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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Right and Wrong and Cultural Diversity:
Replication of the 2002 NAS/Zogby Poll on
Business Ethics
Marty Ludlum & Sergei Mascaloinov
To cite this article: Marty Ludlum & Sergei Mascaloinov (2004) Right and Wrong and Cultural
Diversity: Replication of the 2002 NAS/Zogby Poll on Business Ethics, Journal of Education for
Business, 79:5, 294-298, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.79.5.294-298
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.79.5.294-298
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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Right and Wrong and Cultural
Diversity: Replication of the 2002
NAS/Zogby Poll on Business Ethics
MARTY LUDLUM
Oklahoma City Community College
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
I
n fall 2002, business ethics was a
major topic of discussion. With the
collapse of large corporations—Enron
in December 2001 and WorldCom in
August 2002—and Tyco’s criminal
fraud indictments in September 2002,
readers of the mainstream media were
bombarded with tales of corruption and
unethical business practices. From the
evening news to the local newspapers,
the media’s coverage of the new business scandals could not be avoided.
Apparently, the information has had
an impact. A December 2002 survey of
college students reported in Business
Week indicated that 84% of college students believe that the United States is
having a business crisis (Weisul, 2002).
The impetus for this survey came from
the NAS/Zogby Poll of College Seniors
from April 2002 (NAS/Zogby, 2002a).
That survey posed business ethics questions to 401 college seniors. The finding
that jumped off the page was that only a
quarter of the college students felt that
there were “clear and uniform standards
of right and wrong by which every one
should be judged” (NAS/Zogby,
2002b). The NAS/Zogby Poll found that
76% of the respondents indicated that
right and wrong “depends on differences in individual values and cultural
diversity” (NAS/Zogby, 2002a).
In this study, we attempted to replicate the NAS/Zogby findings in a larger
294
Journal of Education for Business
SERGEI MASCALOINOV
Ulyanovsk State University
Ulyanovsk, Russia
ABSTRACT. In April 2002, a
NAS/Zogby poll found that only a
quarter of sampled students perceived
uniform standards of “right and
wrong” and that most students felt that
ethical behavior depends on cultural
diversity. In this effort to replicate
those findings in a larger sample of
American college students, the authors
obtained results that contradict the
findings of the NAS/Zogby poll. Comparing their results across six demographic student subsets (gender, stockholder, smoker, major, year in school,
and business ethics student), the
authors found significant differences
between some of the groups. The
results suggest that students are concerned with business ethics and that
their opinions are likely to influence
their future employment decisions.
sample of college students. We wanted
to determine whether students supported uniform standards of right and wrong
and whether there would be any differences in the responses of the students
according to demographic differences.
College students will be the next generation of business employees, owners,
managers, and regulators. The impression made during their college years will
last a lifetime. Academic researchers
have long studied how college students’
ethical views affect their behavior
(Johns & Strand, 2000; Rawwas & Isakson, 2000) and how that behavior might
translate into expected work behaviors
(Knotts, Lopez, & Mesak, 2000;
Sanders, 2002; Silver & Valentine,
2000). Nonis and Swift (2001a, 2001b)
have done preliminary work demonstrating a link between unethical views
during college and unethical behavior in
the workforce. Moreover, the college
years may be the only time when students seriously discuss the issue of business ethics. The views they have today
will be a reflection of the business climate over the next 30 years.
Survey of Recent Literature
Besides the growing interest in ethics
among the public at large, there has
been a growing concern over ethics in
higher education in general and over
ethical training for business in particular. Historically, much of the past
research emphasized gender-based differences in the attitudes toward ethics.
Barnett and Brown (1994) found that
gender (along with economic background of the student) explained much
of the difference in ethical views. This
result supports many previous studies’
finding that female students tend to be
more ethical than male students (Arlow,
1991; Beltramini, Peterson, & Kozmetsky, 1984; Borkowski & Ugras, 1992;
Davis & Welton, 1991; Ferrell & Skinner, 1988; Jones & Gautschi, 1988;
Laczniak & Inderrieden, 1987; Meising
& Preble, 1985; Peterson, Beltramini, &
Kozmetsky, 1991; Ruegger & King,
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1992; Shepard & Hartenian, 1990;
Whipple & Swords, 1992) and in the
workforce (Barnett & Carson, 1989;
Smith & Rogers, 2000). This finding
was true for students outside America as
well (Tse & Au, 1997).
Many researchers have indicated that
perhaps the ethical views that women
hold are conditioned on their role as
caregivers, and as such they are predisposed to support ethical positions more
strongly. Peterson, Rhoads, and Vaught
(2001) found that the ethical views of
men tend to become more similar to the
views of women as they age. If correct,
this suggestion would mean that ethical
differences held by individuals as students would tend to decrease once they
are in the work environment.
Researchers also have questioned
whether business disciplines attract the
less ethical students or whether business
programs encourage unethical views.
Those assumptions have been mostly
untested. Curren and Harich (1996)
found that students’ discipline of study
(either business or humanities) did not
play a significant role in their ethical
judgments.
Nevertheless, many researchers have
found that business degree programs do
not seem to instill ethical behaviors in
their students (Bunn, Caudill, & Gropper, 1992; Kumar, Borycki, Nonis, &
Yauger, 1991; Peters, 1989; Roderick,
Jelley, Cook, & Forcht, 1991; Wolfe,
1993). Most recently, Cole and Smith
(1995) found that completion of an
ethics course did little to influence the
beliefs of a sample of students.
We are left with a mixed bag of
results. Although women tend to show
more ethical views, the difference
diminishes over time. Business students
are not necessarily less ethical than their
nonbusiness counterparts, but they still
show little ethical development while in
higher education.
Method
In this study, we surveyed undergraduate students at a large, southwestern
community college (11,000 students
enrolled). We offered surveys to all
business students, and a substantial
number of nonbusiness instructors presented them to students in their classes.
Students were instructed not to complete the survey a second time if they
already had completed it in another
course. We received a total of 1,146
completed surveys. Because we used
only responses that followed the directions (circling correct answers) and
omitting handwritten or ambiguous
answers, some answers have fewer than
the total number of submissions.
Of the 1,146 respondents, 76% were
freshmen or sophomores and 41.61%
were business majors. The majors were
not categorized into specialties because
at the community college level there is
only a general business degree for most
students. A little more than 10% of the
students had taken a course in business
ethics, and the percentages of male and
female students were almost equal. A
little over 25% of the students owned
stock in a publicly traded company, and
a slightly larger group (28.15%) used
tobacco. The survey did not ask questions about age, income, or parents’
occupation.
Findings
We gauged students’ attitudes toward
business ethics using two questions that
mirrored those from the NAS/Zogby
poll. We asked students to describe their
views on the following statement:
“There are clear and uniform standards
of right and wrong by which everyone
should be judged.” Students responded
on a five-point Likert scale of agreement. More than 57% either agreed or
strongly agreed with the statement,
26.32% either disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 16.64% had no opinion.
We also asked students to describe
their views on the following statement:
“What is right and wrong depends on
individual values and cultural diversity.”
Using a five-point Likert scale of agreement, 51.77% of the students agreed or
strongly agreed, 35.17% disagreed or
strongly disagreed, and 13.06% had no
opinion.
The findings from our sample appear
to contradict those of the NAS/Zogby
poll. Thus, our findings support the conclusion that students believe in uniform
standards of right and wrong.
Accounting for Demographic
Differences
We wanted to determine if demographic differences could account for the
disparity between our results and those
of the NAS/Zogby poll. We isolated six
factors: gender, tobacco user, stockholder, college major, year in school, and
whether the student had or had not taken
a course in business ethics. (See Tables 1
TABLE 1. Students’ Views on the Statement “There Are Clear and
Uniform Standards of Right and Wrong by Which Everyone Should
be Judged”
Student subgroup
Men
Women
Business majors
Nonbusiness majors
Smokers
Nonsmokers
Stockholders
Nonstockholders
Taken ethics
Not taken ethics
Freshmen
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
Combined sample
Strongly
agree
Agree
118
87
94
109
65
141
65
139
27
178
61
89
32
7
206
202
198
158
239
104
296
103
290
34
366
120
181
60
18
401
No. of students
No
opinion
Disagree
82
94
67
109
39
135
29
144
18
158
62
83
20
7
177
96
117
86
128
66
147
49
161
18
197
62
101
34
4
215
Strongly
disagree
27
36
22
43
26
39
18
45
7
58
19
27
11
2
65
May/June 2004
295
and 2 for complete breakdowns of subgroup responses to each question.) For
each demographic group, we started with
the null hypothesis that there was no difference in beliefs about ethics among the
subgroups.
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Year in School
Students were divided into the following five subgroups: freshmen,
sophomores, juniors, seniors, and other.
None of the terms were defined within
the survey. Freshmen and sophomores
accounted for 76% of the total sample,
which is not surprising in a community
college setting. We found that year in
school did not make a significant difference, either on the question regarding
the uniformity of right and wrong (x2 =
6.445, df = 12, p = .89210117) or on the
cultural diversity question (x2 = 9.093,
df = 12, p = .69496714). Relying on
these statistical numbers, we cannot say
with any degree of confidence that the
year in school made even a modest difference in the student responses.
Two conclusions could be made
about this finding. First, one could
claim that it supports the thesis that education does not influence educational
beliefs. A second and more likely conclusion is that the very small sample of
junior and senior students made any
comparison impossible.
Major
For this analysis, we divided students
into two groups, business and nonbusiness majors. Neither term was defined
within the survey. Business majors
accounted for 41.6% (461) of the
respondents, and nonbusiness majors
accounted for 58.4% (647).
Major was not a statistically significant predictor of attitudes toward business ethics for either question. In their
responses to the question regarding the
uniformity of right and wrong, business
majors and nonmajors showed little
difference (x2 = 4.556, df = 4, p =
.33595888). In their responses to the
question of whether cultural diversity
determines ethics, student major made
even less difference (x2 = 1.683, df = 4,
p = .79380333). Thus, we can say with
about 20% confidence that choice of
major made an extremely small difference in the results. These findings certainly would support the theory that
choice of major makes little, if any, difference in attitudes toward business
ethics.
Taken an Ethics Course
We asked students to self-report
whether they had taken or were taking a
course in business ethics. Slightly more
than 10.1% (113 respondents) had taken
TABLE 2. Students’ Views on the Statement “What is Right and Wrong
Depends on Individual Values and Cultural Diversity”
Student subgroup
Men
Women
Business majors
Nonbusiness majors
Smokers
Nonsmokers
Stockholders
Nonstockholders
Taken ethics
Not taken ethics
Freshmen
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
Combined sample
296
Strongly
agree
Agree
75
77
58
94
47
104
34
113
18
134
49
60
27
8
152
185
215
161
240
102
298
99
295
32
368
115
196
55
12
403
Journal of Education for Business
No. of students
No
opinion
Disagree
72
66
62
75
53
86
27
110
15
125
47
60
18
4
140
138
137
111
162
78
198
81
192
30
246
81
128
41
12
276
Strongly
disagree
57
43
40
61
24
76
26
73
13
88
35
42
16
2
101
a course in business ethics, whereas
89.9% (1,002 respondents) had not.
Because the course is optional at the
associate’s level, the results are not surprising. We predicted that this factor
would make large differences in attitudes toward ethics. We assumed that a
course in ethics would make students
more aware of these issues and help
them formulate appropriate attitudes of
business behavior.
The results did not support our predictions at all. On the question regarding
uniform standards of right and wrong,
the difference between those who had
taken business ethics and those who had
not was meaningless (x2 = 4, df = 4, p =
.40600585). Having taken a business
ethics course had even less impact on
responses to the question regarding cultural diversity’s effect on ethics (x2 =
3.542, df = 4, p = .47152096). According to these findings, there is no evidence that taking a business ethics
course changed views on ethical business behavior.
Stockholder
We asked students whether they
were stockholders in a publicly traded
company. To our surprise, many more
students were investors than we had
expected. With large numbers of nontraditional students, this should have
been expected. Just over one fourth
(25.3%) of the students stated that they
owned stock (283 respondents),
whereas 72.6% (811 respondents) did
not.
We obtained a mixed message from
our examination of stockholders as a
group. We found significant differences
between stockholders and nonstockholders in their views regarding the uniformity of ethical standards (x2 =
12.275, df = 4, p = .01541927).
However, stockholder status made
little difference on student views
regarding the cultural diversity question (x2 = 5.42, df = 4, p = .24685155).
Although we assumed that the selfinterest of the stockholders would
make both findings significant, we
were surprised to find that only half of
these respondents agreed with the
statement that cultural context determines ethical standards.
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Tobacco User
We asked students to identify themselves as either smokers or nonsmokers.
Neither term was defined in the survey.
Smokers constituted 28.1% (313) of the
sample, and nonsmokers 71.9% (799).
We initially predicted no significance
resulting from this question. We posed it
simply as a demographic question to
possibly mislead some respondents
regarding the ultimate goal of the survey. To our surprise, the use of tobacco
correlated with significant differences
in the answers to both questions from
the NAS/Zogby poll.
Differences were small but significant (x2 = 10.217, df = 4, p = .03692676)
in the responses to the question of
whether uniform ethical standards
should be used to judge everyone. We
obtained similar results when examining the question regarding individual
values and cultural diversity (x2 = 9.6, df
= 4, p = .04773253). Thus, we are fairly
confident that smoking makes a difference in ethical views. However, the difference is a matter of degree, and it is
not valid to claim that smokers are less
ethical than nonsmokers or vice versa.
Gender
The students were almost perfectly
split between the genders, with 49.3%
(525) male students and 50.7% (540)
female. Similarly to previous research,
we found much more significant results
related to gender. Gender seemed to
make a difference in the answers to both
questions. In both cases, women were
slightly more ethical than men.
For the question regarding uniform
standards of right and wrong, the results
were borderline significant in statistical
terms (x2 = 8.856, df = 4, p =
.06480132). For the question regarding
cultural diversity and ethics, the findings were statistically significant (x2 =
4.388, df = 4, p = .3560351).
These findings support the wealth of
research indicating that female students
tend to have higher ethical views than
their male counterparts. Again, it is
important to note that the differences
are slight and in the same direction for
both groups. The difference is a matter
of degree of support for ethics, and one
cannot conclude that women are ethical
and men are not.
Discussion and Conclusions
These findings would appear to contradict the findings of the NAS/Zogby
poll. On the issue of students’ belief in
uniform standards of right and wrong,
our results differ significantly from
those of NAS/Zogby. Although those
researchers found that only a quarter of
the students in their sample thought that
there were uniform standards, a majority in our sample (57.05%) supported
uniform ethical standards. Controlling
for various demographic factors did not
change the results.
When we considered demographics,
we obtained several important findings.
Business and nonbusiness majors had
marginally different views, but the differences, where they existed, were a
matter of degree.
Whether a student had taken a business ethics course does not appear to
have exerted as large an effect as
expected. We noted modest differences
in the views of students who had taken
business ethics. One could conclude
that ethical training past the primary
years does not have any impact. Another explanation could be that business
ethics courses are too theoretical
and/or complicated for many undergraduates to comprehend fully. Alternatively, because we used a very small
sample of business ethics students, a
few outliers in this group could have
possibly had a substantial effect.
Stockholders as a subgroup tended
to be more cynical than nonstockholders regarding unethical business practices. We found significant differences
in regard to one question. The selfinterest of stockholders is the most
obvious explanation for this difference.
We can surmise that an ethical view
may be palatable in theory, but when
money is involved, ethical views can
change significantly.
Gender was also a factor, in that
women were more concerned with ethical behavior than their male counterparts. This supports the overwhelming
majority of research on this topic.
Our unusual finding was that tobacco
use had an impact on attitudes toward
business ethics. Although the different
attitudes of stockholders can be attributed to pecuniary self-interest, we do
not know of any theory that explains
how or why smokers as a group would
have different attitudes toward business
ethics than nonsmokers. Certainly more
research is needed in this area.
Implications for Further
Research
Several lines of research are possible.
First, are our results a product of exposure to the media? This survey could be
replicated to investigate whether the
recent focus on business ethics in media
influenced the students’ opinions. During the initial study, general media coverage of this issue was very great. This
attention has declined, and only business and academic journals presently
are dealing with the issue. A change in
students’ perceptions over time could
show that the survey results reflected
concerns generated by the media.
Researchers also should explore the
effects, if any, of business ethics courses.
Does the business ethics course indoctrinate students to certain ethical views or
not? Because this survey was conducted
at a community college, where the business ethics course is optional, the students who had taken such a course constituted the smallest subgroup. Perhaps,
with a larger group of students, differences in beliefs could be found.
Because we had a disproportionate
group of freshmen and sophomores, we
could not distinguish any changes as the
students progressed through the educational system. Sampling in large 4-year
schools with more upper level participation could result in significant findings.
This was the first study that found
any ethical difference between smokers
and nonsmokers. Much more work is
necessary in this area for determination
of an explanation for this finding.
Because we surveyed only American
students, another line of research could
investigate whether students in other cultures or nations in capitalistic countries
hold similar views. In addition, because
we did not request age and socioeconomic data in the original survey, any subsequent surveys should include those
demographic items as well.
May/June 2004
297
The ethical problems of Enron,
WorldCom, and Tyco have highlighted
the issue of business ethics for the
world community. How we choose to
use this newfound interest is up to the
educators in business ethics. This is our
chance to emphasize the real-world
implications of what we discuss in
class. It would be a shame if we let this
opportunity for public interest in business ethics pass us by.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Lea Ann Hall for her
many hours of input on the survey results and John
Barker for all of his assistance in the statistical
work. Any errors or omissions are solely those of
the authors. A previous version of this article was
presented to the Academy of Legal Studies in
Business National Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, August 14, 2003.
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ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Right and Wrong and Cultural Diversity:
Replication of the 2002 NAS/Zogby Poll on
Business Ethics
Marty Ludlum & Sergei Mascaloinov
To cite this article: Marty Ludlum & Sergei Mascaloinov (2004) Right and Wrong and Cultural
Diversity: Replication of the 2002 NAS/Zogby Poll on Business Ethics, Journal of Education for
Business, 79:5, 294-298, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.79.5.294-298
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.79.5.294-298
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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Date: 12 January 2016, At: 23:27
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:27 12 January 2016
Right and Wrong and Cultural
Diversity: Replication of the 2002
NAS/Zogby Poll on Business Ethics
MARTY LUDLUM
Oklahoma City Community College
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
I
n fall 2002, business ethics was a
major topic of discussion. With the
collapse of large corporations—Enron
in December 2001 and WorldCom in
August 2002—and Tyco’s criminal
fraud indictments in September 2002,
readers of the mainstream media were
bombarded with tales of corruption and
unethical business practices. From the
evening news to the local newspapers,
the media’s coverage of the new business scandals could not be avoided.
Apparently, the information has had
an impact. A December 2002 survey of
college students reported in Business
Week indicated that 84% of college students believe that the United States is
having a business crisis (Weisul, 2002).
The impetus for this survey came from
the NAS/Zogby Poll of College Seniors
from April 2002 (NAS/Zogby, 2002a).
That survey posed business ethics questions to 401 college seniors. The finding
that jumped off the page was that only a
quarter of the college students felt that
there were “clear and uniform standards
of right and wrong by which every one
should be judged” (NAS/Zogby,
2002b). The NAS/Zogby Poll found that
76% of the respondents indicated that
right and wrong “depends on differences in individual values and cultural
diversity” (NAS/Zogby, 2002a).
In this study, we attempted to replicate the NAS/Zogby findings in a larger
294
Journal of Education for Business
SERGEI MASCALOINOV
Ulyanovsk State University
Ulyanovsk, Russia
ABSTRACT. In April 2002, a
NAS/Zogby poll found that only a
quarter of sampled students perceived
uniform standards of “right and
wrong” and that most students felt that
ethical behavior depends on cultural
diversity. In this effort to replicate
those findings in a larger sample of
American college students, the authors
obtained results that contradict the
findings of the NAS/Zogby poll. Comparing their results across six demographic student subsets (gender, stockholder, smoker, major, year in school,
and business ethics student), the
authors found significant differences
between some of the groups. The
results suggest that students are concerned with business ethics and that
their opinions are likely to influence
their future employment decisions.
sample of college students. We wanted
to determine whether students supported uniform standards of right and wrong
and whether there would be any differences in the responses of the students
according to demographic differences.
College students will be the next generation of business employees, owners,
managers, and regulators. The impression made during their college years will
last a lifetime. Academic researchers
have long studied how college students’
ethical views affect their behavior
(Johns & Strand, 2000; Rawwas & Isakson, 2000) and how that behavior might
translate into expected work behaviors
(Knotts, Lopez, & Mesak, 2000;
Sanders, 2002; Silver & Valentine,
2000). Nonis and Swift (2001a, 2001b)
have done preliminary work demonstrating a link between unethical views
during college and unethical behavior in
the workforce. Moreover, the college
years may be the only time when students seriously discuss the issue of business ethics. The views they have today
will be a reflection of the business climate over the next 30 years.
Survey of Recent Literature
Besides the growing interest in ethics
among the public at large, there has
been a growing concern over ethics in
higher education in general and over
ethical training for business in particular. Historically, much of the past
research emphasized gender-based differences in the attitudes toward ethics.
Barnett and Brown (1994) found that
gender (along with economic background of the student) explained much
of the difference in ethical views. This
result supports many previous studies’
finding that female students tend to be
more ethical than male students (Arlow,
1991; Beltramini, Peterson, & Kozmetsky, 1984; Borkowski & Ugras, 1992;
Davis & Welton, 1991; Ferrell & Skinner, 1988; Jones & Gautschi, 1988;
Laczniak & Inderrieden, 1987; Meising
& Preble, 1985; Peterson, Beltramini, &
Kozmetsky, 1991; Ruegger & King,
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:27 12 January 2016
1992; Shepard & Hartenian, 1990;
Whipple & Swords, 1992) and in the
workforce (Barnett & Carson, 1989;
Smith & Rogers, 2000). This finding
was true for students outside America as
well (Tse & Au, 1997).
Many researchers have indicated that
perhaps the ethical views that women
hold are conditioned on their role as
caregivers, and as such they are predisposed to support ethical positions more
strongly. Peterson, Rhoads, and Vaught
(2001) found that the ethical views of
men tend to become more similar to the
views of women as they age. If correct,
this suggestion would mean that ethical
differences held by individuals as students would tend to decrease once they
are in the work environment.
Researchers also have questioned
whether business disciplines attract the
less ethical students or whether business
programs encourage unethical views.
Those assumptions have been mostly
untested. Curren and Harich (1996)
found that students’ discipline of study
(either business or humanities) did not
play a significant role in their ethical
judgments.
Nevertheless, many researchers have
found that business degree programs do
not seem to instill ethical behaviors in
their students (Bunn, Caudill, & Gropper, 1992; Kumar, Borycki, Nonis, &
Yauger, 1991; Peters, 1989; Roderick,
Jelley, Cook, & Forcht, 1991; Wolfe,
1993). Most recently, Cole and Smith
(1995) found that completion of an
ethics course did little to influence the
beliefs of a sample of students.
We are left with a mixed bag of
results. Although women tend to show
more ethical views, the difference
diminishes over time. Business students
are not necessarily less ethical than their
nonbusiness counterparts, but they still
show little ethical development while in
higher education.
Method
In this study, we surveyed undergraduate students at a large, southwestern
community college (11,000 students
enrolled). We offered surveys to all
business students, and a substantial
number of nonbusiness instructors presented them to students in their classes.
Students were instructed not to complete the survey a second time if they
already had completed it in another
course. We received a total of 1,146
completed surveys. Because we used
only responses that followed the directions (circling correct answers) and
omitting handwritten or ambiguous
answers, some answers have fewer than
the total number of submissions.
Of the 1,146 respondents, 76% were
freshmen or sophomores and 41.61%
were business majors. The majors were
not categorized into specialties because
at the community college level there is
only a general business degree for most
students. A little more than 10% of the
students had taken a course in business
ethics, and the percentages of male and
female students were almost equal. A
little over 25% of the students owned
stock in a publicly traded company, and
a slightly larger group (28.15%) used
tobacco. The survey did not ask questions about age, income, or parents’
occupation.
Findings
We gauged students’ attitudes toward
business ethics using two questions that
mirrored those from the NAS/Zogby
poll. We asked students to describe their
views on the following statement:
“There are clear and uniform standards
of right and wrong by which everyone
should be judged.” Students responded
on a five-point Likert scale of agreement. More than 57% either agreed or
strongly agreed with the statement,
26.32% either disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 16.64% had no opinion.
We also asked students to describe
their views on the following statement:
“What is right and wrong depends on
individual values and cultural diversity.”
Using a five-point Likert scale of agreement, 51.77% of the students agreed or
strongly agreed, 35.17% disagreed or
strongly disagreed, and 13.06% had no
opinion.
The findings from our sample appear
to contradict those of the NAS/Zogby
poll. Thus, our findings support the conclusion that students believe in uniform
standards of right and wrong.
Accounting for Demographic
Differences
We wanted to determine if demographic differences could account for the
disparity between our results and those
of the NAS/Zogby poll. We isolated six
factors: gender, tobacco user, stockholder, college major, year in school, and
whether the student had or had not taken
a course in business ethics. (See Tables 1
TABLE 1. Students’ Views on the Statement “There Are Clear and
Uniform Standards of Right and Wrong by Which Everyone Should
be Judged”
Student subgroup
Men
Women
Business majors
Nonbusiness majors
Smokers
Nonsmokers
Stockholders
Nonstockholders
Taken ethics
Not taken ethics
Freshmen
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
Combined sample
Strongly
agree
Agree
118
87
94
109
65
141
65
139
27
178
61
89
32
7
206
202
198
158
239
104
296
103
290
34
366
120
181
60
18
401
No. of students
No
opinion
Disagree
82
94
67
109
39
135
29
144
18
158
62
83
20
7
177
96
117
86
128
66
147
49
161
18
197
62
101
34
4
215
Strongly
disagree
27
36
22
43
26
39
18
45
7
58
19
27
11
2
65
May/June 2004
295
and 2 for complete breakdowns of subgroup responses to each question.) For
each demographic group, we started with
the null hypothesis that there was no difference in beliefs about ethics among the
subgroups.
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Year in School
Students were divided into the following five subgroups: freshmen,
sophomores, juniors, seniors, and other.
None of the terms were defined within
the survey. Freshmen and sophomores
accounted for 76% of the total sample,
which is not surprising in a community
college setting. We found that year in
school did not make a significant difference, either on the question regarding
the uniformity of right and wrong (x2 =
6.445, df = 12, p = .89210117) or on the
cultural diversity question (x2 = 9.093,
df = 12, p = .69496714). Relying on
these statistical numbers, we cannot say
with any degree of confidence that the
year in school made even a modest difference in the student responses.
Two conclusions could be made
about this finding. First, one could
claim that it supports the thesis that education does not influence educational
beliefs. A second and more likely conclusion is that the very small sample of
junior and senior students made any
comparison impossible.
Major
For this analysis, we divided students
into two groups, business and nonbusiness majors. Neither term was defined
within the survey. Business majors
accounted for 41.6% (461) of the
respondents, and nonbusiness majors
accounted for 58.4% (647).
Major was not a statistically significant predictor of attitudes toward business ethics for either question. In their
responses to the question regarding the
uniformity of right and wrong, business
majors and nonmajors showed little
difference (x2 = 4.556, df = 4, p =
.33595888). In their responses to the
question of whether cultural diversity
determines ethics, student major made
even less difference (x2 = 1.683, df = 4,
p = .79380333). Thus, we can say with
about 20% confidence that choice of
major made an extremely small difference in the results. These findings certainly would support the theory that
choice of major makes little, if any, difference in attitudes toward business
ethics.
Taken an Ethics Course
We asked students to self-report
whether they had taken or were taking a
course in business ethics. Slightly more
than 10.1% (113 respondents) had taken
TABLE 2. Students’ Views on the Statement “What is Right and Wrong
Depends on Individual Values and Cultural Diversity”
Student subgroup
Men
Women
Business majors
Nonbusiness majors
Smokers
Nonsmokers
Stockholders
Nonstockholders
Taken ethics
Not taken ethics
Freshmen
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
Combined sample
296
Strongly
agree
Agree
75
77
58
94
47
104
34
113
18
134
49
60
27
8
152
185
215
161
240
102
298
99
295
32
368
115
196
55
12
403
Journal of Education for Business
No. of students
No
opinion
Disagree
72
66
62
75
53
86
27
110
15
125
47
60
18
4
140
138
137
111
162
78
198
81
192
30
246
81
128
41
12
276
Strongly
disagree
57
43
40
61
24
76
26
73
13
88
35
42
16
2
101
a course in business ethics, whereas
89.9% (1,002 respondents) had not.
Because the course is optional at the
associate’s level, the results are not surprising. We predicted that this factor
would make large differences in attitudes toward ethics. We assumed that a
course in ethics would make students
more aware of these issues and help
them formulate appropriate attitudes of
business behavior.
The results did not support our predictions at all. On the question regarding
uniform standards of right and wrong,
the difference between those who had
taken business ethics and those who had
not was meaningless (x2 = 4, df = 4, p =
.40600585). Having taken a business
ethics course had even less impact on
responses to the question regarding cultural diversity’s effect on ethics (x2 =
3.542, df = 4, p = .47152096). According to these findings, there is no evidence that taking a business ethics
course changed views on ethical business behavior.
Stockholder
We asked students whether they
were stockholders in a publicly traded
company. To our surprise, many more
students were investors than we had
expected. With large numbers of nontraditional students, this should have
been expected. Just over one fourth
(25.3%) of the students stated that they
owned stock (283 respondents),
whereas 72.6% (811 respondents) did
not.
We obtained a mixed message from
our examination of stockholders as a
group. We found significant differences
between stockholders and nonstockholders in their views regarding the uniformity of ethical standards (x2 =
12.275, df = 4, p = .01541927).
However, stockholder status made
little difference on student views
regarding the cultural diversity question (x2 = 5.42, df = 4, p = .24685155).
Although we assumed that the selfinterest of the stockholders would
make both findings significant, we
were surprised to find that only half of
these respondents agreed with the
statement that cultural context determines ethical standards.
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Tobacco User
We asked students to identify themselves as either smokers or nonsmokers.
Neither term was defined in the survey.
Smokers constituted 28.1% (313) of the
sample, and nonsmokers 71.9% (799).
We initially predicted no significance
resulting from this question. We posed it
simply as a demographic question to
possibly mislead some respondents
regarding the ultimate goal of the survey. To our surprise, the use of tobacco
correlated with significant differences
in the answers to both questions from
the NAS/Zogby poll.
Differences were small but significant (x2 = 10.217, df = 4, p = .03692676)
in the responses to the question of
whether uniform ethical standards
should be used to judge everyone. We
obtained similar results when examining the question regarding individual
values and cultural diversity (x2 = 9.6, df
= 4, p = .04773253). Thus, we are fairly
confident that smoking makes a difference in ethical views. However, the difference is a matter of degree, and it is
not valid to claim that smokers are less
ethical than nonsmokers or vice versa.
Gender
The students were almost perfectly
split between the genders, with 49.3%
(525) male students and 50.7% (540)
female. Similarly to previous research,
we found much more significant results
related to gender. Gender seemed to
make a difference in the answers to both
questions. In both cases, women were
slightly more ethical than men.
For the question regarding uniform
standards of right and wrong, the results
were borderline significant in statistical
terms (x2 = 8.856, df = 4, p =
.06480132). For the question regarding
cultural diversity and ethics, the findings were statistically significant (x2 =
4.388, df = 4, p = .3560351).
These findings support the wealth of
research indicating that female students
tend to have higher ethical views than
their male counterparts. Again, it is
important to note that the differences
are slight and in the same direction for
both groups. The difference is a matter
of degree of support for ethics, and one
cannot conclude that women are ethical
and men are not.
Discussion and Conclusions
These findings would appear to contradict the findings of the NAS/Zogby
poll. On the issue of students’ belief in
uniform standards of right and wrong,
our results differ significantly from
those of NAS/Zogby. Although those
researchers found that only a quarter of
the students in their sample thought that
there were uniform standards, a majority in our sample (57.05%) supported
uniform ethical standards. Controlling
for various demographic factors did not
change the results.
When we considered demographics,
we obtained several important findings.
Business and nonbusiness majors had
marginally different views, but the differences, where they existed, were a
matter of degree.
Whether a student had taken a business ethics course does not appear to
have exerted as large an effect as
expected. We noted modest differences
in the views of students who had taken
business ethics. One could conclude
that ethical training past the primary
years does not have any impact. Another explanation could be that business
ethics courses are too theoretical
and/or complicated for many undergraduates to comprehend fully. Alternatively, because we used a very small
sample of business ethics students, a
few outliers in this group could have
possibly had a substantial effect.
Stockholders as a subgroup tended
to be more cynical than nonstockholders regarding unethical business practices. We found significant differences
in regard to one question. The selfinterest of stockholders is the most
obvious explanation for this difference.
We can surmise that an ethical view
may be palatable in theory, but when
money is involved, ethical views can
change significantly.
Gender was also a factor, in that
women were more concerned with ethical behavior than their male counterparts. This supports the overwhelming
majority of research on this topic.
Our unusual finding was that tobacco
use had an impact on attitudes toward
business ethics. Although the different
attitudes of stockholders can be attributed to pecuniary self-interest, we do
not know of any theory that explains
how or why smokers as a group would
have different attitudes toward business
ethics than nonsmokers. Certainly more
research is needed in this area.
Implications for Further
Research
Several lines of research are possible.
First, are our results a product of exposure to the media? This survey could be
replicated to investigate whether the
recent focus on business ethics in media
influenced the students’ opinions. During the initial study, general media coverage of this issue was very great. This
attention has declined, and only business and academic journals presently
are dealing with the issue. A change in
students’ perceptions over time could
show that the survey results reflected
concerns generated by the media.
Researchers also should explore the
effects, if any, of business ethics courses.
Does the business ethics course indoctrinate students to certain ethical views or
not? Because this survey was conducted
at a community college, where the business ethics course is optional, the students who had taken such a course constituted the smallest subgroup. Perhaps,
with a larger group of students, differences in beliefs could be found.
Because we had a disproportionate
group of freshmen and sophomores, we
could not distinguish any changes as the
students progressed through the educational system. Sampling in large 4-year
schools with more upper level participation could result in significant findings.
This was the first study that found
any ethical difference between smokers
and nonsmokers. Much more work is
necessary in this area for determination
of an explanation for this finding.
Because we surveyed only American
students, another line of research could
investigate whether students in other cultures or nations in capitalistic countries
hold similar views. In addition, because
we did not request age and socioeconomic data in the original survey, any subsequent surveys should include those
demographic items as well.
May/June 2004
297
The ethical problems of Enron,
WorldCom, and Tyco have highlighted
the issue of business ethics for the
world community. How we choose to
use this newfound interest is up to the
educators in business ethics. This is our
chance to emphasize the real-world
implications of what we discuss in
class. It would be a shame if we let this
opportunity for public interest in business ethics pass us by.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank Lea Ann Hall for her
many hours of input on the survey results and John
Barker for all of his assistance in the statistical
work. Any errors or omissions are solely those of
the authors. A previous version of this article was
presented to the Academy of Legal Studies in
Business National Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, August 14, 2003.
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