The Business and Society Course"
Wynd
Does It Change Student Attitudes?
ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research was to determine
if there is a significant difference in the attitudes of students
toward situations involving ethical decisions before and after
taking a course in Business and Society. A simulated before
and after design was used with Clark's personal business
ethics and social responsibility scale serving as the measure-
ment instrument. The result of the study indicated that the
Business and Society class had no statistically significant
impact on student attitudes.
Ethical standards of businesspersons have long been
a societal concern. Both consumers and politicians
have expressed outrage at scandalous episodes of
fraud, cheating, and monopoly pricing that surface
from time to time. Businesses are increasingly mak-
ing ethics a more important social priority (Byrne,
1988). The commitment to ethics on the part of
businesses and University schools of business is often
operationalized by the creation of ethics and values
decision making education. Ninety percent of the
business schools responding to a recent Ethics Re-
source Center (1988) survey of business schools
accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate
Schools of Business indicated ethics is included in
the curricula. Three quarters of these schools report
that ethics is a required part of the MBA and
William R. Wynd graduatedfrom Michigan State University with a
Ph.D. in 1969. He is a professor of Marketing Management at
Eastern Washington University and has over twenty years of
teaching experience. Dr. Wynd has previously published in
several other academicjournals and conferenceproceedings.
John Mager graduated with a Ph.D. in Marketing from the
University of Oregon in 1986. He is currently an assistant
professor of Marketing at Eastern Washington University. Dr.
Mager has published in the Journal of Consumer Research
as well as numerous national and international academic
conferences.
Journal of Business Ethics 8:487--491, 1989.
© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
WilliamR.
JohnMager
undergraduate program. Over half of the under-
graduate programs require a separate ethics course
or module, while only one third of the graduate
programs use this approach.
Teaching ethics in business schools is apparently
widely accepted among accredited schools of busi-
ness. But does the course really change student
attitudes toward what should or should not consti-
tute ethical behavior in the business world? If there
is no change in the way students perceive ethical
business decisions after taking the course then per-
haps resources should be used in other areas. This
paper reports the results of a study to determine if
there is a significant difference in the attitudes of
students toward situations involving ethical decisions
before and after taking a course in Business and
Society.
Previous work
Much of the previous work has measured the differ-
ence in ethical attitudes between students and busi-
nesspersons. The result for some of the student/
businesspersons comparison studies are summarized
in Table I.
Goodman and Crawford (1974) surveyed 1500
students at 12 colleges and universities comparing
their responses to a set of questional~le marketing
research practices with those of marketing executives
who had responded to an earlier study published in
the Harvard Business Review. Overall the business
students were not any more critical of unethical
research practices than the executives. Goodman and
Crawford concluded "Across the range of ethics
studied here, the young people now coming into the
employment of business have standards not signifi-
candy different from those of marketing executives
already there."
488 WilliamR. WyndandJohn Mager
TABLE I
Summary of research results comparing the ethical standards
of students & businesspersons
Study Ethical standards
Goodman &
Crawford Studentsas ethical as businesspersons
Percell Students less ethical than businesspersons
Hollen & Ulrich Students less ethical than businesspersons
Arlow & Ulrich Studentsboth less and more ethical than
businesspersons
Stevens Students as ethical as businesspersons
In a later study Percell (1977) found a difference
between the attitudes of students and businesspersons.
While teaching a graduate seminar in Management
Ethics at Dartmouth College in 1961 he asked his
students for their opinion on a series of' ethical
problems. Ten years later he asked those same
students for their opinions on the same set of
problems. Percell concluded that %.. these young
businesspersons seem to have developed a greater
ethical consciousness and sophistication after their
decade of business experience." Mthough admitting
his sample was small, he did not indicate its exact
size.
Hollen and Ulrich (1979) surveyed senior business
students and first level managers to determine their
respective personal business ethics and Machiavellian
orientation. They concluded that "collegiates engaged
in the study of business management have lower
personal ethics than managers." Their sample size
was also small, consisting of 25 first level managers
and 35 senior students.
Stevens (1984) used Clark's (1966) situations to
compare the responses of 349 senior business students
enrolled in a required social responsibility course
with those of business executives. He administered a
questionnaire using Clark's personal ethics and social
responsibility scales to a group of business executives
listed in a manufacturers directory and to a group of
students enrolled in a required course entitled "So-
cial Responsibility of Management." Stevens found
that there was no significant difference between the
personal ethics of business executives and students.
Arlow and Ulrich (1980) found that relative to the
scores for business executives from Clark's (1966)
original sample, the executives had significantly
higher personal ethics and lower social responsibility
scores than a group of undergraduate business stu-
dents.
Overall these results suggest that students are no
more ethical and sometimes less ethical than business
executives. Only Arlow and Ulrich found students to
be more ethical than business executives, but this
was only for the social responsibility scale and not
the personal ethics scale.
Arlow and Ulrich also sought to determine the
impact of a business and society course on student
attitudes by surveying a group of 120 undergraduate
marketing, management, and accounting students
before and after taking the Business and Society
course. They found a statistically significant differ-
ence on the pre- and post-measures for the social
responsibility scale. The difference was contributed
by the marketing and management students, with no
change between pre- and post-measures occurring
for the accounting students. There was no significant
change overall between pre- and post-measures on
the personal ethics scale; however, there was again
a difference for the marketing and management
students. Therefore, this particular study does indi-
cate that the Business and Society course had an
impact on student attitudes, at least for management
and marketing students.
Budner (1987) on the other hand, found that the
taking of an ethics class did not influence student
ethical orientation scores. Based on these two studies,
it is not clear whether a business ethics class has any
impact on student attitudes.
Methodology
In 1966 John Clark published a study which pur-
ported to measure executives' commitment to per-
sonal business ethics and the willingness to accept
ethical responsibility for the social effects of business
decisions. Clark developed 18 situations, 11 of which
he organized into a personal ethics scale which
sought to evaluate the respondents' acceptance of a
commitment to personal integrity and honesty, and
to the observation of laws governing business activ-
ity. The remaining seven situations sought to evalu-
ate executives' commitment to social responsibility.
They appraised the degree to which an individual
 The Business and Society Course 489

considers himself or herself ethically responsible for TABLE II

the social effects of business decisions. Respondents
were asked to read the situations and respond on a
five point scale indicating their degree of approval or
disapproval. Clark tested his cases for internal con-
sistency and reliability using executives participating
in a training program at U.C.L.A.
The same situations originally developed and
tested by Clark and later used by Stevens and Arlow
& Ulrich were used in the present study to test the
hypothesis that there is no significant difference
between students' attitudes toward ethical/social
responsibility issues after having taken a course in
Business and Society.
Like the earlier Arlow and Ulrich study, a before
and after design without control group was used.
This was, however, a simulated before and after
design in that unlike the earlier work the present
study tested different groups of students before they
took the course and another different group after
taking the course in order to eliminate pre-measure-
ment bias potentially present in the A r l o w and
Ulrich study.
Over a two and one half year period question-
naires were distributed to 345 students in eight
separate classes on the first day of class. The same
instrument was distributed to 205 different students
in seven separate classes on the last day of class.
Students were asked to indicate their degree of
approval or disapproval of the situations depicted in
the cases on a four point scale rated as follows: 1 =
Approve; 2 = Somewhat Approve; 3 = Somewhat
Disapprove; 4 = Disapprove. A "score" was recorded
for each respondent along with an overall mean
score for both the before and after groups. A "t" test
was used to determine if there was a significant
difference in the mean scores between the before
and after groups for both total scale scores as well as
each individual situation.
Results
Table II shows the mean and standard deviation
scores for each of the scale composites before and
after students took a course in Business and Society.
A "t" value of 0.1247 indicated no significant differ-
ence between the means of the two groups on the
personal business ethics scale. The "t" value of 0.9472
Before and after questionnaire scores
Personal business Social
ethics responsibility
Before taking course
Sample size 345 345
Mean 14.8312 18.0659
Standard deviation 2.8737 3.1469
After taking course
Sample size 205 205
Mean 14.8796 18.3421
Standard deviation 3.2897 3.3984
for the difference on the social responsibility scale
also was not significant.
Table III shows the comparison of mean scores
and standard deviations for each situation by stu-
dents responding to the instrument at the beginning
and end of the course. The difference between
means was significant at the 0.05 level or less for
only three of the 17 situations. The null hypothesis is
therefore accepted for all but these three situations.
There is no difference between students' attitudes
toward ethical/social responsibility issues before and
after taking a course in Business and Society.
Discussion
Consistent with Budner's research and Arlow and
Ulrich's findings for the accounting students, we
found no significant impact on students' attitudes
toward ethical decision situations as a result of the
Business and Society class. If the assumption is that
students will be inclined to make more ethical deci-
sions as a result of the business ethics education they
receive, then this assumption is not affirmed by this
research.
The criteria which students use to judge situations
are developed over time. Family relationships, reli-
gious affiliations, education, and cultural interaction
all have a part in the process. Basic values are
normally set early in life and will not change unless a
"significant emotional event" occurs. A single course
in Business and Society is apparently not enough of
490 WilliamR. WyndandJohn Mager

TABLE III
Comparison of mean scores and standard deviations at the beginning and end of the course

Beginning End
of course of course
m

Situation X SD X SD Signi£

Executives conspire to fix prices for electrical equipment 3.2435 0.8310 3.4069 0.8101 0.05
Salesman pressured to accept company policy he considers 2.6647 0.9342 2.7129 0.9340
unethical
Executive uses insider information for financial gain 2.7668 1.1665 2.8719 1.1490
Use car salesman employs pressure and deceit to sell cars 3.6841 0.6347 3.6355 0.7002
Executive condones use of inferior building materials 3.3703 0.8200 3.3300 0.7736
Salesman pads his expense account 3.4227 0.7641 3.4286 0.7698
Executive recommends employee with connections to large 3.4928 0.7198 3.4778 0.7728
client for promotion over a more qualified employee
Newspaper editor won't publicize deliberate sale of defective 3.1246 0.8416 3.1542 0.8781
appliances by large advertisers
Auditor overlooks bribe 2.8455 1.0243 2.8010 1.0001
Executive hires competitor's employee to find out their secrets 2.8235 1.0523 2.8564 1.1037
Securities salesman recommends questionable bonds per 3.1433 0.8832 3.3399 0.8070 0.05, 0.01
directive of his company
Chairman of U,S. Steel says company won't use pressure to force 2.6138 1.0269 2.6447 1.0622
integration in Birmingham
In the face of competition, company president discharges older 3.0593 0.9109 3.1400 0.9299
workers with seniority
"Sweatshop" owner justifies substandard wages by saying his 2.9717 0.9604 2.9397 0.9931
employees would otherwise be unemployed
Company trades illegally with the Red Chinese through a 1.8563 0.8935 1,8492 1.0137
Canadian subsidiary
Companyjustifies gifts to colleges on the basis of community 2.1498 1.0025 1.9543 1.0116 0.05
responsibility
Executive refuses to take foreign accounting interns because they 2.1925 1.0383 2.3520 1.0296
lack experience - offers to speak to University instead

Rating Scale - approve somewhat approve somewhat disapprove disapprove

Weight - (1) (2) (3) (4)

an emotional event to change students' attitudes
toward the situations presented in the questioning
instrument. It is not known whether exposure to a
class such as Business and Society will have any
impact on decision making as more experience is
gained in the business world. Percell's (1977) re-
search provides some support for the hypothesis that
students may become more ethical with years o f
experience in business. Does a business ethics class
have any future impact? Follow up research on the
 The Business and Society Course
same set of students is required to gain any insight
into this question.
Future research should also address the question
of whether or not attitudes toward business ethics
differ by sex. We did not address this question in our
research and only one of the studies we reviewed
contrasted attitudes by sex. Since women are enter-
ing the labor force in increasing numbers and
assuming greater positions of responsibility, their
impacts on ethical decision making is likely to in-
crease.
Perhaps, the goal of a course in Business and
Society should not be to change the way students
perceive how they should act in certain situations
involving ethical and social responsibility dimen-
sions at the current point in time. Rather a more
appropriate goal may be to make students aware of
the ethical and social dimensions of business decision
making, such that these dimensions may become
components in the decision making process.
References
Arlow, Peter and Thomas A. Ulrich: 1980 (Fall), 'Business
491
Ethics, Social Responsibility and Business Students: An
Empirical Comparison of Clark's Study', Akron Business &
EconomicReview, pp. 17--22.
Budner, Howard R.: 1987 (Summer),'Ethical Orientation of
Markefng Students', The Delta Pi EpsilonJournal, pp. 91-
98.
Clark, John W.: 1966, Religion & Moral Standards of American
Businessmen, Cincinnaf: SouthwesternPress.
Goodman, Charles S. and C. Merle Crawford: 1974 (March),
'Young Executives: A Source of New Ethics?', Personnel
Journal, pp. 180-181.
Hollen, Charles j. and Thomas A. Ulrich: 1977, 'Personal
Business Ethics: Managers vs Managers-to-be', Southern
BusinessReview, pp. 17--22.
Percell, Theodore V.: 1977 (Summer),'Do Courses in Busi-
ness Ethics Pay Off?', California Manuscript Review, pp.
50--58.
Stevens, George E.: 1984 (Fall), 'Business Ethics and Social
Responsibility: The Responses of Present and Future
Managers', Akron Business & EconomicReview, pp. 6-- 11.
WILLIAM R. WYND and JOHN MAGER
Department of Management,
Eastern Washington University,
Cheney, WA 99004,
U.S.A.