Executive PhD: What research ethics teaches us about leadership

Becoming a responsible researcher – and responsible leader

In fact, one of the most eye-opening sessions of our Executive PhD programme is on ethics and research integrity. Students arrive expecting to learn about regulations, consent forms and plagiarism. What they get is a strategic discussion on judgement and navigating complexity – skills good leaders rely on daily.

Eva Cools, Research Manager at Vlerick, says: “I look forward to this session every year. Because our students rarely leave the room talking about plagiarism policies. Instead they’re discussing objectivity, accountability – and the boundaries of their roles as professionals and researchers.”

The ethics session urges students to explore three important issues:

1. The opportunities – and challenges – of being an insider

Executive PhD students wear two hats. They’re researchers – but they’re also practitioners. They study organisations they know, industries they work in, networks they belong to and challenges they care deeply about. They have the opportunity to do meaningful research that can have a real impact on their area of expertise.

At the same time, they need to be mindful that while being “an insider” has benefits, it can also pose risks. The very things that make research possible – like relationships, access and prior knowledge – could weaken both the quality and ethical integrity of their research.

For example, Executive PhD students can access information that other researchers may not be able to – such as board meetings, strategic discussions, sensitive documents and proprietary datasets. But just because you can access material from a professional standpoint, it doesn’t mean you should repurpose it as research data. Consent, confidentiality and trust are critical.

The shift from executive to researcher requires examining your own assumptions with the same critical eye you’d apply to data. Our students need to know how to be objective, how to separate their researcher role from their professional role – and how to recognise their own biases.

2. Questionable research practices

When students join an Executive PhD programme, they often come with an idealised view of scientific research. They know misconduct happens – but assume it’s rare.

Then they come to our ethics session – and learn about publication pressure, authorship disputes, questionable research practices and incentives that can impact behaviour. Rather than encouraging cynicism, we ask them to reflect on what successful research actually means. Publication is an important goal. But so is contributing the knowledge that helps organisations and society progress.

This is where Vlerick’s research philosophy holds its own. We believe research should be rigorous, relevant and responsible. When our students publish their work, their objective is always for it to create impact – for business, academia and society.

3. The impact of AI

AI is an increasingly important part of the ethics conversation. Participants need to consider how to use AI responsibly, so they can benefit from new tools while preserving originality, accountability and transparency.

Through discussions, students recognise that while AI is a valuable tool, they can’t delegate responsibility to it. Transparency, critical thinking, accountability and professional judgement remain human responsibilities.

From professional expert to reflective scholar

Of course, the ethics session covers the black and white rules researchers need to follow. But it goes much further, pushing students to consider complex situations. Central to this is the Dilemma Game[1].

This interactive exercise presents students with real-world situations that have several reasonable outcomes. They decide on a course of action based on their own experience and context – and then defend it.

The game is powerful because it mirrors the complex corporate landscape. Our students are also leaders – they recognise that very few situations are black and white. The game gets them to explore shades of grey, balance competing interests, navigate uncertainty and make choices that can be defended legally – and ethically.

They face the same challenges in their roles as researchers. For example…

• A healthcare executive questions whether patients can truly decline participation in a study…
• A tax lawyer discovers that the expertise that makes his research valuable could also introduce bias into his conclusions…
• A consultant realises that access to sensitive organisational information comes with responsibilities…

These are not hypothetical situations. They’re reflections from our students. And when they engage with ambiguity, question assumptions and recognise bias, they’re learning to be responsible researchers.

As responsible researchers know, the most powerful discussions aren’t about procedures or regulations. They’re about character.

^{[1]The Dilemma Game was developed by Erasmus University Rotterdam}