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Professional Bullying - Do Ethics Matter? Ethics In Research As a Way To Cope With Excessive Evaluation Anxiety (XEA) and Bullying
In the course of evaluating a new training program, we encountered difficulties that were manifested by professional bullying and caused by what we discerned as XEA. After reflecting on the evaluation process and these difficulties, we reexamined the evaluation contract. We found that most of the contract's technical aspects (timetable, methodology, etc.) were addressed, while ethical aspects were taken for granted and neglected. We assumed that the lack of a detailed contract that addresses ethical aspects (rights, obligations, commitment, etc.) was the trigger for these difficulties including professional bullying. We suggest that formulating an acceptable contract which addresses both "ethical" as well as "technical" aspects and clearly defines these components may enable coping with difficulties emerging in the process of evaluation and reduce XEA and bullying. Furthermore, we have developed a guide that contains: (a) XEA signs, consequences and ethical guidelines for reducing XEA and (b) strategies for XEA management and possible applications and solutions in evaluation contracts that contain "technical" and "ethical" aspects. We believe that this "toolbox" may be useful for coping with complex situations like professional bullying in research.
[1] Donaldson, S.I., Gooler, L.E., & Scriven, M. (2002). Evaluation strategies for managing evaluation anxiety: Toward a psychology of program. American Journal of Evaluation, 23, 261-273.