The Politics and Ethics of Management Research
Political Influence on Management Research
In this chapter authors mentioned some other factors which influences the kind of questions that are seen as worthy of research, what is to be researched, when, by whom, how information should to be gathered and used and how the products of the researcher are to be evaluated. Other factors explain by the author are personal experiences of the researcher, different forms of stakeholders with he or she come into contact and the broader context within which he or she works and studies.
Motivations of individual researchers may be quite varied. Similarly the researchers who are doing research for the first time will be unclear about their aims. Usually the research models of management research involved single researcher, but now increasingly researches are conducted by teams, teams which have balance perspectives, background and skills may be much more effective than individuals at conducting research. But within teams political and other problems can arise. Similarly Hyder and Sims analyze the tensions between ‘grant holders’ who are awarded the funds and ‘research officers’ who are hired to carry out the work. They suggest that the relationship can become difficult for three main reasons first, there are different timescales, second is in term of commitment of working, i.e. grant holders will have many other responsibilities and commitment and third one is due to senior management want all of the work and other related and on the same time they want creative contributions in the research work.
The funds providers have the great influence on the direction of the research through control of funds. There are much potential for conflict here as the grant holders have the power of funds and can influence the future career of the researcher, at the same time researcher’s power conversely, lies in the intimate knowledge of the research process and the potential to withhold cooperation.
The research proposals stand great chance of funding if they can demonstrate how they are meeting the priorities of their respective councils. Academic funding cannot entirely ignore the agendas of their political masters, but there is also a danger if funding becomes too responsive to political priorities and pressures, because research results may be used by one group directly to harm another group. Newcomers may have some problems while getting funds for there project . For which authors have written some points for their advice i.e. start with the modest-sized proposals, make the best use of the own experience through highlighting any related work or publication you may have, attending of workshops, using of networking possibly by submitting proposals with people who are already established.
In research more pressure come from the colleagues, SUPERVISORS, and gatekeepers. Supervisors may have different concernsheir own interests. Similarly in UK ESRC have developed guidelines for institutions wishing to gain national recognition for their programs. And they suggest that students should also be encouraged to produce their results for both academic and practitioner audiences.
Academic journals have also influence on the research questions. Academic journals can be judged through two different ways before submitting of the research, first one is rejection rate that how they have demand there is to get into the journal. Usually top journal will have the rejection rate up to 95%. Second one is the citation index ISI web of knowledge produces annual ranking of journal based on the frequency with which papers from a given journal are cited by papers published in other respectable journals. desire for Publishing of paper quickly will lead you to select lowly journals.
There are companies, public organizations and other generally within the user community that act as stakeholders . These are becoming significant because these are the sponsor and user of the management research. But again the same thing can happen with any kind of organization, for example school a hospital, but for this the political factors and their consequences should not be kept hidden, and should be shown explicitly in the report of the research process. In this the researchers have their own interest for the funds and gaining access so researchers should keep regular records not only of formal research data, but also to chronicle their own views and moods, and the process of organizing and conducting the research.
The subject mean the problem to be consider, and it’s also have also a considerable influence on the direction of the research enterprise. There is the tendency among the researcher to follow fads and fashion for the both method and focus. Fads become important because it provide solution for the problems. And fashion related to those ideas which are mostly used in the existing scenario. .
