John Neil, a PhD candidate from the University of New South Wales, is conducting a study exploring the emotional dimensions of people’s experiences of ethically challenging situations in organisations. John is particularly keen to discuss these issues with people who are dealing with such a dilemma at the moment to establish how they deal with the situation as it unfolds or develops over time. John would like to interview you to explore the ethical challenge you are facing, the emotional dimensions of your experience and how the organisation you work in responds to the issue.

The research has been approved by the UNSW human research ethics committee (approval notification 11-134) and any information you provide will remain confidential and will be deidentified in any reports or journal articles written from the research.

If you are interested in participating, please go to the study website or Facebook page (see links below) to find out more about this research and how you can contact him.

This is a great opportunity to have your experiences heard as well as to contribute to a better understanding of ethically challenging workplaces.

Summary aim: This study will contribute to a better understanding of lived experience of ethical challenges in organisations. Through an examination of the experience of individuals involved in ethical challenges, the study will explore the affective/emotional dimensions of ethical dilemmas and the ways in which ethics is directly experienced and enacted in organisational life. The study will explore the affective-emotional contexts in which individuals navigate ethical challenges in their professional lives, and the contexts in which ethics and ethical challenges are understood and managed. These contexts include the formal processes of reporting, compliance, formal ethics codes, along with the influence of organisational culture, leadership and the ‘feeling rules’ that circulate in organisations. The study aims to better understand how affect-emotion impinges upon, influences and colours the contexts in which ethical situations are experienced including decisions leading to ethical action/inaction.