Professor Sparrow had an exciting new research opportunity. Cognisant of university procedures he approached his supervisor’s Executive Assistant.
“I wonder if I could have a moment to chat with the Head?”, he said.
“Certainly. What’s it about?”.
“I have an opportunity for a new project, very exciting and significant. I know we need supervisory sign-off before proceeding now, and I’d just like to talk to them in order to get that.”
“That’s absolutely fine. I see you have a scheduled recurring career narrative update and real-time performance and span of activities assessment in two and a half weeks. I’ll just add it to the agenda for that”.
“I was hoping to speak to them today, if possible. It’s quite urgent. Perhaps I could just pop in now?”, Professor Sparrow said hesitantly, trying to edge around the desk to the door of the office.
“Oh, no. That won’t be possible. This time is already scheduled. But we do have a one-hour time-block later this afternoon for notified and pre-approved spontaneous meetings. I can give you a fifteen-minute window then, but any longer and I’ll have to redraw the Gantt chart. The dependencies are horrendous.”
“Fifteen minutes? I was hoping for a little longer. It’s quite important and very exciting. I’m sure they’ll be very interested and want to hear more about it. It’s right in their field.”
“I can give you fifteen minutes at 2.45pm precisely”.
“Well. All right then. I suppose that will have to do”.
Later that afternoon, Professor Sparrow returned to their supervisor’s office.
“I’m just here for my notified and pre-approved spontaneous meeting.”
“Right. Well, you’re a couple of minutes early, but I’m sure the Head can be flexible. You can go in now”.
“Thank you.”
“Sparrow, it’s good to see you. What can I do for you?” the Head asked, as Sparrow sat down on the ergonomic visitor chair in front of the Head’s OHS-qualified modular workstation for University senior-managers up to, but not including, Executive Deans; except where otherwise approved.
“Jim it’s good to see you too. I miss our regular chats”.
“Yes, well, once the university adopted the consultant’s recommendations and we instituted our time-and-motion studies and process re-engineering, we realised we had to reprioritise away from affect-based personalised interactions for the purposes of building localised organisational social capital. But it’s good to see you too.”
“Yes, well I want to share a very exciting research opportunity. You’ll be extremely interested, and I want to get your approval to take the next steps”.
“What is it?”.
“Crichton Tarak and the other members of the junta have agreed to meet with me to talk about their ascendancy, the dictatorship, and then the collapse of the regime”.
“Tarak. I thought he was in prison after the International Criminal Court trial. He and other members of the ruling party. He hasn’t spoken at all, as I remember, apart from refusing to recognise the Court’s legitimacy. No-one knows anything about how he orchestrated that first coup, or where the money is hidden, let alone how many people actually disappeared.”
“Yes, well he’s been touch. He has a story, says it implicates some of our allies. He had support evidently – geopolitical strategic considerations, and there was some foreign investment that needed to be protected. The multinationals were getting worried about some of the directions the People’s Government was looking to take”.
“Oh, you’ve been speaking to him already? That’s very bad”.
“Yes it’s good isn’t it. What?”, Sparrow asked, suddenly hearing the concern in their supervisor’s voice. “Why is it bad?”.
“You’ve been speaking to a research participant without an appropriate ethics approval. Where’s your informed consent? Where’s your study protocol and participant information sheet? Have you even got a consumer reference group of dictators and autocrats who can bring a lived experience perspective to the work?”
“Um, no, but this Tarak. A dictator who ruled over his people for 20 years. Horrendous atrocities. He salted away billions. We and our allies tolerated him because the alternative was democracy, and the government would have tried to take back control from the foreign corporations. Plus he and his cronies would do anything if we paid them enough.”
“None of that matters. He’s a member of a vulnerable group. You’ll need proper informed consent. Simplified English, mind you, and culturally appropriate. English is only his fourth or fifth language I hear.”
“He has a doctorate from Harvard.”
“Not relevant. What’s your anonymisation protocol?”.
“My what?”.
“How are you going to protect his identity? Complete anonymisation, confidentialisation? How will you ensure he’s not reidentified”.
“Confidentialise! This is Crichton Tarak! He and his regime were front-page news around the world for 20 years. His ICC trial was one of a handful resulting in a conviction and imprisonment. The personal witness testimonies and other evidence was incontrovertible”.
“Right, well you’ll just have to use pseudonyms then. Maybe he could just be Dictator X. That would be a start.”
“Pseudonyms!?”, Sparrow gasped, slightly hysterically.
“Oh, and what about psychological harm from the interview process? Will you notify him of appropriate referral services?”
“He’s a psychopath… locked up for the rest of his life! And the next one too, probably”.
“Right. You’d better get started on the paperwork then.”