Ethics in management research: norms, identity, and community in the 21st century

Growth in the volume of business and management has been accompanied by awareness of ethical problems that pose a serious threat to the integrity of our publication process, and the soundness of our knowledge base. This special section in AMLE analyzes the forces that give rise to research practices that violate espoused research norms, and presents remedies that can curtail these practices. In this opening article, we review key points raised by the articles in this special section, but also explore some of them in greater depth. We open the article with a discussion of how escalating competition for scarce publication space is shaping ethical choices, creating an environment in which many researchers believe that the playing field is tilted against them. We then examine how growth exacerbates competitive pressures, leading to weakening of community cohesion. This in turn undermines research norms, with adverse impact on professional identity. Our attention next turns to the ethical challenges confronting editors and reviewers. We argue that these gatekeepers also experience pressures that constrain their ability to oversee the publication process diligently and fairly. We conclude the opening article with a summary of the four articles that make up the special section.