Designing The Code of Ethics & Code of Conduct Model for The Faculty Members of Iranian Universities Using Grounded Theory

Higher education is expected to nurture more mature, ethical, and professional people in the community. As university professors can play an effective role in institutionalizing desirable ethical behaviors in students, the importance of a model for the professional ethics of university faculty members becomes more prominent. This study aims to design a model of behavioral and ethical codes of faculty members of Iranian universities.

This research is fundamental and Survey-based. In this research, a semi-structured interview consisting of 10 questions was designed. The study was implemented in 1400. Using the snowball sampling model, online interview sessions were arranged with university professors all over Iran. The researchers were saturated with 13 interviews, and 3 more interviews were conducted to ensure more. Each interview was analyzed through MAXQDA2020 software and extracted using the grounded theory method with the Glasser and Strauss approach, coding, grouping concepts, and final model of ethical and behavioral codes.

9 main categories of the model of behavioral and ethical codes of university faculty are: authenticity (central phenomenon), learner, determination and purposefulness (causal conditions), problem-solving skills, effective communication skills, Team Building Skills (strategies), scientific competence (mediating conditions), adherence to rules and normability (context) and learning leader (outcome).

The difference between this research and other previous studies is the attention to authenticity that is shown in the model as the main concept. Also in the designed model, the concept of a learning leader is considered as the main role of university faculty members. Designing The Code of Ethics & Code of Conduct Model for The Faculty Members of Iranian Universities Using Grounded Theory

Nowadays rapid changes affect the roles of higher education systems. Recent health, economy, and politics challenges made higher education change their structures, teaching methods, and all processes focus on ethical issues. Therefore, the Higher education institutions’ environments should be healthy and ethical to promote the ethical values in the societies. In other words, higher education is expected to nurture more mature, ethical, and professional people in the community. University professors & faculty members could play an important role in institutionalizing desirable ethical behaviors in students. They could teach the necessary skills for being ethical. The task of university professors is not only to develop students' skills; they must teach students the values that lead to professional and personal growth. Professors must be fair, not resistant to change, respect the uniqueness of students, and be sensitive to maintain a professional relationship with their students. As university professors can play an effective role in institutionalizing desirable ethical behaviors in students, the importance of a model for the professional ethics of university faculty members becomes more prominent. This study aims to design a model of behavioral and ethical codes of faculty members of Iranian universities.

This research is fundamental and Survey-based. In this research, a semi-structured interview consisting of 10 questions was designed. The study was implemented in 1400. Using the snowball sampling model, online interview sessions were arranged with university professors all over Iran. In order to protect privacy and confidentiality, it was ensured that the information remains completely confidential. The researchers were saturated with 13 interviews, and 3 more interviews were conducted to ensure more. Each interview was analyzed through MAXQDA2020 software and extracted using the grounded theory method with the Glaser and Strauss approach: coding, grouping concepts, and final model of ethical and behavioral codes. In the open coding phase, the content of the interviews had been read many times. The data had been broken up and labeled with codes. Here, we analyzed the data line by line and word by word. There is no limitation in the labeling while coding and finally 975 codes were extracted. Then, the codes were analyzed. Researchers have tried to find the core concepts by finding the similarities within the codes and creating the categories. In the first step, 46 categories have been defined. By finding the similarities between the codes, 9 main categories were selected. For reliability, two assessors were asked to label the contents of the interviews individually. The agreements between the two assessors have indicated the reliability.

The results were compared with the researchers’ codes.  The agreement percentage was 92%.  Nine main categories of the model of behavioral and ethical codes of university faculty are authenticity (central phenomenon), learner, determined and purposefully (causal conditions), problem-solving skills, effective communication skills, Team Building Skills (strategies), scientific competence (intervening conditions), adherence to rules and norms (contextual conditions) and learning leader (outcome and result). In axial coding, authenticity was selected as the central phenomenon in the research. This category was selected as the central phenomenon and the main idea of the research because it was mentioned in many interviews that authenticity is the most key and important concept in the professional behavior of university faculty members. Authenticity in this research is derived from some cultural concepts in which authenticity is mentioned as inherent qualities such as honesty, conscientiousness, integrity of words and speech, confidentiality and reliability, nobility, and honor. Being kind to himself and others, justice-oriented, and liberal are also the characteristics of an authentic person. What makes a person authentic is to be an effective learner, curious, truthful, and flexible. These are known as causal phenomena. On the other hand, self-awareness, the meaningfulness of life, purposefulness, and trying to achieve the meaning and purpose of life are the concepts that affect authenticity. University faculty members, by adopting skills such as problem-solving, effective communication, and team building as strategies, can lead and direct learning in the academic environment. The platform in which learning leadership takes place by using appropriate strategies is the rules and regulations of the academic environment, teaching, and researching rules. Therefore, normativity has been chosen as a contextual category. Scientific competence has been introduced as a mediating factor.

The findings of this research state that university faculty members can play a role as learning leaders in the culture of higher education when they are purposeful, determined, serious, and authentic and can work within the rules and regulations of the academic environment with scientific qualifications by using communication, team building, and problem-solving skills. The difference between this research and other previous studies is the attention to authenticity that is shown in the model as the main concept. Also in the designed model, the concept of a learning leader is considered as the main role of university faculty members.