Category: Integrity

The purpose of this memorandum is to elaborate on the topic of “Integrity in management and students.” Integrity is a very powerful attribute that one gains not just from experience but mainly from one’s core values and beliefs. People with integrity are the ones who can be trusted with anything and who will ensure every task is carried out with honesty. Despite adversity, integrity remains true to our own beliefs and moral standards of behavior. Individuals with integrity exercise allegiance and reliability characteristics. Employers understand that the foundations of management are honesty and integrity. In order to translate these characteristics into the workplace, students studying in higher education must be prepared to demonstrate a high level of trustworthiness and reliability.

Organizations value Integrity as one of the most important attributes in their potential candidates and even try to interview them in-depth to check and see if they truly adhere to their integrity standards. In a corporate organization, managers are looked onto as ‘those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others’ values/moral perspectives, knowledge, and strengths; aware of the context in which they operate; and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and of high moral character’ Avolio, Luthans, & Walumbwa (2004, p. 4 [as cited in Avolio & Gardner, 2005]). Integrity is one of the top characteristics of a good leader. It’s a sense of profound engagement to do the correct thing for the correct purpose, regardless of conditions. An effective manager will always be at their employees ‘ disposal and observe any personal and interpersonal issues they face. Managers should be able to make fair decisions and should care in a nonjudgmental manner for their subordinates. Employees expect credit and honest communication from their leaders. Good leaders are also sincere in keeping their commitments.

Integrity in students helps them develop a good personality and rapport with peers and professors who value relationships a lot based on the level of integrity with which a student carries out their actions. Tasks even as simple as sharing information can be done with integrity by sharing good quality content and to the limit of what is ethically required rather than sharing false information in bulk. Students with integrity generally deliver good results but might have to work harder and probably longer hours than their counterparts who do not value integrity and want to get the job done fast and will end up providing fabricated information. Good students are honest firstly with themselves, with their professors, with their roommates, and finally with their community. How a student approaches exams and completes assignments by ensuring that each piece of work submitted is their own and that all references have been appropriately cited and credited proves their integrity standards. The values associated with academic integrity namely the set of ‘Fundamental Values’, defined by ‘The Fundamental Values Project’ are honesty, respect, trust, fairness, responsibility, and courage (Fishman, 2012). Academic integrity also means that plagiarism must be avoided. It means avoiding cheating or infringing the rules otherwise. Manufacturing falsifying information and collusion are some other examples of academic dishonesty. Higher education students should emphasize their integrity and accordingly win their scholarships responsibly. Creating and expressing one’s own ideas in an honest way is an ideal student’s true qualities.

In conclusion, in any organization or even in any family, the leader sets standards for integrity and honesty. Postgraduate programs have found a large deficiency in students ‘understanding of plagiarism’. It is important to control plagiarism by prevention, detection, and punishment. It is necessary to find the root causes of academic dishonesty and methods to intervene in them.

Works Cited

1. Michael E. Palanski a, *, Francis J. Yammarino b, ‘Integrity and leadership: A multi-level conceptual framework’. The Leadership Quarterly, June 2009. https://advance-lexis-com.libaccess.senecacollege.ca/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:7VMV-GK01-2PPV-V184-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed September 29, 2019.
2. Francis Adu Oluranti, Adu Ifedayo Emmanuel. ‘Engineering academic integrity: a study of students’ attitude for quality assurance in college of education Ikere Ekiti’. Business and Management Review, September 1, 2015 Tuesday. https://advance-lexis-com.libaccess.senecacollege.ca/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5HT2-D8H1-JBWT-B3D0-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed September 29, 2019.

Adequate data management in research has become an increasingly important topic nowadays when the modern tools facilitate the gathering of information, and the pure amount of raw data can become overwhelming. Dealing with issues in data management requires accuracy, efficiency and compliance with certain guidelines and accepted standards, including the rules of ethics.

Maintaining the data integrity demands special effort on the part of the researcher. According to the guidelines published by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the universal, suitable for any type of research data, integrity requirements consist of the following points:

Establishing data criticality and inherent integrity risk … [with] overarching data governance system, which should include relevant policies and staff training in the importance of data integrity … the organizational (e.g. procedures) and technical (e.g. computer system access) controls applied to different areas of the quality systems.. [and] designing systems to assure data quality and integrity … in a way that encourages compliance with the principles of data integrity. (MHRA GMP Data Integrity Definitions and Guidance for Industry, 2015, p. 1-2)

The essential examples of such principles include consistency, legibility, completeness and relevance of the data generated in research, as well as its completeness throughout the time of the research. It is also important to keep in mind the risks, for example, human factor, software and hardware faults, conscious falsification of results, accidental errors, and changes in records or technology, which should be avoided by all means (McDowall, 2013, par. 2-9).

After collecting the data, the researcher may proceed to its interpretation however at that stage it may be difficult to remain unbiased. Focusing on the anticipated results of an experiment can affect the interpretation and even cast discredit on the research in whole. Ted Kaptchuk (2003) describes this effect in his article, claiming that the data-judgment interaction is rarely taken into account as there is no objective way to measure the subjective components of interpretation, while researchers tend to evaluate the evidence supporting their beliefs in a different way than the one that distinctly challenges such convictions (par. 2-3).

However not every research should be considered irrelevant due to the biased interpretation, Robert J. MacCoun (1998) argues that interpretation bias is a common phenomenon with a varied motivational, intentional, and purely cognitive determinants, however there is evidence suggesting that the magnitude of biases is often small and they are subtle; a key role the in identification of biased research interpretation and its sources have played the systematic empirical methods; finally, the biases are not all indefensible and the differing standards of proof are completely acceptable, provided that the researchers are self-conscious about standards and stances, and are explicit about them (p. 36).

Finally, for a researcher there always exists a moral barrier in a form of ethical guidelines. The transfer of research data to fellow researchers or academic institutions should be carried out with great care, and it should be considered whether or not such transfer is necessary.

An advice on data protection and transfer, published at the website of Cardiff University, states that the data should be secured during the transit; sharing the personal data with other organizations should be conducted under the Data Protection Act; access to personal data must be restricted to the minimum number of the research participants, and the issues with identifiability should be avoided as well (FAQs on Data Protection, n.d., par. 10-20). Another guideline sums it all up: “However simple or complex your data set, think about what you might need to do to ensure that your management of the data respects the terms of your consent, and in particular, the confidentiality and anonymity that participants were promised” (Data storage and data security, n.d., par. 14).

Reference List

Data storage and data security. (n.d.). Web.

FAQs on Data Protection and Writing a Research Protocol or Applying for Research Ethics Approval. (n.d.). Web.

Kaptchuk, T. J. (2003). Effect of Interpretive Bias on Research Evidence. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 326(7404), 1453–1455. Web.

MacCoun, R. J. (1998). Biases in the Interpretation and Use of Research Results. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 259-287. Web.

McDowall, R. D. (2013). FDA’s Focus on Laboratory Data Integrity – Part 1. Web.

MHRA GMP Data Integrity Definitions and Guidance for Industry. (2015). Web.

Introduction

In this scenario, it’s important to realize that data integrity and confidentiality is achieved by ensuring that only the authorized person(s) gain access to the data and that during transmission, storage and retrieval data originality is maintained.

That is to say no alterations can be made whatsoever during these processes. We also know that the store employees are not authorized to access data sent for storage by their clients. This essay tries to discuss how this can be achieved from a CIO’s viewpoint.

Secure transmission and storage

Analyzing the requirements for this to be achieved we realize that, data should be illegible during transmission to the store and back to the customer since it is wired over a public network, (Merkle 1978); also the store staff should not be able to read it.

In this case we employ cryptography which is a mechanism for encoding character strings using some predetermined keys and encryption algorithm, ( Curry, 2001). The sender encrypts the message changing it to a form known as a ciphertext and the receiver on the other hand decrypts it to obtain the original message.

In our case, the receiver should not be able to read the message, therefore we use double encryption. First, the CIO should come up with a set of two keys, a public key PuKs and a private key PrKs. PuKs should be made known to all the customers, while PrKs should be kept secret only known to the staff in charge of data receipt and transmission.

Each customer also comes up with a set of two keys public, PuKc which is given out and private PrKc which is only known to the customer. He also comes up with another key PKc only known to him. The sender in this case, the customer encrypts the data using an algorithm and the key PKc.

This ensures confidentiality of data since only the owner has got the key so only him can read this data. However, the receiver, the store in this case needs to verify that the message received is the original one sent by the customer it has not been tampered with on the way.

Since the store employee receiving it cannot read it, the originality of sender can be verified by use of a digital signature. Both parties agree on some verification code known as the digital signature, (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman, 1978).

When the customer is sending his data, he encrypts it with PKc, generates a hash function, (Niven and Zuckerman, 1972) of the original verification code and attaches it to ciphertext, C1 obtained and encrypts the combination a second time using his private key PrKc to get ciphertext, C2 and sends it to the store.

When data is received at the store, the receiver decrypts it with the key, PuKc to verify the signature and if it matches the originally agreed code, then the data is original from the customer. The signature is removed from the message and the C1 is stored. This ensures data integrity. This method is made secure by the fact that any changes made to the data, will translate to a change in the digital signature, (Calabrese, 2004)

When the customer requires his data, the original ciphertext from the customer is retrieved from storage. Then the store employee in charge appends his digital signature to the ciphertext and encrypts it with the store’s private key, PrKs.

He then sends it over to the customer who decrypts the message with the store’s public key, PuKs which he already has to verify the sender. If the signature matches the original code, then the ciphertext is original from the store. He then detaches the signature from the ciphertext and decrypts the ciphertext with his private key PKc; the one he used to encrypt.

Secure email exchange

In the store, the staffs agree on an encryption method to secure their email exchange. Each member comes up with a set of two keys a public and a private key. Each of them gives out his public key to all the others but keeps his private key secret, (Curry, 2000)When party A wants to send a confidential email to party B, he encrypts the message with party B’s public key and sends the ciphertext to party B.

On receipt, party B decrypts the message with his private key and reads it, (Potter, 1977). To verify the originator and integrity of emails, the sender appends his digital signature to the message, the signature in our case could be the sender’s name for example but he encrypts it with his private key and the receiver can decrypt it using the sender’s public key which he already has, (Diffie, Hellman, 1976)

Secure backup transmission

During backup data transmission, StoreItRite employee in charge should combine all ciphertexts received from their customers during that day and encrypt it using a key only known to them, which is their private key PK3. The ciphertext, C3 is then sent over the leased line as one packet hence cutting on cost.

Conclusion

In conclusion we can say that encryption is the most appropriate way to ensure data security during transmission over a network and also during storage. Digital signatures enhance this security by providing a way of verifying that the data received is original from the sender.

No changes have been made along the way since it is only the sender who has his private key which was used to encrypt the signature. Double encryption technique enhances this integrity check by ensuring that any changes made to the data translate to a change in the digital signature.

References

Calabrese T. (2004) Information Security Intelligence: Cryptographic Principles & Applications. Delmar Learning. New York. Clifton Park.

Curry Ian, (2000), Key Update and the complete story on the Need for Two Key Pairs. Version 1.2. Canada. Entrust Technologies.

… (2001). An Introduction to Cryptography and Digital Signatures. Canada. Entrust Technologies.

Diffie W. and Hellman M. (1976) New Directions in Cryptography”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 22(6). 645-650. Web.

Merkle, R. (1978). Secure communications over an insecure channel. Communications of the ACM, 21(2):120–126.

Niven, I., and Zuckerman, H.S. (1972). An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers. New York. Wiley.

Potter, R.J., (1977) Electronic mail Science. Federal Register 40, PP 84-86.

Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (1978). A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems; Communications of the ACM, 21(2) PP120-126.

The main idea behind the relational database management system (RDBMS) is the concept of relationships that exist among objects or entities. A relationship is an association of entities based on how they interact. The following terms are used in relation to modeling a relational database model: Entity, Attributes, Primary Key, and Foreign key (Begg & Connoly, 2003). Using a RDBMS, three types of relationships can be defined among entities: one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. To be appropriate, relationships must observe some sort of data integrity. In this context, the following paragraphs describe the importance of data integrity.

The three fundamental types of data integrity are entity integrity, referential integrity, and domain integrity. Entity integrity is a form of data integrity that requires every table in a relational database to have a unique column or columns that ensure that each row is uniquely identified. The unique column or columns is known as the primary key, thus no duplication of rows within a given table is acceptable. In essence, a primary key should be unique but not null (Gilfillan 2000). To ensure that there is validity and accuracy of data, a database designer should be able to select the correct primary key that reflects the requirements of the database in regard to information search, updating, and deletion of the stored data. For instance, when designing a school database, tables such as the STUDENT table and COURSES table may be included in the database. Thus, to ensure the accuracy of the entities, student number in the STUDENT table can act as the primary key, while course number in the COURSES table may act as the primary key. Both student number and course number uniquely identify other information in their respective tables hence entity integrity.

Another type of data integrity is the referential integrity. These are rules that are followed to preserve the defined relationships between tables when records are added or deleted. Referential integrity is typically enforced with a primary key and a foreign key combination. To link a table with another table, these two keys must exist. A foreign key is a key in one table that must match a primary key in another table to establish a relationship. Moreover, referential integrity requires that the matching fields must have the same data type, field properties, and same data. Secondly, both tables must belong to the same database. Lastly, a record cannot be deleted or updated from the primary table if matching records exist in a related table (Watson 2005). An example of referential integrity may exist in a Company database in which we have the EMPLOYEE table and the DEPARTMENT table. To connect EMPLOYEE table to DEPARTMENT table, Employee number field acts as a primary key and Department number field act as a foreign key, thus ensuring consistent relationships. Enforcing referential integrity is typically provided by the database management system (Navathe, 2000).

Lastly, domain integrity defines the required features of a specific column in a table. Every column has a certain domain that stems from the specified data type. Domain integrity is characterized by the data type, the NULL value recognition, the allowable values, and the default value. For instance, if we define the attribute of UnitNumber, of a STUDENT entity, as an integer, the value of every occurrence of such element must be a number and an integer. If we specify that the value should be positive, then a negative figure is not allowed. Again, having it as mandatory value in the column shows that the column is specified as NOT NULL (Begg & Connoly, 2003). In essence, each attribute should be specified with the following domain information: Data Type, Length, Date Format, Range, Constraints, Null Support, and Default Value. Domain integrity ensures consistency of data, validity of data, and identification of data.

Therefore, entity integrity, referential integrity, and domain integrity are important in relational databases because they ensure that data is valid and consistent, and thus relationships are set. Secondly, they reduce the redundancy of data since records can only be entered once. Thirdly, searching records is much faster (Gilfillan Ian, 2000). For instance, having Product number as a primary key in a Products table ensures that records are stored once and searches become faster. On the other hand, having supplier number as a foreign key in the same table enable a relationship to be set between the Product table and the Supplier table, hence increasing searches and lessening design difficulties.

References

Begg, C., & Connoly, T., 2003, Database Systems, 3rd Ed., Pearson Education Limited, Delhi.

Gilfillan, I., 2002, Introduction to Relational Databases, Web.

Navathe, S., 2000, Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3rd Ed., Addison Wesley, USA.

Watson, R., 2005, Data management: databases and organizations, 5th Ed., John Wiley, New York.

The hospitality industry, which includes hotels, tour operators, restaurants and tourism, is one of the leading industries in the world. It has been booming since the mid of the twentieth century. Numerous regions and even economies of some countries depend largely on tourism. Tourists generally expect to be warmly welcomed wherever they come. It is, therefore, upon the hospitality industry to come up with strategies to guarantee hospitality for tourists. However, the hospitality industry is often self-contradictory in that it has its own economic responsibilities, on the one hand, and moral and social attitudes that are not bound by those economic responsibilities, on the other hand (O’Fallon & Rutherford 2010).

The manner in which employees in a hospitality business behave towards tourists and guests should be based on hospitality as a social and moral value. This is usually characterized by their effort to make the tourists feel at home. However, in the current consumer society, hospitality, like any other industry, is a business aiming at maximizing on profits. Therefore, the situation requires all the players to be highly integrated into the business.

A remarkable example that focuses on the issue of integrity in the hospitality industry is presented below. There was a case where thousands of tourists were forced to stay in a certain city. This was a result of an Icelandic ash cloud that was in the sky around Europe in May 2010. This presented an opportunity for hotel owners to take advantage of people’s desperation in accommodation and make money increasing their accommodation rates for a night. Should a hostel manager who claims to be of integrity benefit from such a situation and raise the charges, or should he show true hospitality and reduce the charges, or at least let them remain the same? Where does the balance lie in such a situation?

In hospitality, integrity is vital to business ethics. The tension between the industry’s economized concept and its moral attitude is a significant feature of tourism and needs a considerate integrity view. The ‘Homeric’ hospitality ideal involves love for strangers. Hospitality in this sense refers to the world of human relationships that is not ruled by the pursuit for profit maximization, with hospitality being extended to those who may be in need. A notable question occurs on how the industry’s business ethics should be framed. As this industry is based on implicit hospitality ethics, its ethics of business has to begin with its core business, which is hospitality itself (Simons 2008).

Typical viewpoints of both the hospitality and the market have the tendency to be developed by mistake. A broader and wider concept of understanding the caring economy involves a way of organizing life as a whole. A caring economy involves communities sharing life of mutuality, relationships, and reciprocity, and is not about individual satisfaction and competition. There exists a difference between accumulation of wealth and economics. The accumulation of money itself is an activity that is unnatural and dehumanizes everyone who practices it (Tanke 2001).

The accumulation of money is not an ethical practice for a manager in the hospitality industry. While trade exchanges money for services and goods, accumulation of money involves the creation of money from money. Here, the merchant produces nothing. The hospitality industry can be said to have integrity if the sale of services is made directly between the producer and the buyer at the right price. On the other hand, there will be a lack of integrity if the producer purchases products and services to be resold to consumers at a higher price through the process of generating added value. Money must only be a measure of value and a medium of exchange (Walker & Miller 2009).

The hospitality industry should not merely maximize profits for their shareholders, but rather serve the society. Profit gained should be a reward for serving society well. Unless a business serves the society, it does not have enough integrity, and society, in return, will not tolerate their profits or even their returns. Hospitality is only understandable if it aims to serve society. The notion that running business will corrupt the hospitality industry by its integrity presumes that the term economics is a reference to trade for profit (Simons 2008).

In conclusion, running a hospitality business with integrity means doing it in the way one would behave towards one’s best friends. Therefore, integrity is certainly not the separation of business and friendship, though the businesspersons are able to artificially separate moral values in different circumstances. The essence of the hospitality industry is to extend hospitality to strangers, who may be not clearly understood, but who are nonetheless provided with accommodation. A hospitality business manager is one capable of finding the right integrity balance between operating profitably and provision of services that form the true sense of the term ‘hospitality’ (Kusluvan 2003). Hospitality businesses which aim is to make exorbitant profits without extending hospitality to its clients should not be in operation in the first place.

Reference List

Kusluvan, S. 2003. Managing Employee Attitudes and Behaviors in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Nova Publishers, New York.

O’Fallon, M, & Rutherford, D. G. 2010. Hotel Management and Operations, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Simons, T. 2008. The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Tanke, M. L. 2001. Human Resources Management for the Hospitality Industry, Cengage Learning, New York.

Walker, J. R. & Miller, J. E. 2009. Supervision in the Hospitality Industry: Leading Human Resource, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Observing the Student Code of Academic Integrity is crucial to researching if one wants to earn the respect of their peers. Examples of violations provided by the Cornell University (“Code of Academic Integrity”) include representing others’ work as one’s own, fabricating data that supports one’s findings or misrepresenting one’s academic accomplishments. Not following the Code can result in a variety of penalties, ranging from having to redo the work to being expelled from the university.

Integrity is critical in academic and professional life because failures to observe it will eventually be discovered and punished. This is especially true in the modern world where every published work is widely and readily available. There are even automated tools that check your paper against an enormous range of documents, articles, and web pages to look for similarities. However, these tools may also be used to assist the author in observing academic integrity by helping them locate passages that seem similar to other works. The writer can then change those parts if the information is merely common knowledge presented in a similar fashion or properly cite the earlier paper if the data is derived from that study.

There is a variety of resources available to a student that help observe academic integrity rules and verify it, most of them online. Many websites are dedicated to scanning your text and looking for similarities to sources available online. There are also numerous pages that explain the standard strategies for avoiding plagiarism and the idea of citations. The most useful of such resources and perhaps the most useful of all academic integrity resources is the Purdue OWL (“Purdue Online Writing Lab”). In addition to providing suggestions for general writing, it has a dedicated section for research and citation that explains most of the commonly used citation styles, the complexities of which can often lead to mistakes, in detail.

Works Cited

“Code of Academic Integrity.” Cornell University, 1997. Web.

“Purdue Online Writing Lab”. Purdue University College of Liberal Arts, 2018. Web.

Introduction

A conceptual framework, which provides a theoretical approach to issues of research, is an intermediate theory connecting aspects of inquiry (Cozby, 2009). In principle, this intermediate theory provides a connection between real practice and the research that is carried out by the researcher (Creswell, 2009). This paper seeks to create a conceptual framework for a dissertation that is based on introducing the principles of integrity in the community (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). The conceptual framework, therefore, should incorporate various theories that connect the introduction of integrity and the dissertation research (Zikmund, Carr & Griffin, 2010).

Models

Integrity Theory

Since the dissertation will be based on introducing integrity in the community, it should revolve around the integrity theory. The integrity theory argues that a human being, which is the only intelligent species, has the power to make informed decisions that embrace responsibility. It asserts that they should have the consistency of values and principles that purports their ethical honesty and truthfulness to live with each other. This implies that integrity is the main pillar of coexistence among people who have similar objectives. It, also, argues that a lack of integrity, which controls the actions of people, can result in severe consequences that deplete unity and coexistence (Santoro, 2003). For example, the migrants of Malaysia have been facing many problems due to a lack of unity and integration among the migrants. Unity is a principle of human beings that is induced by the willingness to live with other people in a spirit of harmony to achieve collective goals (Kelly, 1995). Lack of unity is caused by a lack of integrity since integrity is a virtue that enables people to appreciate others and harmoniously work with them. The introduction of integrity in the migrants of Malaysia, therefore, must be based on the concepts that are depicted in this theory including consistency of values and unity. It is the surest theory that can form a perfect framework for this dissertation to give the desired research framework.

Morally Permissible Theory

Characteristically, morals are relative since they change by the people. However, morally permissible theory seeks to stabilize this relativism by providing a common baseline for coexistence (Will, 1997). It states that morally permissible actions protect the well-being of all people who are working within the limits of those morals. This implies that an action that does not ensure the well-being of the people is not morally permissible in that community (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 1994). In light of introducing integrity in the community of Malaysia, this theory should be considered to address the nationals. The nationals disenfranchise the migrants because they do not belong to their country. The migrants are retrenched from their jobs to employ the nation of Malaysia. This implies that the authorities consider the welfare of the Malaysian people and disregard the migrants based on nationality. According to the Morally Permissible Theory, sacrificing the migrants to satisfy the wealth of the nation is immoral and completely inhuman. Therefore, the dissertation should not consider the migrants alone. Instead, it should focus on the national and the authorities of Malaysia to address the plight of migrants holistically. Theoretically, the most significant problems that are faced by the migrants are related to morals.

Conclusion

The two theories, which include the Integrity Theory and Morally Permissible Theory, form a perfect framework for this dissertation regarding the introduction of integrity. It provides a guide for researching and analyzing the results to obtain the solution to the migrants’ problems.

References

Cozby, P. C. (2009). Methods in behavioral research. Boston: Mcgraw Hill Higher Education. (Original work published 10th).

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994). Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, And Social Construction. Annual Review of Sociology, 20(1), 149-171.

Kelly, M. (1995). Humanism And Unity. History of European Ideas, 20(4-6), 923-928.

Santoro, M. A. (2003). Beyond Codes Of Conduct And Monitoring: An Organizational Integrity Approach To Global Labor Practices. Human Rights Quarterly, 25(2), 407-424.

Trochim, W. M., & Donnelly, J. (2008). Research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage.

Will, R. (1997). Time, Morality, And Humanity In Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony. Journal of the American Musicological Society, 50(2-3), 271-329.

Zikmund, W., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2010). Business research methods (8th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.

Introduction

Recall that the research problem in the planned dissertation concerns the personality traits of both bullying perpetrators and provocative bullies in the work setting. The mixed-methods approach will incorporate in-depth interviews with adult workers who have participated in an earlier postal survey and thus been identified, by reason of frequency and regency, as belonging to the target groups. Access will be via the labor union locals.

Addressing the Questions of Integrity

The route of access is the least likely to arouse questions of integrity. The sampling frame for the first-stage postal survey depends completely on heads of union federation offices in the city granting permission for access to their members’ mailing addresses. For delays, permission denials and inadequate sampling frames at this level, the fallbacks shall be approaches to a sample of unionized firms in the city or a purchased list of white- and blue-collar workers.

On the other hand, it remains to be seen how many union members play supervisory roles. This is a concern, given that those carrying the formal designation are normally excluded from union membership and National Labor Relations Act protections. As well, prior data already provides strong evidence that superiors account for a substantial proportion of bullying perpetrators. Doubtless, the second fallback above can help solve this problem of access since no union official has power over company supervisors. As well, there are many who are designated “coordinator”, “lead men”, “charge nurses”, “load supervisors” and “journeymen” in education, health care, construction, manufacturing, broadcast, energy, shipping, and accounting who still remain legally rank-and-file but really bear “hire and fire” responsibilities.

Regardless of route of access, one anticipates that permissions can be facilitated with a study rationale promising reduction of stressful events in the workplace and working towards interventions to help habitual bullies and their victims. Fortunately, those who must give permission in the primary and first fallback access routes have no power to coerce, force participation or sanction members who report bullying experiences.

On the other hand, consent is a matter of three essential elements ensuring that participation is based on informed consent, is voluntary, and protects respondents from retaliation or other adverse consequences. All three objectives will be met by including a cover letter in the questionnaire and checklist mail packet. This letter will elucidate the above study rationale, assure the recipients that participation is entirely voluntary and that only the researcher will have access for all time to the information provided. Moreover, the letter will pledge that all personal and contact information will be destroyed after a certain time.

These assurances will need to be reiterated during the telephone recruitment of identified bullies or provocative victims for the second stage of depth interviews. When participants finally meet the researcher in the appointed venue, it will prove necessary to verbalize further reassurances about why the subsequent interview will cover the topics it does. Trust must be built up else the selected participant has no incentive to divulge intensely private matters about his upbringing, domestic situation, personal traits, lived experience of bullying, and the antecedents of how he learned/adapted to work with others in such a manner. Such trust will be based on the researcher’s: neutral work affiliation and setting for the interview; optimal rapport based on professional appearance and verbal assurances; openness to what is revealed no matter how unsavory; reiterating the confidentiality of personal details; the vital promise that the researcher will not engage in follow-up interviews with the respondent’s colleagues; and even the slightly naïve stance of an industrial psychologist eager to know what really goes on in the work place (Patton, 2002; Schram, 2005; Shank, 2005).

Female investigators are common enough in occupational health and employee relations settings so that gender need not pose a hindrance in establishing rapport with either male or female subjects. At worst, one may expect a certain degree of masculine bluster that they are able to show everyone “who’s boss”. But then personality traits are the real subject at this stage, not gender-biased teamwork and leadership.

Conclusion

One anticipates that depth interview subjects will be less reticent about bullying behavior (than about their own traits) since they may well be operating on the notion that they are only being direct, explicit and justifiably rude in their leadership and collegial styles.

Moving forward, the ethical stance of this study is strengthened by the routes of access chosen and by various confidence-building measures the researcher knows to undertake.

References

Patton, M. Q. (2002), Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd Ed.) London: Sage.

Shank, G. D. (2005). Qualitative research: A personal skills approach (2^nd Ed).

Schram, T. H. (2005). Conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Introduction

While conducting a research study, it is important to uphold integrity by ensuring that the results are credible, valid, and reliable to the target parties (Patton, 2002). In addition, the research study must involve ethical practices which ensure that the interactions with respondents are professional (Schram, 2006). In this light, the aspects should be used in parts of the research including sampling, collecting, and analyzing data (Shank, 2006). Therefore, this paper will focus on the practices that could be embraced in the envisioned research to ensure the viability and reliability of the results.

Data Integrity

In a previous discussion on research orientation, it was stated that a sample could be collected by the random purposive method. In this light, the random purposeful technique ensures that the sample is not collected in a biased manner (Sheu & Wei, 2009). This approach also ensures that it does not favor the realization of results that direct towards predefined hypotheses. Instead, the results should be obtained in a naturalistic manner. On the other hand, the purposive design ensures that the people involved in the research are relevant to the study (Stein & Springer, 2008). Otherwise, interviewing people without the relevant information about the research purpose would lead to a lack of credibility in the data obtained. Since random purposive sampling is a combination of the two methods, it ensures that the collection is random and purposeful (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Therefore, this will lead to a collection of relevant, credible, and valid data.

Flexible questionnaires are designed in a manner that allows modification (Shibata & Ikeda, 2008). This flexibility ensures that the questions could be manipulated to accommodate unexpected issues or remove irrelevant themes (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). While storing these documents, they must be stored in a manner that does not compromise the integrity of results. To avoid inconvenience, the inquiries are put on shelves under population segments. In this research, there will be three segmentations relating to NGO representatives, government officials, and migrant workers. The respective questionnaires will be stored concerning the three groups to avoid confusion. They will be kept under the care of a person who can ensure that the data is not altered. They should be kept in a safe place that is free from theft or destruction. During data collection, it is important to ensure that the respondents feel free when giving information. The confidentiality of information must be assured to encourage people on giving much information. For example, posing personal questions should be avoided since they threaten the privacy of respondents.

Ethical Issues

Various ethical issues could arise when sampling, collecting and analyzing data. One of these ethical issues is a lack of professionalism. For example, the data collectors could be tempted to choose the samples without following the right procedures that reduce workload. In addition, they could be tempted to fill in the questionnaires rather than collect the actual data. It is also possible for them to provide results without analyzing. Lack of professionalism and informality can lead to profound ethical issues which compromise data integrity. As a result, the researchers should be trained before taking their respective roles. This will help in maintaining the right standards.

Conclusion

The research study must be ethical and credible. In this light, various activities on research sampling, data collection, and data analysis must be conducted with integrity and an ethical approach. Otherwise, they could compromise the integrity of the research.

References

Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Schram, T. (2006). Conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Shank, G. (2006). Qualitative research: A personal skills approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Sheu, S., & Wei, I. (2009). Using Snowball Sampling Method With Nurses To Understand Medication Administration Errors. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18(4), 559-569.

Shibata, Y., & Ikeda, H. (2008). Questionnaire Survey Of Physical Properties Of Urea Preparations. Nishi Nihon Hifuka, 70(6), 634-638.

Stein, H., & Springer, M. (2008). Comparison Of Two Sampling Methods For Biomonitoring Using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates In The Dos Novillos River, Costa Rica. Ecological Engineering, 34(4), 267-275.

Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J. (2008). The research methods knowledge base. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Integrity refers to the preservation of consistent values in a system. In the field of ethics, the term refers to accuracy/ truthfulness and honesty regarding the actions an individual engages in. The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy. Internal consistency is regarded as a virtue.

Professionals must be able to work in various systems, and at the same time, maintain their integrity in different professional practice and ethical challenges that they might experience. Irrespective of the nature of work or career that an individual engages in, professionals should be equipped with varying skills to deal with professional practice and ethical concerns, which are related to the specific system. This paper aims at discussing the various ways through which integrity can be retained when an individual is working within the boundaries and complexities of multiple systems. Moreover, the most significant professional practice and ethical issues that the individual might encounter will be discussed.

Retaining Integrity within the Boundaries and Complexities of a System

Health System

In the health care system, there have been immense efforts aimed at improving the safety and quality of healthcare. However, there is a lot that needs to be done to get rid of preventable harm in healthcare systems (Miller, Rosenstein & DeRenzo, 1998). In this regard, a fair and stable culture is one of the critical components of this improvement. Protective infrastructures are vital in ensuring that safety and quality are safeguarded in healthcare. Reporting integrity is the only component in healthcare that can help in preventing and identifying the fundamental causes of systemic trials, which impends patient safety.

The escalated utilization of new fiscal simulations that relate the impacts of quality to pay will result in the achievement of quality results. Quality healthcare is one of the reasons why professionals are keen on integrity. Healthcare system leaders need to put in place protective structures, which result in accountability in various issues. According to Miller, Rosenstein, and DeRenzo (1998), accountability and transparency are essential during data collection, safety and quality analysis, and financial concerns.

Integrity in the healthcare system involves various areas. These include risk management, administration consultation, corporate compliance, information management systems, financial and accounting services, operational analysis, marketing consultation, information systems, internal control systems, cost reporting, payroll processing, and labor relations. The majority of the challenges in the healthcare system are as a result of untrue medical messaging. As a result, people with good intentions may end up engaging in unethical acts. However, the majority of the challenges is as a result of the failure of staff to be accountable. To ensure integrity in the health system, excuses, pretending, hiding, and games should be avoided (Fisher, 2009).

Academic System

In the absence of academic integrity norms, the sustenance and stability in the academic system cannot be maintained. According to educators, going against the academic integrity norms is both unethical and disregards education objectives. By going against the academic integrity norms, students cannot develop independent critical thinking skills. Students also consider cheating as immoral. However, cheating is so prevalent in the majority of education systems (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2011).

Educators should inform students of the negative impacts associated with cheating. This ensures that students are aware of the risk they are exposing themselves to by cheating so that they avoid it at all costs. Through academic cheating, students fail to develop essential critical thinking skills. Moreover, cheating becomes a norm, and students never revise for their exams. On the contrary, they concentrate on writing short notes to be used in the exam room. This leads to a corrupt academic system, where students develop a cheating culture.

Significant Ethical and Professional Practice Issues

It is worth pointing out that with the increase of concerns aimed at developing a culture of safe healthcare systems, there has been immense intimidation and retaliation reports directed towards staff, who voice the inadequacies in healthcare quality and safety. In the healthcare environment, some specialists admit that they have no courage in expressing the circumstances that can negatively impact on patients’ health. Healthcare professionals whose responsibility is ensuring quality and safety experience a wide array of challenges. These include immense pressure, harassment, and legal issues. In the academic system, innocent students seated next to cheating students may also be considered as culprits (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2011). The punishment for cheating in class and exams include being expelled for good, or results cancellation. This makes students delay completing their education. Also, teachers who identify cheating students may be considered incompetent by the administration. The authorities may think that these teachers are failures for being unable to control their class. Consequently, such teachers may be expelled from the institution. Also, when several students from different classes are caught cheating, the administration may lose the trust of the exam results presented to them.

In essence, professionals undergo through various challenges in their quest to maintain integrity. However, honesty is vital in every system, as it results in the effective achievement of the objectives and goals.

References

Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Callanan, P. (2011). Issues and ethics in the helping professions (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Fisher, C.B. (2009). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Miller, F. G., Rosenstein, D. L., & DeRenzo, E. G. (1998). Professional integrity in clinical research. JAMA: the journal of the American Medical Association, 280(16), 1449-1454.