Business Research Methods - 9th Edition - Zikmund, Babin, Carr, Griffin Chapter 5 The Human Side of Business Research: Organizational and Ethical Issues Case 5.1 Solution First observation out of this situation is the objective of the research has a hidden agenda of the VPOperations for “Eats-R-Wee” Mr. Big himself where he wants the research outcomes to support the position that they are set to move across the border of Ontario, Canada; means that the decision has been taken regardless of the research, and it is kind of deception as he just wants the research to support his decision, he doesn’t want the research to indicate different outcomes that doesn’t support his decision. Thus, the research project is no more objective it is bias for the decision by VPOperations who gave clear instructions of what results he wants, thus he is controlling and leading the research and Barton Boomer would have difficulties reflecting honest results and answers. Researcher needs objective scientific investigation to ensure accuracy and should maintain high standards to be certain that their data are accurate, and they must not intentionally try to prove a particular point for any purpose, which is in this case proving that Mr. Big’s decision is the right one. Second observation is that Mr. Big needs the research project completed within a month, which is definitely not enough time to conduct well-organized research with valid outcomes and good significant results, time here is a barrier for a scientific decision in a business research. Another observation is that Mr. Big wants Barton Boomer to breach confidentiality of his clients by asking him to provide previously done research for any of “Eats-R-Wee” competitors because he is interested in how they will react and this act itself is definitely a big ethical issue in research projects, the confidentiality of customers and clients involved in any business research should be maintained and can’t be shared with anyone. The last observation is that Mr. Big has indicated that they will pay top money for a “good” report, and since he has previously mentioned he want the research result to support his decision so “good” report here is an indicator of the report with the result that Mr. Big wants. Therefore, money here is another ethical issue that implies for a kind of “bribery” to encourage the researcher to conclude a supportive result for his decision which will negatively affect the honesty and objectivity of the researcher due to the conflict of interest he has now, he is supposed to get big money if the report was “GOOD” report that support Mr. Big’s decision. Due to the above observations Barton Boomer is facing an ethical dilemma that may cause him not to proceed in the research Barton can first inform Mr. Big that in order to get the true outcomes of the business research that should reflect positively on the operation of “Eats-R-Wee”, his research has to be objective regardless of any taken decision, and try to tell Mr. Big that a researcher has an obligation of being truthful and explain to him that even if the results of the research didn’t support his decision it could reflect positively on the company by avoiding a strategy that could cause many future negative implications and if the result truly supported his decision then he could proceed with his plan with more confident, in this way by trying to reduce the conflict with the management Barton Boomer can proceed his research objectively reflecting honest and objective answers. Barton Boomer should for sure inform the management that any business research can not be framed with a short time period and for the research to have good scientific results it should take time for preparing, planning and conducting the research. The most important thing that Barton Boomer has to communicate with Mr. Big, is the confidentiality of clients in any business research, which is “Eats-R-Wee” confidentiality as well as any other previous clients he did research for that is why he can’t provide research results of any clients who are competitors of “Eats-R-Wee” and try to convince them that new data can be collected and outsourced and previous researches doesn’t necessary have applicable results in the case of their company, in anyway he has to convince them that sharing information of his clients cannot be done. And to avoid conflict of interest, he should behave in an ethical way and inform the company that since his job is “Director of Marketing Research” so his job is to do the business research and no need for any extra money as he is already getting his salary, but he will only require research project expenses. The last thing Mr. Smith has to do is to periodically communicate research findings with Mr. Big and the management in order to inform them step by step of the outcomes of the research project.
