strawberrybird Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 I work in an office that relies on grant funding for the majority of its budget. My boss, who writes the grants, is currently working on a degree. During the grant writing process, all the office employees are pulled in to help with research, writing, editing, etc. We do research on particular topic and compose literature searches and research summaries, complete with citations and copies of articles. Frequently, my boss uses our research in the work for her degree, without crediting our contribution either as an office or individually, only rarely going back to the sources and studying them herself. Recently, I began discussing this with a coworker. We both agree this is unethical; a misuse of power, but other than the fact that she is taking credit for work that is not hers, I am unable to describe why this is unethical. I have pointed out similar unethical situations to my boss, who justifies herself by saying that it is completely common in academia to use the work of your students/employees in your own research without crediting them. I can understand that in the case of a grant proposal, which is by nature a team effort, it is not necessary to cite every individually who took part in its creation, but to then use that work for personal gain seems a misuse of power. It may be common, but I still feel it is unethical to take credit for someone else's work. Is this truly a misuse of power? Is this unethical? What statements can be made to prove the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Approach her professors. You and she will find out very quickly how unethical it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidOdden Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 This is universally prohibited by the rules of every university -- see the section on academic misconduct. People get expelled and degrees get rescinded for such misrepresentation. If the professor allows students to hire others to do her work for her -- if she admits that she is not doing her own word -- then it's ethically acceptable. However, only the lowest coward of a professor would tolerate such behavior. It is academic fraud, where the student is receiving something under false pretenses, namely a degree under the pretense that she is capable of doing and actually performed the work herself. The whole point of a degree is to pass tests that prove your competence at a certain level. I don't think it's a misuse of power, unless the boss is only an immediate boss. Is this boss stealing from the company or shareholders by diverting your time to do personal work for her? For example, if y'all are funded by the Blahblah foundation to research a cure for cancer using chicken soup and the boss is having you do her homeworks in an accounting class, that is misappropriation of grant funds, another kind of fraud. It is also not common and is ethically unacceptable for professional researchers to misrepresent who did the substantive work -- it is not necessary to give thanks to the janitor for taking out the garbage, which played a small role in the conduct research. There are different standards applied to students needing to prove that they are capable of carrying out competent research, and post-graduates who have already done so and can hire lab assistants to do mundane tasks. If your boss wants to hire others to do research for her, she should simply abandon the search for an academic degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyboys Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 if you want her to stop, and not lose your job or something, you would have to keep talking or talk to your boss's proffesor or teacher in discretion. You cannot afford to lose your job. Also, technically, she's giving you work and money and you're giving her credit for your work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.