Group Examining the impact of ethics members:

training on business student values

M NNNKK

Humaira Anwar Zainab Tariq Alina Sajad MVMVM

1) Introduction
With recent corporate scandals bringing attention to the need to improve ethical actions within corporations, business schools have focused more attention on imparting ethical values to their students. This study examined the impact that a business ethics course would have on business students; their responses were compared to a sample of non-business students.

Problem statement
Recent misconduct and highly questionable behavior in both religious and secular environments have fostered considerable distrust, cynicism, and antagonism among the American populace toward the leadership of virtually all social institutions, especially business organizations.

Objective

This paper aims to examine the impact of ethics training on business students values. Focuses on the central question whether exposure to ethical dilemmas and discussions in the classroom setting will lead to new paradigms of leadership incorporating instrumental values.

Significance of the study

The results support the contention that senior level students were influenced in their perceptions of the importance of instrumental values in comparison to freshmen. As hypothesized no difference was found between men and women in both the importance and reinforcement of the instrumental values examined. The results do not support the contention that increased emphasis on ethics in textbooks and courses has had a significant impact.

Research questions
Three questions are addressed concerning the trainability of ethics material and the proper integration and implementation of an ethics curriculum.

Can business ethics be taught? How should ethics be included in the curriculum? What guidelines are recommended when instituting an ethics curriculum?

2) Literature review:
In 1976, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which is now known as the Association to Advance collegiate Schools of Business International, formally recognized the importance of ethics in business education by insisting that business educators incorporate ethics into business curricula. Today, nevertheless, virtually all undergraduate and graduate business programs in the United States teach business ethics in some form (Kennedy and Lawton, 1998, p. 165). Studies examining the influence of ethics instruction on business students ethical attitudes, in particular, are not unequivocal (Arlow, 1991; Glenn, 1992; Weber, 1990). On balance, however, the literature favors the conclusion that ethics instruction does sensitize business students to ethical issues (Green and Weber, 1997; Luther et al., 1997; Ruhe, 1991) and correlates to development in moral and ethical perspectives (Green and Weber, 1997; Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991). Other studies suggest that students ethical attitudes are influenced more by exposure to the large socio-cultural norms than by education in specific disciplines (Arlow, 1991). The large number of women entering the workforce over the past quarter century. These studies suggest that women may be inclined to use more ethically oriented judgment than men. Indeed, Akaah (1989) has posited that ethical decision-making in business will increase as the ratio of women in executive positions increases.

Hypothesis of the study:

H1. In their senior year, in comparison to freshman counterparts, a greater proportion of students will perceive the instrumental values assessed to be very important to helping them achieve success in a career.

H2. In their senior year, in comparison to freshman counterparts, a greater proportion of students will perceive the instrumental values assessed to have been stimulated or reinforced in the course of their studies. H3. There will be no difference between men and women business students in their perceptions that the instrumental values assessed will be very important to helping them achieve success in a career. H4. There will be no difference between men and women business students in their perceptions that the instrumental values assessed were stimulated or reinforced in the course of their studies.

Theoretical framework:
Dependent Variables:
1. Freshman 2. Senior student 3. Women 4. Men

Independent Variables:
1. Success in a career. 2. course of the studies

Mediating Variables:
1. instrumental values

3) Research Methodology

Time of horizon:
From 90s to till 2002 the research has been conducted.

Type of study:
Correlational research can be accomplished by a variety of techniques which include the collection of empirical data. Often times, correlational research is considered type of observational research as nothing is manipulated by the experimenter or individual conducting the research. For example, the early studies on cigarette smoking did not manipulate how many cigarettes were smoked. The researcher only collected the data on the two variables. Nothing was controlled by the researchers.

Data collection:
A field of applied statistics, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and the associated survey data collection techniques, such as questionnaire construction and methods for improving the number and accuracy of responses to surveys. Data collection for the present study of business students took place at two points within the same calendar year: first, from seniors, in the spring just prior to graduation; second, from freshmen, early in their first semester the following fall. All seniors who participated were undergraduates enrolled in the AACSB-required capstone course in strategic management/business policy; all freshmen, in a course designed to introduce first-year business majors to the world of business. In all, 292 students voluntarily participated, 170 freshman and 122 seniors; of these, 167 (57.2 percent) were men and 125 (42.8 percent) were women.

Unit of analysis:
Social organization is a sociological concept, defined as a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups

Population and sampling and procedure:

Data collection for the present study of business students took place at two points within the same calendar year: first, from seniors, in the spring just prior to graduation; second, from freshmen, early in their first semester the following fall. All seniors who participated were undergraduates enrolled in the AACSB-required capstone course in strategic management/business policy; all freshmen, in a course designed to introduce first-year business

majors to the world of business. In all, 292 students voluntarily participated, 170 freshman and 122 seniors; of these, 167 (57.2 percent) were men and 125 (42.8 percent) were women. Using Maccobys (1976) 19-item instrumental values profile for managers, as adapted for student use by Kreitner and Rief (1980), respondents voluntarily and anonymously rated each item as Very Important, Somewhat Important, or Not Important to helping them achieve success in their chosen careers. Nine of the items assess values of the head; the other ten, of the heart. In addition to relative importance, respondents identified those traits they considered to have been stimulated or reinforced during the course of their studies. Determining the proportion of respondents who indicate Very Important to an item assesses value importance. Determining the proportion of respondents who indicate whether or not an item had been stimulated or reinforced assesses value reinforcement. Statistical analyses relied upon Pearson chi-square tests, using an of 0.05 as the critical level of testing.

Research Instrument
Questionnaire the most common instrument or tool of research for obtaining the data beyond the physical reach of the observer which, for example may be sent to human beings who are thousands or mile away or just around the corner.

4) Data Analysis and Interpretation

Discussions and finding:
This paper examined the impact of ethical education on business students at the same institution within the same calendar year at two points separated educationally by some four years: at the beginning and at the end of their student careers. Ethical impact was operationalized using the instrumental values profile for managers (Maccoby, 1976). Although there is support for the contention that exposure to ethical education in business curricula has had a positive, salient impact on business students between the late 1970s and mid-1990s (Allen et al., 1998), this assertion is not evident from the results of the present study. For six of the ten heart values significantly less importance was attached by seniors than by freshmen. Only one head value of nine was perceived by seniors as more important than freshmen.

It is somewhat disheartening to see seniors perceiving less importance in the heart values of generosity, idealism, compassion, friendliness, and honesty, as well as having a critical and questioning attitude toward authority. These results may be construed as consonant with a recent Aspen Institute study (Etzioni, 2002) of some 2,000 graduates of 13 top business schools where it was found that a business education not only fails to improve the moral character of the students but also actually weakens it.

Statistics:
H3 and H4 address the relative importance and reinforcement of the Maccoby (1976) heart and head instrumental values for men versus women. These were tested using two means: (1) Direct comparison of the two groups; and (2) 2 2 matrix comparison of gender versus school year. Using a 2 * 2 matrix to compare men and women as seniors separately in relation to their freshman counterparts, this hypothesis was completely supported:

Result:
The results do not support H1, provide mixed support for H2, and support H3 and H4.

5) Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Discussions and findings:

Recommended Citation:
Jay P Kennedy, "Examining the impact of ethics education on business students' perceptions of white-collar crime" (January 1, 2010). ETD Collection for Wayne State University. Paper AAI1481069.

Limitations:

Results from the present study are not supportive of a number of studies involving business students (Allen et al., 1998; Kochunny and Rogers, 1994; Green and Weber, 1997; Luther et al., 1997). The present study raises questions about the ethical cognizance of the students providing the data, as well as the extent to which ethical considerations had been incorporated into the curriculum. In actuality, the institution where the data were derived was in candidacy for AACSB accreditation at the time of the study. It may be that more time was needed to fully develop and implement the ethical aspects of the curriculum. If organizational culture had influenced the personal values of these students, the effect was evidenced only in the head traits.

Future research:
Future research should consider incorporating faculty perceptions of which instrumental values are important and which are actively being reinforced in their students curriculum, as well as the degree thereof.