Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Factors Influencing Management Students' Perception on Ethics: An Empirical Study in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar


Affiliations
1 Shri Jairambhai Patel Institute of Management & Computer Applications (Formerly NICM), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
2 L.J. – MBA Program, Ahmedabad, Gujrat, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Rationale - The basic training in ethics is believed to be imparted by family and educational institutes, but the end result (execution of ethical practices) is a combination of inherent values and external environment. Also, there is a dearth of studies trying to find out the factors influencing ethical perceptions in management students, especially in the state of Gujarat, India. Thus, the study is an effort to diagnose the significant factors influencing ethical practices of students, aspiring to become managers.

Purpose - The study indicates the factors which influence the ethical perception of management students. The study also examines whether these factors have any relation with the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of the students, parents' monthly income and specialization selected by the students.

Design/Methodology/Approach - The data is collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample for this study is MBA final year students in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts of Gujarat. The sample size for the study is 195 respondents. Analysis has been done by using multivariate techniques like Factor Analysis followed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Findings - The factors driving the ethical perceptions of students are influence of education/ instructor on ethics, influence of technology, attitude related to cheating, ethical climate on campus and priority towards ethics. It has been found that there exists a relationship between the following: (i) ethical climate on campus and CGPA (ii) attitude towards cheating and parents' monthly income (iii) priority towards ethics and specialization of students.

Research Limitations/Implications - A key limitation of this study is the sampling frame. Future studies should replicate this study in different contexts.


Keywords

Ethics, Students, Perception
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


  • Allen, W. R., Bacdayan, P., Kowalski, K. B., & Roy, M. H. (2005). Examining the impact of ethics training on business student values. Education and Training, 47, 170-182
  • Anitsal, I., Anitsal, M., & Elmore, R. (2009). Academic dishonesty and intention to cheat: A model on active versus passive academic dishonesty as perceived by business students. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 13(2), 17-26.
  • Bartlett, M. S. (1954). A note on the multiplying factors for various chi-square approximations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 16, 296-298.
  • Bloodgood, J., Turnley, W., & Mudrack, P. (2010). Ethics instruction and the perceived acceptability of cheating. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(1), 23-37.
  • Borkowski, S. & Ugras, Y. (1998). Business students and ethics: A meta-analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(11), 1117-1127.
  • Business Round-table for Corporate Ethics Report. Retrieved December 25, 2012, Retrieved from http://www.corporate-ethics.org/publications/reports/
  • Caruana, A., Ramaseshan, B., & Ewing M.T. (2000). The effect of anomie on academic dishonesty among university students. The International Journal of Educational Management, 14(1), 23-29.
  • Clement, M. J. (2001). Academic dishonesty: To be or not to be? Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 12(2), 253-270.
  • Diekhoff, G. M., LaBeff E. E., Clark R. R., Williams L. E., Francis B., & Haines V. J. (1996). College cheating: Ten years later. Research in Higher Education, 37, 487-502.
  • Desplaces, D., Beauvais, L., Melchar, D., & Bosco, S. (2007). The impact of business education on moral judgement competence: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(1), 73-87.
  • Ethics Education in Business Schools (2004). Report of the Ethics Education Task Force Tampa. Retrieved from http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/researchreports/archives/ethics-education.pdf
  • Felicetti, L. & Stewart, K. (1998). Australian business majors and their attitudes toward the teaching of business ethics. Teaching Business Ethics, 2, 85-92.
  • Gioia, D.A. (2002). Business education’s role in the crisis of corporate confidence. Academy of Management Executive, 16, 3, 142-145.
  • Graham, M. A., Monday, J., O’ Brien K., & Steffen, S. (1994). Cheating at small colleges: An examination of student and faculty attitudes and behaviours. Journal of College Student Development, 35, 342-354.
  • Haines, V. J., Diekhoff, G. M., LaBeff, E. E., & Clark, R. E. (1986). College cheating: Immaturity, lack of commitment, and the neutralizing attitude. Research in Higher Education, 25, 342-354.
  • Kaiser, H.F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39, 31-36.
  • Kidder, R., Mirk, P., & Lodges, W. (2002). Maricopa Values & Ethics Survey. Tempe, AZ: Institute for Global Ethics.
  • Kitahara, R., Westfall, F., & Mankelwicz, J. (2011). New, multi-faceted hybrid approaches to ensuring academic integrity. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 3, 1-12.
  • Klein, H., Levenburg, N., McKendall, M, & Mothersell, W. (2007). Cheating during the college years: How do business school students compare? Journal of Business Ethics, 72(2), 197-206.
  • Lau, L., Caracciolo B., Roddenberry S., & Scroggins A. (2011). College students’ perception of ethics. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 5, 1-13.
  • Lewin, T. (1983). Business ethics’ new appeal. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
  • MacKewn, A. & VanVuren, A. (2007). A study of moral decision- making: business majors versus non-business majors. Global Journal of Business Research, 1(1), 139-146.
  • Mahdavi, I. (2009). Where do men and women learn their ethics? Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 1, 1-7.
  • Malhotra, N. K. (2010). Marketing Research: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). Pearson Education.
  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2011). Retrieved from http://www.merriamwebster. com/dictionary/ethics?show=0&t=1310760908
  • Molnar, K., Kletke, M., & Chongwatpol, J. (2008). Ethics vs. IT ethics: Do undergraduate students perceive a difference. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(4), 657-671.
  • Rakovski, C. C., & Levy, E. S. (2007). Academic dishonesty: Perception of business students. College Student Journal, 41(2), 466-481
  • Salmans, S. (1987). Suddenly, business schools tackle ethics. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
  • Shurden, S., Santandreu, J., & Shurden, M. (2010). How student perceptions of ethics can lead to future business behaviour. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 13(1), 117-127.
  • Sikula, A., & Costa, A. D. (1994). Are women more ethical than men? Journal of Business Ethics, 13, 859-871.
  • Solomon, R.C. (1994). Above the Bottom Line: An Introduction to Business Ethics. Fort Worth, Tx: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
  • Swanson, D. L., & Frederick, W. C. (2005). Denial and leadership in business ethics education. In R. A. Peterson and O. C. Ferrell, (Eds.), Business Ethics: The New Challenge for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 222-240.
  • Tang, T., & Chen, Y. (2008). Intelligence vs. Wisdom: The love of money, machiavellianism, and unethical behavior across college major and gender. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(1), 1-26.
  • Vogel, D. (1987, April 27). Manager’s journal: Could an ethics course have kept Ivan from going bad. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.online.wsj.com

Abstract Views: 510

PDF Views: 4




  • Factors Influencing Management Students' Perception on Ethics: An Empirical Study in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar

Abstract Views: 510  |  PDF Views: 4

Authors

Shahir Bhatt
Shri Jairambhai Patel Institute of Management & Computer Applications (Formerly NICM), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Amola Bhatt
L.J. – MBA Program, Ahmedabad, Gujrat, India

Abstract


Rationale - The basic training in ethics is believed to be imparted by family and educational institutes, but the end result (execution of ethical practices) is a combination of inherent values and external environment. Also, there is a dearth of studies trying to find out the factors influencing ethical perceptions in management students, especially in the state of Gujarat, India. Thus, the study is an effort to diagnose the significant factors influencing ethical practices of students, aspiring to become managers.

Purpose - The study indicates the factors which influence the ethical perception of management students. The study also examines whether these factors have any relation with the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of the students, parents' monthly income and specialization selected by the students.

Design/Methodology/Approach - The data is collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample for this study is MBA final year students in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts of Gujarat. The sample size for the study is 195 respondents. Analysis has been done by using multivariate techniques like Factor Analysis followed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Findings - The factors driving the ethical perceptions of students are influence of education/ instructor on ethics, influence of technology, attitude related to cheating, ethical climate on campus and priority towards ethics. It has been found that there exists a relationship between the following: (i) ethical climate on campus and CGPA (ii) attitude towards cheating and parents' monthly income (iii) priority towards ethics and specialization of students.

Research Limitations/Implications - A key limitation of this study is the sampling frame. Future studies should replicate this study in different contexts.


Keywords


Ethics, Students, Perception

References