...Unethical Business Research Conduct The foundation of any research is trust. Professionals, organizations, and the public must be able to trust that research is being reported honestly, accurately, and free from bias. Questionable research misconduct can include poor data management, the failure to share data, questionable data selection methods, inadequate supervision of those conducting the research, and fiscal mismanagement ("Research Misconduct", 2012). Recently a large case of research fraud was brought against Dr. Kipak K. Das by the University of Connecticut. The allegations of research fraud involve 26 articles published in 11 different journals claiming the health benefits of drinking red wine. According to the article, “University Suspects Fraud by a Researcher Who Studied Red Wine”, the university received anonymous allegations in January 2009 about irregularities in Dr. Das’ research. An investigation into Das’ research articles revealed 145 instances of fabrication and falsification of data (Wade, 2012). Allegations received by the university reference lab members manipulating figures, often at the request of Dr. Das, and digitally manipulating the experiments (western-blot images) done in the studies. The fabrication and falsification of the research data will have a negative impact on Dr. Das’ reputation as a respectable doctor, could tarnish the name of the University of Connecticut, could harm those that rely upon this research data, and could also discredit...
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...Unethical Business Research RES 351 May 13, 2013 Unethical Business Research Unethical business research can be described as many things. From asking inappropriate questions, to using participant information for unintended purposes such as selling goods or services, these acts have caused major scandals in the business world. Good business ethics are the foundation in which a company is built on. All businesses have a code of conduct that is set out by human resources and upper management. This code will set the behavior expectations for employees in their daily tasks and projects for the company. Alliance Capital is among one of major companies that conducted unethical research in the early 2000’s. Before their downfall they caused damage financially and personally, which had effects nationwide. People Involved Alfred Harrison was the vice chairperson of Alliance Capital, and the manager of Florida’s pension plan account (Lawyershop.com, 2003). He used a “V-method” approach to investing, which lead Alliance to the purchase of 4.9 million shares of Enron in late 2001. Frank Savage, a director of Alliance was another key member involved in the company’s unethical acts. Frank was also a member on Enrons’ board and many suspected that he pressured Alliance to purchase the shares even though the company was on the downfall. The actions of both these individuals caused Alliance to be charged with "breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, breach...
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...Unethical Research Behavior (Name) RES/351 March 10, 2014 (Teacher Name) Abstract Unethical research behavior has shown us the social patterns we portray at any given moment. Dependent on our surroundings, are the effects of the decision we choose to make, or need in making. In this essay, I will discuss the unethical behavior of ‘the bystander effect' and ways to develop possible solutions pertaining to the article I have selected. The article I selected is ‘The Bystander Effect in Medical Care' (Stavert, MD, MBA & Lott, MD, MSHP, 2013). Unethical Research Behavior The unethical research behavior involved in this study is ‘The Bystander Effect", to be exact ‘The Bystander Effect in Medical Care'. The bystander effect is "the human tendency to be less likely to offer help in emergency situations when other people are present" (Stavert, MD, MBA & Lott, MD, MSHP, 2013). During inpatient, and outpatient care, the medical professional enrolled to care for patients makes it easier for the medical professional to take a passive role in the treatment. The neglect of clinicians and primary care providers is the direct result of missing leadership. The parties hurt in this article are the patience receiving inpatient, and outpatient care in a medical treatment facility. Patients become helpless by the lack of diagnosis from the attending physicians, clinicians, care providers, and any additional medical staff. When physicians cannot identify the cause of illness...
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...Unethical Research Practices Unethical research is commonly found within pharmaceutical companies. In a hurry to get new drugs to market, companies will often cut corners during the research process. Pharmaceutical companies will spend millions of dollars on drug research, but very little on unethical drug promotion (Parmar, Jalees, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader of how unethical research practices can lead to death from both past and present case studies. Present Rizwan Rahim Ahmed and Dr. Ahmed Saeed conducted a case study concerning ethical and unethical pharmaceutical marketing practices in Karachi City, Pakistan (Ahmed, Saeed, 2012). The results were very alarming to the world. The study indicated that doctors, hospital administrators, and pharmacies were receiving kickbacks from the pharmaceutical industry for prescribing their drugs to patients. The case study concluded that participants had different levels of blame. For example, the study shows that four out of five doctors were receiving money from these companies. Still today the government of Pakistan turns a blind eye to this type of unethical behavior. Research found that doctors were prescribing unnecessary drugs to patients regardless of the medical outcome. The more medicine they prescribe, the more money they would receive from the pharmaceutical companies. The study concluded that this type of unethical practice is common throughout the world but severe with regard to developing...
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...Unethical Business Research Conduct A lawsuit brought upon city Assessor Bill O'Brien by a tax investigation firm, Tax Data Solutions (TDS) that he used last year states that he violated his contract and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (Smith, 2010). Between 2006 to 2009 the city of New Haven hired the company to investigate people and businesses that owe for vehicle or personal property taxes. O'Brien is accused of adding accounts to the grand list, withholding payment for accounts researched by TDS, reducing personal property assessments, and even removing accounts added by the Assessor before him (Smith, 2010). The unethical research behavior that was involved in this case was financial misconduct. By removing and adding accounts as well as misconstruing numbers in the accounts he is squandering the work done by the tax investigation firm. Misrepresentation is also involved because by distorting the numbers he is providing falsified data to the taxpayers of the city as well as the government. Not only does this hurt the tax payer, but by falsifying numbers it can make the city look more profitable than it really is. The injured parties in the lawsuit was the TDS firm because they were not paid for their work, their work was falsified and their contract was broken. Though not in the lawsuit the taxpayers of the city are also victims because they are being lied to by their Assessor. The unethical behavior has affected the business by costing them money in regards...
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...Unethical Business Research Conduct There are several reasons a company can be found guilty of an unethical/illegal crime. Whether they were asking inappropriate questions; skewing research results; failing to maintain participants’ confidential information; using participant information for unintended purposes such as selling goods or services. The list could continue through a long dissertation. On Monday, July 2, 2012 an unprecedented conviction for Health Care Fraud Settlement was reached. GlaxoSmithKline LLC pleaded guilty and had to pay $3 billion dollars in criminal and civil liability suits. GlaxoSmithKline LLC was guilty of a few of these unethical and illegal practices. They not only skewed research results but they also used unethical business practices to sell their goods/prescription medications. They illegally promoted prescription drugs and failed to report certain safety data. They were found to be civically liable for false reporting practices. They also pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal information. Two counts of introducing misbranded drugs and one count of failing to report the safety data they were found civically liable for to the Food and Drug Administration. Misbranding is when the FDA approves a drug for one purpose and a manufacturer promotes it for other uses. GlaxoSmithKline LLC participated in preparing and distributing a misleading medical journal article that stated that Paxil was effective in the treatment of depression on patients...
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...Business Research Ethics Kwantessa Chambers RES/351 August 11, 2014 Barry Adkins Business Research Ethics My ideal occupation is to become a professional stylist and open my own beauty salon. It was only fitting to find a research project that deals with hair studies. I stumbled upon an article where research was conducted on hair cosmetics. A 'healthy' head of hair is described as hair that has luster, is smooth, long and silky, bouncy, with good volume, and with no evidence of balding. You must be aware of the different textures of hair, which texture you have and what products you can use to keep it healthy. In this paper, I will summarize this article and show the correlation between hair cosmetics and ethical behavior. The hair care industry is a major factor in today’s society and is constantly changing. The focus has dramatically veered from merely cleaning to repair, increasing the tensile strength, reducing oxidative damage, and stimulating growth. Many people do not understand the fascination a woman or a man for that matter has with their hair. Newer shorter procedures to make hair look naturally more lustrous, smooth, and manageable have evolved. In this article, the author attempts to fill the lacunae in our knowledge of hair cosmetics and esthetic procedures relevant in today's rapidly changing beauty-enhancing industry (Madnani, Khan, 2013). In this research project, the unethical research practice to be avoided is the experimentation of chemicals on...
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...Ethics in Marketing Research Introduction: Today, it is far too easy to begin practicing marketing research. But unethical research practice relying on poor information to make major decision has resulted in loss of market share, reduction in profits, and, in some cases, bankruptcy. Ethics are moral principles or values generally governing the conduct of an individual or group. Ethics behavior is not, however, a one-way relationship clients, suppliers, as well as field services, must also act in an ethical manner. Ethical questions range from practical, narrowly defined issues, such as a researcher's obligation to be honest with its customers, to broader social and philosophical questions, such as a company's responsibility to preserve the environment and protect employee rights. Unethical practices by some suppliers include abusing respondents, selling unnecessary research, and violating client include requesting bids when a supplier has been predetermined, requesting bids gain to free advice methodology, marketing false promises, and issuing unauthorized requests for proposals. Marketing research field services have used professional respondents, which I unethical. Respondents have certain rights, including the rights to choose whether to participate in a marketing research project, the right to safety from physical and psychological harm, and the right to be informed of all aspects of the research task. They should know what is involved, how long it will take...
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...Business Research Ethics University of Phoenix Shayla L. Morales RES/351 September 23, 2014 Ray Rivera Business Research Ethics Business research is a key aspect to the longevity and profitability of any business. Safety and profits are the key ingredients for Pharmaceutical industries. Some companies place their trust on individuals who perform the research and they entrust on the results when their products are incorporated into the market. A pharmaceutical company has surveillance from Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It guards the population from malicious activities of a rogue researcher. Any unethical behavior or choice done by an individual the organization can be fueled. In this paper, I will examine the unethical behavior and conviction of Steve Eaton who worked in the Pharmaceutical Apuit. He manipulated important safety tests on several potentially new drugs. Steven Eaton was scientist in a pharmaceutical company in Edinburgh. From 2003- 2009 Eaton researched data while working for a drug development firm. The research process, within the pharmaceutical industry, consisted of numerous verified tests which were falsified. The potential product results had to be safe before the product is able to move to clinical trials on human beings. Without passing results on all pre-tests, new potential pharmaceutical products will not make it to human trials. Eaton falsified data in order to secure funding for the clinical trials on people...
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...Business Research Ethics Bobbie Stolze RES/351 October 15th, 2012 James Malachowski Business Research Ethics Today there are many cases of unethical business research that usually result in entire firms as well as individuals that are convicted and fined in the court of law. Unethical business research comes in many forms some of these forms are inappropriate questionnaires, research fraud, failure to maintain participant’s privacy, and even skewing research results. The following information is regarding scientific research fraud involving William McBride. McBride was an obstetrician who was found guilty of 24 counts of scientific fraud that ended up costing between five and seven million dollars after all was said and done. In 1980 McBride had announced that thalidomide was dangerous to women who are pregnant. He claimed that the drug would cause deformities of the limbs in mother’s unborn children. Several years later McBride had claimed that he completed research on another drug called Debendox, which is a drug used for treating morning sickness for pregnant women. McBride published this research and claimed that he has tested the drug on eight rabbits, and three of the rabbits ended up developing deformities because of the drug Debendox. Shortly following McBride’s research, the manufacturer of Debendox was forced to take the drug off the market even though there were only a few supporters of his research claim. It was later discovered by Phil Vardy was a scientist...
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...Unethical or Ethical?: That is the question BIS/221 Unethical or Ethical?: That is the question Since the dawn of Facebook, the question of if the company is ethical or not has definitely been one that has been under great debate. There are some individuals that feel it is just another tool to give the government as well as other people, in general, an avenue to spy on the majority of our population with. It collects data and stores it all for what reason? Are you a Facebook user? Why do you use it? The article, "Experimental Evidence of Massive-scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks" published last week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), is an example how the masses can be purposely swayed. As summarized in this article, Facebook conducted an experiment in which it manipulated nearly 155,000 users news feeds (Table 1). They wanted to see if, by manipulating these users news feeds, whether the users’ emotions would be effected. The company’s research including this massive number of users included funneling positive posts from friends to one group and negative posts to another to see how the positive versus negative posts affected user responses. Max Masnick, a researcher with a doctorate in epidemiology, quoted in the article, "I do human-subjects research every day". He continues to stick with his opinion that the structure of the experiment displays that there was no informed consent...
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...they relate with one another. On the other hand, there are several definitions about the human subject. The review will demonstrate that there are several different ethical and unethical issues that are involved in research. Participants must have some type of trust in the researchers, and have expectations of being treated with the upmost respect. This study shows the structure that participants expect as well as some of the areas that could be perceived as unethical treatment and why it should not happen. Ethical Treatment of Participants Introduction In research, one of the main goals is to ensure that activities undertaken does not harm or cause advance consequences that can lead to suffering. Even though most researchers achieve this goal, there are cases whereby unethical activities are invasive and leads to non-disclosure. This is particularly common with respect to the violation of respondent confidentiality, misrepresentation of results, invoicing irregularities, deceiving people, and avoiding legal liabilities among others (Smith, 2003). Therefore ethical questions are frequently philosophical in nature and hence most researchers do not have a general agreement while trying to answer such questions. Nonetheless, the norms of the society dictate the obligation of individuals in the research process (Smith, 2003). These norms dictate how individuals are supposed to conduct themselves under various circumstances. However, societal norms may sometimes change in the...
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...Medical research is an important step in gaining new knowledge about how the human body functions and to develop new medicines to combat diseases. Working with human participants during a clinical trial involves a certain set of ethics as the lives of the participants are at stake. In 1999, one of the largest and most prestigious medical research facilities, Duke University Medical Center, had federal funds temporarily suspended as an investigation into the research process was conducted (Weiss, 1999). Several areas of poor ethical decisions concerning the administrative procedures conducted during human trials prompted this investigation. Morals and sound judgments are the guidelines used in every ethical decision an organization conducts. Providing ethical guidelines is difficult as the morals and the judgment of those morals differs from one person to the next and one organization to the next. Nevertheless, the federal government has established formal guidelines to prevent inappropriate conduct during human trials for the protection of those lives. A routine visit by the federal Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) found several issues at Duke, mostly with the center's own Institutional Review Board who maintains the reviews on the studies to ensure they adhere to federal regulations and are ethically appropriate (Weiss, 1999). According to Duke officials, the main problem with the study was the administrative process such as poor bookkeeping but one failure...
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...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...
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...Business Research Ethics University of Phoenix Business Research RES/351 Business Research Ethics There have been many cases of unethical research that have contributed to how we perceive the way that research is done in today’s business world. One such case is that of a Harvard Researcher who may have skewed information and findings to further the efforts in primate research funding. Some may even say that this is a consequence of finding research money for projects. In the case of the Harvard researcher, a phycology professor was conducting a study on primates and their ability to recognized different sound patterns, which some may say is the basic skill of language development.("Harvard Research Convicted on Fraudulent NIH Primate Research – Immoral Mind," 2010, para. 7) Although the testing and studies were conducted under controlled situations the data the was gathered was either mishandled, documented under potential bias or just left out altogether. By the lead researcher making the decisions to handle the gathered information on the primates leads to the fact of unethical research practices by this study. Sense the funding for these research projects came from private and government monies this is still under an investigation as of the date of the article. With the head of the research study admitting to making misstates in how he handled and presented the information gathered from the studies, there have been several other research papers and documents that...
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