Ethical Considerations in Management Research: A ‘Truth’ Seeker's Guide

Within a growing Knowledge-Management context, it would appear that Management Research calls for researchers to explicitly understand their own values, have increasing capacity for reflexivity and anticipate various ethical dilemmas that emerge from the research endeavour. This paper provides an overview of the philosophy of ethics and focuses on a researcher's ethical reasoning. It provides a framework for understanding causes of ethical dilemmas in the context of management research and provides strategies for a way forward through such dilemmas. The paper, finally, outlines exercises pertinent to research ethics and ‘hands on’ research praxis.     

Ethical Considerations in Management Research: A ‘Truth’ Seeker''s Guide

Within a growing Knowledge-Management context, it would appear that Management Research calls for researchers to explicitly understand their own values, have increasing capacity for reflexivity and anticipate various ethical dilemmas that emerge from the research endeavour. This paper provides an overview of the philosophy of ethics and focuses on a researcher's ethical reasoning. It provides a framework for understanding causes of ethical dilemmas in the context of management research and provides strategies for a way forward through such dilemmas. The paper, finally, outlines exercises pertinent to research ethics and ‘hands on’ research praxis. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Adolescent Women's Recommendations for Enhanced Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexual Behavior

Family communication about adolescent sexual health and behavior promotes adolescent health and family connectedness. However, few studies seek the perspective of adolescents regarding their recommended strategies for family communication. Findings of a survey of female adolescent family planning patients (n = 249) indicated adolescent recommendations for better family communication included treat teen as an equal, 63%; increase parental knowledge about lifestyle and peer pressures, 61%, and improve parental listening skills, 61%. There were no statistically significant differences according to age, pregnancy history, or school enrollment status for suggested strategies for improved communication with parents. Sexually active adolescent daughters expressed interest in maintaining family connectedness and support with increased time for family activities as well as increased quality and quantity of dialogue between the adolescent girl and her parents.     

Restoring complex vegetation in urban settings: The case of tidal freshwater marshes

Tidal freshwater marshes have diverse plant communities that vary spatially and temporally due to hydrology, animal activity, and other factors. Development of urban centers along rivers of the U.S. Atlantic coast has reduced the historic extent and quality of these and other coastal wetlands. Because the vegetation of these wetlands is more complex than that of salt and brackish marshes (where restoration of vegetation typical of natural systems has sometimes been successful), restoration of tidal freshwater marsh vegetation is likely to be more difficult, particularly in urban areas. Watershed urbanization alters hydrology, sediment load, propagule availability and composition, nutrient status, and other variables that together create an environment different from that of wetlands in less developed areas, possibly precluding restoration of typical marsh vegetation. Tidal freshwater wetlands were historically extensive along the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, but most of these were lost due to filling, dredging, or hydrologic alteration. Over the last decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has implemented projects designed to restore tidal freshwater wetlands along the Anacostia, which involved increasing elevation with dredged river sediment and planting native vegetation. To illustrate some of the mechanisms affecting vegetation development in restored tidal freshwater marshes in urban areas, I present a case study on one of these wetlands, Kingman Marsh, that also includes research at another restored wetland and two natural reference sites. Studies by my research groups indicate that the restored wetlands undergo essentially a planting-modified process of primary succession. Low densities of seeds are initially present in the substrate, and prolific seed dispersal into the restored sites results in high initial plant diversity comprised of plantings and ruderal (i.e. weedy) natives and exotics. Seed banks develop rapidly at the restored sites, probably due to colonization and early reproduction by ruderal species. Hydrology and disturbance by non-native animals (including resident Canada goose) are important variables controlling establishment of vegetation in these systems. Recent literature and the case study indicate that the environmental conditions of urban settings impose constraints in restored wetlands that result in plant communities more like those of urban natural wetlands than those of wetlands in less urbanized watersheds. This suggests that rather than design wetland restoration projects with the goal of creating pristine wetland vegetation, restorationists must identify, accept, and if possible capitalize on the ecological constraints of the urban environment in setting achievable and desirable restoration goals.     

Impact of perceived second-hand consequences related to alcohol use on college students' drinking behavior intent: a test of feasibility

This article presents the results of an experiment designed to determine the impact of a group discussion about second-hand consequences of alcohol use on college students' intentions to consume alcohol. Participants were students enrolled in two large Community Health courses at a large Midwestern university (n = 184). After randomization of class sections into an intervention or a control group, intervention group students participated in a class discussion on the negative consequences college students experience as a result of other students' drinking behavior, prior to answering survey questions regarding their drinking behavior intent. Compared to controls who completed the questionnaire only, intervention group participants reported intent to limit themselves to fewer drinks per drinking occasion (p = .003) and fewer drinks per week (p = .004). The effects of the brief educational intervention were analyzed using structural equation modeling, to test the feasibility of a hypothesized intervention mechanism.