted By tmac222
Words 734
Pages 3
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

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Business Research Ethics Ethical decision making is important for researchers. Codes, policies, and principals are very important and useful, like any set of rules; however, they do not cover every situation. They often conflict, and they require considerable interpretation. It is therefore important for researchers to learn how to interpret, assess, and apply various research rules and how to make decisions and to act in various situations. There are many situations where research is not ethical. These actions would be regarded as unethical and some might even be illegal. These actions may also violate professional ethics codes or institutional policies. According to the article, “Accounts Offered for Unethical Research Practices: Effects on the Evaluations of Acts and Actors,” describes two scenarios of two psychologists fabricating data and using plagiarism in their research. One Psychologist, who was a professor at a large university, was accused of fabricating some of the data in a large, longitudinal research project. Evidence resulted in an investigation. It was determined that subjects reported to have begun their participation with this psychologist in 1975, really did not begin their participation until 1977. However, the participants did report that they were contacted to participate in 1975. Due to the fabrication of data, job security and salaries of the Psychology Department were in jeopardy. The Psychologist admitted to making up...

Words: 777 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business ethics is the principles and standards that determine acceptable conduct in business organizations. If there was any doubt that ethical standards can have a significant impact on work life, research has confirmed that such doubt is unwarranted. A multitude of research has demonstrated that ethics is related to a variety of important job related outcomes. For example, studies have shown that a higher ethical work climate (Mulki, Jaramillo, and Locander, 2008) and top leadership support for ethics and both positively relate to job satisfaction. Ethics codes (Valentine and Fisherman, 2008), ethics training, and perceived corporate social responsibility are also linked to job satisfaction. Unethical business research at work ranges from minor acts of deviance to immoral decisions that result in catastrophes such as the Enron and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. These fields of research provide especially clear data on connection between unethical workplace acts and wellbeing: discrimination, bullying and injustice. Even though ethics is sometimes under looked in business it is an important conduct in the organization for a variety of reasons. Organizations have to ensure that they practice high standards of ethics in the organization to rip maximum benefits and avoid scandals such as the Enron And Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. Enron Corporation and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, both practiced unethical business behavior, this is because two of their top officials were involved in fraudulent...

Words: 971 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Ethics Education RES/351 Business Ethics Education The research that will be described in the paper that follows is about Business ethics education, exploring the question whether a course on the ethical decision-making in business could positively influence students, moral efficacy, moral meaningfulness, and moral courage. To investigate whether a graduate-level course in business ethics could influence students in the areas previous mentioned, a rigorous quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a treatment and control group was used. Findings revealed that students who took part in the business ethics treatment course, compared to the control group, experienced significant positive increase in all three areas. Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guides moral choices about our behavior and our relationships with others. The goal of ethics in any place of business or in research is to see that no one is harmed, or suffers any consequences from job-related activities or research (Cooper, 2014,). There are two different approaches to ethics: a negative approach, or a positive approach. The negative approach will have a more narrow focus on enforceable rules, prohibited behaviors, and sanctions for misconduct, while a positive approach to ethics includes the promotion of positive morally praiseworthy ideals and behavior. MORAL EFFICACY The research here is to try and gain and understanding of the potential effect on business ethics education...

Words: 827 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Kathleen Gatchell Res/351 September 28, 2015 Kristy Peterson Business Research Ethics “In recent years, Western organizations and companies have been increasingly using countries of the developing world as places of clinical trials. The involvement of human subjects in healthcare research evokes ethical concerns, especially when their culture is different and their socio-economic status is lower than the Western standards.” (Igoumenidis & Zyga, 2011) Ethical vs. Unethical Practices Bioethics is about ethical issues in the field of health care; it is the discipline which aims at ensuring that health care professionals, researchers, policy-makers, and even lawyers who deal with healthcare law, exercise their duties in the most just and ethically acceptable way. (Igoumenidis & Zyga, 2011) History is full of examples of humans being used as guinea pigs in experiments by people of power; the most famous being the Nazi human experimentation during WWII. “After the war, these crimes were tried at what became known as the Doctor’s Trial and this led to the development of the Nuremberg Code of Medical Ethics in 1949. “ (Igoumenidis & Zyga, 2011) This code led to the development of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964, and its subsequent revisions – with the 6th Revision being the most recent one, in 2008. (Igoumenidis & Zyga, 2011) The basic principles of the code include: (Article 9): Respect for the individual (Article 8); that...

Words: 714 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Derrick Phillips RES/351 August 23, 2012 Business Research Ethics Ethics can go unnoticed at times, but, in actuality, ethics are of supreme significance for a list of grounds within any organization. Businesses have to make sure they adhere or abide by all level of ethics in all actions of the business. Ethics are one of the main focuses when it comes to business research. In this paper, the discussion will be prepared in relation between situations in which unethical business research behaviors were carried out by the business. The intention of this paper is to discuss a set of circumstances and various key points in relation to this specific case. Presently, this specific case had some ethical issues that were not taken into consideration. In the terminology of unethical research behavior, this particular corporation was without a doubt caught up in immoral research behavior. The corporation that’s being focused on is a pharmaceutical company that teamed up with the individual who in the past had supplied the required research associated to the medicine of influenza (Dominick & Wimmer, 2010). Throughout the course of the contract, the professor was demanded to keep the research information private and of the record and also not to disclose to anyone of his colleagues or anyone else involved. The corporation had been working on the research which was looking to refuse to give the research work out if anyone asked. For that reason, it was thought...

Words: 850 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Lynn McManus 351 February 24, 2015 Mark Alise Abstract Ethics is practicing doing the right things I life. If you are a religious person, ethics is a also dealing with our religious beliefs. Doing what the law requires us to do is another way to define ‘Ethics. (merriam.webster.com). Halliburton is a good company for Business Research Ethics. Operating in 80 countries, Halliburton is one of the largest worldwide oil refineries. Halliburton was involved in many different scandals during the Bush Administration. (http://alizul2.blogsppot.com). Halliburton is a well influential company that is currently being run by Vice-President Dick Cheney. It has been discovered that Halliburton overcharged the military $6.3 million dollars. Halliburton is debatable considered as one of the evilest companies in the entire world. (http://alizul2.blogspot.com) In 2003, one of the unethical problems with Halliburton was overcharging the United States military in Iraq for food and oil supplies. Vice President Chaney has announced that the overpayment in the amount of $27.4 million dollars will be paid to the US government. (http://www.socialistappeal.org). Halliburton was accused of covering up violation of the law and misleading investigators, by a former Halliburton employee affirmed that he received criminal notes on; how to handle federal investigations received by email. The email was intended for another employee named David Smith. Smith was the Vice President...

Words: 800 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Diane Gutierrez RES/351 September 30, 2015 Gwenn Grondal Business Research Ethics Ethics in business research is not always a black and white issue. What is legal may not necessarily be ethical and the same can be said for the opposite. Careful consideration should be taken when conducting business research as both good and bad things may be discovered, and remaining ethical in your findings and how you apply it to your business, could invariably save your business far more than money. Here we will explore the ethical decisions made by Ford Motor Company after research found their Ford Pinto to be unsafe in rear-end collisions. In an effort to beat out strong foreign competition from in the small car market, Ford Motor Company produced the Ford Pinto in 1970. Before this time, Ford dominated in the production of larger vehicles and never was considered a contender in the small car market. Lee Iacocca wanted to change this, as Europe had made fast strides to match America in the automobile market by 1970. Europe and Asia benefited from the small car market, as it was easier to ship vehicles and thus expanding their business into other countries and making them very popular in the world market. America was limited in their ability to expand their current market to other countries, as shipping these excessively larger vehicles was not practical. America could only expand business to Canada and Mexico, so the Ford Pinto would be an important...

Words: 657 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

... Ethics surrounding business practices has always been a highly debated and controversial topic. More recently, larger corporations have come into the spotlight and under scrutiny about their methodical ethics. While ethics is a concern in the general operations of a business, it should also be a major concern about ethics in the research of, for, or conducted by a business. Researchers have an important responsibility to practice ethical behavior, especially where their research results can have major impact. Clinical research will always have an ongoing and widespread impact because of the value of results for doctors and patients alike, as well as, the ongoing search for cures to ailments. In “Misleading Reporting of Research Results: A Widespread Problem”, Alan R. Gaby M.D. discusses the occurrences of skewing research results. While no specific companies or trials are mentioned in the article in regards to unethical business research, it does provide an overview of unethical research reporting in clinical research cases. The unethical research behavior involved is that which is called the “spin”. In the case of clinical research, as highlighted by this article, “spin” reporting strategies are...

Words: 590 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Adam S. Wilcox RES/351 9/24/2012 Maja Zelihic Ph.D. Business Research Ethics Ethics in business research refers to a code of conduct that is expected to be observed while conducting research. This ethical conduct applies both to the organization and the individual researchers conducting the research. The ethical behavior must be included in each step of the research process from data collection and analysis, through the reporting of the findings. If an organization or individual researcher does not abide by the code of ethics for business research he, or she may end up facing penalties from termination and fines to jail time. Unethical Research Example In November of 2007 Raj Mathur was convicted of receiving “secret commissions” and breach of trust for accepting funds from private companies seeking government grants (Shannon, 2007). Mathur was a National Research Council adviser whose duties included assisting companies applying for government grants. Mathur’s wife Priti Mathur owned a company that received over $300,000 in “consulting” fees from private companies. These unethical transactions took place between 1999 and 2003. Priti Mathur claimed that the applications for government grants were completed by herself and her son. However, she did admit to seeking advice from her husband occasionally. While Raj Mathur claimed he did not give his wife any more assistance than he would give any other...

Words: 847 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH ETHICS 1 Business Research Ethics RES 351 February 28, 2013 BUSINESS RESEARCH ETHICS 2 Business Research Ethics Before the debt crisis of 2008 exploded, one of the two American banks that backed a large portion of United States mortgages was fined in 2006 because of improper accounting practices. Ethics are a set of standards derived by individual or company ideals of what is right and wrong. Looking back, it should have been clear the poor ethics of this bank would contribute to the economic disaster that would follow. A report conducted by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) from 1998 to 2004 discovered that Fannie Mae’s senior management deliberately influenced improper accounting by swaying internal auditors resulting in undeserved large bonuses. This was accomplished without advising any stockholder or other interested parties; the rest of the world. During this time, Fannie Mae reported unfettered profit growth and reaching publicized earnings targets per share for each quarter. "The image of Fannie Mae as one of the lowest-risk and 'best in class' institutions was a façade" (Fannie mae: Unethical, 2006). During this investigation, Fannie Mae evaded the OFHEO further adding to their harsh fine levied by them and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fannie Mae’s mismanagement, manipulation of earnings, and unhindered growth culminated in $10.6 billion in losses, “well over a billion dollars in expenses...

Words: 1200 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics 1 Business Research Ethics RES/351 Dennette James Debra Marrano-Lucas November 30, 2015 Business Research Ethics 2 The Salvation Army It is an international, nonprofit, religious organization. It is committed to helping the less fortunate and help by giving assistance to the very needed. They focus on helping people to change their way of life. An English Methodist minister by the name of William Booth founded the Salvation Army in 1865. The Salvation Army was first known as the “ Christian Mission “ that would help with issues like social welfare for the people who lived in the Urban slums. Their mission was to help with prostitution, alcoholism, gambling and other things that put people in the situations like homelessness. Catherine Booth the wife of William was the co-founder. The first international site for the Salvation Army which...

Words: 1011 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Business Ethics Research

...Business Torts and Ethics Jason Harris Business Torts and Ethics The definition of Tort is: A civil wrong, which can be redressed by awarding damages (Cornell University Of Law, 1993). In other text it states that it is a wrongful act or an infringement of rights that leads to civil legal liability. In this case where the tenant were attacked at her place of residence the intruder was solely responsible for his actions. The intruder infringed on the rights of my tenant Sharon by unlawfully entering her residence through her sliding door. In other research I have done it further states that a tortious act can cause injury to a person, which is exactly what happened to Sharon and Darryl. As they attempted to scare away the intruder they were brutally attacked which caused injury to each individual. The intruder had no right to be on the premises at all which in that moment made him liable for any illegal activity that happen from that point. Whether the intruder intentionally or unintentionally harmed Sharon or Darryl he was still in the wrong because he had broken into Sharon’s apartment. Owners Legal Responsibility As the apartment owner my responsible is to make sure that the apartment complex is secure and that the common areas are safe from criminal activity. As the owner I have to ensure that each apartment has fully functional locks and make sure all repairs that are reported are dealt with in a timely manner. In a case like this my obligation to the tenant is to ensure...

Words: 1056 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business Research Ethics Lisa Goodman RES/351 5/5/2015 James Bankston Business Research Ethics “As in other aspects of business, all parties in research should exhibit ethical behavior. Ethics are norms or standards of behavior that guide moral choices about our behavior and our relationships with others. The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activities. This objective is usually achieved. However, unethical activities are pervasive and include violating nondisclosure agreements, breaking participant confidentiality, misrepresenting results, deceiving people, using invoicing irregularities, avoiding legal liability, and more. (Cooper, & Schindler, 2014, p. 28). “The recognition of ethics as a problem for economic organizations is repeatedly revealed in surveys. Despite an increase in awareness of formal ethics programs and the presence of written ethical codes of conduct (83 percent), one survey reports that although 52 percent of U.S. workers claim to have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct, only 55 percent of those observing misconduct reported the violation (a decline of 10 percent from a similar study done two years before). Strong ethical-culture organizations were 1.6 times as likely to report incidents as weak-ethical-culture organizations. Such lack of action raises questions about the effectiveness of codes of conduct and reporting systems”. (Cooper, & Schindler...

Words: 694 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Business Research Ethics

...Business research practices should remain ethical at all times. It is important to adhere to ethical norms because they promote values that are essential to collaborative work, they build public support, and they promote a variety of important moral and social values such as human rights, compliance with law, and health and safety (Resnick, 2013). Ethic is the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior. When we think of ethics in business research the hospital is the last place one would think practices unethical behaviors. Just like any other organization the health care industry also experiences unethical business research. After all health care professionals have to take an oath of ethical behavior. In 2005 ACPE conducted a survey about ethical behavior. Close to 15,000 physician leaders participated in the survey. Some of the results may be alarming. 54.6 percent surveyed stated they were very concerned about unethical business practices affecting U.S. health care today. Only .6 percent at not concerned at all. The survey also asked if there were unethical physicians at the respondents’ organization and 33.1 percent answered yes. The survey asked a plethora of questions such as: physicians being influenced by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe a certain drug, board members with conflicts of interest, board members accepting gifts or favors from vendors, physician over-treating patients to boost their income, and physicians discharging patients from the hospital...

Words: 936 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Ethics and Research

...Business Research Ethics Destiny Williams RES/351 Sara Skowronski Monday June 9th 2014 Ethics can be defined as, the branch of philosophy that deals with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions (dictionary.com). Personal values very much help to shape our life and its outcome. “Its not hard to make a decision when you know what your values are”- Roy Disney. A persons values will determine how they perceive a situation. Ethics in business research sets standards while establishing honesty and integrity in researchers work. Without ethics you do not know if a researcher was honest in his or her methods used to conduct the research.Rules and morals are often in disagreement with one another, thus requiring substantial interpretation. It is therefore important for researchers to learn how to interpret, assess, and apply various research rules and how to make decisions and to act in various situations (Gajjar 2013). Dishonesty is the number on research practice that should be avoided in a research project. When conducting research one should honestly report data, results, methods, procedures, and publication status. One should not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data, or deceive colleagues, granting agencies, or the public. Another unethical practice that should be avoided...

Words: 650 - Pages: 3