Rogat+-+Memo+-+Ethical+Conundrums

Michelle Rogat Ethical Conundrums - " reflection on the ethical issues and double-binds you may well face as your research proceeds. Try to consider the many places where "ethics" (broadly conceived) will be in play -- in the way you describe your project to potential interviewees, for example, in your choice of who to interview (and who to ignore), in the way you describe your interviewees (as in describing memo).


 * ** Low-hanging fruit can only be plucked once ** - and that once the hospitality industry gets it, then the point isn't just to stop there, but to apply the same concepts to other fields. It would be unethical, I feel, just to let the results of this research only reach the hospitality industry, but it should also reach to businesses in general, wherever it might prove useful. Also don't want the message to be that it's okay to stop at reforming our worst environmental offenders or wherever it's easiest to change practices, it should go on to apply to everyone.
 * All of the people I plan on interviewing and plan on working with for the research are all relevant, but they are also on a **convenience basis.** That usually means that the group will be biased the same in some way. For example, all of them are going to be located in the New England unless I get funding to cover travel expenses of broadening the research to other areas of the country.
 * **I have worked for a year and a half at the country club** where I will be working alongside the superintendent and other co-workers for the research. That means that I will be doing research with people I already have a standing work relationship with. This will influence how the sustainability projects will be carried out, no matter how hard I will try to make sure that their relationships with me don't affect their views and thoughts on the projects at the club.
 * When making observations about the projects at the club and the environment that is contributing to it's (hopefully) success, I will have to try to put myself in a different perspective and set myself apart from the feelings I already have towards my coworkers and my job position at the country club. **I will have to make sure to not be biased or prejudiced** so as not to affect what I notice, how I interpret the notes and observations.
 * However, be that as it may, because I have worked at the country club for so long and already have an understanding of how the club and it's employees work and the relationships between the differently positioned employees, **I will have the advantage of knowing the home field**. I should be able to provide insight into issues going on with a project that a professional environmental and sustainability consultant might not be capable of.
 * Since this is a private country club and golf course I plan on sitting down with the House and Board Committees to lay out any **privacy terms** that I will have to abide by such as if I can publish the club's name. If I can't publish the club's name then does that mean I have to anonymize all the information and interviews used from it's members as well? I will be laying all of this out in a consent form in which I and a governing member of the club will sign.
 * When I describe people that I have previously known in the research I will have to be fair and unprejudiced when doing so.
 * I am **choosing a wide variety of members to interview** at the club based on helpful previous knowledge I have of them, such as their support of certain political views, they are avid golfers, don't like playing golf, are bird enthusiasts, are older, are younger, single, head of a family, etc. When choosing members to interview I will also have to take into consideration whether or not they generally get along with me, the members that I know particularly dislike me I will make sure to stay away from because their **bias towards me** would likely affect their responses in interviews and how open and valuable the information they would share.
 * Because of the nature of my job at the country club, being a server and an administrative assistant, puts me in close communication with the members **I will have to plan ahead of time how I will respond when members ask me about my senior thesis.** How much should I share with them? I think I will respond as though I were holding a position within the club as an environmental sustainability adviser, such as what the club is hoping to achieve and what we are doing at the moment to get there, etc. I will leave everything about my thesis focus out of conversation so I don't make anyone feel uncomfortable or have them feel they have to act a certain way which could skew the results of the research.
 * When I conduct interviews, I notice how much of an amateur I am at it, and I will have to remember to not interrupt the person I am interviewing by accident. I tell myself going into the interview that it's just like carrying on a conversation when I'm at work, but it isn't in the sense that I let them control the flow of the conversation and let them lead me to my next question, which is very different from being at work. I have to be careful of these things so I don't miss out on information they could have provided if I gave them the chance.
 * I also noticed how when I get behind on my work I will try to rush through something, but that always ends up at being at the cost of the quality of the work. I have to make sure I pace myself out and give myself enough time so I don't rush things under the pressure of an upcoming deadline and misinterpret results or something.