Ethical Considerations Specific to the Research Topic

Introduction

The research process is vital to the addition of knowledge to study phenomena, but the credibility of the published results could be questioned is research ethics were not considered. Neglecting even the smallest of the ethical aspects of the research topic may invalidate the research results (Walliman, 2017). The research explores the main topic, "Salaried Employee Retention," by answering the research question, "What are the three main causes of high turnover in Automotive manufacturing amongst salaried employees?" Firstly, conducting the research would require following the institutional protocol before the actual commencement of the research process. It would be unethical to explore the research topic, "Salaried Employees Retention" without following the institutional approval process before starting the research practice. Secondly, answering the research question would involve contact with human subjects at all levels of the research process. For instance, the questionnaires and interviews would be used in the research to obtain the primary data for analysis, implying that ethical considerations concerning the subjects must be exercised by the researcher (Bryman, 2016). Confidentiality of the participant's information is the first ethical consideration in the study. However, upholding the participants' confidentiality is preceded by obtaining informed the informed consent of the participants to take part in the research process.

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Thirdly, the research process does not involve scientific experiments on the human subjects, but it may have potential psychological harm to the participants, especially during the data collection using voice recorders. The psychological damage to the participants may arise when the researcher fails to debrief the subjects in the automotive industry setting about the scope of the research. The research process would have breached ethical consideration should it cause the psychological harm to the research subjects (the salaried employees). Furthermore, answering the study question may involve the exploration of the works of earlier researchers. Utilizing the practices of other researchers in the study may lead to serious ethical issues if the researcher fails to give credit to the authors. Usually, figures and tables, or portions published works are the most frequent sources of research data used as secondary information in the research process. Exploration of the study topic may require the use of past turnover data amongst salaried employees in the automotive industry, and failure to give credit to the sources is an ethical issue. Academically, such an ethical issue amounts to plagiarism, which is a severe offense in the research fraternity. Manipulation of the research results is another ethical consideration specific to the study. The practice would introduce bias in the results and the conclusions made about the turnover rates would invalid.

Furthermore, the manipulated results may not add to the information pool in the research family because they would not represent an actual research process. The bias introduced to the results through manipulation would render the whole research process unethical (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014). Lastly, publication of the research results concerning high turnover results would be dishonest if the researcher submits the results for scholarly publishing. The research topic and the consequences which answer the research question has publication potential compliance with ethical standards of fair use could ruin the publication process.

Addressing the Ethical Considerations

Obtaining approval from the institution to conduct the study would be the first step in ethical issues underlying the research topic. Additionally, exploration of the study topic would require the participation of salaried employees from the automotive industry as study subjects. Their involvement in the research process would be based on informed consent, and that the subjects would be debriefed of the research results and conclusions (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014). The informed consent form would give the participants the option of withdrawing from the research process at any time.

Furthermore, the research does not involve experimental tests on either human or animal subjects, but a reduction in any form harm would precede every step of the research process. For instance, the informed consent would explain the aims and purpose of the study to the participants as a participation guideline. Besides, any secondary data in the form of figures, tables or portions texts used in the research would be credited to the actual owner. The step is meant to reduce academic dishonesty in the form of plagiarism. Additionally, addressing plagiarism alone would not be enough to address academic dishonesty in the research process, but tackling results manipulation would give more credibility to the results and conclusions made about the research practice. The latter issue is particularly significant because any incidences of results manipulation would render the whole research process fruitless.

Measures to mitigate results manipulation would include reporting of the results devoid of deceptive and false statements, correction of significant errors, and submission of the results to peers for reviewing (Noble and smith, 2015). Lastly, submission of the results for publication shall follow ethical standards to ensure that issues such as conflict of interest do not arise. For instance, the submission of the results for publication shall be accompanied by a duly signed disclosure of interest form so that reviewers exclude any bias suspicions from the research results and subsequent conclusions.

References

Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford university press.

Noble, H., & Smith, J. (2015). Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. Evidence-Based Nursing, ebnurs-2015.

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (2014). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Sage publications.

Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.