MOD001085 & MOD001086

Undergraduate Major Project

Lecture 4
Addressing ethical issues

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Learning objectives
• Understand the nature of business ethics;
• Be able to appreciate the importance of
ethics in business;
• Know how to address ethical issues;
• Recognize how ethics can be interpreted
across cultures;
• Realize why your research needs ethical
approval;

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Learning Objectives
• Be aware of the role of the university or
college research ethics committee;
• Be aware of the consequences of not
following ethical guidelines;
• Be familiar with how to negotiate access
when conducting your research.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Detailed information
• Appendix 9 of your module guide
explains in detail the process for ethics
approval – please read and follow the
process outlined

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Definition of ethics
• The principles, norms, and standards of conduct
governing an individual or group.

Source: Trevino and Nelson (1999: 12).

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Research stakeholders
Research
Employer
supervisor

Your
University / Research
Organizational
college project participants

Individual Researchers &

participants community

Research stakeholders
Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues
 Why do I need to learn about
ethical values?
• When undertaking your research project,
you will need to be aware of a range of
ethical issues that impact a wide variety of
research participants
• Learning about business ethics can
provide you transferable skills that can be
used in the workplace.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethical responsibilities to research
stakeholders
• Individual participants.
• Protection of participants.
• Safety of the researcher.
• Recruitment and informed consent.
• Anonymity.
• Confidentiality.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Confidentiality and anonymity
• Confidentiality – Usually not such an
issue for research projects. Restrictions can
usually be placed on copies going into the
public domain (e.g. university library)
• Anonymity - Unless you have obtained
your participants’ agreement to mention
them as providers of data, you should use
the information they give you
anonymously.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

Responsibility to other researchers and
the wider community
• The main areas of responsibility include
ensuring against plagiarism and self-plagiarism.
• Plagiarism ‘the deliberate copying of someone else’s
work and presenting it as one’s own.’
• Self-plagiarism ‘including work in your research
project that you have already submitted as part of a
previous piece of assessment.’

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

Maintaining professional standards
• Important to consider the following factors:
• Personal conduct
• Deception
• Respect
• Conflict of interest
• Dissemination
• Debriefing
• Collusion

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Negotiating access
• Use all available contacts
• Use a key individual as part of ‘snowball
sampling’.
• Provide a clear overview of your research
• Answer the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question
• Build relationships

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics across cultures
• Important to show respect and willingness
to adapt to different cultures, be prepared
to follow ‘written’ and ‘unwritten’ codes
of conduct, understand sensitive issues
when compiling questionnaire surveys,
and respect varying degrees of
confidentiality and anonymity.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics approval
• Required for the following reasons:
• To protect the rights and welfare of participants
and minimise risk of physical and mental
discomfort, harm and danger from research
procedures.
• To protect your rights as a researcher to carry
out legitimate investigation as well as the
reputation of the University for research;
conducted and sponsored by it.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics approval
• To minimise the potential for claims of
negligence made against you, the University and
any collaborating individual or organisation.
• Because increasingly external funding bodies
and refereed journals require a statement of
ethical practice in applications for research
funds and as a precondition of publication.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics application form
Section 1: RESEARCHER AND PROJECT DETAILS
Researcher details:
Name(s):
Department:
Faculty:
Anglia Ruskin email
address:
Status:
Undergraduate Taught Postgraduate Staff
Postgraduate Research
If this is a student project:
SID
Course Title
Supervisor / Tutor name

Project details:
Project title (not module title):
Data collection start date:
(note must be prospective)
Expected project completion
date:
Is the project externally
funded?
CONFIRMATION STATEMENTS – please tick the box to confirm you understand
these requirements
The project has a direct benefit to society and/or improves knowledge and
understanding.
All researchers involved have completed relevant training in research ethics,
and consulted the Guidelines for Applying for Ethical Approval at Anglia
Ruskin University.
The risks participants, colleagues or the researchers may be exposed to have
been considered and appropriate steps to reduce any risks identified taken
(risk assessment(s) must be completed if applicable, available at:
http://rm.anglia.ac.uk/extlogin.asp)
My research will comply with the Data Protection Act (1998).
Project summary (maximum 500 words):
Please outline rationale for the research, the project aim, the research questions,
research procedure and details of the participant population and how they will be
recruited.
Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues
 Ethics application form
Section 2: RESEARCH ETHICS CHECKLIST -please answer YES or NO to ALL
of the questions below.
WILL YOUR RESEARCH STUDY? YES NO
1 Involve any external organisation for which separate research ethics
clearance is required (e.g. NHS, Social Services, Ministry of Justice)?
2 Involve individuals who lack capacity to consent aged 16 years of age
and over who will therefore fall under the Mental Capacity Act (2005)?
3 Collect, use or store any human tissue/DNA including but not limited to
serum, plasma, organs, saliva, urine, hairs and nails?
4 Involve medical research with humans, including clinical trials?
5 Administer drugs, placebos or other substances (e.g. food substances,
vitamins) to human participants?
6 Cause (or could cause) pain, physical or psychological harm or negative
consequences to human participants?
7 Involve the researchers and/or participants in the potential disclosure of
any information relating to illegal activities; or observation / handling /
storage of material which may be illegal?
8 With respect to human participants or stakeholders, involve any
deliberate deception, covert data collection or data collection without
informed consent?
9 Involve children under 18 years of age?
10 Relate to military sites, equipment, weapons or the Defence Industry?
11 Involve culturally, spiritually or historically significant artefacts or places,
including human remains?
12 Involve genetic modification, or use of genetically modified organisms?
13 Contain elements you (or members of your team) are not trained to
conduct?
14 Potentially reveal incidental findings related to human participant health
status?
15 Present a risk of compromising the anonymity or confidentiality of
personal, sensitive or confidential information provided by human
participants and/or organisations?
16 Involve colleagues, students, employees, business contacts or other
individuals whose response may be influenced by your power or
relationship with them?
17 Require the co-operation of a gatekeeper for initial access to the human
participants (e.g. pupils / students, self-help groups, nursing home
residents, business, charity, museum, government department,
international agency)?
18 Offer financial or other incentives to human participants?
19 Take place outside of the UK, in full or in part?
20 Cause a negative impact on the environment (over and above that of
normal daily activity)?
21 Involve direct and/or indirect contact with human participants?*
22 Raise any other ethical concerns not covered in this checklist?

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics application form
Section 3: APPROVAL PROCESS

Prior to application:
1. Researcher / student / project tutor completes ethics training .
2. Lead researcher / student completes Stage 1 Research Ethics Application form in consultation with co -
researchers / project tutor.

NO answered to all questions Research can proceed.

(Risk category 1) You need to: Send this completed form to
faculty office for record.
You need to:
i) Complete Section 4 of this form.
ii) Produce Participant Information Sheet (PIS)
(Appendix 10) and Participant Consent Form
(PCF) (Appendix 11).
iii) Submit this form and PIS/ PCF where
applicable to your faculty office, who will
forward it to DREP/FREP

Two members of the DREP/FREP will review

NO answered to question 1-13 the application and report to the panel, who
YES answered to any question 14- will consider whether the ethical risks have
22 (Risk Category 2); such as been managed appropriately.
question 21 • Yes : DREP / FREP inform research team of
approval and forward forms to FREP for
recording.
• No: DREP / FREP provides feedback to
researcher outlining revisions required.

The panel may recommend that the project is

upgraded to Category 3 - please see below for
procedure.

Submit this completed form to your faculty

office to inform them of your intention to apply
to an external review panel for your project.
Yes answered to question 1 and / or For NHS (NRES) applications, the FREP Chair
2 would normally act as sponsor / co-sponsor for
(Risk Category 3) your application.
The outcome notification from the external
review panel should be forwarded to FREP for
recording.

Complete this form and the Stage 2 Research

Yes answered to any question 3-13
Ethics Application form and submit to your
(Risk Category 3) faculty. FREP will review the application and
approve the application when they are satisfied
that all ethical issues have been dealt with
Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues appropriately.
 Ethics Application Form
• As you will not be collecting primary data only Risk
Category 1 will apply.

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics application form

Section 5: Declaration
Declaration and Signatures
I confirm that I will undertake this project as detailed above. I understand that I
must abide by the terms of this approval and that I may not substantially
amend the project without further approval.
Signature (lead Date
researcher)

Signature (project
supervisor – student
projects only)

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Ethics application
• The process is very precise and it is important to
get it right, so

• Do you have any questions about filling out your

ethics application form?

• Sources of further information:

– Module guide
– VLE: Folder ‘Ethics – Additional information’

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues

 Other common questions
• What do I do if any of my research participants
wish for the information provided to remain
confidential?
• These ethical issues are not so important in my
country. Why do they need to be applied here?
• I don’t fully understand plagiarism. What is it?
And how can I avoid it?

Lecture 4: Addressing ethical issues