Abstract
This paper reports the results of a questionnaire administered to 1178 undergraduate students and discusses how they responded to ten situations which asked them to assess their personal evaluation of the ethical acceptability, how society would similarly assess the situation and how business persons would respond. Multiple versions of the instrument were developed to investigate if the sex of the person involved in the situation would influence the respondents' perception of the ethical action involved. No differences were identified. Further, the image of business persons as less ethical than society in general seems to have evaporated.
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References
Brenner, Steven N. and Molander, Earl A.: ‘Is the Ethics of Business Changing’,Harvard Business Review 55 (1977), 57–71.
Stace, Walter T.: ‘Ethical Relativity and Ethical Absolution in Ethical Issues in Business’, T. Donaldson and P. H. Werhand (eds.), Prentice-Hall, 1979, p. 82.
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Charles W. McNichols is Professor of Management at Clemson University where he teaches courses emphasizing management applications of computer technology. He was previously Professor of Operations Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He has published three books dealing with business and professional applications of microcomputers, and articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology,the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,and other management publications.
Thomas W. Zimmer is Professor of Management at Clemson University. He has authored books on business, business policy supervision and small business management, as well as over 50 articles which have appeared in Nation's Business, Management Review, Human Resources Management,and many others. Dr. Zimmerer has been honored in his academic career by membership both in Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi, as well as twice being voted by the students as the outstanding teacher in his college. In 1975 he was elected to ‘Outstanding Educators in American.’ Dr. Zimmerer was formerly with Florida Atlantic University and the McDonald-Douglas Corporation.
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McNichols, C.W., Zimmerer, T.W. Situational ethics: An empirical study of differentiators of student attitudes. J Bus Ethics 4, 175–180 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705616
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705616