Ethics

To do the “right thing” you need to know what the “right thing” is.

ETHICAL ISSUES

PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONSSOCIETAL NORMSCODES OF BEHAVIOR

Ethical expectations & Business legitimacy

Balance between

- high economic performance

- high ethical standards

Continuing challenge of meeting changing public expectations

Reasons for ethical business behaviour

Fulfill public expectations for business Prevent harming others Improve business relations and employee

productivity Reduce penalties Protect business from others Protect employees from their employers Promote personal morality

Business Ethics across Organizational Functions

Accounting Ethics (Enron, Worldcom) – Honesty, integrity, accuracy

Marketing Ethics – Professional Codes of Conduct

Financial Ethics (Martha Stewart)– Insider trading

Information System Ethics – Selling Mail Lists

Rights and Obligations of the Respondent

• The obligation to be truthful versus

The right to Privacy

• The “need” for Deception versus

The right to be informed

• The right to safety

Rights and Obligations of the Researcher

• The purpose of research is research

• Objectivity

• Misrepresenting research

• Protect the right to confidentiality

of both subjects and clients

• Dissemination of faulty conclusions

• Advocacy research

Rights and Obligations of Client Sponsor (User)

Ethics between buyer and seller

• Open relationship with research suppliers

• Open relationship with interested parties

• Privacy

• Commitment to research

• Pseudo-pilot studies

Advocacy Research

Research to support a specific legal claim

Pseudo-Pilot Studies

The researcher is told that the study is the first of many in a more comprehensive study

Drug use

The police authority is conducting research into illicit drug use. They conduct telephone surveys where they do not tell respondents that they are the police.

Utilitarianism

The end justifies the means

Deception was justified because the subjects would never have revealed information about drug use if they knew that the police commission funded the study

Moral idealism

A personal philosophy whereby conduct is evaluated on the basis of adherence to or violation of a “universal right ”

Deception is wrong. No rationale makes it right.

Ethical relativism

“It depends…” Conduct is evaluated on the basis of context,

often cultural

“In this context it was OK to do. Deception is consistent with the corporate culture of police work. It would have been wrong for…”