Students' Perceptions of Business Ethics: Using Cheating as a Surrogate for Business Situations

Abstract

Today's college students are entering the workplace at a time when ethical issues are under greater scrutiny. Thus, the authors examined students' perceptions of varying ethical situations, sampling 786 college students at 3 institutions (1 public, 1 Baptist affiliated, 1 Catholic affiliated). The authors used an anonymous survey and statistically analyzed student assessment of questionable academic and business situations. The survey results indicated that (a) nonbusiness majors, on average, are more ethical than business majors; (b) female students are more ethical than male students; and (c) when analyzing the results by class, upper division students are more ethical than lower division students.