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Attitudes towards business ethics held by South African students

  • Business Ethics In Education 2
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Abstract

This study uses the ATBEQ, as published by J.F. Preble and A. Reichel (1988) to measure attitudes towards ethical business attitudes held by final year South African Bachelor of Commerce students at Rhodes University. Three samples of students were assessed over three consecutive years of 1989, 1990 and 1991, and results are compared with samples (1988) of American and Israeli students and a sample (1991) of Western Australian students. A significant difference in attitudes was found to exist between the Israeli and South African samples. A factor analysis of the questionnaire identified eleven factors of which seven are theoretically labelled. A revised version of the ATBEQ is suggested which excludes the poorly performing questions.

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Robert S. Moore, is a lecturer in the Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. His research interest is in the area of business ethics mainly related to commerce students.

Sarah E. Radloff is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Statistics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Her research interest is in data analysis and she is the statistical consultant for many departments at the University.

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Moore, R.S., Radloff, S.E. Attitudes towards business ethics held by South African students. J Bus Ethics 15, 863–869 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381854

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