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The ethics of data collection: unintended consequences?
Delia Wainwright1, Sally Sambrook
1Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
Journal of Health Organization and Management
|August 12, 2010
Summary
Ethical approval policies in UK health and social care create paradoxes for ethnographic research. Protecting vulnerable employees can unintentionally compel them to reveal identities, complicating insider research.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Organizational Behavior
- Research Ethics
Background:
- Stringent ethical approval policies in the UK's health and social care sector are increasingly impacting research.
- The protection of "vulnerable" employees presents unique challenges in research settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the political and ethical challenges of ethnographic managerial research in regulated health and social care.
- To examine the unintended consequences of "ethical approval" policies when participants voluntarily reveal themselves.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on research ethics and UK National Health Service regulations.
- Ethnographic case study focusing on the psychological contract.
- Qualitative questionnaire survey with 13 participants, including insider researcher's team.
- Analysis incorporating researcher's reflexive journal excerpts.
Main Results:
- Ethnographic research in health and social care faces significant restrictions and threats.
- Some employees did not wish to be protected, while others felt compelled to reveal their identities.
- Participant self-disclosure created a paradox of unintended consequences for the research.
Conclusions:
- Conducting nurse-managerial ethnography within ethical guidelines is challenging due to participant-driven disruptions.
- Findings offer insights for nurse-researchers navigating insider research complexities.
- The study highlights the tension between ethical compliance and participant autonomy in ethnographic research.
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