Business Student Ethics: Selected Predictors of Attitudes Toward Cheating

This research addresses the frequently reported finding that business education reduces the ethical sensitivity of students. It presents evidence that supports the view that much of the prior research has relied upon a narrow set of explanatory variables as well as dependent measures of ethical reasoning that often lacked external validity. This research proposes instead, a dependent measure based on students' attitudes toward academic dishonesty and the use of two additional independent variables, locus of control and personality type. In an empirical study,both locus of control and personality type were found to significantly influence students' attitudes to academic dishonesty. Students who studied business however, were no more tolerant of academic dishonesty than students in other programs. Nor did they have a different locus of control or personality-type. Locusof control and personality type were however,significantly correlated. Findings also support the predictive utility of using cheating to understand ethical attitudes in general.     

Ethical Outcomes and Business Ethics: Toward Improving Business Ethics Education

Unethical conduct has reached crisis proportions in business (Walker et al., Wall Str J East Edn, 258(37):A1–A10, 2011) and on today’s college campuses (Burke et al., CPA J, 77(5):58–65, 2007). Despite the evidence that suggests that more than half of business students admit to dishonest practices (McCabe et al. 2006), only about 5 % of business school deans surveyed believe that dishonesty is a problem at their schools (Brown et al., Coll Stud J A, 44(2):299–308, 2010). In addition, the AACSB which establishes standards for accredited business schools has resisted the urging of deans and business experts to require business schools to teach an ethics class, and fewer than one-third of businesses schools now teach a business ethics course at the graduate or undergraduate levels (Swanson and Fisher, Advancing Business Ethics Education, 2008). In this paper we briefly introduce the status of business ethics education and report the results of a survey of business students, deans of the top business schools, and business ethics subject matter experts about ten ethical outcomes. We then offer five specific recommendations to encourage business ethics faculty and decision makers to improve the teaching of business ethics.     

Attitudes Toward Consumer and Business Ethics Among Canadian and New Zealand Business Students: An Assessment of 28 Scenarios

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business and ethics. This paper combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand with their Canadian counterparts. A sample of 360 students indicated that students in both countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of both business and consumers. Of the 28 scenarios evaluated, five exhibited significant differences between the two groups. In four cases, students from New Zealand expressed less tolerance for the questionable business practices, and in the other one the situation was reversed. Despite the relative congruence of attitudes exhibited by the students of the two countries, the fact that differences do exist is testimony to the increased risk inherent to international business.     

African American Small Business Owners' Attitudes Toward Business Training

The attitudes toward training courses are documented for the rapidly growing African American segment of small business owners. The study provides evidence supporting the training-business creation model suggested by the Small Business Act and by Becker's work on human capital. Over 700 responses to a mail survey were divided into African American small business owners and Caucasian American small business owners. The African American small business owners rated the training courses as significantly more important than the Caucasian American small business owners for all 23 of the areas tested. A matched sample was created from the data set to evaluate the idea that demographics such as type of business and number of employees may have influenced the results. The findings from the matched sample were consistent with the findings from the total sample. Various reasons for these unusually strong results are offered as well as directions for future research.     

Managerial and Public Attitudes Toward Ethics in Marketing Research

This research updates and significantly extends Akaah and Riordon’s (J Market Res 26:112–120, 1989) evaluation of ethical perceptions of marketing research misconduct among marketing research professionals. In addition to examining changes in perceptions toward key marketing research practices over time, we assess professionals’ judgments on the ethicality, importance, and occurrence of a variety of new marketing research ethics situations in both online and offline contexts. In a second study, we assess ethical judgments of the public at large using a representative sample of US consumers—key stakeholders ignored in prior research on unethical marketing research practices. Generally speaking, disapproval of unethical research conduct has grown across the board in the last 20?years for both managers and marketing researchers. The same misconduct elicits a stronger disapproval in the online environment compared to the offline environment. Compared to marketing researchers, managers tend to think that unethical research conduct occurs more frequently. Those who conduct marketing research or use its findings (i.e., marketing researchers and managers) are less tolerant of unethical research conduct than the general public.     

Attitudes of Business and Non-business Students Toward Corporate Actions

This study examined differences in the attitudes of business and non-business students toward economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary corporate actions. The results from a sample of two hundred and forty-two (242) university students indicated differences across three background variables (college major, gender, and race).     

Personal Ethics and Business Ethics: The Ethical Attitudes of Owner/ Managers of Small Business

To date, the study of business ethics has been largely the study of the ethics of large companies. This paper is concerned with owner/managers of small firms and the link between the personal ethics of the owner/manager and his or her attitude to ethical problems in business. By using active membership of an organisation with an overt ethical dimension (for example, a church) as a surrogate for personal ethics the research provides some, though not unequivocal, support for the models of Trevino and others that suggest a link between personal ethics and business ethics.     

Stakeholder-Sensitive Business Ethics Teaching

Well-established, well-intended and well-designed business ethics teaching can still have little effect. This is not surprising, as long as business ethics does not undertake a business-school-wide dialogue about goals and obstacles, not least as an example of stakeholder participation. The article elaborates such views in a systematic fashion and formulates a list of thirteen premises and nine recommendations in thesis format.     

Toward a Model for International Business Ethics

This paper briefly examines the topic of business ethics and attempts to suggest a code of ethics for multinational firms. While most companies have basic policies on employee integrity, confidentiality and sexual harassment, relatively few have established policies regarding bribery, exploitive child labor, human rights violations and other issues they may encounter in the global market place (Drake, 1998). Until recently, very few companies had truly global operations. Consequently little attention was paid to the issue of ethical guidelines in a global context. Recent changes in international markets have led to an explosion of corporations with global operations, and the need for a global code of ethics has grown commensurately. In this paper we explore the issue of global business ethics and attempt to provide a framework for future discussion. We also examine some of the unique difficulties surrounding the development of any set of global business standards. Key among these difficulties is the issue of competing ethical values in home and host countries.     

Teaching Business Ethics: The Role of Ethics in Business and in Business Education

The paper begins with an examination of traditional attitudes towards business ethics. I suggest that these attitudes fail to recognize that a principal function of ethics is to facilitate cooperation. Further that despite the emphasis on competition in modern market economies, business like all other forms of social activity is possible only where people are prepared to respect rules in the absence of which cooperation is rendered difficult or impossible. Rules or what I call the ethics of doing, however, constitute just one dimension of ethics. A second has to do with what we see and how we see it; a third with who we or what I describe as the ethics of being. Of these three dimensions, the first and the third have been most carefully explored by philosophers and are most frequently the focus of attention when teaching business ethics is being discussed. I argue that this focus is unfortunate in as much as it is the second dimension which falls most naturally into the ambit of modern secular educational institutions. It is here that moral education is most obviously unavoidable, and most clearly justifiable in modern secular teaching environments. I conclude by describing the importance of this second dimension for the modern world of business.     

Comparing Attitudes Toward Ethical Dilemmas in Small Business

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of attitudes between Russian and U.S. undergraduate students on ethical issues in managing Russian small firms engaged in business transactions with U.S. firms. Based on the real life situations, Russian and American respondents were asked to select decision alternatives dealing with ethical dilemmas. Significant differences were found between the two groups. Russians do not recognize significant differences between various alternatives, despite the disparity in the severity of these alternatives for resolving business problems. Russians, compared to Americans, tend to prefer more forceful decision alternatives resorting to business practices that would be considered unethical in the U.S. This is attributable to differences in the countries' history, political, legal, and cultural environment. The transitional nature of the Russian economy affects decision-making and business ethics.     

Examining Polish Market Mavens and Their Attitudes Toward Advertising

Abstract

In this paper, we offer some insights about Polish consumers with varying levels of general marketplace expertise, their role in diffusing product information, and their views of advertising. Market mavens are consumers who exhibit heightened interestin and knowledge about the marketplace. Because of their interest in communicating with others about the many aspects of the marketplace, these consumers can play an integral role for companies interested in diffusing marketing information. Our study results indicate that market mavens do indeed exist in Poland and they exhibit similar characteristics to market mavens identified in the U.S. They have more favorable attitudes toward advertising than other consumers. Additionally, they consider advertising as an important source of product and social image information. Although Polish mavens are less critical of advertising being misleading and confusing, they are concerned about advertising promoting materialistic values. Our findings imply that firms doing business in Poland would be well advised to target market mavens because they pay attention to advertising, have favorable attitudes toward advertising, and like to talk about marketplace phenomena with others.     

Who's Who in Business Ethics Teaching Business Ethics in Post-Communist Prague

Management students at the Economic University of Prague have recently been introduced to the subject of Business Ethics. Lidmila Něemcová, who designed and teaches the course, describes their and her reactions.     

Toward an Applied Meaning for Ethics in Business

The field of business ethics has been active for several decades, but it has yet to develop a generally agreed upon applied ethical perspective for the discipline. Academics in business disciplines have developed useful science-based models explaining why business people behave ethically but without a generally accepted definition of ethical behavior. Academics in moral philosophy have attempted to formulate what they believe ethical behavior is, but many seem to ignore or reject the basic mission of business. The purpose of this article is to offer one view of ethics in business that accommodates the mission of business. This purpose is achieved by reviewing the mission of ethics in applied disciplines like business and melding it into the mission of business in capitalistic societies.     

Business Ethics Index: Measuring Consumer Sentiments Toward Business Ethical Practices

The present study describes the development of an ongoing and systematic index to measure consumers’ sentiments towards business ethical practices. The Business Ethics Index (BEI) is based on the well established measurements of consumer sentiments, namely the ICS (Index of Consumer Sentiment) and CBCCI (Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index). The BEI is comprised of 4 measurements representing the dimensions of “personal-vicarious” and “past-future.” Data from 503 telephone interviews were used to calculate a BEI of 107. This indicates an overall positive consumer sentiment towards the ethical behavior of business. Future calculations of the BEI are planned which will allow for the estimation of the latent dynamics of trends in consumer sentiments toward American business ethics.     

Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature

America's economic ideology lacks a vocabulary of ethics. If, as we assume, an economic system requires a moral component for long-term survival, students in business schools must be exposed to a vocabulary of ethics that is consistent with the ideology of capitalism. We present a vocabulary of ethics and describe an approach to teaching business ethics based on business-related classic literature and moral philosophy.     

Accountants' Attitudes Toward Advertising and Their Use of Marketing Tools

This paper reports the results of a national study of accountants' attitudes toward advertising and heir use of various marketing tools. A mail survey was used to collect the data from a randomly selected sample of accountants. Analysis of the results using percentages and means revealed overall negative attitudes toward advertising. However, younger accountants were more favorable toward the use of advertising. This indicates that in the future there will be increased emphasis on marketing and advertising of accounting services. Seminars, yellow page ads, and brochures were ranked as the three most effective marketing tools. The major reasons respondents did not engage in more marketing activities were concerns over the costbenefits of their use.     

Emotion and Cognition in Business Ethics Teaching

This paper focuses specifically on taughtcourses in business ethics for post-experiencestudents. The theme of this paper is thatvalues have a dual nature, involving bothemotional and cognitive elements. This dualnature is not always clearly acknowledged byparticipants in business ethics courses. Thisleads to a range of different ways in whichmisunderstanding can arise, and which is oftennot well handled in ethics classes. Twoparticular examples are considered: theseparation of personal and professional ethics,and the tendency for people to manage risk inprobabilistic terms rather than in human. TheKohlberg model is critiqued briefly, andpreference is given to Forsyth's model ofethical decision ideologies. The paperconcludes with some suggestions of positiveapproaches to business ethics teaching,involving virtue ethics and the critical theoryof Jurgen Habermas. This involves abandoningclassroom based tutition for a more personaldevelopment oriented approach.