Ethics and Methodology for Business Research into CSR

INTRODUCTION

What are ethical considerations in Research?

Ethical considerations are defined as the standards or the norms which are used for distinguishing acceptable and unacceptable code of conduct. The validity, accountability and reliability of the research largely depends upon ethical considerations taken into account by the researcher. Ethical considerations in the study assures that all issues such as confidentiality, honesty, objectivity and other legal aspects are followed by the researcher in each and every phase of the research (Roberts, 2015). It is very important for the researcher to follow the ethical considerations in data collection and analysis phase of the research so that data falsification can be prevented, and study outcomes can be made more reliable and accurate. The ethics are essential to follow in data collection process so that study outcomes can be beneficial for the hospitality organisations as well as for individual professionals.

PROJECT – “Impact of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on employee’s work life – hospitality industry.”

Project Summary

The aim of the study is to analyse the impact of CSR on work life of employee’s in hospitality industry through a case example of Hilton hotel. The research will include the qualitative analysis of the data for development of research conclusions. The participants for the study include 30 employees of Hilton hotel, UK which will be selected on random basis. The data collection will include the primary methods and a questionnaire will be used to collect the data. The participants of the study will be asked to answer few questions on the basis of which suitable themes will be developed and analysed. The analysis of these themes and response of the employee’s will assist in evaluating the CSR strategy of hotel Hilton and its impact on work performance of the employee’s. The analysis will also be helpful in formulating the general trends and impact in hospitality industry (Roberts and Allen, 2015). An estimate of three months is required to collect and analyse the data from the participants. The project also aims at exploring the impact of corporate social responsibility strategies on planning and operational strategies of the organisation.

Participant Details

In this research 30 employees of Hotel Hilton, UK will be chosen as the participants for the study. The participants include people from age group of 30-60 years. Both males and females will be chosen from the available group so that a wide perspective of impact of CSR can be obtained. The participant size is kept small so that response of each participants can be analysed in detail and it is easy to narrow down the central themes for the analysis purpose. The huge size of participants is more suitable for the quantitative study, so in this research a small size of only 30 employees is selected to make study more feasible and manageable.

Participant Selection

In order to make the data collection process more reliable and informative specific inclusion and exclusion criteria is used for the recruitment purpose. For this study a wide range of age group is selected so that capabilities and personal traits of individual employees are also considered in the analysis process. One of the exclusion criteria used for the participants is that only those employees are chosen for the study who have been part of the Hilton hotel from more than 3 years so that they are well aware of the CSR policies and practices of organisation. For this research, the operational level employees are given priority so that study participants have complete knowledge of planning as well as execution level challenges. Due to this reason managers are not included for the study as they have limited scope of the impact of CSR on work life at operational level.

Where will participants be approached or recruited?

Participants will be approached through a proper network of communication with the regional manager of Hilton hotel. The manager will be approached through a formal communication via email and then a personal face to face communication. After discussion and approval from the manager, all the possible and available candidates are informed about the research through a formal email conversation. Participants are not provided any financial incentive or the compensation and are asked to participate in the research as part of general business survey which will help organisation to improve performance of their employees. The participants can inform investigators about their interest by providing their confirmation on the mail sent to them.

Informed consent

Informed consent is necessary for the participants so that it can be assured that participants are well aware of the research objectives, purpose and procedures. The informed consent confirms the willingness of individuals to participate in the research. Participants can revert through formal email which was sent to them regarding research purpose and procedures and their interest towards the subject. One of the critical ethical consideration of this research is that all participants are allowed to withdraw from the study at any instant of time. The email describing the process and objectives of the research will also contain information of the rights of participants to withdraw from the study at any instant of time. After the formal confirmation of email at the starting of the research also participants will be provided with ethical consent form in which they will provide a written confirmation and approval for their participation. The research confirmation form will consist of all research terms and conditions in detail along with the ethics followed during study.

Potential risks

One of the risks which may affect study outcome is the psychological factors affecting the response of participants. It is possible that participants may not understand the questions and their opinion may be biased due to privacy policy of the organisation or due to fear of their identity being revealed (Markman and et.al., 2016). Participants may assume that their response can have impact on their growth in organisation or performance evaluation. It can also be potential risk factor affecting results. The privacy concern is a major risk factor in conducting the research.

Mitigation of risk

To minimise the above-mentioned risks, it is recommended that all privacy of the participants and their response must be assured. It is the responsibility of the researcher to assure that all data, responses and personal information of the participants is not disclosed without consent of participants (Polonsky and Waller, 2018). It will help them to openly provide response without any bias or fear.

Potential Benefits

The study will be beneficial for the participants taking part in the research as well as other organisations of hospitality industry. The individuals taking part in the research can get more information about the CSR strategies of the organisation and about the factors which affect their performance (Ruiz and et.al., 2015). The findings from the study are highly valuable for the Hilton hotel as well as other hospitality groups in terms of understanding the role and significance of CSR strategies. Through the evaluated outcomes communities will also understand the ways to enhance the sustainability concepts and how the individuals can improve their professional skills and capabilities by incorporating CSR practices.

DATA COLLECTION

The study will include the primary method for data collection. A questionnaire is used to collect the data from the participants. A questionnaire contains series of questions which aims at gathering necessary information and perspective of the participants. One of the benefits of using questionnaire for the data collection is that questionnaire is designed as the per the specific research needs. Thus, better accuracy and high level of control is possible for the researcher to incorporate into the study (Ullah, Hameed and Kayani, 2017). Since the information from the secondary sources may not provide the highly specific and particular information related to the research aim. Thus, for enhancing the quality of the study primary research method is used. The questionnaire used for this purpose consist of very specific questions which can explore the project aim.

Data analysis

Data analysis is defined as the approach to interpret and analyse the data so that conclusions can be drawn from the gathered data. There are different methods for analysing qualitative and quantitative data. The study entails the analysis of qualitative data and thus a thematic analysis is preferred for the analysis purpose. For performing thematic analysis on the basis of response of participants, general themes are developed which described the general response of study participants (Burget, Bardone and Pedaste, 2017). Each of the developed themes is then analysed and evaluated so that study outcomes can be evaluated. One of the advantages of using thematic analysis over the statistical analysis is that this approach allows to have more flexibility in the research process (Jonasson and Ingason, 2015). With the use of theme study, it is not limited to only impact of CSR on performance of employees but also explores existing strategies of CSR used in hospitality industry and how these strategies affect the organisational growth and performance.

REFERENCES

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