Abstract
As college students prepare for the businessworld, what they learn as acceptable behavioron campus may well inform their expectations ofacceptable behavior in their professionallives. Numerous studies have reported thatmost college students admit to cheating onmultiple occasions (e.g., McCabe and Trevino,1993; Sims, 1993; McCabe, Trevino andButterfield, 1996, 1999). Furthermore,studies have linked academic integrity withethical business practices (McCabe, Trevinoand Butterfield, 1996; Sims, 1993). Oneapproach to reducing academic dishonesty hasbeen the student honor code. Such codes havebeen on the rise for the last decade (Pavelaand McCabe, 1993). Honor codes have been usedas a teaching tool to underscore the importanceof professional ethics among business students(Kidwell, 2001).
In the effort to establish a culture ofacademic integrity, a university must firstunderstand the current state. This paperdiscusses a two-year study at a small liberalarts university without an honor code at thepresent time. Students were surveyed abouttheir cheating behaviors as well as theirreceptiveness to an honor code. Over seventypercent of the students surveyed reported thatthey were habitual cheaters, i.e., they hadcheated on exams, plagiarized papers, orcommitted other forms of academic dishonesty onmultiple occasions. A survey similar to thatadministered to students was subsequentlyadministered to faculty in order to determinetheir understanding of student cheating norms. This paper compares the student and facultyperceptions, and the prospects for an honorcode at the university are also explored.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Billups, A.: 2000, 'Study Links College Honor Code to Decline in Cheating', The Washington Times, March 8.
Heuchert, D.: 2001, 'Honor System's Credibility May Be Put on Trial This Fall', Inside UVA Online, September 14.
Kidwell, L.: 2001, 'Student Honor Codes as a Tool for Teaching Professional Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 29, 45–49.
McCabe, D.: 1995, 'Honor Codes and Student Cheating', Perspectives on the Professions, 9–10.
McCabe, D. and L. Trevino: 1993, 'Academic Dishonesty: Honor Codes and Other Contextual Factors', Journal of Higher Education (September/October), 522–538.
McCabe, D. and L. Trevino: 1995, 'Cheating among Business Students: A Challenge for Business Leaders and Educators', Journal of Management Education (May), 205–218.
McCabe, D. and L. Trevino: 1996, 'What We Know About Cheating in College', Change (January/February), 29–33.
McCabe, D., L. Trevino and K. Butterfield: 1996, 'The Influence of Collegiate and Corporate Codes of Conduct on Ethics-Related Behavior in the Workplace', Business Ethics Quarterly 6, 461–476.
McCabe, D., L. Trevino and K. Butterfield: 1999, 'Academic Integrity in Honor Code and Non-Honor Code Environments', The Journal of Higher Education (March/April), 211–234.
Pavela, G. and D. McCabe: 1993, 'The Surprising Return of Honor Codes', Planning for Higher Education (Summer), 27–32.
Sims, R.: 1993, 'The Relationship between Academic Dishonesty and Unethical Business Practices', Journal of Education for Business (March/April) 68, 207–211.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kidwell, L.A., Wozniak, K. & Laurel, J.P. Student Reports and Faculty Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty. Teaching Business Ethics 7, 205–214 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025008818338
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025008818338