Ethics-in-practice in collaborative management research

Reflections on ethics-in-practice and the informal, implicit, situational and political nature of ethical action as a social process stand in marked contrast to the restrictive focus of ethical formalism in the process of applying explicit and formal rules to adjudicate on matters of moral concern (Bauman 2003). Such reflections incorporate and address the inevitable 'practice gap' between what rules prescribe and situations demand (Taylor 1993). The call for greater transparency and reflexivity on this social process advocates cultivating increased sensitivity towards and honesty about such ethical activities (Bell & Bryman; Bell & Wray-Bliss 2009). One way of enhancing such an awareness is through the documentation of and reflection on case studies that capture the frequently suppressed and often 'not talked about' moral dimensions of academic research (Macdonald & Hellgren 1999; Macdonald & Hellgren 2004).