La Trobe & RMIT Universities: Ethics in Research Human Case Study

This case study delves into the ethical considerations within a research project titled "Effect of Promotion and Ranking in Educational Departments." The research aims to explore the perceptions of teaching professionals on promotion and ranking systems within educational institutions, specifically La Trobe and RMIT Universities. The methodology involves mail surveys and interviews, with a focus on systematic sampling to gather data from 500 participants, ensuring a diverse representation across departments, experience levels, and gender. The study addresses participant details, selection criteria, recruitment processes, informed consent procedures, and potential risks and mitigation strategies. Data collection includes accessing university archives and conducting primary research through surveys and interviews. The ethical considerations encompass informed consent, anonymity, and potential risks to participants, such as lack of understanding of the consent form, or potential lawsuits. The study aims to benefit both teaching staff and the university hierarchy by potentially influencing promotion practices and fostering a more equitable environment.

Running head: ETHICS IN RESEARCH
Ethics in Research
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Topic: Human Ethics Case Study
1 Introduction
Ethical considerations are important part of any research methodology
(McCormick et al. 2013). There are several points that constitute the ethical part of
research. The researchers should always be aware of these aspects related to research in
order to establish their research as a successful one. They should always keep in mind
that the research participants’ interest are the most important thing. They should not be
harmed in any way and their dignity must be upheld at all points of time. Their
participation should be voluntary and any personal information they share must be kept
secret if stated otherwise (Department of Health 2014). The researchers should also
conform to the stated aim and objective of the research and if they have any funding
source it should be revealed. It is also necessary that they do not become biased to any
opinion and present data in a way that influences the research outcome. This study
explores the ethical considerations that are related to participants and data collection for
the research study.
2 Project
2.1 Project Title
The tile of the project is- “Effect of Promotion and Ranking in Educational
Departments”.
2.2 Project Summary
The motive of this research is to explore the mentality of the teaching
professionals on promotion and ranking. In most cases, educational institutions have

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their own hierarchy and the recruitment in the higher positions are not attained via
longer experience only. There are a board of members that decide who should be
responsible for the higher posts and it is possible that the chosen candidate did not
belong to the institution before the. The study aims to find out the reaction of the
teachers on these decisions and the effect that these kinds of decisions might have in
their overall outlook on their job prospect. It is necessary to understand whether this
creates any negative emotion among them leading to eventual disinterest and
underperformance. It is also necessary to understand what they feel about their own job
prospect and sudden recruitment of unknown origin over them while they have worked
hard for years in the institution.
Mail survey and interview along with past record for higher position
recruitment will be used for the research. The research will be an exploratory research
as each institution has their own structure and hierarchy and cannot be standardized in
any way. The research will be a statistical investigation on two particular universities
that can be directed to a larger scale in future (Savin-Baden and Major 2013). The
recruitment of the participants will be done after due ethical consideration. The
teaching and training staff of La Trobe and RMIT will be approached individually and
asked for their consent to participate the sampling is all inclusive for the research as the
number of teachers and training staff are limited in the two institutions. All the
participant will be informed about the goals and objectives of the research and their
names and any other personal information will be kept hidden so that their opinion
remains anonymous (Nijhawan et al. 2013). The participants will be asked to answer
the survey questions and in some cases they might be specially requested for a face to
face interview in order to understand the intricacies of the promotion aspect in the
institution. The estimated time that will be needed for survey is four to five minutes

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while the interviews will take about 15 minutes. The total time commitment for the
research would be 3 months. The data analysis method adopted for the research
includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The information gathered through
the study from the two universities will be compared in order to understand the
difference in administration and promotion in the two universities.
3 Participants
3.1 Participant Details
The La Trobe University has about 1500 academic staffs and the RMIT has
more than 11,000 staffs. The sampling procedure taken for this research will be
systematic sampling. The sample size will be 500 where at least a 40:60 ration of
women and men participants will be maintained. Through systematic sampling,
academic staffs of different departments and specialty, experience and background will
be selected. It is expected that there will be a gender imbalance as the universities’
academic staffs do not have that many women to keep the gender ratio to a 50:50. The
sample will include teachers that have 5 years of experience, have 10 years of
experience, have 15 years of experience and have more than 20 years of experience.
While choosing the participants, their cultural and ethnic background, educational
excellence and teaching ability will be considered. The sample selection will be done
across different departments and it will be ensured that at least 80% of the university
departments are covered. The age range of the participants should be from 28 to 55
years of age.
The total 500 participant is necessary in this study as the study is an exploratory
study and is not a standardized process. The responses gathered in this study cannot be

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applied universally. In order to understand the popular opinion about promotion and
teachers reaction, including most number of teaching staff is necessary. The higher
number of participants will also ensure that the survey results are unbiased and
dependable (Certo et al. 2016).
3.2 Participant Selection
The participant selection process will be systematic selection. The inclusion
criteria will be:
 Representatives of each university department has to be present.
 Representatives of each age group from 28 to 55 or experience group from 5
years to more than 20 years has to be present.
 Almost equal number of representatives from both the genders are necessary for
the viability of the research.
The reason that this inclusion strategy is taken is that this is the most diverse
sample that can be selected from the limited scope of research. All the age,
gender, experience and specialty considerations has been taken into account in
this sampling.
The exclusion criteria will be the teaching staffs that have less than 5 years of
experience. This experience group is excluded from the study as they have too less
idea about the hierarchy of the institution and are not probable candidate for any
significant post promotion.

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4 Recruitment
4.1 Process of Recruitment
The participants will be approached through emails and phone calls. The email
will contain the contact details of the investigators, the participant interest and ethical
standards for the research. The information disclosure clauses and participant
information secrecy will also be mentioned in the email. The interested participants
may reach the investigators through email or contact number provided. The participants
will not receive any financial incentive as the research is based on wilful participation
and thus are honorary participants. The survey questions will be sent through email
after their informed consent.
4.2 Informed Consent
After reading the email or conversing over phone, the participants will be contacted
personally. They will be informed in detail about the ethical considerations and
information disclosures. This whole discussion will be recorded electronically and their
agreement will also be documented through a signed consent. They will also be
informed verbally and through consent letter that they can withdraw from the study at
any point of research (Grady 2015).
5 Risks
5.1 Potential Risks
The greatest risk for any research is to gather enough participants for the survey
and interview. It is seen that in most cases only the 10% of the approached participants
turn up for research participation. Another risk is that the participants may leave during
the process of research thus creating further difficulty. Other risks that are involved are

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the participants might not fully understand the clauses and conditions of their consent
form and may feel violated of that (Cummings et al. 2013). They might file lawsuit if
they feel that the research may potentially harm them in longer run. Some participants
may ask for large sum of incentive for their role which might cause difficulty. Some
participants may not be present for the whole duration of the study and their
participation in the process might not be foolproof. The opinion presented by them may
become biased if they come to knew about the participation of other colleagues and
discuss among themselves. The peer pressure and pressure form authority might force
them to withdraw from the research.
5.2 Mitigation of Risks
In order to mitigate these risks some precautions can be taken.
 The participants will have to sign a non-disclosure as well so that they do not
express their opinion on survey and interview question to their peers.
 They will be intimidated about the need for the study and the benefits that they
will have.
 The participants will have to be explained in detail about the clauses and ethical
considerations for the research.
5.3 Potential Benefits
The study will benefit the teaching staffs of the universities as well as the
university hierarchy in general. The teaching staffs will be able to compete for higher
posts more easily. The institutions may be influenced to change their hierarchy.

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6 Data Collection
The university archive will be accessed to gather data about the past recruitment
history and teacher retention pattern. The research will be conducted through a primary
data collection through survey procedure and one-to-one interview (Håkansson 2013).
The staffs of the LA Trobe University and RMIT University will be asked through mail
survey questionnaire about their opinion about the existing hierarchy system in the
institutions. Some of they will be approached for interview on a random basis.

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References
Certo, S.T., Busenbark, J.R., Woo, H.S. and Semadeni, M., 2016. Sample selection bias and
Heckman models in strategic management research. Strategic Management Journal, 37(13),
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Cummings, J.N., Kiesler, S., Bosagh Zadeh, R. and Balakrishnan, A.D., 2013. Group
heterogeneity increases the risks of large group size: A longitudinal study of productivity in
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Department of Health, E., 2014. The Belmont Report. Ethical principles and guidelines for
the protection of human subjects of research. The Journal of the American College of
Dentists, 81(3), p.4.
Grady, C., 2015. Enduring and emerging challenges of informed consent. New England
Journal of Medicine, 372(9), pp.855-862.
Håkansson, A., 2013. Portal of research methods and methodologies for research projects and
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Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C.H., 2013. Qualititaive Research: The Essential Guide to
Theory and Practice. Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice.
Routledge.