Business: Ethical Decision Making Cases, Research Paper Example

In measuring these questions for the research study, we have used a combination of both summated and composite measures. There are nine questions with summated measures as well as only one question with a composite measure. What makes the first nine questions summated is that there is no right or wrong answer and that there are also multiple items which a participant may choose from. The questions are not dependent on each other either. The last question in the questionnaire would be considered to use a composite measure because it makes use of an ordinal scale, with that being a rating measure of 1 through 10 (Zikmund, Babin, Carr & Griffin, 2013).

The independent variable are all focused on as the questions are answered with the qualitative element yet organized as quantitative data. For example, question 1 may be an qualitative type question, but when all data is collected from the questionnaire, it will be tallied into quantitative results that can be studied to support or reject the hypothesis (Jaffe, Strait, & Odgers, 2012).

The research questions will be measured as follows.

1. Upon employment into the organization, did you receive ethics training and certification?

Summated: Yes, I received ethics training & certification.

No, I did not receive ethics training and certification.

2. Have you been provided with a copy of the organization’s code of ethics?

Summated: Yes, I have been provided a copy.

No, I have not been provided a copy.

3. Have you ever taken time to review the code of ethics outside of work?

Summated: Yes, I review the ethics code outside of work.

No, I do not review the ethics code outside of work.

4. Have you ever unknowingly violated the code of ethics and found about it afterwards?

Summated: Yes, I have unknowingly violated the ethics code and learned of it afterwards.

No, I have never unknowingly violated the ethics code and learned of it afterwards.

5. Have you ever witnessed a peer violate the code of ethics unknowingly?

Summated: Yes, I have witnessed a peer violate the ethics code unknowingly.

No, I have not witnessed a peer violate the ethics code unknowingly.

6. Have you ever corrected or reported another peer in violation of the code of ethics?

Summated: Yes, I have corrected or reported a peer on an ethics code violation.

No, I have not corrected or reported a peer on an ethics code violation.

7. Have you ever been a victim of sexual harassment?

Summated: Yes, I have been a victim of sexual harassment.

No, I have not been a victim of sexual harassment.

8. Have you ever witnessed sexual harassment in the work environment?

Summated: Yes, I have witnessed sexual harassment in the work place.

No, I have not witnessed sexual harassment in the work place.

9. Have you ever wanted to report sexual harassment offenders, but were too afraid to do so in fear of losing your job or tarnishing your reputation?

Summated: Yes, I have been reluctant to report sexual harassment offenders in fear of losing my job.

No, I have not been reluctant to report sexual harassment offenders in fear of losing my job.

10. On a scale from 1 through 10, with 10 being the highest level of enforcement, how well do you think the code of ethics is being enforced by the organization?

Composite: 1 – 10

To ensure that the collection of the population remains random, we have borrowed software from a third party IT department to send out the e-mails containing the questionnaire. This software allows for all employees’ names and official work e-mails to be input into a pool. The samples will be informed of their confidentiality being maintained and be instructed to submit the questionnaire upon completion (Hair, Money, Samouel, & Page, 2007). Maintaining this confidentiality is an ethical approach for the study as well as the human subjects.

With this approach, we have already eliminated possible biases. We have eliminated the possibility of gender bias by evenly distributing both genders in the organization. We have also eliminated the possibility of political biases by keeping the sample selection randomized and out of any one employee’s favor; which eliminated the conflict of favoritism in this study. Also, the use of a third party IT department for the software eliminates any conflict of interest (Hair, 2007).

Unfortunately, there is no absolute way to ensure the reliability and validity of the responses to these questions. Although absolute assurance is not possible, we may obtain reasonable assurance. We may do so by running the same questionnaire again through a series of questionnaires and comparing the results of one questionnaire against the other. So, this one study may consist of multiple questionnaires, using the same survey, with different random sample populations (Hair 2007).

The objective of this organizational study is to determine how the lack of abidance to the ethical code has led to issues in the work environment. This would be approached as a quasi-type experiment and not a true experiment. The dependent variable is what is being measured in this experiment. In this case, the dependent variable is the level of understanding of the code of ethics. Each question would address the research question in a correlating fashion.

We feel that this is an effective use of both composite and summated measures in the questionnaire. The measures are all independent of each other, and none have right or wrong answers. Yes, some questions can be used to predict the outcomes of others while still remaining independent. For example, questions 2 and 3 share this relationship (Jaffe 2012).

References

DesJardins, J. R., & McCall, J. J. (2014). Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage Learning.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2014). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Cengage learning.

Hair, J. F., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. (2007). Research methods for business. Education+ Training, 49(4), 336-337.

Jaffee, S. R., Strait, L. B., & Odgers, C. L. (2012). From correlates to causes: can quasi-experimental studies and statistical innovations bring us closer to identifying the causes of antisocial behavior?. Psychological bulletin,138(2), 272.

Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods (9^th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.