Discussion: View Thread

Debra,

I serve as the IRB chair for Jacksonville State University in AL.

I have several questions regarding this course assignment.
1.How are the instructors defining "action research"?
2.What does the project entail?
3.What is the final outcome of this project.

These questions need to be clearly answered to determine whether or not IRB
approval is necessary.

One place for information regarding IRB requirements is

http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/

The second place that you need to look is your university IRB Policy. I have
found slight differences in policy between universities regarding course
assigments that involve some form of research.


There are two ways that I seen this issue address.

1. As long as no probability of future publication from the action research, it
is considered a course exercise and therefore IRB is not required. The other
assumption is that the exercise is innocous (e.g. no risk to the individual as
defined by IRB regulations). For example, several of our courses require that
students interview leaders or human resource professionals etc. to write a
paper for class. There is no publication and we have never asked for IRB
approval

2. If there is a probability of any type of publication coming from this action
research, IRB approval is necessary. Depending on the research being
conducted, it will probable be "exempt status". Yet, this is a decision best
left for your IRB committee. An example of this is our Marketing Research
class. The students are required to collected and analyze data. While the
actual study falls under exempt status, an IRB application is submitted each
semester for this class.

I would be interested in also learning how other schools handle this issue.

Joann







Quoting "Bennett-Woods, Debra" <dbennett@REGIS.EDU>:

> Hi,
>
> I have a quick question. I am a new member of the Academy and not
> familiar with how the list serves work yet. There is a division of my
> university that wants to use what they term "action research" in their
> capstone courses in management and leadership. I believe any such
> project, conducted in the organization where the student is employed,
> should be subject to IRB review. Can you point toward resources that
> would either support or refute this assumption? Thanks so much.
>
> Deb Bennett-Woods
>

Deb,

I must say (as someone admittedly from outside the US and not too familiar with IRB processes) that I find the notion that your students should seek ethical review before conducting in company projects where they are employed to be somewhat bizarre and likely to lead to placing artificial barriers in the way of useful learning for both student and employer.

The nature of the interventions they will make in any such project are likely to be indistinguishable from what might be carried out by any manager. The difference in action research is the systemisation of the 'plan - do - reflect' cycle.

Rather more pertinent might be a structured process for agreeing the project with their employer?

Mark

Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
Director, Programmes and Curriculum
& Professor of Organisational Behaviour
Open University Business School
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
United Kingdom


e-mail: m.p.fenton-ocreevy@open.ac.uk
(DL) +44 (0)1908-655804
Fax: +44 (0)1908-655898




________________________________

From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Randy Sleeth
Sent: Mon 19/06/2006 19:46
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: IRB review


Hi Deb:

As a member of an IRB panel here at VCU, I can tell you that a student can not be the Principal Investigator on an IRB-approved study. The faculty member advising the student(s) will become the PI of record. You will need approval, if required, from both the PI's institution and the student's institution (if different). I suggest you start with the IRB folks at your own institution. A personal conversation will work better than scouring the federal regulations. You will first go through a process of determining whether the work will constitute "human subjects research." If not, then the IRB has no jurisdiction, but can still advise you.

-Randy



Bennett-Woods, Debra wrote:


Hi,

I have a quick question. I am a new member of the Academy and not familiar with how the list serves work yet. There is a division of my university that wants to use what they term "action research" in their capstone courses in management and leadership. I believe any such project, conducted in the organization where the student is employed, should be subject to IRB review. Can you point toward resources that would either support or refute this assumption? Thanks so much.

Deb Bennett-Woods



--
Randall G. Sleeth, Ph.D.
School of Business
Virginia Commonwealth University
901 West Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23284-4000
804-828-1540
rsleeth@vcu.edu
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rsleeth

Joann and others who have responded,

Thanks for your thoughts. Because I work in health care and actually teach health care ethics, I am very familiar with the "medical model" of IRB review and the associated regulations. How such activity is viewed outside of the healthcare and social science setting is somewhat less familiar to me. Furthermore, the range of definitions of "action research" is overly broad and while I can certainly make a case for exempt classification for some forms of practitioner research related to quality assessment activities, etc. within existing organizational guidelines, the more participatory and transformational approaches to action research clearly hold some level of risk to organization, participants and the practitioner as well. As a small, private university that currently only offers clinical doctorates, our IRB is most accustomed to seeing research proposals from the health care programs and we insist that all student research go through the IRB process. Likewise, the health care organizations in which our students work also insist on IRB review. So I believe guidelines would need to be discussed for larger scale review of these capstone projects that are generally not being conducted in health care organizations, and I am very interested in everyone's thoughts.

Deb

________________________________

From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Joann Williams
Sent: Mon 6/19/2006 1:43 PM
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: IRB review



Debra,

I serve as the IRB chair for Jacksonville State University in AL.

I have several questions regarding this course assignment.
1.How are the instructors defining "action research"?
2.What does the project entail?
3.What is the final outcome of this project.

These questions need to be clearly answered to determine whether or not IRB
approval is necessary.

One place for information regarding IRB requirements is

http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/

The second place that you need to look is your university IRB Policy. I have
found slight differences in policy between universities regarding course
assigments that involve some form of research.


There are two ways that I seen this issue address.

1. As long as no probability of future publication from the action research, it
is considered a course exercise and therefore IRB is not required. The other
assumption is that the exercise is innocous (e.g. no risk to the individual as
defined by IRB regulations). For example, several of our courses require that
students interview leaders or human resource professionals etc. to write a
paper for class. There is no publication and we have never asked for IRB
approval

2. If there is a probability of any type of publication coming from this action
research, IRB approval is necessary. Depending on the research being
conducted, it will probable be "exempt status". Yet, this is a decision best
left for your IRB committee. An example of this is our Marketing Research
class. The students are required to collected and analyze data. While the
actual study falls under exempt status, an IRB application is submitted each
semester for this class.

I would be interested in also learning how other schools handle this issue.

Joann







Quoting "Bennett-Woods, Debra" <dbennett@REGIS.EDU>:

> Hi,
>
> I have a quick question. I am a new member of the Academy and not
> familiar with how the list serves work yet. There is a division of my
> university that wants to use what they term "action research" in their
> capstone courses in management and leadership. I believe any such
> project, conducted in the organization where the student is employed,
> should be subject to IRB review. Can you point toward resources that
> would either support or refute this assumption? Thanks so much.
>
> Deb Bennett-Woods
>

Hmm,

I wonder if other colleagues from the US on this list have the same take on such student projects? I do know there is more than one US business school using action research projects in their programmes. I wonder too if the language being used is also an issue. I suspect more than a few service learning projects are effectively structured as action research. A key issue here is that action research is not 'done to' research subjects it is 'done with' research collaborators.

best regards

Mark

Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
Director, Programmes and Curriculum
& Professor of Organisational Behaviour
Open University Business School
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
United Kingdom


e-mail: m.p.fenton-ocreevy@open.ac.uk
(DL) +44 (0)1908-655804
Fax: +44 (0)1908-655898




________________________________

From: World2468@cs.com [mailto:World2468@cs.com]
Sent: Tue 20/06/2006 03:49
To: M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK
Subject: Re: IRB review



You're right, Mark, you're not too familiar with the IRB process. I absolutely do not mean to be rude or abrupt but the IRB process is in place to prevent abuse by researchers on innocent research participants. The research plan is reviewed to be sure that nothing inappropriate, unscientific or unethical could take place. We find plenty of ways to take advantage of people and abuse them here in the Colonies and the IRB process was set up to eliminate that possibility in academic research. You have surely heard of our female elementary school teachers having sex with their 12-year old male students. I could go on, but I won't. Also, a university sponsoring or directing research goes through the IRB process to try to protect themself if a participant claims abuse later.
The institution can demonstrate that they are not at fault because the
research design they approved did not include whatever ill happened to them
and perhaps the researcher is at fault instead for stepping outside the
bounds of the intended research.

Last, love your black cabs in London!

Best regards,
Lois

Dr. Lois Hammond
Stuart, Florida USA



"M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:

>Deb,
>
>I must say (as someone admittedly from outside the US and not too familiar with IRB processes) that I find the notion that your students should seek ethical review before conducting in company projects where they are employed to be somewhat bizarre and likely to lead to placing artificial barriers in the way of useful learning for both student and employer.
>
>The nature of the interventions they will make in any such project are likely to be indistinguishable from what might be carried out by any manager. The difference in action research is the systemisation of the 'plan - do - reflect' cycle.
>
>Rather more pertinent might be a structured process for agreeing the project with their employer?
>
>Mark
>
>Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
>Director, Programmes and Curriculum
>& Professor of Organisational Behaviour
>Open University Business School
>Walton Hall
>Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
>United Kingdom
>
>
>e-mail: m.p.fenton-ocreevy@open.ac.uk
>(DL) +44 (0)1908-655804
>Fax: +44 (0)1908-655898
>
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
>From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Randy Sleeth
>Sent: Mon 19/06/2006 19:46
>To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
>Subject: Re: IRB review
>
>
>Hi Deb:
>
>As a member of an IRB panel here at VCU, I can tell you that a student can not be the Principal Investigator on an IRB-approved study. The faculty member advising the student(s) will become the PI of record. You will need approval, if required, from both the PI's institution and the student's institution (if different). I suggest you start with the IRB folks at your own institution. A personal conversation will work better than scouring the federal regulations. You will first go through a process of determining whether the work will constitute "human subjects research." If not, then the IRB has no jurisdiction, but can still advise you.
>
>-Randy
>
>
>
>Bennett-Woods, Debra wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a quick question. I am a new member of the Academy and not familiar with how the list serves work yet. There is a division of my university that wants to use what they term "action research" in their capstone courses in management and leadership. I believe any such project, conducted in the organization where the student is employed, should be subject to IRB review. Can you point toward resources that would either support or refute this assumption? Thanks so much.
>
> Deb Bennett-Woods
>
>
>
>--
>Randall G. Sleeth, Ph.D.
>School of Business
>Virginia Commonwealth University
>901 West Franklin Street
>Richmond, VA 23284-4000
>804-828-1540
>rsleeth@vcu.edu
>http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rsleeth
>