The Ethics of Technology in Management Education

Abstract

Cheating is commonplace amongst business school students and is possibly facilitated by the increase in smartphone technology. This study examines the issue of ethical perceptions of digital cheating using smartphone technology in a European Business School using a quasi-experimental methodology for two samples of undergraduate business administration students (295 & 627) before and after a creativity seminar. Participants were aware of what behaviours were considered cheating and on average partook in the intervention accordingly. Nevertheless, predefined ethics did not correlate with their reported actions and the intervention showed statistically significant changes ethical stance of participants. The study showed that the choice to cheat is different from the choice ‘not to cheat’ - the ethics described by the individual showed very little relationship with cheating or not, similarly smartphones were not considered pivotal in the cheating process. These findings have practical implications for the conceptualisation and teaching of ethics as well as the industry preconceptions of smartphone technology. This apparent disconnect between ethics and reported use calls for further research to address implementation of ethics in pressure situations impacted by technology.