Towards Candor, Cooperation, & Privacy in Applied Business Ethics Research: The Randomized Response Technique (RRT)

Abstract

Virtually every empirical inquiry of issues relevant to applied business ethics involves the asking of questions that are sensitive, embarrassing, threatening, stigmatizing, or incriminating. Accordingly, questions of this sort are likely to result in unsatisfactory outcomes: 1) many individuals will not respond; and/or, 2) many individuals will not respond candidly. An obvious objective, then, is to use a method to collect information which increases participation, provides absolute anonymity, and does not jeopardize subjects’ privacy. The randomized response technique (RRT) is a method designed to realize this promise. We provide here an overview of RRT approaches and applications which may be effectively used in empirical examinations of potentially sensitive issues in business ethics.

Method issues in business ethics research: finding credible answers to questions that matter

“…For example, assurances of confidentiality and anonymity are often mentioned by authors in reports of their research. Randomised research techniques have also been advocated (Dalton & Metzger ; Dalton et al . ), although we do not think these have been used widely in business ethics research.…”

A Multimethod Approach to the Study of Sensitive Organizational Issues

“…Many of the classical problems of self-report methodology, such as response biases and low response rates, are amplified when the method is applied to the study of sensitive issues. Dalton and Metzger (1992) claim that two main problems face survey researchers addressing threatening, embarrassing, stigmatizing, or incriminating business issues: (a) employees will not respond and (b) employees will not respond openly and honestly (see Appendix A). Problems with self-report measures, such as refusals, or self-selection out of a study, increase when individuals are responding to issues that they feel may threaten their position in the organization.…”

“…This is often a problem for researchers studying sensitive issues and, therefore, it has rarely been done. First, Dalton and Metzger (1992) claim that certain behaviors will happen very infrequently and many hours or weeks of observation will be needed. Second, they state that employees will be unlikely to partake in the behavior if they realize that they are being observed.…”

The teaching of ethics in management accounting: progress and prospects

“…The use of a postal questionnaire is a very common approach to empirical research in business ethics (Randall and Gibson 1990). Although postal questionnaires have limitations in addressing the kind of issues that are often of interest in business ethics (Dalton and Metzger 1992), it was felt that a self-administered questionnaire would be suitable in this case because it would not be probing particularly sensitive issues or posing questions which were likely to prompt social desirability response bias (Cowton 1998, Randall andFernandes 1991). The general advantages of postal surveys for certain purposes are well documented (e.g.…”