The Ethical Perceptions of Two-Year College Students in Business Situations Compared to Academic Situations

Abstract

Since today's college students will be the decision makers of tomorrow, it is worthwhile to examine their current attitudes toward cheating from both academic and business perspectives. This study statistically analyzes two-year college students' attitudes toward cheating via a survey containing academic and business situations that the students evaluated on a seven point scale from unethical to ethical. When both the general questions concerning attitudes about cheating and the opinions on the ethical statements are considered, the business students were generally more unethical in their behavior and attitudes than nonbusiness majors. In particular, business majors are found to have a statistically higher incidence of collegiate cheating and are more prone to consider cheating socially acceptable. These results indicate a need for more ethical exposure in business courses to help students distinguish ethical from unethical decisions.