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