Human Ethics Case Study: Leadership's Impact on Employee Motivation

This case study explores the ethical considerations of a research project focused on the impact of leadership on employee motivation and retention. It outlines the project's aim, which is to determine if positive leadership fosters employee motivation and long-term retention. The methodology involves quantitative methods, including surveys with employees from a business consultancy firm in Australia. The study details participant recruitment, selection criteria, and the use of informed consent. It addresses potential risks such as data breaches and participant intimidation, along with mitigation strategies to ensure ethical conduct. The study also explains the data collection methods, which involve surveys and data analysis techniques using charts and figures. The project aims to provide insights into leadership practices that can reduce employee turnover and improve organizational success.

HUMAN ETHICS CASE STUDY

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Project..........................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Project Title...........................................................................................................................2
2.2 Project Summary...................................................................................................................2
2.2.1 Aim.................................................................................................................................2
2.2.2 Significance....................................................................................................................2
2.2.3 Methodology...................................................................................................................3
2.2.4 Recruitment strategy.......................................................................................................3
2.2.5 Data collection techniques..............................................................................................3
2.2.6 Participant Tasks.............................................................................................................3
2.2.7 Time commitment...........................................................................................................4
2.2.8 Data Analysis methods...................................................................................................4
3. Participants..................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Participant details...................................................................................................................4
3.2 Participant selection...............................................................................................................4
4. Recruitment..................................................................................................................................5
4.1 Approach for recruitment......................................................................................................5
4.2 Informed consent...................................................................................................................5
5. Risks............................................................................................................................................5
5.1 Potential Risks.......................................................................................................................5
5.2 Mitigation of Risks................................................................................................................5
5.3 Potential Benefits...................................................................................................................6
6. Data Collection............................................................................................................................6
7. References....................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
The ethical considerations in research would be the primary concern of the study. The
focus is on understanding the values that are connected with being ethical in undertaking
research. Being ethical in terms of research means to provide data that is the most authentic as
per the knowledge of the researchers. Additionally, research ethics is about ethically handle the
data, the people and the situations that are involved in research. Research studies have to take
into consideration various sources of information including human participants. It is important
that all forms of information sources are handled effectively and all human participants are
treated with respect and more emphasis is given towards their dignity. In view of these aspects
ethical considerations in research become very much important. These ethical considerations
would be focused thorough an effective systematic study that can ensure that all ethical aspects
are covered.
2. Project
2.1 Project Title
The project title would be: Leadership in motivation and retention of employees.
2.2 Project Summary
2.2.1 Aim
The aim of the research would be to understand whether positive leadership can provide
effective motivation to the employees in any given workplace and result in their long term
retention within the organization. It is important to understand the value of leadership towards
the determination of the employees’ willingness to stay in the organization (Goertzen 2017).
2.2.2 Significance
The significance of the study would be the determination of the actual impact of
leadership in the retention of employees in any organization. Employees tend to leave
organizations more often in today’s corporate environments (Kwenin, Muathe and Nzulwa
2013). This causes significant issues with the loss of skilled workforce that is hard to regain for
the organizations. The research would help to understand the leadership values and types that can
be implemented to reduce the turnover rate of organizations.

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2.2.3 Methodology
The study will use quantitative methods. The method would be focused towards
gathering information from a significant number of employees. The opinion of the employees
would be gathered and analyzed to gain more effective insights into the organizational aspects
(Mihas 2019).
2.2.4 Recruitment strategy
The strategy for recruitment would be to identify the employees that are present in the
given organization for a significant amount of time. The employees would need to go through a
brief interview to be selected. The interviews would take place within the selected organization.
The employees would be recruited for a week long study. They would be given questionnaires
that they would have to complete. The strategy would be to get the right people, make them
understand about the concept of leadership and its impact and conduct surveys among them to
understand the value of leadership towards employee retentions.
2.2.5 Data collection techniques
The data collection techniques that would be utilized would be survey. The participants
would be given questionnaires through which surveys would be taken. The questionnaires would
consist of demographic questions, leadership questions and questions related to their personal
experiences concerning the leaderships they have worked under. The questions would be
specifically in regards to the leadership factors that guide the people towards motivation in the
given workplace. The questions would be closed ended with the respondents having to choose
from 4 or 5 options maximum. The survey method is chosen as it can provide the best results for
the study. This is because the popular opinion of the most important employee populations that
are involved would be found.
2.2.6 Participant Tasks
The participants would need to attend a session on a given day. On another day after the
session the survey questions would be forwarded for gathering information. Moving forward the
participants would need to fill up a questionnaire survey form that would consist of various
questions on leadership and employee retention.

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2.2.7 Time commitment
The entire project would be 1 week long with the participants having to attend the
discussion sessions on alternate days. Each session would be of 1.5 hour duration. The
employees after the final session would be given a form. Employees would be given 45 minutes
to fill up the forms. The employees would need to provide a total minimum of 4.5 hours for the
sessions and an additional 45 minutes for the survey.
2.2.8 Data Analysis methods
The data analysis methods would be survey result analysis with the help of tables, figures
and charts. The data gathered from the surveys would be presented through effective data charts
and figures that would be analyzed for gaining further value from them. The analysis of the same
would be done to gain further insight into the subject matter. The analysis would focus on
effective representation of the data gained from the surveys.
3. Participants
3.1 Participant details
The participants would be employees that have worked for a minimum of 1.5 years in the
organization. The organization would be a business consultancy firm based in Australia. For the
project to be effective a total of 50 people would be selected for the participation. This is a
sample size from which significant information can be gathered. The participants would be aged
between 20-35 years. This is the age range that ideally spends a significant amount of time in the
corporate sector. The participant number was selected on the basis of gaining the most relevant
and effective data in regards to the topic of research. There will be very less gender imbalance as
among the selected participants there would be 30 male and 20 female respondents. This is
actually the ratio of the male to female workers in the selected department of the Australian
business consultancy firm.
3.2 Participant selection
The inclusion of the participants would be on the basis of their experience in the
organization. The potential participants that have less than 1.5 years of experience would not be
considered. Also participants that are from non-technical departments would not be included.
The justification of the inclusion criteria is that the participants would have significant
experience in the organization. The participants would be excluded as they would not possess the

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relevant information if they are not much experienced (Bromley et al. 2015). The non-technical
staffs are excluded as they are mainly from third-party companies.
4. Recruitment
4.1 Approach for recruitment
The participants would be recruited from the operations department of the selected
organization. They would be notified through emails that would seek their permission prior to
their participation. They would need to notify via email. Only if they are ready to participate they
would be approached accordingly.
4.2 Informed consent
Informed consent would have full details of the participation and the relevant activities.
The ethical aspects connected with the research would also be provided to the participants. The
participants would be given a right to withdraw from the study (Nhmrc.gov.au 2019). The
participants in this case would have to either directly approach or mail any of the project
coordinators.
5. Risks
5.1 Potential Risks
Some of the most important risks are data breach risks. There could be a breach of the
data of the participants if necessary precautions are not taken. Data breach includes the
publishing of the names and contact details of the participants. The long term risk of the same is
that they might be used for other purposes without the consent of the participants (Watson 2015).
This includes usage for purposes that the person concerned has not given any permission for. The
risk can be great as the employees can be harmed in more than one ways. Another significant
risks is that the participants can feel intimidated by the situation in the project. This can
potentially cause further psychological issues.
5.2 Mitigation of Risks
The strategy would be to gather as less personal information as possible from the
participants. In this way the participants’ information would be kept safe and secure throughout
the entirety of the process. Moreover, the participants would be give a safe and secure place for
effective and positive interactions (Wallace and Sheldon 2015). The survey would be taken in

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controlled and safe environments. The survey would be presented to the respondents online. The
participants would not be forced or manipulated in any way to provide desired results to the
surveys. The participants would be provided ample opportunities to develop their own ideas in
very effective safe environment. The researchers would also provide special care to the disabled
participants if any.
5.3 Potential Benefits
The participants would get to learn more about positive behavior, effective leadership and
employee interactions. This would help them greatly in their future organizational life and help
them to learn and understand more about their professions.
6. Data Collection
The type of data collected would be data that can be represented mostly in the likert
scale. The opinion of the people would be gathered in data form. Some of the options would be
for example, ranging from strongly agree, agree till strongly disagree. The data would be survey
responses that would be gathered from the number of participants. The data would be collected
from among the 50 respondents that would also participate in the sessions that would be held
prior to the survey. The data would be analyzed through the representation of the data on data
charts and pie charts that would later be analyzed quantitatively through excel applications.

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7. References
Bromley, E., Mikesell, L., Jones, F. and Khodyakov, D., 2015. From subject to participant:
Ethics and the evolving role of community in health research. American Journal of Public
Health, 105(5), pp.900-908.
Goertzen, M.J., 2017. . Introduction to Quantitative Research and Data. Library Technology
Reports, 53(4), pp.12-18.
Kwenin, D.O., Muathe, S. and Nzulwa, R., 2013. The influence of employee rewards, human
resource policies and job satisfaction on the retention of employees in Vodafone Ghana
Limited. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), pp.13-20.
Metcalf, J. and Crawford, K., 2016. Where are human subjects in big data research? The
emerging ethics divide. Big Data & Society, 3(1), p.2053951716650211.
Mihas, P., 2019. Qualitative data analysis. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Nhmrc.gov.au. (2019). Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2018 |
NHMRC. [online] Available at: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-
code-responsible-conduct-research-2018 [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015.
Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation
research. Administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research, 42(5),
pp.533-544.
Wallace, M. and Sheldon, N., 2015. Business research ethics: Participant observer
perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.267-277.
Walliman, N., 2017. Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
Watson, R., 2015. Quantitative research. Nursing Standard (2014+), 29(31), p.44.