Students Perception of Ethics: Implications for National Development

Abstract

This paper examines the students’ perceptions of ethics and the implication of such views for national development using cheating in an academic situation as an indicator of unethical behaviors. A total of 311 undergraduate students, 176 female and 135 male were surveyed. These students were given a set of questions about different instances of academic cheatings that are common among students on a 5- point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not dishonest) to 5 (very severe dishonesty) to indicate their behaviors towards these situations, their responses describe their sense of ethics. The T-test of difference between means and ANOVA were used to statistically analyze the differences between the mean scores. The study found among other things that an average student sees cheating as dishonesty but not as a very serious evil. No significant difference was found between the female and the male students though the female students were seen to be more ethical. Year one students were seen to be more ethical than other classes. These findings indicates that there is need for ethical promotion and education and if ethics education is not encouraged in our institutions of higher learning, the students’ who are the tomorrow’s leaders and professionals may not be able to support and sustain national development. Since the female are found to be more ethical, engaging and encouraging them in their professions will definitely promote a better ethical atmosphere, which is a booster to national development. This study sees unethical behavior as a bane to national development while, ethical behavior is seen as a key factor that supports national development. 1.0 INTRODUCTION In our increasingly globalized business world, promotion of good ethical behaviors and goals is good business and helps in the healthy building of a nation. The word ethics is the principle of morality, including both the science of the good and the nature of the right. It involves doing the right thing in the right manner. It is a system of moral principles or rules of behaviors. Ethics involves doing things in the most transparent ways, upholding integrity at all times and doing everything humanly possible to tackle and pull down corruption. It is a topical issue in many societies today. Different societies both in the developed and developing world have in the recent times witnessed the collapse of many organizations due to questionable characters of some people at the helm of affairs of these organizations. This collapse is possible because men and women in our society today are self-centered; they seek selfish gains rather than upholding the public trust on them.