BUSINESS RESEARCH ETHICS
BUSINESS RESEARCH ETHICS
RES/351
January 15, 2014
Aruna Abeyakoon
Business Research Ethics
The ethics in the business of research does refer to the code of conduct that would be expected to be observed while conducting the research. The ethical conduct applies to both the organization and the individual researcher of the conducting research. Such ethical behavior must be included in the steps of the research process from the analysis and data collection, through the reporting of the findings. If the organization or the individual researchers does not abide by the code of the ethics for the business research he, or she may end up facing penalties from …show more content…
the termination and also fines for jail time.
Unethical Research Example
November of 2007 Raj Mathur was convicted in receiving the “secret commissions” and the breach of trust for accepting the funds from a private company that was seeking government grants (Shannon, 2007).
Mathur was the National Research Council adviser who had duties that included; assisting the company for applying for government grants. Mathur’s wife Priti Mathur owned the company that had received the $300,000 in “consulting” fees from the private company. These had been unethical transactions that took place between 1999 and also 2003.
Priti Mathur had claimed the applications for government grants were completed by herself and also her son. But, she also didn’t admit to seeking advice from her husband occasionally. While Raj Mathur claimed he did give his wife more assistance than he would give any other companies seeking his advice the judge had over seen the trial found his statement to lack common sense (Shannon, 2007). He then ruled that Mathur was guilty of the crime of breach of …show more content…
trust.
Clearly it’s very unethical to accept excess funds as a way to receive a beneficial treatment in a research or analysis. This type of behavior can be related to accepting a bribe for services. While serving as an industrial technology adviser with the National Research Council Mathur was privy to a great deal of information in regards to companies receiving government grants. It was unethical of him to use this information for monetary gain through his wife’s company. No private institution should be given access to inside information that is not readily available to other companies.
While there were no apparent “victims” of the unethical behavior committed by Mathur a number of different parties could have been affected. One will never know the number of companies that did not receive grants due to the private institutions that paid Mathur for his inside information. A deserving company could have been turned down for a grant that one of Mathur’s companies received. Because the application for grants were skewed by Mr. Mathur it may have allowed a less deserving company, that was willing to pay Mathur for his services, the opportunity to receive a grant.
Mathur’s unethical behavior had an impact on the company Stratton & Ogilvey.
Stratton & Ogilvey was a Toronto based consulting company that paid the company owned by Mathur’s wife. It is not clear as to whether the company itself was legitimate or merely a front to attempt to hide the funds from being directly linked to Mathur. Due to the investigation and conviction the company is no longer in existence. Mathur himself was facing jail time due to his unethical behavior. I was unable to find details of the sentencing results in my search. As previously mentioned society overall was not greatly affected by the unethical behavior. The main effects on society continue to be the efforts to prevent actions like Mathur predicated and the unknown number of companies that did not receive government grants due to the unethical actions of
Mathur.
The unethical behavior of the accepting bribes or the “kickbacks” can be difficult to avoid. Obviously the world would be a better place if all individuals could and would behave more ethically. Unfortunately greed does play the large role in today’s society. There is a great number of individuals that do not have the ethical morals to say no to money. The best thing we can do to society to help prevent this type of unethical behavior is to ensure that those individuals committing these violations are found out and brought to justice. If more individuals are penalized for behaving unethically it will deter others from conducting themselves unethically.
Conclusion
It would be naïve to think we could eliminate the unethical research behavior in our society. We can’t allow these unethical researchers to continue to permeate these industry. Each individual must be held accountable to the code of the ethics that all researcher should abide by. This code of ethics includes informing any necessary parties of the discretions observed. The ethics of business research include not only the conducting research but also the participating research. If all parties that are involved maintain the same type of level of moral ethics, the unethical research activities could be limited. It is up to each individual to hold others accountable for each other actions.
References: Shannon, K. (2007, November 7). Ex-bueraucrat convicted; Former research adviser caught in breach of trust scandal. The Windsor Star. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/254780841/13960916ECA603ED121/1?accountid=35812