Cheating and Moral Judgment in the College Classroom: A Natural Experiment

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a natural experiment involving academic cheating by university students. We explore the relationship of moral judgment (as measured using the defining issues test) to actual behavior, as well as the relationship between the honesty of students self-reports and the extent of cheating. We were able to determine the extent to which students actually cheated on the take-home portion of an accounting exam. The take-home problem was not assigned with the intent of inducing cheating among students. However, the high rate of observed cheating prompted the instructor to return to class and ask the students to provide information on their motivation. The students' responses are the data analyzed in this natural experiment. We found that in a simple regression the relationship between moral judgment scores and cheating behavior was insignificant. However, when we tested whether including Utilizer scores (i.e. the extent to which people select actions based on notions of justice) affected the relationship of cheating and moral judgment we found that Utilizer affected the relationship significantly. Finally, we found that moral judgment and honesty were not related, but higher levels of cheating behavior related to less honesty.     

The Influence of Business Ethics Education on Moral Efficacy,Moral Meaningfulness,and Moral Courage: A Quasi-experimental Study

The research described here contributes to the extant empirical research on business ethics education by examining outcomes drawn from the literature on positive organizational scholarship (POS). The general research question explored is whether a course on ethical decision-making in business could positively influence students’ confidence in their abilities to handle ethical problems at work (i.e., moral efficacy), boost the relative importance of ethics in their work lives (i.e., moral meaningfulness), and encourage them to be more courageous in raising ethical problems at work even if it is unpopular (i.e., moral courage). Specifically, the study used a rigorous quasi-experimental pretest–posttest research design with a treatment (N = 30) and control group (N = 30) to investigate whether a graduate-level course in business ethics could influence students’ levels of moral efficacy, meaningfulness, and courage. Findings revealed that participants in the business ethics treatment course experienced significant positive increases in each of the three outcome variables as compared to the control group. The largest increase was in moral efficacy, followed by moral courage, and finally, moral meaningfulness. These findings are discussed in the context of the current research on business ethics education and POS. Implications for future research are discussed.     

中高职教育衔接问题的思考——以会计专业为例

通过对浙、皖等省有代表性的中、高职示范院校会计专业人才培养方案及毕业生人才市场的调研,分析了目前会计专业中高职教育衔接的模式,探讨了中高职会计专业在人才培养目标、培养方案、课程体系及内容等方面存在的衔接问题,提出了会计专业中高职实现有效衔接的对策建议.     

Studying Abroad: Understanding the Relationships Among Beliefs,Perceived Value,and Behavioral Intentions

Increased globalization highlights the importance of encouraging university students to participate in an international experience. In this study, the authors investigate how behavioral belief, subjective belief, and control belief influence students’ perceived value and intention to study abroad. The authors further examine the moderation effects of generation on the proposed relationships. The results show that behavioral belief, not subjective belief and control belief, is significantly related to perceived value. Second, the relationship between perceived value and intention to study abroad is stronger for the first-generation sample. Third, the subjective belief measure could be divided into the financial support versus nonfinancial support scales. The article concludes with implications of its findings for educators as well as for academic researchers.     

Spirituality,Moral Identity,and Consumer Ethics: A Multi-cultural Study

Competitor pressure is one of the major reasons that a SME engages in environmentally friendly or damaging activities. Extant research has argued that environmental strengths and concerns have mirror opposite relationships with stakeholder antecedents as well as with performance outcomes. We suggest this argument does not reflect the reality. Building on stakeholder management and Red Queen theories, we hypothesize that environmental strengths and concerns have differential relationships with competitors–firm power exchange and financial performance for Chinese SMEs. Results of ten interviews, a pretest, and a large-scale field study indicate that competitors–firm power divergence has a positive relationship with environmental strengths, yet the link between this divergence and environmental concerns does not exist. Further, environmental strengths mediate the relationship between competitors–firm power divergence and financial performance of Chinese SMEs.     

A Social Cognitive Perspective on the Relationships Between Ethics Education, Moral Attentiveness, and PRESOR

This research examines the relationships between education in business ethics, Reynolds’s (J Appl Psychol 93:1027–1041, 2008) “moral attentiveness” construct, or the extent to which individuals chronically perceive and reflect on morality and moral elements in their experiences, and Singhapakdi et al.’s (J Bus Ethics 15:1131–1140, 1996) measure of perceptions of the role of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR). Education in business ethics was found to be positively associated with the two identified factors of moral attentiveness, “reflective” and “perceptual” moral attentiveness, and with the PRESOR “stakeholder view” factor. Also, reflective moral attentiveness was found to act as a mediator in the relationship between education in business ethics and the PRESOR stakeholder view factor. Evidence of gender and social desirability bias effects was also found. The implications of these relationships and social cognitive theory for improved understanding of the mechanisms by which a variety of variables have their effects on PRESOR in business are discussed.     

Compulsory Ethics Education and the Cognitive Moral Development of Salespeople: A Quasi-Experimental Assessment

This study investigated several basic research questions suggesting a positive relationship between education and cognitive moral development. More specifically, these research questions examined the relationship between government mandated ethics education and cognitive moral development by testing the efficacy of a compulsory ethics intervention. Kohlberg's (1969, 1984) Cognitive Moral Development Theory was applied to test the efficacy of compulsory ethics education on the moral development of real estate salespeople used comparative statistical measures of ethical reasoning ability.The results of this research, while somewhat counterintuitive, suggest that the value of compulsory ethics education as an intervention to improve the moral reasoning of real estate salespeople is highly questionable. However, the results of the study do provide new insights into the relationship between ethics education and cognitive moral development.     

我国职业教育标准制定者、实施者及评价者的角色错位问题研究

为解决当前中国在职业教育标准制定者、实施者及评价者角色定位方面存在不科学、不合理的问题,采取比较法,根据发达国家在职业教育标准制定者、实施者及评价者角色定位方面的成熟经验和我国在职业教育标准制定者、实施者及评价者角色定位方面存在的问题进行研究并得出相应结论:我国职业教育标准的制定者应是政府专家代表、行业专家代表和工会专家代表组成的职业教育标准制定委员会,标准的实施者应该是企业、跨企业培训中心和职业院校,标准实施情况的评价者应是地方政府教育主管部门和行业协会中的考核委员会。     

Retail Banking and Customer Behaviour: A Study of Self Concept,Satisfaction and Technology Usage

Prior research has investigated the effects of self-image congruence on satisfaction and brand preference. With the help of empirical research, the paper argues that, while self-image congruence may be related to customer satisfaction in a normal context, it may not necessarily affect satisfaction levels when customers are using technology-based self-services. Furthermore, during encounters involving self-service technologies, customers might experience satisfying or dissatisfying incidents which may not be related to their overall satisfaction and brand preference levels. The paper discusses implications for brand managers in the retail banking sector and suggests future research directions.     

A California Conundrum: Tradeoffs Among Rates, Reliability and the Environment During California’s 2000–2001 Energy Crisis

The 2000–2001 California energy crisis was a public policy problem of huge complexity and scope. Once considered a national and international electric restructuring model, the California system veered far off course in 2000 and 2001 as demand increases, supply shortages, a poorly designed market and abuses of market power led to exorbitant wholesale electricity prices, ongoing threats of blackouts and threats to the environment. The purpose of the paper is to consider actions of policy makers that were undertaken in 2000 and early 2001 to address policy objectives of rates, reliability and the environment within the context of the unfolding energy crisis. The paper develops a theory of how these three objectives can be addressed in a crisis. The paper then examines the actual behavior of policy makers as they developed and implemented various programs to fix or limit the consequences of the electricity crisis. Finally, the paper compares theory to practice. The paper concludes that policy makers prioritized improved reliability over low rates and environmental improvement, and prioritized low rates over environmental improvement. Based on information and predictions available at the time, policy makers’ choices reflected the expected level of degradation of each objective: policy makers believed reliability would suffer more than rates might increase and more than the environment would degrade. However, policy makers’ choices increased taxpayer and ratepayer future costs by billions of dollars.     

高职教育对接文化产业发展研究——以浙江省为例

文化产业作为朝阳产业,其发展前景非常可观。然而,以浙江省为例,该省高职院校在对接文化产业发展的过程中存在合作形式单一、专业设置滞后等不足。为了解决这些问题,应解放思想、更新办学理念;以市场需求为导向调整专业设置;以提高技能为主线,优化教学课程;以提高能力为重点,完善师资配备;以产学结合为准则,强化技能培训。     

Professionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor: A Moral Argument

This paper examines the case of the internal auditor from a sociological and ethical perspective. Is it appropriate to extend the designation of professional to internal auditors? The discussion includes criteria from the sociology literature on professionalism. Further, professional ethical codes are compared. Internal auditors' code of ethics is found to have a strong moral approach, contrasting to the more instrumental approach of certified professional accountants. Internal auditors are noted as using their code of ethics to help resolve professional ethical dilemmas.     

基于自媒体的高职院校思想政治教育工作创新研究 ——以安徽商贸职业技术学院为例

自媒体作为大学生获取信息、传播信息的重要渠道,对大学生的学习生活产生了双重影响.以安徽商贸职业技术学院为例,通过网络问卷调查,在了解大学生自媒体使用情况和对校园自媒体关注情况的基础上,探究如何从多个层面加强校园自媒体平台建设,创新思想政治教育途径,提高思想政治教育的针对性和实效性.     

商科院校“五阶段·五主题”教育探索与实践——以安徽财贸职业学院为例

“五阶段·五主题”教育模式的提出与推行,旨在贯彻国家关于深化教育改革,全面推进素质教育的要求。在此背景下,安徽财贸职业学院从学校实际情况出发,因地制宜,制定并实施了这一教育模式,即以“爱心、诚信、责任”为核心,以徽商文化为基础,以财商职业岗位技能培养为依据,促使学生树立从事财贸事业的使命感、责任心并具备相应能力。实践证明,安徽财贸职业学院的具体举措将思政教育与专业教育、学院统一引导与各系部分项实施、入学教育与就业创业指导、校内教育与社会教育有机地结合到了一起,取得了显著成效。     

高职电子商务专业融合创新创业教育的培养模式研究

近几年来,在互联网迅速普及应用带动及政府大力推动下,电子商务在各领域的应用得到不断突破,新技术、新业态和新模式不断呈现,对经济社会生活的影响不断增大,正成为大众创业万众创新的新引擎、推动经济增长的新动力。高校电子商务专业需要适应当前的经济新常态,适应社会对电子商务人才的动态需求,创新人才培养模式,有效开展创新创业教育,充分发挥大学生群体在大众创业、万众创新中的积极作用,满足新经济发展所需要的电子商务创新创业型人才需求。     

Varieties of Moral Issue and Dilemma: A Framework for the Analysis of Case Material in Business Ethics Education

This paper builds on a number of ideas concerning the nature, management and representation in case studies, of moral issues and dilemmas as experienced by people in organisations. Drawing on some cases used in teaching business ethics, and utilising a checklist of questions derived from the more general theoretical analysis, suggestions are offered regarding the contributions which such cases can make in developing students' understanding and potential for performative competence in real life situations. The distinction between issues and dilemmas is emphasised, and different types of issue are identified. The status of self-interest as an issue, and as contributory to personal dilemmas, is given particular attention. The paper also addresses the distinction between cognitive and non-cognitive attributes required by individuals if they are to deal with such situations. Within the cognitive category attention is paid to the contribution of ethical and other theory, and to the need for moral imagination and judgement.     

Good Governance and Growth in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Regulatory Reforms in the Telecommunications Industry

We investigate whether good governance, measured in terms of the regulatory structure, has a positive impact on the development of the telecommunications industry in developing countries. To this end we construct a data set on a panel of developing countries with information on the number of mainlines per capita and proxies for certain aspects of regulatory structure argued in the literature to be important for optimum development. Our results indicate that if the regulator is given certain functions with which to carry out telecommunications policy, this can enhance growth, but that there is no similar evidence in terms of operational separation of the regulator from the government.     

高职在校生微创业实践教育探究——以安徽商贸职业技术学院为例

在双创时代背景下,大学生创业已成为各高职院校教育工作的热点和重点.但是当前高职院校的创业教育普遍存在课程体系不完善、实践教育环节薄弱等问题.而微创业是低成本、低门槛、见效快的一种创业形式,通过提升微创业教育和实践来促进创业教育的发展实为良策.因此,高职院校应加强微创业政策支持,完善微创业教育指导,建立微创业实践基地并构建微创业全方位服务平台.