intro to public relations/advertising research class:

question:

Among the many ethical issues discussed is the need to keep responses confidential -- but it is also the important to share the overall findings with those who participated in the research. Heres this weeks question:

Consider that you are the research director for a major advertising and public relations agency. Your client is a major manufacturing company who has asked you to conduct research among employees to see how satisfied they are with working for the company. You have also been asked to see if you can discover why so many employees recently have been quitting and taking jobs elsewhere. You plan to conduct a number of focus groups, surveys and interviews as part of your research. You want to release your overall findings to all employees who participated in the research as soon as you finish your work. But your client is not sure the company wants to share your findings with employees. Who is right --you or your client? Explain why you do (or do not) feel that releasing this information to employees is a good idea.