A quandary in management practice: Academic research or consulting?

This paper compares the practice of academic action research against management consulting. Consulting is founded upon a body of underpinning knowledge drawn from a different perspective than action research. Nevertheless, consulting and action research, in practice, draw from similar methods of investigation. The difficulty in distinguishing action research from consulting adds to unique ethical problems in practice. In this paper, an ethics quandary is identified, defined and explored with implications for research practice. An example of an action research project is presented to highlight the potential ethical dilemma and conflict of interest points of the investigation, whether as an academic or a consultant. The authors, by&nbsp;crystallising the boundaries of academic action research and consulting posit that, when designed and executed well, risk can be minimised to gather rich and deep insights into management practice.<br /

Psychosocial Risks of Storing and Using Human Tissues in Research

Dr. Merz argues that genetics technology makes it more compelling that researchers plan more carefully for the collection and disposition of information derived from subjects\u27 tissues and blood

Legal Ethics in the Digital Age

Ms. deMaine\u27s contribution to the seminar is: Legal Ethics in the Digital Agehttps://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1218/thumbnail.jp

Centering Consumer Dignity Within Volunteer Operations

Volunteerism has become so commonplace in the United States that it is often considered the third sector of our economy. To maximize output and stretch every dollar, many nonprofit agencies rely on volunteers to assist with the provision of their direct services. This unfettered access to their service population, without the same trainings and safeguards as implemented with paid staff, potentially create the opportunity for these volunteers to violate the dignity of the nonprofit consumer, either intentionally or unintentionally. The purpose of this study is to explore this phenomenon and determine if it is in fact a shared experience. Through a mixed methods approach and a critical theory framework, the study finds that this experience is in fact a shared one among health and human services nonprofit agencies in the greater Scranton area. It finds that these dignity violations occur in seven common ways (privacy invasion, negative communications, overstepping boundaries, value misalignment, judgement, violated autonomy, and confrontation), caused or allowed by deficiencies in four operational areas (communication, staff, volunteer roles, and training), and effects are felt across all stakeholders (the agency, staff, and volunteers). The discussion offers an alternative approach to public administration theory and an operational framework administrators may use to limit future occurrences of this phenomenon. With a more pointed focus on equity in public administration, future research should confirm the common occurrence of consumer dignity violation, measure its impact on the consumers themselves, and develop best practices to minimize its incidence

Personal Data Collection via the Internet: The Role of Privacy Sensitivity and Technology Trust

Policy makers and researchers from a wide range of perspectives have expressed concern about the interplay between privacy rights and information exchanges via the Internet. Of particular interest has been the challenge of protecting sensitive personal information. In this paper, we assert that user willingness to share sensitive data is an area of critical concern and requires additional investigation. In an effort to enrich the dialogue on the question of voluntary sharing of sensitive personal data via the Internet, we present a model showcasing the relationship between personal data sharing, privacy sensitivity, and technology trust and discuss how organizations can apply these insights

Assessing the Impact of Organizational Internet and Email Monitoring Policy on Australian Employees

Monitoring of Internet and email usage within the organisation aims to maintain workers’ productivity, minimise time inefficiency and misuse of resources. Whilst moderate monitoring may control resource efficiency, excessive monitoring may lead to declines in organizational effectiveness and breaches of business ethics. This research will focus on assessing the impact of organizational Internet and email monitoring on employees’ job satisfaction and productivity. Results identified that employees’ perception of Internet and email usage restrictions significantly impacts their satisfaction and perceived productivity. Consequently, findings contribute to a greater understanding of the impact of monitoring thus enabling optimum monitoring to be implemented within the workplace

Watching Them Watching Us

Steve Wright argues that the process of watching official and unofficial surveillance activities, is guided by an “uneasy ethics.” It can never be a neutral behaviour since someone is benefitting or being dis-benefitted, from both being watched, or being the watcher. The role of the military, security, police, university, media entertainment, industrial complex is now core. Surveillance capacities are being rapidly expanded, whilst existing checks and balances prove both inadequate or in a state of erosion. What can be done in the face of such change and who will create the requisite reinforcement, the checks and balances to prevent surveillance remorselessly moving even further beyond the limits of the law? Wright argues that this is a core issue of applied ethics: it cannot and should not be a sterile exercise in social and political astronomy; not if constitutional democratic systems as we know them are to survive. He calls for a much wider debate on the notion of meaningful human control…and the crucial roles of both whistleblowing and research activis

Professional Ethics in Information Systems: A Personal Perspective

In the Information Systems discipline, increasing attention is being paid to the issue of professional ethics. In this article, a personal perspective on the topic is offered. The academic philosophies of ethical theory are introduced, followed by detailed treatment of four fundamental issues: codes of ethics, intellectual property rights, professional accountability and data protection. The intention of the article is to arouse the interest of IS professionals and to stimulate debate. Through a discussion, future developments in the professionalism of information systems are explored, and questions are raised concerning the way in which information systems is regulated, and the role it may play in the future