I argued earlier that reactivity can be a significant threat to the internal validity of case study designs: the presence of a researcher can alter the dynamics of the cases being observed. This can be particularly so where participant observation techniques are used. One way in which some researchers might try to reduce the effects of reactivity is to disguise their identity as researchers to avoid their researcher identity intruding. For example, an investigator may want to examine sexual harassment in the workplace. If he went into a company revealing his identity and purpose it is likely that people in the organization would behave differently while the investigator is present and thus undermine the study. As an alternative the investigator might undertake the research by obtaining a job with the company and covertly observing what goes on.
The ethical issues of deception, and failure to obtain informed consent, obviously arise in this situation. The dilemma it highlights is the tradeoff that occurs between ethics and internal validity: keeping to ethical guidelines can threaten the internal validity of the study.
There can be little doubt that revealing one’s identity and gaining informed consent can undermine a great deal of what Punch (1994) calls ‘street style’ ethnography. In some cases revealing one’s identity can effectively kill the research project. In these situations careful consideration must be given to the merits of some form of deception in the light of the likely benefits of the research and the potential for harm to the participants. While it is easy for a researcher to rationalize that the benefits will outweigh any potential for harm, there is a lot of sense in obtaining advice or even in having decisions made by third parties such as institutional ethics committees.
Investigators will need to resolve competing ethical considerations. To what extent should the ethics of informed consent and voluntary participation take priority over the value of research exposing highly unethical behaviour?