Abstract
Academic cheating is one type of unethical academic behaviors or academic dishonesty. It is crucial as it affects the credibility and predictive accuracy in university admission criteria. Dealing with academic cheating requires identifying the main causes of the problem. This study aims to explore the impact of a written code of ethics in Egyptian academic institutions on cheating among undergraduate students. The study uses two cases of a private and a public academic institution. Both universities are located in Cairo. Findings indicate that the public academic institution tends to have an organizational culture that enhances ethical practices compared to the private institution. Academic cheating in both universities is influenced by a number of organizational factors including communication of ethical behavior, severity of punishment, the likelihood to be caught or reported, and influence of peer behavior. More concern for communication of ethical behavior is needed in private academic institutions to reduce the level of academic cheating among undergraduate students. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p588
Highlights
Managing ethical behavior is a critical problem for business organizations
Researchers have been highly concerned with relating the ethical behavior to the corporate code of ethics, professional codes, and mission statements
The findings of this study suggest that academic cheating among undergraduate students in private academic institutions is more than cheating in public institutions
Summary
Managing ethical behavior is a critical problem for business organizations. It is difficult to understand the different factors which influence ethical behavior of organizational members. Researchers have been highly concerned with relating the ethical behavior to the corporate code of ethics, professional codes, and mission statements. The effectiveness of the corporate code of ethics has been widely examined by many researchers Marnburg, 2000; Schwartz, 2001; Sims & Brinkmann, 2003; McClearn, 2004). Despite research disagreement about the impact of code of ethics on the behavior of organizations, it is agreed that codes of ethics can be useful for decision making. Codes of ethics are valuable in conveying organizational values to stakeholders
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