Ethical Challenges Experiences by Faculty Members : A Qualitative Research with a Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Introduction: Ethics in fulfilling one's duties are a necessity in every occupation. The educational systems are formed to a great extent, by managers' and teachers' ethical values. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the ethical challenges experienced by faculty members in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This study has been carried out based on a purposive method taking a phenomenological approach that emphasizes on the perspectives held by Mandlebaum (1955). All faculty members of the University were the participants of the present research paper. The method of choice for gathering the required information was deep, face to face and semi-structured interview carried out individually, each taking approximately 60 to 120 minutes. Qualitative data analysis method used herein was the ethical phenomenology proposed by Mandlebaum (1969). Results: After interviewing 20 professors, the information reached a state of saturation. 55% of the professors were men and 45% were women. The men and women professors' age averages were 44 5.08 and 42 3 respectively. Then, the interview text was analyzed resulting finally in obtaining three topics. namely educational ethics challenges, research ethics challenges and social ethics challenges, which were classified into ten categories. Conclusion: Professors believe that we are confronted with serious ethical challenges regarding the educational ethics, research ethics and social ethics and there is felt a need for changing the attitudes in organizational behaviours and strictly dealing with the violation cases in order to be able to enweave such challenges.