Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T04:53:12.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Exploring Ethical Issues Using Personal Interviews

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Abstract

This paper argues that the personal interview method is particularly appropriate for the kind of exploratory and complicated theory-building research that ethical decision-making, as a topic, represents at present. In doing so, it examines the key tasks of the ethics researcher, the suitability of interviews for obtaining the kind of data needed to accomplish these tasks, and the ensuing problems faced by the interview methodologist. It concludes with suggestions for enhancing the validity and reliability of interview-based ethics research.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, G. (1971) The Essence of Decision (Boston: Little, Brown).Google Scholar
Armacost, R., Hosseini, J., Morris, S. and Rehbein, K. (1990) “Alternative Questioning Methods For Addressing Social Desirability Effects in SIM Research,” presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Argyris, C., Putnam, R., and Smith, D. (1985) Action Science (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).Google Scholar
Bachrach, P. and Baratz, M. (1979) Power and Poverty (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Bird, F. and Waters, J. (1987) “The Nature of Managerial Moral Standards,Journal of Business Ethics, 6, pp. 0113.Google Scholar
Carroll, J. and Johnson, E. (1990) Decision Research: A Field Guide (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Churchman, C. (1971) The Design of Inquiring Systems (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Culbert, S. and McDonough, J. (1985) Radical Management (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Cyert, R. and March, J. (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
DeGeorge, R. (1986) Business Ethics (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.).Google Scholar
Denzin, N. (1970) Sociological Methods: A Sourcebook (Chicago: Aldine Publishing).Google Scholar
Denzin, N. (1989) Interpretive Interactionism (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.).Google Scholar
Derry, R. (1987) “Moral Reasoning in Work-Related Conflicts,” in Frederick, W. (ed.) Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy (Greenwich, CT: The JAI Press), pp. 2550.Google Scholar
DuBois, C. (1937) “Some Psychological Objectives and Techniques in Ethogra-phy,Journal of Social Psychology 3, pp. 285301.Google Scholar
Etzioni, A. (1988) The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. and Simon, H. (1984) Protocol Analysis (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press).Google Scholar
Fortado, B. (1990) “The Responsibilities of a Semi-Structured Interviewer,Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 3; 1, pp. 3146.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. (1990) “Stakeholder Theory: A Feminist Reading,” presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Glaser, B., and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory (Hawthorne, NY: Aldine Publishing Co.).Google Scholar
Golden, K. (1988) “Issues in Conducting and Authoring Ethnographic Research: Personal Reflections on a Recent Experience,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council on Employee Responsibilities and Rights, Virginia Beach, VA.Google Scholar
Golden, K. and Locke, K. (1990) “Constructing Convincing Work: Reading and Writing Qualitative Research,” presented at the Academy of Management meeting, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Hummel, R. (1991) “Stories Managers Tell: Why They are as Valid as Science,Public Administration Review, 51 (1), pp. 3141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isenberg, D. (1986) “Thinking and Managing: A Verbal Protocol Analysis of Managerial Probien Solving,Academy of Management Journal, 29 (4), pp. 775–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackall, R. (1988) Moral Mazes (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Jick, T. (1979) “Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action,Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, pp. 602–11.Google Scholar
Kirk, J. and Miller, M. (1986) Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, F. (1940) “The Participant-Observer Technique in Small Communities,American Journal of Sociology 46 (3), pp. 331–43.Google Scholar
Kram, K. (1985) Mentoring at Work (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Co.).Google Scholar
Kram, K., Yeager, P., and Reed, G. (1989) “Decisions and Dilemmas: The Ethical Dimension in the Corporate Context,” in Post, J. (ed.) Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy (Greenwich, CT: The JAI Press), pp. 2154.Google Scholar
Krippendorff, K. (1980) Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Liedtka, J. (1989) “Managerial Values and Corporate Decision-Making: An Empirical Analysis of Value Congruence in Two Organizations,” in Post, J. (ed.) Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy (Greenwich, CT: The JAI Press), pp. 5592.Google Scholar
Lipset, S., Trow, M. and Coleman, J. (1970) “Organizational Analysis,” in Denzin, N. (ed.) Sociological Methods: A Sourcebook (Chicago: Aldine Publishing), pp. 127–36.Google Scholar
Lowman, R. (1985) “What is Clinical Method?” in Berg, D. and Smith, K., Exploring Clinical Methods for Social Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.).Google Scholar
Marcus, G. and Cushman, D. (1982) “Ethnographies as Text,Annual Review of Anthropology, pp. 2569.Google Scholar
McCracken, G. (1988) The Long Interview (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.).Google Scholar
Miles, M. and Huberman, A. (1984) Qualitative Data Analysis (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Mishler, E. (1986) Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Mirvis, P., and Louis, M. (1985) “Self-Full Research: Working Through the Self as Instrument in Organizational Research,” in Berg, D. and Smith, K.Exploring Clinical Methods for Social Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.), pp. 229–46.Google Scholar
Mostyn, B. (1985) “The Content Analysis of Qualitative Research Data,” in Brenner, M., Brown, J. and Canter, D. (eds.) The Research Interview: Uses and Approaches (London: Academic Press), pp. 115–46.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. and Wilson, T. (1977) “Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes,Psychological Review, 84 (3), pp. 231–59.Google Scholar
Randall, D. and Fernandes, M. (1990) “Social Desirability Response Bias in Ethics Research: Impact and Measurement,” presented at the Academy of Management meeting, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Ravlin, E., and Meglino, B. (1987) “Issues in Work Values Measurement,” in Frederick, W., Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy (JAI Press: Greenwich, CT), pp. 153–84.Google Scholar
Rorty, R. (1991) Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (New York: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Rosen, M. (1991) “Coming to Terms With the Field: Understanding and Doing Organizational Ethnography,Journal of Management Studies, 28, pp. 124.Google Scholar
Rousseau, D. (1990) “Assessing Organizational Culture: The Case for Multiple Methods,” in Schneider, B. (ed.) Frontiers in Industrial of Organizational Psychology, 3, pp. 153–92.Google Scholar
Schein, E. (1987) The Clinical Perspective in Fieldwork (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.).Google Scholar
Sutton, R., and Schurman, J. (1985) “On Studying Emotionally Hot Topics: Lessons from an Investigation of Organizational Death,” in Berg, D. and Smith, K., Exploring Clinical Methods for Social Research (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.), pp. 333–50.Google Scholar
Toffler, B. (1986) Tough Choices (New York: John Wiley and Sons).Google Scholar
Ungson, G., Braunstein, D. and Hall, P. (1981) “Managerial Information Processing: A Research Review,Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, pp. 116–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Maanen, J. (1979) Qualitative Methodology (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the Field (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Warner, L. and Lunt, P. (1941) The Social Life of a Modern Community (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Waters, J. and Bird, F. (1987) “The Moral Dimension of Organizational Culture,Journal of Business Ethics, 6, pp. 1522.Google Scholar
Waters, J., Bird, F., and Chant, P. (1986) “Everyday Moral Issues Experienced by Managers,Journal of Business Ethics, 5, pp. 373–84.Google Scholar
Weick, K. (1969) The Social Psychology of Organizing (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley).Google Scholar
Whyte, W. (1956) The Organization Man (New York: Simon and Schuster).Google Scholar
Whyte, W. (1984) Learning From the Field (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Zerbe, W. and Paulhus, D. (1987) “Socially Desirable Responding in Organizational Behavior: A Reconception,Academy of Management Review, 12 (2), pp. 250–64.Google Scholar