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A Survey of Management Educators’ Perceptions of Unethical Faculty Behavior

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Abstract

To help academic associations in management develop, refine, and implement a code of ethics, we conducted a survey of management educators’ perception of the ethicality of 142 specific behaviors in teaching, research, and service. The results of the survey could be used to inform ethics committees of these associations regarding the level of acceptability of such conduct. The potential value of our study for the Academy of Management or similar management associations lie in our (1) systematically involving the members in building support for the code of ethics, (2) assessing members’ ethical judgments on both cross-sectional and longitudinal bases so as to identify areas needing particular attention in ethical training, (3) providing an extensive list of specific examples of questionable and potentially unethical behaviors so as to make it easier to implement the code, and (4) providing a template survey document for potential use in involving more stakeholder groups in the development of codes of ethics.

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Notes

  1. At the time the survey was developed (before December 2005, when the revised Academy of Management Code of Ethics was announced), the Academy of Management still used the Academy Code of Ethical Conduct, which only included broad principles of professional conducts (Academy of Management 2005b).

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Correspondence to M. Joseph Sirgy.

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Gao, T., Siegel, P., Johar, J.S. et al. A Survey of Management Educators’ Perceptions of Unethical Faculty Behavior. J Acad Ethics 6, 129–152 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-008-9062-z

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