Research Ethics and Integrity Risk Assessment: Work-Life Balance Study

This document is a research ethics and integrity risk assessment form completed by a student at the University of West London (UWL) for a dissertation project. The project investigates the impact of work-life balance on staff turnover within the Marriott hotel industry. The form addresses key ethical considerations, including the involvement of human participants, potential emotional harm, and data confidentiality. The research employs an explanatory research design with a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire survey. The student plans to collect data from a sample of 50 employees using stratified random sampling, and will analyze the data using MS Excel and SPSS to perform inferential statistics, Pearson's correlation, regression analysis, and ANOVA tests to test the hypothesis that work-life balance has a positive impact on staff turnover. The research also outlines the procedures, materials, and analysis methods that will be employed. Furthermore, it includes a consent form and a literature review sheet, which will be attached to the form.

RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
RISK ASSESSMENT FORM
FORM A
For all Undergraduate/Postgraduate Dissertations and Research
Projects
Please fill in this form, then SAVE IT AS A PDF and submit as instructed by your supervisor
with your project proposal
Your name: (first) ……………………… (last) ………………………
Student number: …………… Your email address: ……………@student.uwl.ac.uk

PROJECT DESCRIPTON
Please answer the following questions:
1. Do you intend to involve human participants in the conduct of your research? If no,
please skip questions 2 & 3.
☐ Yes ☐No
2. Does your research involve vulnerable adults or under-18s?
☐ Yes ☐No
3. Could your research potentially expose you, anyone assisting you, or participants to
emotional harm?
☐ Yes ☐No
4. Will your research involve travelling to geo-politically unstable regions/countries (e.g.
areas affected by war, civil unrest, natural disasters, or listed as unadvisable to travel
by the UK government?
☐ Yes ☐No
5. Will your research involve access to security-sensitive material? If yes, you must
include a data management statement.
☐ Yes ☐No
This proposal must be completed with the assistance of your supervisor. You can
change the size of the boxes (below) by typing or deleting as necessary.
It is very important to convey with clarity:
• Your research questions/the problem/the theme or topic you are investigating (what
you are proposing to do and to find out or to create)
• The methodology or technical approach (for projects comprising in whole or in part the
creation of an artefact) you will adopt – methods, number of participants, who the
participants (if any) will be, survey instruments used technology and equipment
employed etc.; and what questions you are planning to ask your respondents (if
applicable); how you will deal with technical challenges.

Title of project ____________________________________________________________________________
Name of researcher(s)
_____________________________________Email:[e-mail]
Name of supervisor _____________________________Date:________________________
WHERE APPROPRIATE TO YOUR CHOSEN TOPIC/RESEARCH: YES NO N/A
1 Will you describe in writing the main procedures to participants in
advance, so that they are informed about what to expect? A copy of
this must be attached to this application
√
2 Will you tell participants that their participation is voluntary? √
3 Will you obtain written consent for participation and include within this
that they have a right to withdraw at any point? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
√
4 If the research is observational, will you ask participants for their
consent to being observed?
√
5 With questionnaires, will you give participants the option of omitting
questions they do not want to answer?
√
6 Will you tell participants that their data will be treated with full
confidentiality and that, if published, it will not be identifiable as
theirs? This should be evidenced in the consent form and with a
signed copy of UWL’s data management form, attached to this
application.
√
7 Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e. give
them a brief explanation of the study)? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
√
If you have ticked No to any of Q1-7, but have ticked box A overleaf, please give an explanation on
a separate sheet.
[Note: N/A = not applicable]
YES NO N/A
8 Will your project involve deliberately misleading participants in any
way?
√
9 Is there any realistic risk of any participants experiencing either
physical or psychological distress or discomfort? If Yes, give details
on a separate sheet and state what you will tell them to do if they
√

should experience any problems (e.g. who they can contact for help).
If you have ticked Yes to 8 or 9, you should normally tick box B overleaf; if not, please give a full
explanation on a separate sheet
YES NO N/A
10 Does your project involve work with animals? If yes, please tick
box B overleaf.
√
11 Do participants fall into any of
the following vulnerable
groups? If they do, please and
tick box B overleaf.
Note that you may also need
to obtain satisfactory DBS
clearance (or equivalent for
overseas students).
Schoolchildren (under 18 years of
age)
√
People with learning or
communication difficulties
√
Patients √
People in custody √
People engaged in illegal
activities (e.g. drug-taking)
√
Any other groups who could be
reasonably argued as
representing any form of
vulnerability – please specify
√
12 Will you be accessing materials which may be considered security-
sensitive under the Counter Terrorism Act (2015)?
√
There is an obligation on the researcher to bring to the attention of the School Ethics Panel any issues
with ethical implications not clearly covered by the above checklist.
PLEASE TICK EITHER BOX A OR BOX B BELOW AND PROVIDE THE DETAILS REQUIRED IN
SUPPORT OF YOUR APPLICATION. THEN SIGN THE FORM.
Please tick
A. I consider that this project has no significant ethical implications to be brought
before the School Ethics Panel.
√
B. I consider that this project may have ethical implications that should be brought
before the School Ethics Panel, and/or it will be carried out with children or other
vulnerable populations.
I have received guidance on ethical research practices relevant to my subject as part of my
preparation for this module.
Signed ___________________________ Print Name ______________________ Date _______________
(UG Researcher(s))

Signed ___________________________ Print Name ______________________ Date _______________
(Supervisor)

Introduction to the research
Background to research topic area (with references where applicable). 200 words approx. Include
Aims and Hypothesis, Research Question(s) of the dissertation/project or an outline of the
aims and the context of the creative artefact (where the project is a creative artefact)
Work-life balance is considered to be an important aspect in the professional field where the
immense pressure and competiveness in the market leads to expand the business orientation to a
great extent. It is important for the business organisation to check the satisfaction level of the
employees by providing them adequate time to spend time with family and friends. Monotony in
professional field can be burn out by getting adequate time for family and friends and it can
generate high satisfaction level for the employees as well (Deery and Jago 2015). Based on this
understanding, this research puts a great deal of emphasis on the hospitality industry where high
pressure on the employees are delivered due to immense customer orientation in business.
This research aims to focus on the impact of work-life balance on the rate of staff turnover in
Marriott hotels.
Research questions
i. What is the significance of work-life balance in workplace?
ii. What are the factors that escalate the rate of staff turnover?
iii. How work-life balance will affect the rate of staff turnover?
Research hypothesis
a) H1: Work-life balance has a positive impact on the rate of employee turnover
b) H0: Work-life balance has no impact on the rate of employee turnover.

Method
Outline all methodological issues - e.g. Design, participants, questionnaires, tests,
method of data collection. Who are you working with? How? What Measures? What
interventions/manipulations? What controls? If your research entails exclusively the
consultation of published documents, books, articles or other work in the public domain
please state this under the heading ‘materials’. In the case of creative artefacts please
use relevant sections of your dissertation/project proposal to place in the section below to
which they most closely pertain.
Students and supervisors may also find it helpful to cross-refer to the Health and Safety
clearance documents for any level 6 research projects which need to be completed by
students in certain fields. Sections completed by students for the latter forms may be
suitable to be repeated below.
Research design or schedule (for creative artefacts)
Research is the plan of executing the overall research processes and it can also be
defined as the method of choosing between the qualitative research design and the
quantitative research design (Brannen 2017). In this research, the major aim of the
research is examining the casual relationship between work-life balance and staff
turnover. Explanatory research design has been chosen in the research as it aims to
examine the cause and effect relationship between two variables. The explanatory
research design is used for description of behaviour, prediction from one variable to
another variables and causal relationship. This facilitated in developing a high structured
research design that facilitates in developing significant generalisations.
Participants (where applicable)
The sample size consists of 50 employees. The research has used stratified random
sampling to choose respondents. This has helped in dividing each department into
different strata and choosing respondents from each department. Randomization
provided equal opportunity to all the participants of being chosen and has reduced the
sampling bias in the research. However, as the sample size in the study is small, the
margin of error is high.
Materials (to include locations and objects/resources)
The target population in the research are the employees working in hotel industry in
United Kingdom. The sampling frame consists of the employees working in Marriott.
Procedure or details of technical aspects of creative production
The data collected has been analysed using statistical tool such as Ms Excel and
SPSS. These tools have been used to perform inferential statistics. The data collected
has been represented in tables and charts to highlight the frequency of responses to
each question. The research has performed Pearson’s correlation to examine the
direction, degree and nature of relationship among the elements. Regression analysis
has been used to develop a predictive model for trend analysis and develop a linear
relationship between the variables. The study has performed an ANOVA test to develop
the F statistics and test the mentioned hypothesis in the research. The data analysed has
been interpreted in respect to the practical scenario and industry partner to provide valid
results.

Analysis
Please complete this section only if your project
requires written analysis to be submitted as the assessment or as part of it. If the project
you are undertaking comprises a creative artefact such as a film or body of photographic
work please type ‘Not applicable’ in this box
CLEARLY describe the method of analysis you are going to use. Is it qualitative or
quantitative?
Quantitative research following the survey questionnaire.