Project Title:
Student Name
Supervisor Name:
Review of activity – For Staff Completion
The proposed work does not involve any end user studies (the remainder of the form is blank apart from signatures)
Does the ethics form adequately address the following issues? Reviewer should tick as appropriate.
Review Outcomes
There are THREE possible outcomes from reviewing the proposed research activity:
- All ethical issues have been addressed and concerns resolved
- Ethical issues remain to be addressed
- Ethical issues that have not been resolved
Tick the outcome of the review: 1 2 3
Authorisation
- The supervisor authorises those activities in the first outcome
- Activities in the second outcome are referred to the Project Tutor
- Activities in the third outcome are submitted to the BUE Ethics Panel for resolution
Signature of student: Date:
Signature of supervisor: Date:
Please complete the rest of the form before meeting your supervisor
Proposed activities (interviews, observation, focus groups, questionnaire etc. How participants are selected, how are they included or excluded? )
- Why the study design and methodology has been chosen?
- Design – Qualitative (descriptive, cross-sectional).
- Methods – interviews and questionnaire.
- A broad timetable for the stages of the research?
- literature review, participants’ recruitment, administration of questionnaires and interviews, analysis of findings, writing up report.
- Justify how will participants will be selected?
- non-random – snowball sampling. Participants working in the banking industry. Respond to questionnaires and interviews
- How will participants be included/excluded?
- No incentive or inducement to participate. Voluntary participation of eligible respondents.
- Participants will be included is they work in the banking sector
- Participants will be excluded if they do not work in the banking sector at the time of their participation
- Previous, retired and resigned bank employees that are not working in a banking institution at the time of conducting the study will be excluded
- No one will be unfairly excluded from the study provided he or she provides an informe consents accepting the participation invitation.
- Participation is voluntary and respondes can withdraw their participation at any point in the study.
Where will the proposed activity/activities take place?
- Questionnaires will be administred online. Consenting participants will be provided with an online link to access the questionnaires
- The participants can fill in the questionnaire from their conventient location, be it in the office, at home, or at a public place with internet access
- Participants will be interviewed individually through videoconferencing
- They will provide there preferred time for the videoconference from a list of time slots provided through an online link.
- They can be interviewed from any location with good telecommunication and internet network, be it in their offices, homes, or pubic locations with good internet connectivity
Who do you expect your participants to be? (Please note you should not undertake any research with participants under the age of 16 years or vulnerable adults.
- What is the general profession of the participants?
- Participants ar expected to be working in banks in diverse capacities at the time of their participation
- They may include bankers, cashiers, tellers, accountants, auditors, managers, administrators, supervisors, janitors, and technicians, provided they work in a banking institution
- What is the approximate age group of the participants?
- Participants are expected to be between 18 and 65 years old.
What will the participants be asked to do?
- Participation will be asked to respond to the questionnaire items as truthfully, sincerely, and freely as possible.
- Their reponses will be based on their experiences at the workplace
- The quetionaire items will be related to their workplace conditions and practices and not necessarily their banking skills or expertise
- Participants will also be provided with the interview prompts prior to conducting the interview to allow them to prepare their responses, particularly those that require an explanation about their company’s policy
- The question prompts will only guide the interview and the participatns are free to frame their responses as they wish
What potential risks do the activities pose to you or your participant/s and how will they be overcome?
- Qualitative studies face the singular risk of researcher and participant bias.
- Responses to the questionnaire items and interview discussions are bedevilled by subjectivity because of prejudiced personal opinions and perspectives suring data collction and analysis
- The risk of bias can be surmounted by
- Formulating question prompts that are not leading participants to respond in a certain predetermined manner and direction.
- Using neutral statements that eliminate invitations of biased responses
- Comparing interpretation of the responses using multiple researchers
- Seek out alternative explanations of opinions, perspectives, and beliefs
- Provide participants with the opportunity to review the researcher’s interpretation to confirm capturing of th true positions of the respondents
- Peer-reviewing interpretations and conclusions
How do you intend to manage the privacy and confidentiality of users’ data?
- Participation in the study is voluntary; allowing the participants to withdraw their consent whenever they feel unconfortable or disinterested in the study
- Removal of any personal-identifying information to maintain the participants anonymity
- Reminding participants not to discuss their participation experiences until the study is terminated
- Storing the data in a secure place that cannot be accessed by unauthorised persons
How do you intend to guarantee the security of data resulting from your research activity?
- The responses of the participants including recording of the interviews will be stored in a personal computer, which will be placed under strict lock and key
- The researcher does not plan to retain and share any personal identifying information with any other party.
- Clearly state what type of data will be collected?
- Questionnaire responses
- Audio/Video recordings of interviews
- Clearly state how the data will remain anonymous?
- Discourage participants from disclosing their personal information
- If they do not, the researcher will remove from any data collacted
- Discourage participants from disclosing their personal information
- Clearly state where you will you store your data?
- Use cloud-based system – Yes
- Password protection – yes
- Clearly state how long you will store the data for?
- Data will be stored for the entirety of the study, after which it will be deleted permanently
How do you intend to secure the informed consent of your participant/s? (For example, using a consent form- please include a copy)
- Will informed consent be obtained?
- Yes
- For interviews/focus groups:
- Participants will fill in a digital consent form and e-mail it to the researcher
- Please explain if any information requires recording or videoing:
- The interviews conducted vial videoconferencing will be video recorded to facilitate the creation and transcripts and data analysis
What do you intend to tell the participant/s about the purpose of your research? (What will be included in your Participant Information Sheet? Please include a copy)
- Participants will also be provided with a research brief explaining the nature of the study
- Including the purpose of the study, the benefits and risks, and how the findings will be utilised.
- They will also be informed on the personal information that will be collected
- Including age, gender, job description, departmentin the banking organization
Have you considered the relevant code(s) of practice when compiling your application?
- Yes
- The relevant code applicatble in this study is the LIMU code of practice for research
- The researcher vows to be transparent in conducting the study
- Including the methodology and analysis of findings
- To gain respect from the research community, te researcher promsises to adhere the highests standards of honesty, excellence, integrity and honesty.
- The researcher vows to be transparent in conducting the study
Are there any other potential ethical issues raised by your proposed research activity? If so, please detail them.
- No
| PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET GUIDANCE |
General Guidance
Information sheets should be written in simple, non-technical terms and be easily understood by a lay person. Use short words, sentences and paragraphs with clear sub-headings to make the text manageable, and a font size for easy reading. As a general guide the language level used should be no more difficult than that used in tabloid newspapers. Large sections of unbroken text should be avoided, and bullet pointed lists used where appropriate.
The tone should be invitational and not coercive or overly persuasive.
For the first page use headed paper of the institution where the research is being carried out. The title of the study and the researcher’s name should be clear with contact details for further information provided. In the interests of safety LJMU ethics committee would advise researchers not to include home addresses or personal telephone numbers (mobile or home) as contact details for participants.
All consent forms and information sheets should be version dated in the header/footer to ensure that the most recent version is used, and the pages numbered e.g. 2 of 3.
The participant should be given a copy of the information sheet for further reference and a copy should be retained by the researcher with the study documents.
Relevant information
The information sheet should include information on the following as a minimum:
- The purpose of the study
- What will happen to the participants?
- Any risks / benefits involved in participation?
- Details of how confidentiality will be ensured.
- A clear statement that participation is voluntary and that they can withdraw at any stage
- The point of contact in the event of a complaint?
- For student researcher contact details of the main supervisor must also be included.
Where applicable the following information should also be included:
- Eligibility criteria – where there are specific inclusion /exclusion criteria for participants these should be made clear in the information sheet.
- Any payments which will be made to participants
- What will happen to any personal information (e.g. identifiable details, video or tape recordings)
- Any details relating to possible disclosure of information
- Who they can contact if there is a problem? If someone wishes to complain formally it is good practice to be able to signpost them to someone who is not a member of the research team i.e. an independent party
- For interventional studies details of any insurance/indemnity in the event of negligent/non-negligent harm
- Details of any research sponsor or funder particularly where this may lead to a conflict of interests
WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET FOR REVIEW PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU SUBMIT THE FINAL VERSION EG DELETE THIS GUIDANCE SHEET AND ANY GUIDANCE (GIVEN IN ITALICS) WITHIN THE TEMPLATE BELOW.
| xxxx IN PARTNERSHIP WITH xxxx PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET |
Title of Project (as in application for ethical approval)
Name of Researcher
Job rotation is an innovative human resources management approach that intends to maximize the internal skillsets of employees in an organization. Employees are usually assigned different roles at specific periods (Juneja para 1). Firms engage in the job rotation strategy to discover the hidden talents within their workforce and identify which employees can be replaced by others in case of eventualities such as resignations, redundancies, and absenteeism, including sickness (Rahman et al. 39). Job rotation has been necessitated by the globalization of labor, which has made employees to be highly mobile in a competitive globalized world where organizational loyalty has diminished significantly. Therefore, some organizations use this strategy to motivate their workforce and retain high talent without undoing the rigors of continuous recruitment, which is expensive and disruptive to the smooth operations of organizations (Kokemuller para 2). However, job rotation is applicable in some firms and not in others based of the specificity and expertise of the skills required to perform specific tasks. For instance, job rotation may be undesirable in a specialty manufacturing firm because of the high expertise required to perform specific technical tasks but it may work in certain service companies where general stills are transferable between tasks. Apart from orienting employees on the different operations in a firm, many firms engage in job rotation to improve performance, albeit in the long term. There is evidence suggesting that job rotation can be beneficial and detrimental to employee performance based on a myriad of workplace configurations and circumstances.
Although job rotation is widely practiced worldwide, the extent to which it is applied in Qatar is not known. Similarly, Qatar is a Middle East country that is heavily reliant on an expatriate workforce because of its small indigenous population with limited skills, amid ambitious programs of diversifying the country’s economy to reduce its reliance on oil. Therefore, job rotation can be a suitable strategy for developing a multiskilled workforce that can take up the jobs performed by foreigners. Such employee versatility is critical for government agencies that intend to employ Qataris rather than rely on foreign labor. The banking sector is one of the fastest-growing services industries in Qatar, supporting the economic diversification strategy that has swept across the Middle East countries in recent times. However, it is not known to what extent Qatari Banks use this strategy or whether it improves employee performance or not if applied. Besides, most job rotation studies have been conducted in the West and hardly in the Middle East.
No: participation is voluntary and you can withdraw from the study at any point
Although the study will take 12 week but you will be involved for up to 6 weeks. You will be given an online questionnaire to fill an participate in a interview via videoconferencing
Where there are a large number of procedures involved it is recommended that these also be depicted as a flow chart for clarity.
No risks
Benefits: improve job structure and scheduling to improve organisational and employee performance
Yes: personal information and identity will not be disclosed to unauthorised persons
This study has received ethical approval from Oryx/LJMU’s Research Ethics Committee
Contact Details of Researcher
Contact Details of Academic Supervisor (student studies only)
If you any concerns regarding your involvement in this research, please discuss these with the researcher in the first instance. If you wish to make a complaint, please contact researchethics@ljmu.ac.uk and your communication will be re-directed to an independent person as appropriate.
In the interests of safety for the researcher LJMU ethics committee would advise researchers not to include home addresses or personal telephone numbers (mobile or home) as contact details for participants.
Where questionnaires are to be returned by members of the public as part of the study the ethics committee would advise researchers to consider the use of collection boxes at third party locations.
Note: A copy of the participant information sheet should be retained by the participant with a copy of the signed consent form.
| CONSENT / ASSENT FORM GUIDANCE |
The examples of the consent / assent forms given below are a minimum requirement which are suitable for most studies but may need alterations to be commensurate with individual study requirements. The participant is consenting to everything described in the text of the participant information sheet.
For some studies a fuller itemised consent form may be needed to cover other important issues especially where additional elements are optional for the participant for example:
- Additional invasive tests
- Additional questionnaires, interviews or focus groups with sub-samples of the study population
- Consent to the use of audio/video-taping
- Consent to the use of verbatim quotes or photographs
Where a study involves the administration of a questionnaire or survey, a signed record of consent is not required for completion of the questionnaire/survey as long as it is made clear in the information sheet that completion of the questionnaire/survey is voluntary. Under these circumstances return of the completed questionnaire is taken as implied consent.
In such cases the Oryx would expect a statement and tick box to be included at the start of the questionnaire/survey where the respondent confirms that they have read the participant information sheet and are happy to complete the questionnaire. For example:
I have read the information sheet provided and I am happy to participate. I understand that by completing and returning this questionnaire I am consenting to be part of the research study and for my data to be used as described.
Participation in any other interventions within the same study eg interviews, focus groups must be supported by obtaining appropriate written consent.
Signatories to the consent should be those who are involved in the consent process eg the participant (or guardian/carer), the researcher or his/her representative delegated to take consent.
Where a consent form is to be signed by a participant at home and returned by mail to the researcher 2 copies should be provided both of which are returned and countersigned by the researcher and one copy posted back to the participant.
All consent forms must include the logo of the lead and any other participating institutions. All consent forms should be version dated in the header/footer to ensure that the most recent approved version is used.
WHEN SUBMITTING YOUR CONSENT FORM FOR REVIEW PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU SUBMIT THE FINAL VERSION EG DELETE THIS GUIDANCE AND ANY GUIDANCE (GIVEN IN ITALICS) WITHIN THE TEMPLATES BELOW.
| ORYX IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LJMU CONSENT FORM |
Insert Title of Project (as in application for ethical approval)
Insert Name of Researcher and School/Faculty
- I confirm that I have read and understand the information provided for the above study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily
- I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason and that this will not affect my legal rights.
- I understand that any personal information collected during the study will be anonymised and remain confidential
- I agree to take part in the above study (if appropriate please specify the type of study or particular intervention you are seeking consent for – eg focus group, interview, training programme)
For studies involving the use of audio / video recording of interviews, focus groups etc or where there is a possibility that verbatim quotes from participants may be used in future publications or presentations please include the following:
- I understand that the interview/focus group will be audio / video recorded and I am happy to proceed
- I understand that parts of our conversation may be used verbatim in future publications or presentations but that such quotes will be anonymised.
Name of Participant Date Signature
Name of Researcher Date Signature
Name of Person taking consent Date Signature
(if different from researcher)
Note: When completed 1 copy for participant and 1 copy for researcher