Personal, professional and organizational

When considering ethics and my inquiry there are lots of levels to consider. I must of course ensure that my inquiry is carried out ethically correct in terms of my interaction with the participants of my inquiry. For instance I must handle all data I collect fairly and safely, I must ensure that partcipants understand how I intend to collect the data and then how it will be used. However there are many other ways how ethics will effect my inquiry. My own personal ethics will effect how I choose to carry out the inquiry, the environment that my inquiry will take place in will have ethical implications and the ethical values of other people involved is a factor that must be considered.

In order to begin to consider how my own ethical values may effect my inquiry I first brainstormed what I believed to be the the values I hold and work towards in my life as a professional performer and general person in society.  This then created the premise for my own personal 'code of conduct'. I can use these points to refer back to when carry out my inquiry to ensure I uphold ethical standards. When looking at reader 5 it mentioned the teaching of Aristotles believing that morals are human standards created between two extremes. I decided to create a spider diagram listing my morals and also listed what I thought the two extremes were, shown by the different colours of pen used. I chose to do this as I felt it would work as a good warning method for myself. If I begin to see any of the ethical extremes in my inquiry I have a visual tool to help remind myself what I should be aiming for within my work. Below is a picture of the diagram I created:

Next I considered the environment that my inquiry will take place in. Firstly, the immediate environment of my place of work. As I will be investigating the elements present in preparation of the performance of Musical Theatre work I will base some of my observations and interviews within my own rehearsals and company. I will also want to branch out further and look at practitioners working in other companies. Therefore the ethical values of the performance industry as a whole as well as organisations within the industry will play a part in my inquiry. Below is an initial brainstorm of the factors that I believe will be relevant to my inquiry:

 I have also found my jounral extracts helpful when considering the ethics of my inquiry. I have been able to reflect on incidents that have occurred during my rehearsals and consider the ethical implications. A good example is considering the thinking of Hobbes (1651) that in order to have a good working society there must be a set of rules to follow. I can relate this to a group of performers working together to put a piece of Musical Theatre work on stage as their own small society that functions due to the rules that they follow. An avenue that I will focus on in my inquiry is one element of preparation of performance is the relevance of a 'code of conduct'.

Another example relatable to my rehearsal experience is the beliefs of Immanuel Kent (1779). He writes that a set of moral rules are not breakable. That a person must follow them even if their personal opinion does not agree. This I can relate to a cast having to follow the instructions a 

choreographers instructions no matter what. An example of this was shown in my journal. Recently 

my cast lost our main male singer in rehearsals and shows for a week due to illness. We only had a short time, an hour and a half, to implement changes throughout an entire show in order to perform without him. I wrote how well my team worked together despite this adversity as they all were focused, listened to all instructions given by the choreographer and quickly implemented them. This meant that the show was able to be completed and performed that evening well whilst missing one key cast member.

My reflections on ethics have formed a good base for my inquiry. I plan to blog shortly on the inquiry title and sub title that I have decided upon and the work that will follow. Any thoughts from my fellow bloggers are greatly appreciated.