This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ferdinand, J. Articles by Worthington, F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A different kind of ethics

University of Liverpool, UK, ferdinand{at}liverpool.ac.uk

Geoff Pearson

University of Liverpool, UK, pearsong{at}liv.ac.uk

Mike Rowe

rowe{at}liverpool.ac.uk

Frank Worthington

University of Liverpool, UK, F.Worthington{at}liverpool.ac.uk

Drawing on four `tales from the field', provided one each by the authors, this article examines the ethical and moral dilemmas ethnographers can face during their research. In particular, we address two key questions. First, what does being ethical actually involve? Second, is there a moral duty owed by researchers and, if so, to whom is this duty owed? The article reviews current debates over ethics in ethnographic research, specifically the responsibilities of the researcher to his/her research subjects, before turning to the four `tales from the field'. These tales form the basis for a discussion of a researcher's ethical responsibilities when confronted with wrongdoing, in different forms, in the course of their fieldwork.

Key Words: ethics • politics • whistle blowing • sensitive data

References

• Alvesson, M. and S. Deetz (2000) Doing Critical Management Research. London: Sage .
• Alvesson, M. and H. Willmott (1999) Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage .
• Bell, E. and A. Bryman (2007) ` The Ethics of Management Research: An Exploratory Content Analysis ', British Journal of Management 18(1): 163—77 .
• Bhaskar, R. (1993) Dialectic. The Pulse of Freedom. London: Verso .
• British Sociological Association (2002) Statement of Ethical Practice for the British Sociological Association. Available online at: [http://www.britsoc.co.uk/equality/63.htm ], accessed 1 November 2006.
• Bauman, Z. (1993) Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell .
• Bulmer, M. (1980) ` Comment on the "Ethics of Covert Methods "', The British Journal of Sociology 31(1): 59—65 .[CrossRef]
• Cabral-Cardoso, C. (2004) ` Ethical Misconduct in the Business School: A Case of Plagiarism that Turned Bitter ', Journal of Business Ethics 49(1): 75—89 .[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Coffey, A. (1999) The Ethnographic Self. London: Sage .
• Cohen, S. (2001) States of Denial . Cambridge : Polity.
• Collins, D. (2000) ` The Quest to Improve the Human Condition: The First 1500 Articles Published in Journal of Business Ethics ', Journal of Business Ethics 26(1): 1—73 .[CrossRef]
• Delbridge, R. (1995) ` Surviving JIT: Control and Resistance in a Japanese Transplant ', Journal of Management Studies 32(6): 803—17 .[CrossRef]
• Delbridge, R. and P. Turnbull (1992) `Human Resource Maximization — "The Management of Labour under a JIT System"', in P. Blyton and P. Turnbull (eds) Reassessing Human Resource Management, pp. 56—73. London: Sage .
• Edwards, P.K. (1986) Conflict at Work. Oxford: Blackwell .
• Ezzamel, M., H. Willmott and F. Worthington (2001) ` Power, Control and Resistance in the Factory that Time Forgot ', Journal of Management Studies 38(8): 1053—80 .[CrossRef]
• Fournier, V. and C. Grey (2000) ` At the Critical Moment: Conditions and Prospects for Critical Management Studies ', Human Relations 53(1): 7—32 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Goodpaster, K.E. (1995) ` Commentary on MacIntyre and the Manager ', Organization 2(2): 212—16 .[CrossRef]
• Grey, C. (2005) A Fairly Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations. London: Sage .
• Hallowell, N., J. Lawton and S. Gregory (2005) Reflections on Research: The Realities of Doing Research in the Social Sciences. Milton Keynes: Open University Press .
• Harvey, L. (1990) Critical Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman .
• Hammersley, M. (2006) ` Are Ethical Committees Ethical? ', Qualitative Researcher 2: 4—8 .
• Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson (1995) Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London: Tavistock .
• Hobbs, D. (1988) Doing the Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
• Hobbs, D. and T. May (eds) (1993) Interpreting the Field. Oxford: Clarendon Press .
• Lee, R.M. (1995) Dangerous Fieldwork. London: Sage .
• Marx, K. (1867/1976) Capital, Vol. 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
• Oliver, N. and B. Wilkinson (1992) The Japanization of British Industry. Oxford: Blackwell .
• Parker, M. (1998) `Ethics, the Very Idea?', in M. Parker (ed.) Ethics and Organizations, pp. 1—14. London: Sage .
• Parker, M. (1999) ` Capitalism, Subjectivity and Ethics: Debating Labour Process Analysis ', Organization Studies 20(1): 25—45 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Plummer, K. (2001) Documents of Life 2. London: Sage .
• Sewell, G. and B. Wilkinson (1992) `" Someone to Watch Over Me": Surveillance, Discipline and the Just-In-Time Process ', Sociology 26(2): 271—89 .[Abstract]
• Smith, L.T. (1999) Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Dunedin: University of Otago Press .
• Socio-Legal Studies Association First Re-Statement of Research Ethics. Available online at: [http://www.slsa.ac.uk/download/ethics_drft2.pdf ].
• Steinbacker, S. (2005) Auschwitz: A History. New York: Penguin Books .
• Thomas, A. (1993) Doing Critical Ethnography. London: Sage .
• Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the Field. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press .
• Willmott, H. (1998) `Towards a New Ethics? The Contribution of Post-structuralism and Posthumanism', in M. Parker (ed.) Ethics and Organizations, pp. 76—121. London: Sage .
• Wray-Bliss, E. (2005) `Abstract Ethics, Embodied Ethics: The Strange Marriage of Marx and Foucault and Positivism in Labour Process Theory', in H. Willmott and C. Grey (eds) Critical Management Studies: A Reader, pp. 383—414. Oxford: Oxford University Press .

Ethnography, Vol. 8, No. 4, 519-543 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1466138107083566


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ferdinand, J. Articles by Worthington, F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?