Ethics in Research

-          Ethics in research demands calls for the researcher to protect his sources of information, especially where such information is confidential and likely to negatively impact the source. Commitment to confidentiality should be provided in writing and the researcher should take all necessary measures to ensure that the information is secured. Closely related to this, is the participants’ right to stay keep off the study being conducted. Researchers must at all time refrain from coercing respondents as participation must be purely voluntary.

-          The researcher must also ensure that the participants are adequately informed of their rights, responsibilities, and the expectations they must have on the researcher and the study itself. This information should be presented in an explicit form before securing their consent. This should guard against coercion and other unacceptable practices.

-          Plagiarism should be avoided when conducting research. It is both unethical and a criminal offence. The researcher must at all times acknowledge the contribution of other scholars by providing appropriate references whenever ideas from their work are borrowed in a paper.

CRITIQUE

The main purpose of the existence of businesses is wealth creation on behalf of its owners. It’s therefore necessary for sharper tools for analysing the financial status of businesses to be established. The wealth accounting model provides this benefit.

This accounting model proposes to have all liabilities and assets on the balance sheet measured at fair value in a standardisation move that would see the standards apply to all firms irrespective of their industry backgrounds (Moso, 2011). The simplified model would have the balance sheet determine the net worth of the business while the income statement determines the change in total wealth. Such a move would ensure ease of diagnosis of a firm’s financial health.

It’s however expected that the adoption of the wealth accounting model will face stiff opposition from corporate executives who argue that the system would be difficult to implement. It is believed that this opposition is informed by the fact that the proposed system makes it difficult to manipulate earnings (Moso, 2011). However, law makers remain supportive and the model’s adoption is imminent despite this opposition.

References

Eriksson, P., Kovalainen, A. 2008. Qualitative Methods in Business Research, 1^st  Ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd

Mayor, H., Blackmon, K., 2005. Researching Business and Management. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Moso, D., 2011. Financial Analysts Need Sharper Accounting Tools, Accounting Horizons, 25(2), pp. 419-435

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A., 2007. Research Method for Business Students. 4^th Ed. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited