Qualitative research : studying ethics using focus groups

Author / Creator

Stenmark, Cheryl K., author

Available as

Online

Summary

Researchers and organizations are becoming increasingly interested in ethics, especially in terms of ethics interventions, such as training, to improve the ethical decision-making and behavior of e...

Researchers and organizations are becoming increasingly interested in ethics, especially in terms of ethics interventions, such as training, to improve the ethical decision-making and behavior of employees. Most of the research on ethics has focused on the sciences and business, whereas the ethical issues involved in the humanities fields have been relatively neglected. The study at the center of this case study was designed to examine the ethical issues involved in work in the humanities fields. As part of a team of graduate student researchers, I collected qualitative data to inform the development of a taxonomy of ethical issues in the humanities fields. The study used focus groups to collect data using a critical incidents technique. Humanities subject-matter experts were the participants in the study who provided the data. The data were collected over the course of four focus group meetings. We structured each meeting so as to elicit specific types of information regarding the humanities fields and the ethical issues that people working in the humanities fields may face. We took detailed notes over the meeting discussions and generated taxonomy-related material after each meeting. The subject-matter experts reviewed this material at each subsequent meeting to ensure accuracy. After multiple iterations of meetings, note-taking, and review, an ethical events taxonomy was developed.

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