Title: Dilemmas as researchers: an honest account

Authors: Christopher Dixon; Andrew Chan

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, UAE. ' Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Abstract: The issue of an emotional component in the production of knowledge (Sturdy, 2003) is discussed in our first-hand account of the dilemma we faced in a public sector management development programme. Participants here were unaware that they were used as sources of data for personal research on organisation learning. Three critical questions are posed regarding the need for research/respondent transparency. Recommendations are made regarding the adoption of an Informed Consent Form (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001) as a formal part of the research methodology. It is suggested that this could greatly assist managers, researchers and facilitators of management education in dealing with the competing demands of their dual roles and to come to terms with their discomfort and emotion in research.

Keywords: reflexivity; emotion; emotional labour; informed consent; researcher identity; management development; public sector management; organisation learning; data sources; research methodology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2011.045970

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2011 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.340 - 349

Published online: 23 Mar 2012 *

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