American Sociological Association: Teaching Ethics Throughout the Curriculum, Ethics, Teaching, Teaching Ethics to Students

Franklin Academic was working with a team of people preparing a proposal for a government agency to conduct a major longitudinal national survey. Winning this grant would be very significant for the department, providing an opportunity for important research, journal publications, and support for graduate students for several years. Franklin knew that as a junior faculty member, contributing to a successful proposal would benefit his standing in the department and his career. The evaluation criteria allotted 35% of total points to demonstrating prior experience in conducting large-scale longitudinal surveys. This was the weakest area of the proposal team. While the group had capabilities to conduct such a survey and had experience in carrying out small local surveys, no one had conducted longitudinal surveys at the scale of the proposed research.

While a graduate student, Franklin had helped a research team at a different university resolve some statistical analysis questions for a national longitudinal survey. He had written up this experience for the current proposal. The full professor leading the proposal effort, Sarah Tenure, asked Franklin to rewrite this section to place greater emphasis on his role and the depth and significance of his work in that research project. Franklin was quite upset with this suggestion; he felt he was being pressured to overstate his experience to increase the chance of winning the proposal.

Questions

1.    Should Franklin embellish his description of his past experience suggesting he played a larger role than he actually performed?
2.    Should Franklin accuse the professor of unethical conduct and/or file a complaint with the ASA Committee on Professional Ethics?
3.    What are other possible options open to Franklin?

     Reflect on the above questions and form your own answers before clicking the Discussion key to review the commentary provided with this case.

Discussion

Franklin believes the professor is asking him to misrepresent his professional research experience. He expects that not complying with the request will harm his position with this professor, with whom he has been collaborating on research and publications.
Franklin definitely should not present his past experience in a distorted fashion to suggest the work he carried out in the former project was more substantial or different than it actually was. However, accusing his colleague of unethical conduct or filing a complaint immediately escalates the situation. Franklin may be jumping to conclusions and misunderstanding Sarah's intent.

Before making any accusations, Franklin should discuss the revision with Sarah to clarify what she is requesting. If Franklin is too uncomfortable to discuss this with Sarah directly, he should seek out another colleague, possibly someone at a different university, to discuss the problem confidentially. A discussion with a third party would allow him to bluntly state his concerns without fear of repercussions and to get an outside viewpoint on the situation.

It is possible that Franklin's write-up minimized or very briefly described his contribution and Sarah wanted him to expand on the nature of the work he did. Another possibility is that after his clear presentation of his specific role, Sarah thought he could discuss some of the more general issues the research team confronted in that national, longitudinal survey, which he learned about through participating in the study. Of course, it is also possible that Sarah was, as he suspected, really suggesting he embellish his description.

By discussing the rewrite with Sarah in a manner that is not accusatory, Franklin is likely to find out what her intentions were. If he misinterpreted her request, he has avoided an unnecessary confronta-tion, which could have harmed their relationship, because of a false accusation. If Sarah was subtly suggesting he overstate his role, Franklin, by expressing his concern for wanting to make sure he does not misrepresent his experience, (focusing on what he wants to do right, not accusing her of sug-gesting something wrong) is modeling the appropriate behavior. Sarah is likely to agree with this position, and hopefully, be more careful herself in presentation of the research team experience.

If Sarah's reaction is that he is simply inexperience in the “real world” and “everybody does it,” then Franklin would have to make clear that he would not misrepresent his experience.

Case 32. Statements about Professional Experience

Situation

Questions