Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them […].
“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza.
The ones you can see over there,” answered his master, “with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long..
Now look, your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails that go around in the wind and turn the millstone..
Obviously,” replied Don Quixote, “you don’t know much about adventures..
—Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote.
Abstract
This essay concerns the extent to which quantitative research (QR) in management and organizational studies is divorced from ethics, as alleged in a recent JBE editorial by Zyphur and Pierides (2017). After carefully examining the criticisms set forth by Zyphur and Pierides and the merits of the alternative they propose, I conclude that the problems with QR and the researchers who conduct it are arguably much less extreme that Zyphur and Pierides claim. This conclusion is informed by a sampling of QR studies recently published in management journals, which could be further corroborated by a more thorough review and evaluation of QR studies using principles drawn from the ethics literature. I believe this assessment would indicate that, despite room for improvement, QR and ethics can and do peacefully coexist, and quantitative researchers are largely aware of the problems and opportunities associated with integrating their work with ethics.
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Edwards, J.R. The Peaceful Coexistence of Ethics and Quantitative Research. J Bus Ethics 167, 31–40 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04197-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04197-6