Competing Ethical Communities and a Researcher’s Dilemma

Abstract

Ethical research communities provide important guidance for those conducting communication research projects. However, researchers face serious ethical dilemmas when their memberships in multiple ethical communities create conflicting ethical obligations. The present study explores conflicting demands between competing ethical communities to provide a series of reflexive questions researchers can ask themselves as they negotiate the contradictory terrain of their ethical communities. To accomplish this task, the authors explore the ethical dilemmas faced by one researcher as she conducted research on sexual harassment.