answer the given question at the end of the case in details if possible this cas

Question

answer the given question at the end of the case in details if possible

this case from business research methods course

thanks in advance

Mystery customer research in restaurant chains Jane was very enthusiastic as the course she was studying involved a live research project. The whole approach of her course, particularly the research project, was to provide solutions to real-life managerial issues, and she felt that this would really help her career in the large restaurant chain that was sponsoring her. The research project seemed an ideal opportunity for her to collect data from the head offices of competitor restaurant chains while working as a student researcher. This could enable her to establish what was really best practice in terms of setting performance standards and ensuring these were maintained in the chains of restaurants run by these companies. Using contacts she had made on the course and her own knowledge of the industry, she was confident that she could collect some really useful data that would make a good research project and advance her career with her sponsor. Jane's research plans involved talking to people in the head offices of some of her employers major competitors. She was not concerned that this was unethical because while she was at uni- versity her company was not actually employing her, even though they were sponsoring her. company later on; indeed it was a con- She planned to share the results of her research with her dition of the sponsorship that she do this. Jane's research involved two stages of data gathering. She hoped to start by looking at serv- ice standards in a number of restaurant chains. She knew from her own working experience that mystery customer monitoring of competitors' service standards was a fairly common industry practice. She therefore decided to start by devising a checklist, drawn from her own experience of working in the industry and from reading refereed journal articles on service standards. Using this, she planned a study that involved some participant observation of service standards. She intended to visit a number of different competing restaurant chains as a mystery if possible by using the video camera in her mobile phone. The second stage of the research would involve depth interviews with these companies customer and to record her where she would ask them to comment on some of the data she had collected Before she could start collecting data, Jane had to write a research proposal that described and justified her research methods in some detail, and submit this to her research methods tutors for approval. She also had to complete her Business School's research ethics checklist. This asked her to provide a brief description of her research method, which she duly did. It then asked her a number of simple questions including: Does your research involve any of the following: YesiNe Financial inducements? Possible Access to confidential information? Any other special circumstances? l stress? Yen No Jane felt that she had to answer ‘yes' to the deception question, but justified her use of deception as a standard industry practice, referring to a recent search she had undertaken on Google, which had revealed numerous mystery customer companies offering their services of which she felt her tutor would also be aware. She also cited two refereed journal papers by Calvert (2005) and Erstad (1998), which she said had used mystery customers. When Jane got her research proposal back she was horrified to discover that it had been referred by her Research Methods tutor on ethical grounds. The tutor had consulted the

Explanation / Answer

Question: What is the main ethical issues with regard to Jane’s proposed research project?

Answer: The key ethical problems in Jane’s proposed research involve the purpose and motive of using the information collected from her research. Though use of mystery customer is a standard practice but there are ethical limitations around the purpose – whose interests will this practice will be serving. Secondly, even though deception is used while collecting research data and important business information it is general ethical expectation that this information will be kept confidential except some exceptional condition like when there is conflict with legal and social expectations.

Moreover, it would be clear breach of trust to use information collected under the garb of a student, as a competitive intelligence. It also would place the institution (university) dilemma because Jane’s role of a student in university may used for a purpose different from explicitly announced i.e. learning business research. The university will be accountable to restaurant chain who allow the students to collect data due to goodwill of university.

As long as Jane’s does not reveal any of the competitor information to her sponsoring employer it should be fine however since she is bound by contract for sponsorship to reveal the information to her employer it would be best for her not to engage in collection of competitor information using the student role provided by university.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.