Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

6.7 Ethical issues associated with qualitative

research

It is very important for you to develop a strong ethical framework when you

are conducting qualitative research. If you conduct in-depth interviews, for

example, you may find out very personal things about the person which

perhaps they did not mean or wish to tell you. To overcome potential issues,

you should develop an informed consent form which details what you are

doing in the research, the process the respondent will be asked to participate

in and how you will treat the data that you collect. The respondent should

sign this before you commence and you should keep these forms for future

reference. You will probably refer to the respondents with a pseudonym or

call them respondent 1 etc., but it is important to remember that, despite

this, readers will be able to recognise them. For example, say you are doing

research in a hotel and you talk to the general manager. Even if you hide his

or her name, others will be able to spot who he or she is. So care is

required, particularly if you are talking about sensitive issues.

You can see in 

Illustration 6.6

 an example of an ethical framework from an

undergraduate dissertation. Some of the references in this illustration are

particularly interesting for you to have a look at.

Illustration 6.6 An example of an ethical framework from an

undergraduate piece of research

‘Ethical research involves getting the informed consent of those

you are going to interview … It involves reaching agreements

about the uses of this data, and how analysis will be reported

and disseminated. And it is about keeping to such agreements

when they have been reached’ (Blaxter et al., 2006: 158). The

study was anonymous, meaning that even the researcher was

unable to identify which responses came from which

respondents (Finn et al., 2000). The introductory paragraph on

the questionnaire reassured this anonymity, outlined the purpose

of the study and how the questionnaire should be completed,

and which respondents were encouraged to read before being

asked to complete the questionnaire (Brunt, 1997; Jennings,

2001; Fleming and Jordan, 2006; Bell, 2010; Bowden et al.,

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2012). The Plymouth University ethics policy (2015) was also

adhered to.