Introduction of Jokes-Based Research Methods

Abstract

Ethics scholars know about ethical transgressions in business mainly from journalists. Journalists report extreme transgressions leading to scandals, court cases and social or environmental disasters. The more moderate examples of unethical business behaviour are known by insiders, but less by outsiders. Business ethicists have rarely explored such more common transgressions empirically, and they lack own methods to do so. This chapter introduces four research methods that use business jokes on ethical transgressions. The chapter first explains how critical insider jokes can illustrate common unethical practices in business, second how they can stimulate conversation about them in open in-depth interviews, third how they can be used as statements to be rated in a survey and fourth how they can be used as a source for content analysis. This introductory chapter concludes with an outline of the entire book and its four methods, showing their contributions to research methods in business ethics. The book aims at scholars in business ethics and the social sciences including their Ph.D. and M.Sc. students. Second, the book may also be relevant to practitioners like consultants, managers and researchers who want to better explore business ethics cases in their specific fields.