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Business Student Ethics: Selected Predictors of Attitudes Toward Cheating

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Teaching Business Ethics

Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, St. Francis Xavier University, Box 5000, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada

    Natasha Coleman & Tom Mahaffey

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  1. Natasha Coleman
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  2. Tom Mahaffey
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Coleman, N., Mahaffey, T. Business Student Ethics: Selected Predictors of Attitudes Toward Cheating. Teaching Business Ethics 4, 121–136 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009855128668

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