Abstract
This book originated in a series of blog-posts by the authors on the Academy of Management’s Ethics Resources web portal, directly inspired by the New York Times Magazine’s weekly column that offers advice for reader-submitted ethical dilemmas. I had hoped that this book would serve as an antidote to the more instrumental contributions to the academic self-help genre, such as Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks (Belcher, 2009). There is certainly a need for ethical guidance in the age of fast-food research, consumer-driven teaching, and insecure employment contracts. But The Ethical Professor pulls in two directions: serious reflection on ethical dilemmas on the one hand and career-oriented advice for ambitious academics on the other. Overall, this tension makes for an awkward and unsatisfying read.
The book covers three areas of academic ethics: research, teaching, and professional service. These are framed as the ‘Big Three performance metrics’ (p. 5) that every academic will need to navigate if they wish to ‘move up the ladder’ (p. 1) in higher education. Statements such as these alert us to the premise of the book: ethical dilemmas are worth considering only insofar as they threaten to ‘derail your plans for tenure and promotion’ (p. 1), rather than providing an opportunity to re-evaluate one’s role in the contemporary university (especially the business school) in the wake of recurrent crisis and scandal.
For a book that pledges to offer ‘strongly practical advice’ (p. 6), Part I on research ethics is surprisingly thin on actual guidance. The authors are largely content to explore ethical dilemmas in an open-ended and non-judgmental way rather than providing a firm stance on what the best course of action might be. Typical is Chapter 2, which presents 20 short cases to ‘start you thinking’ (p. 14) about the kinds of ethical conundrums you might encounter during the PhD process, or Chapter 9, which offers four short scenarios for more seasoned researchers to mull over. Of course, it is always useful to consider the perils of gift authorship (p. 15), self-plagiarism (p. 17), or data manipulation (p. 80). But I would have liked the authors to tell us precisely what is wrong with establishing quid pro quo relationships with colleagues, copy-and-pasting chunks of text from one article to another, or dredging data for statistically significant results—and how we might minimize the temptation to engage in such questionable research practices ourselves. There is no attempt to resolve these ethical dilemmas, only an invitation to reflect on whether a moral shortfall exists at all. Perhaps this approach would have worked well to facilitate debate in a classroom context. But the book is marketed as a practical guide rather than a teaching resource, so we are entitled to feel a little disappointed at the authors’ reticence to offer more concrete recommendations.
In Part II, which covers teaching ethics, the authors seem more comfortable offering direct advice. The tone becomes more forthright and bullet points of dos-and-don’t start to appear. The authors are no longer afraid to describe a practice as ‘troublingly unethical’ (p. 113), in contrast to the equivocation found earlier in the book. We now find strong normative statements on a range of topics, from Facebook posts (‘When a post is at someone’s expense, don’t post it’ (p. 113)) to student mentoring (‘We have to be much more high-touch with students’ (p. 122)). This is where the book comes alive, even if some of the 10 short chapters will be of limited value to scholars outside of North America.
The third and final part on professional service is the weakest of the book. Many of the chapters seem to be less about ethical dilemmas and more about navigating different roles in the university. Take the chapter on university service work, which offers some tips for early-career academics to avoid becoming overburdened by administrative commitments (‘Don’t say “no”. Say instead “yes if”’ (p. 182)). Or the chapter on media engagement, which advises scholars to ‘do the minimum’ (p. 202) and focus instead on teaching and research—the only metrics that count in performance reviews, apparently. Sage counsel, perhaps, but hardly moral concerns.
At the end of each part of the book, the authors invite a ‘thought leader’—all of whom, like the authors themselves, are business school professors—to share their thoughts on academic practice. Michael A. Hitt, former editor of the prestigious journal Academy of Management Review, offers some hilariously pragmatic reflections on ethical dilemmas. His view on self-plagiarism? ‘It is time consuming to rewrite the methods section when much of [it] applies to two or more papers’ (p. 85). What about gift authorship? ‘Some professors ask to be co-author on at least one paper coming out of the dissertation because of the workload involved in chairing a [PhD]. I do not have a problem with that’ (p. 87). Surely he has a problem with duplicate submissions to two different journals, which might end up wasting the time and effort of journal editors and reviewers? ‘I do worry that sometimes there is oversensitivity about this concern’ (p. 85). Professor Hitt is at least being honest, and the practices he describes are not uncommon. But it is slightly jarring to encounter such a lackadaisical approach to ethical questions in a book such as this.
While The Ethical Professor is targeted at social scientists in general, the business school background of the authors comes to the fore throughout the book, often in unsettling ways. For example, the problems faced by new entrants to academia are framed in terms recognizable to management scholars (‘liability of resource dependence’, ‘unfamiliarity hazards’ (p. 24)), while research teams are likened to ‘strategic alliances’ in the corporate sector that are able to ‘leverage complementary resources [and] efficiencies and synergies’ (p. 46). This strikes an odd note, especially since the authors go on to lament that ‘academia is tilting toward treating research as an entrepreneurial activity where authors are more likely to attempt to “game” the system’ (p. 61). Perhaps if we ceased to describe our research projects as strategic business opportunities, we might also discourage thinking about ourselves as value-seeking entrepreneurs. That might at least be a start.
Maybe I expected too much from this book. After all, the Academy of Management is not typically known as a hotbed of radical and disruptive thought. I do not question the motives of Lorraine Eden, Kathy Lund Dean, and Paul M. Vaaler—they come across as earnest and well-intentional academic citizens—but I did find myself wanting them to be bolder and raise more fundamental ethical questions about life in the university today. For example, there is no reflection on structural inequalities such as short-term teaching contracts and other precarious arrangements. Nor is there is any attempt to tackle the complex set of ethical dilemmas around gender, sexuality, race, or class in higher education. These issues are no doubt beyond the scope of the book, but this speaks volumes about the arbitrary parameters the authors choose to draw around ‘academic ethics’ at the outset.
