This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]

On: 08 January 2015, At: 15:11

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer
House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Education for Business

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20

Assessing the Effectiveness of Instruction in Business

Ethics: A Longitudinal Analysis
a a
Paul R. Murphy & John R. Boatright
a
John Carroll University , University Heights, Ohio, USA
Published online: 30 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Paul R. Murphy & John R. Boatright (1994) Assessing the Effectiveness of Instruction in Business
Ethics: A Longitudinal Analysis, Journal of Education for Business, 69:6, 326-332, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.1994.10117708

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.1994.10117708

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained
in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of
the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,
and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied
upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall
not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other
liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or
arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
 Assessing the Effectiveness of
Instruction in Business Ethics:
A Longitudinal Analysis
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015
A lthough business ethics courses
are now an accepted part of the
business school curriculum, little ef-
fort has been made to measure the
impact of these courses on students.
The few studies that have been done
show inconclusive results, because of
various limitations of these studies
and differences among them.
This lack of empirical work is un-
fortunate for at least two reasons.
First, some critics, such as Thurow
(1987) and Bunke (1988), contend
that ethics cannot be taught to college
students or that, even if the subject
can be taught, doing so is not always
the best use of an institution’s re-
sources. Although the arguments of
these opponents contain a number of
misconceptions, the case for teaching
business ethics would be strengthened
by quantitative assessments proving
the effectiveness of business ethics
courses. Second, and more impor-
tantly, assessments of this kind would
help to answer crucial questions
about what to include in a business
ethics course, where such a course
ought to be placed in the curriculum,
how it ought to be taught, and so on.
Any study of the impact of busi-
ness ethics instruction is limited by a
number of factors, including the
method of instruction, specific fea-
326 Journal of Education for Business
PAUL R. MURPHY
JOHN R. BOATRIGHT
John Carroll University
University Heights, Ohio
ABSTRACT. This article presents
results from a continuing, multi-
term project designed to assess the
effectiveness of instruction in busi-
ness ethics. Both univariate and
multivariate analyses indicate that
student abilities to identify the
presence of ethical issues have been
enhanced by instruction in business
ethics. This study improves on pre-
vious research by (a) identifying
more clearly the goals of ethics in-
struction, (b) focusing on a busi-
ness ethics course as opposed to a
course in business and society, and
(c) replicating the study across a
number of terms.
tures of the course or courses used in
the study, and characteristics of the
student populations surveyed. In ad-
dition, researchers cannot determine
the effectiveness of a course until they
have determined an aim for that
course. Because a variety of aims
could be cited, some initial decision
must be made about the outcomes to
be measured.
One mistake of critics such as
Thurow (1987) and Bunks (1988) has
been to assume that a course in busi-
ness ethics should aim at changing
students’ behavior. This may be an
unrealistic goal, given that college
students are likely to have adopted
personal codes of conduct long be-
fore enrolling in college. Derek C.
Bok, former president of Harvard
University, has suggested (1976) that
ethics courses can achieve three main
results: (a) “to help students become
more alert in discovering the moral
issues that arise in their own lives,”
(b) “to teach students to reason care-
fully about ethical issues,” and (c)
“to help students clarify their moral
aspirations.” We believe that a
fourth goal is important, namely, to
enable students to manage ethical
problems in an organizational setting.
Researchers such as Rest (1988) have
concluded that all these ambitions
can be realized by ethics instruction in
a professional school setting.
Studies Measuring Courses’
Effectiveness
Existing studies (see Table 1) have
selected different aims or goals to
measure the impact of the effective-
ness of instruction in business ethics.
Some have examined the ability of
students to identify ethical issues,
others, the ability of students to en-
gage in ethical reasoning. Not surpris-
ingly, there has been a diversity of
opinion on the effectiveness of in-
struction in business ethics. Several of
the studies listed in Table 1 dis-
 ~

TABLE 1. Pre- and Posttest Evaluations of the Effectiveness of Teaching Business Ethics

Author Sample college Sample course How taught Study instrument Results

Feldman & Thompson, State school Business & Appears to Aupperle’s corporate Limited attitudinal
1990 Society be lecture social responsibility change
index
Wynd & Mager, Not named Business & Not given Clark’s situations No significant impact
1989 Society on student attitudes
towards ethical
decisions
Stead & Miller, Large state Business & Not given List of social issues Greater importance
1988 school Society placed on the
majority of issues
Arlow & Ulrich, Replicate 1980 - - Clark’s situations No long-term effect
1985 study 4 years of teaching business
after graduation ethics
Boyd, 1981-1982 Large state Business & Not given Defining issues Improvement in
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015

school Society test students’ moral

reasoning
Martin, 1981-1982 Private, Catholic Theory of Ethics; Not given Ethical scenarios No improvement in
school Contemporary students’ ability to
Ethical Problems correctly assess the
ethical scenarios
Arlow & Ulrich, Regional state Business & Lecture & Clark’s situations Improvement on busi-
1980 school Society group ness ethics in most
discussions students (except
accounting majors)

covered “improvement,” another
found “limited improvement,” and
several found “no improvement.”
On average, the teaching of business
ethics appears to create a limited or
slight impact on students’ own per-
ception of ethics.
Although direct comparisons of
these studies are difficult because of
differing methodologies, Weber
(1990) has offered a recent assessment
of four of them: Martin (1981/82),
Boyd (1981/82), Arlow and Ulrich
(1985), and Stead and Miller (1988).
Weber argued that the comparisons
would be more meaningful if similar
survey instruments were used in the
studies. Three of the four studies cri-
tiqued by Weber (see Table 1) em-
ployed different instruments to meas-
ure the effectiveness of teaching busi-
ness ethics. Although similar instru-
ments would help cross-study com-
parisons, the use of the same insrru-
ment across studies should be ap-
proached cautiously, as instruments
can become dated; for example, the
1989 study by Wynd and Mager used
Clark’s situations (Clark, 1966),
which were first developed in the
mid- 1960s.
Weber’s (1990) assessment of pre-
vious empirical studies also contend-
ed that scenarios are superior to other
instruments, such as issues tests, for
measuring the effectiveness of teach-
ing business ethics. Whether this is
true depends, of course, on the out-
come being measured. We agree that
scenarios are especially helpful if the
study is designed to assess the ability
of students to identify ethical situa-
tions, but not necessarily if they are
intended to measure the ability to
reason ethically.
Our analysis of the seven studies
appearing in Table 1 reveals addi-
tional limitations to measuring the ef-
fectiveness of teaching business
ethics. First of all, the majority of
studies involved students enrolled in
business and society courses. As
pointed out by Carroll (1991), the
social responsibility of business en-
compasses four dimensions: philan-
thropic (previously termed “discre-
tionary”), economic, legal, and
ethical. Consequently, a typical
business and society course covers
each of the four dimensions of social
responsibility, which leaves a limited
amount of time for ethics. As a mat-
ter of fact, Arlow and Ulrich (1985,
p. 14) admitted that “business ethics,
specifically, was discussed as a topic
area in about one week [our em-
phasis] during the term . . . .” If
limited time is devoted to ethics in a
business and society course, then this
is one possible explanation for why
many of the existing studies have
demonstrated limited or no effec-
tiveness to the teaching of ethics.
A related critique is that many of
the survey instruments have a definite
social responsibility orientation. For
instance, Aupperle’s corporate social
responsibility index-used in the
Feldman and Thompson (1990)
study-is based on Carroll’s four di-
mensions of social responsibility. In a
similar vein, Clark’s situations, used
in several studies, include both ethical
and social responsibility scenarios. As

July/August 1994 327

 a result, even though survey par-
ticipants have evaluated a relatively
small number of ethical situations
(Clark’s situations involve only 11
ethical scenarios, for example), the
studies claim important conclusions
regarding the effectiveness of ethics
education.
A common methodology for meas-
uring the effectiveness of ethical in-
struction has involved pretests and
posttests of student samples. In this
methodology, students are surveyed at
the beginning of a term and then those
same students are administered the
same instrument at the end of the term.
From a methodological perspective, the
course serves as the experimental treat-
ment, and any changes in students’ at-
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015
titudes or abilities are attributed to the
course.
However, many of these pretest/
posttest designs have collected data
from a single term. The “one shot”
nature of these existing studies raises
the possibility that individual study
results have been influenced by exo-
genous factors, such as a highly pub-
licized news story bearing on an issue
included in the survey instrument. To
guard against this possibility, Weber
(1990) suggested that studies should be
replicated across a number of different
terms. To date, only Martin (1981/82;
data collected during two consecutive
terms) and Wynd and Mager (1989;
data collected over 2% years) have
employed such a framework. How-
ever, a longer time period increases the
possibility that the research instrument
will become dated.
Interestingly, the Wynd and Mager
(1989, p. 489) study, which found “no
significant impact on students’ at-
titudes toward ethical decisions,” used
one group of students for the pretest
and a different group for the posttest.
Their rationale for this methodology
was to reduce the possibility that pre-
test responses might influence re-
sponses to the posttest. However, in
this article we argue that the several-
month time lapse between the begin-
ning and end of collegiate terms (either
semesters or quarters) reduces the like-
lihood that participants could remem-
ber their previous answers when com-
pleting the posttest.
320 Journal of Education for Business
Furthermore, most of the previous tribution to the existing literature be-
studies have not reported the method cause the project attempts to over-
of instruction in the particular course. come some of the shortcomings of
Although Feldman and Thompson previous empirical studies. Specifical-
(1990) claimed that no one method of ly, the current study
ethical instruction has been proven
uses data collected over several
superior, a recent study (Burton,
terms,
Johnston, & Wilson, 1991), involving
involves students enrolled in a
the teaching of ethics in a marketing
business ethics course,
principles course, found instruction
uses only ethics-related scenarios,
via discussions of business scenarios to
involves students instructed pri-
be superior to philosophically oriented
marily by the case study method, and
lectures. Weber (1990) has suggested
uses both univariate and multi-
that the case method can be an espe-
variate techniques to assess the effec-
cially effective instructional technique
tiveness of teaching business ethics.
if the aim of a business ethics course is
to enhance student abilities to identify
ethical situations and to develop skills Method
in ethical reasoning.
Finally, the previous studies have Subjects
relied almost exclusively on univariate
The data we used came from
statistics, primarily t tests, in analyzing
students enrolled in a business ethics
results from the pretests and posttests.
course during three recent terms (the
Although such univariate t tests are in-
spring, summer, and fall semesters of
deed a valuable analytical tool, Ran-
1991) at a small Catholic university.
dall and Gibson (1990) argued that
The course, entitled “Ethical Prob-
future research in business ethics
lems of Business,” is taught in the
teaching should attempt to use multi-
philosophy department by a single
variate procedures. In fact, the pre-
member of the philosophy faculty. Al-
test/posttest design for evaluating the
though the course is open to all stu-
effectiveness of business ethics studies
dents, business majors are required to
seems ideally suited to the application
take the course and so comprise the
of two-group discriminant analysis. If
majority of students enrolled in the
the pretest/posttest data yield a
course. Ninety-one and five-tenth per-
significant discriminant function, this
cent of this study’s participants are
will further support the hypothesis
business majors, with accounting and
that the influence of business ethics in-
marketing majors being most preva-
struction can indeed be measured.
lent. The students are predominantly
In light of the preceding discussion,
juniors (27%) or seniors (72%) in col-
the purpose of the present article is to
lege, and 86% are between the ages of
offer preliminary results from an
20 and 22 years.
ongoing, multiterm project designed
Each participant was requested to
to assess the effectiveness of teaching
complete a survey consisting of 25
business ethics. The study is designed
ethical scenarios developed by the
to measure the impact of a course in
regular professor of the business ethics
business ethics on the ability of stu-
course. Students were asked to read
dents to identify the presence of
each scenario and to indicate for each
ethical issues. Although this is only
scenario whether it raises an ethical
one eoal of business ethics instruc-
issue and, if so, how important the
tion--and, perhaps, not the most im-
student considers the ethical issue to
portant-it was chosen because it
be. Students evaluated each of the
lends itself to reasonably precise quan-
scenarios according to the following
titative research. Studies of improve-
alternatives:
ment in ethical reasoning skills, by
contrast, are notoriously difficult to N = raises no significant ethical
conduct (Rest, 1982) and raise im- issue,
mense theoretical problems. S = raises an ethical issue of slight
This article offers an important con- importance,
 participated in the posttest. Thus, the
TABLE 2. t Tests of Ethical Scenarios total number of pretests is 226, com-
pared with 235 posttests.
Mean score
Pretest Posttest t value Results
Scenario (n = 226) (n = 235)
Univariate Analysis
Favored buyers 2.28 2.99 - 9.22*
Expense account 2.78 2.77 .15 T tests of mean equality were used
Fetal protection policies 2.92 3.38 - 4.74* to determine significant differences
Cancer chemicals 3.79 3.82 - .81 between the pretest and posttest scores
Home improvement 2.27 2.65 - 4.24*
Mexico 2.47 2.64 - 2.05** on each of the 25 ethical scenarios. A t
Insurance agent 2.31 3.01 - 7.72* test was also performed on the “grand
Supplier money trouble 2.34 2.85 - 6.13** mean” (i.e., average score on all 25
Secret recordings 3.42 3.40 .25 scenarios) for the pretest and posttest.
Frequent flier 1.65 2.06 -5.18* These results are presented in Table 2.
Oil wells 2.82 2.97 - 1.59
Tobacco ads 3.09 3.36 - 3.47* As shown in Table 2, 18 of the 25
Plant closings 3.32 3.47 - 2.22** (72%) scenarios exhibited statistically
International bribes 2.99 3.49 - 6.43* significant (at the .05 level or better) t
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015

Hiring questions
Peanut butter
Competitive information
Insider trading
Tax manipulation
Lowballing
Age discrimination
Toxic wastes
Bottle laws
Poison gas
Religious pressure
Grand mean
Note. Scale ranged through 1 (no significant ethical issue), 2 (ethical issue of slight importance),
3 (ethical issue of moderate importance), and 4 (ethical h e of great importance).
*Significant at .01 level. **Significant at .05 level.
M = raises an ethical issue of mod-
erate importance, or
G = raises an ethical issue of great
importance.
The scenarios covered a wide range of
topics, including insider trading, ad-
vertising marketed at children, bribery
in international business, and fetal
protection policies. The 25 scenarios
are presented in Appendix A.
Procedure
Initial administration of the survey
occurred during the first day of class,
prior to any discussion of the subject
matter. Unlike Arlow and Ulrich’s
(1980) study in which the students
were told that their responses were
part of a larger research project, stu-
dents in the current study were simply
asked to complete the questionnaire.
1.81 2.15 - 3.79* tests. The t test involving the grand
1.57 2.40 - 10.54* mean is also statistically significant,
2.58 3.06 - 6.58*
2.77 3.17 - 4.55* with the average score increasing by
2.30 2.83 - 5.90* approximately .35 between the pretest
2.92 3.01 - 1.30 and posttest. Further analysis of the
2.89 2.94 - .60 data in Table 2 reveals that 23 of the
3.56 3.58 - .28 25 scenarios yielded higher scores in
2.07 2.46 - 4.42*
3.34 3.51 - 2.23** the posttest, with higher scores in-
2.30 2.72 -4.71* dicating a greater degree of ethical im-
2.65 2.99 - 8.93* portance. These results suggest that
formal instruction in business ethics
can enhance students’ abilities to iden-
tify the presence of ethical issues.
Calculation of the Spearman coeffi-
cient of ranks (Table 3) indicates that
the ethics course appears to influence
The posttest was administered dur- the absolute, but not the relative, evalu-
ing the final examination, and again ations of the ethical scenarios. The
minimal information was provided to Spearman coefficient of .900 is signif-
the students. It is generally assumed icant beyond .001, meaning that there
that this limited information reduces are minimal differences between the
the likelihood of the Hawthorne ef- within-group rankings of the scenarios.
fect-that is, students’ responses being For example, cancer chemicals were
influenced by knowing they are part of ranked as the most important scenario
a research project. In both the pretest in both the pretest and posttest.
and posttest, responses were kept Although the mean score for “peanut
anonymous, and no attempt was made butter” increased by nearly .85 (pretest
to identify individual respondents.’ = 1.57, posttest = 2.40), the rankings
Each section of the course used essen- of this scenario changed only slightly
tially the same syllabus and was taught (pretest = 25th, posttest = 23rd).
primarily by the case-study method.
One hundred and one students com- Multivariate A nalysis
pleted the first term’s pretest, and 107
students completed the semester’s As pointed out earlier, we used
posttest. Twenty-four students com- discriminant analysis as the multivari-
pleted the second term’s pretest, com- ate technique for detecting differences
pared with 25 completing the posttest. between the pretest and posttest re-
In addition, 101 students filled out the sults. According to Green and Tull
third term’s pretest, and 103 students (1978), discriminant analysis attempts

July/August 1994 329

 ysis (e.g., Morrison, 1974) suggests
TABLE 3. Within-Group Rankings of Ethical Scenarios that the discriminant function should
be calibrated on a sample group of
Pretest Posttest Difference observations, with these results then
Scenario (n = 226) (n = 235) (pretest-posttest) applied to the remaining observations.
Bearing this in mind, we used the
Favored buyers 2oa 13 7 third-term results to calibrate the dis-
Expense account 12 18 -6 criminant model. Once this model was
Fetal protection policy 8.5 7 1.5 developed, we then applied it to the re-
Cancer chemicals 1 1 0
Home improvement 21 20 1 maining responses to discern the func-
Mexico 15 21 -6 tion’s classification accuracy (see
Insurance agent 17 11.5 5.5 Table 4). Eleven scenarios emerged as
Supplier money trouble 16 16 0 effective discriminators between the
Secret recordings 3 6 -3 pretest and posttest results. Four of
Frequent flier 24 25 -1
Oil wells 11 14 -3 the scenarios (“expense account,”
Tobacco ads 6 8 -2 “Mexico,” “secret recordings,” and
Plant closings 5 5 0 “age discrimination”) helped predict
International bribes 7 4 3 the pretest observations, whereas
Hiring questions 23 24 -1 seven (“favored buyers,” “peanut
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015

Peanut butter 25 23 2
Competitive information 14 10 4 butter,” “insurance agent,” “insider
Insider trading 13 9 4 trading,” “tobacco ads,” “supplier
Tax manipulations 18.5 17 1.5 money trouble,” and “cancer chemi-
Lowballing 8.5 11.5 -3 cals”) predicted the posttest group.
Age discrimination 10 15 -5 Momson (194) has advocated the
Toxic wastes 2 2 0
Bottle laws 22 22 0 use of different techniques to discern the
Poison gas 4 3 1 performance of the discriminant func-
Religious pressure 18.5 19 - .5 tion. One technique deals with the classi-
~
fication accuracy within particular cate-
aA ranking of 1 indicates the highest mean score, and a ranking of 25 indicates the lowest mean gories (pure chance criterion), whereas
score. Spearman coefficient of rank correlation = .900; significant beyond .001. another focuses on the classification ac-
curacy of the model as a whole (propor-
tional chance criterion). As shown in
TABLE 4. Classification Results for Discriminant Function Table 5, the calibrated function classifies
better than pure chance for the pretest
Predicted group membership (‘-70) (pure chance = 50.0%, actual classifica-
No. of
Actual group cases Pretest Posttest tion = 82.0%) as well as the posttest
(pure chance = 50.0%, actual classifica-
I I tion = 66.4%). The proportional
Pretest 122 82.0 18.0
Posttest 122 33.6 chance figure of 50.0% [(.500)* +
I Overall classification accuracy: 74.2%
I
(.500)2] is exceeded by the overall
classification accuracy of 74.2%.
Both the pure-chance and propor-
tional-chance measures establish the
TABLE 5. Effectiveness of Discriminant Classification strength of the discriminant function
for distinguishing between the pretest
Pure Proportional Correctly and posttest responses. The previously
Group Actual no. chance (070) chance (070) classified (070) discussed univariate analysis suggests
that this influence is primarily in the
Pretest 122 50.0 82.0 “positive” direction, that is, toward
Posttest 122 50.0 66.4 an increased sensitivity to ethical situa-
Total 244 50.0 74.2 tions.

to classify observations into cate-
gories-in this case, pretest or post-
test-based on the predictor variables
(i.e., the ethical scenarios). If there
were no differences between the pre-
test and posttest results, then the dis-
criminant analysis would exhibit few
scenarios capable of differentiating
between the two groups.
The literature on discriminant anal-
Discussion
Both the multivariate and univariate
results suggest that a course in busi-
ness ethics can have a positive effect
on students’ abilities to identify the

330 Journal of Education for Business

 presence of ethical issues. From a mul-
tivariate perspective, the discriminant
analysis yields a strong function (near-
ly 75% classification accuracy) capa-
ble of distinguishing between the pre-
test and posttest results. The univari-
ate results reveal that the posttest
mean scores were higher than those on
the pretest for 23 of the 25 (92%) eth-
ical scenarios. This is an impressive
figure, particularly when compared to
Wynd and Mager’s (1989) study, in
which the posttest mean scores ex-
ceeded those of the pretest on only
59% of their evaluated situations.
The univariate results also demon-
strate statistically significant relation-
ships, at the .05 level, on the differ-
ence in mean scores for 18 of the 25
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015
scenarios. Moreover, several of the
ethical scenarios (e.g., “favored buy-
ers,” “insurance agent,’’ “peanut
butter”) appearing in Table 2 show
mean score differences of greater than
.5 on a 4-point scale, an indication of
much greater ethical sensitivity to
these issues. However, the relative
rankings of the individual scenarios
were generally very similar. Indeed,
five of the scenarios exhibited the
same rankings for both the pretest and
posttest.
However, although results indicate
that student sensitivity to ethical issues
can be influenced by formal instruc-
tion in business ethics, the relative
rankings of the scenarios are highly
similar between the pretest and post-
test, meaning that the basic moral pri-
orities of students appear to remain
relatively unaffected. Therefore, im-
proving student sensitivity to ethical
issues appears to be a viable objective
for ethics instruction by way of the
case study method.
There are several possible explana-
tions for this study’s positive results.
First, the typical undergraduate at the
university has a number of years of
previous Catholic school education,
which stresses (Martin, 1981/1982)
various aspects of moral responsibili-
ty. This may have caused many par-
ticipants in this study to be more sen-
sitive to ethical situations than stu-
dents with more secular secondary
preparation. (In Table 1, note that
previous studies on the effectiveness of
teaching business ethics have generally
been conducted at public colleges or
universities.)
Second, the students participating in
this study were enrolled in a business
ethics course, whereas most previous
studies have used students from busi-
ness and society courses. Because the
primary focus in a business ethics
course is ethics, typical course content
could include ethical reasoning, the
evaluation of ethical situations, and
the like. Conversely, because ethics is
but one part of a business and society
course, students often receive only
cursory exposure to ethics (e.g., 1
week in Arlow and Ulrich’s [1985]
study). As a result, students in a busi-
ness and society course may have less
ability to assess ethical situations than
do their counterparts in a business and
ethics course.
Furthermore, the students participat-
ing in this study were taught business
ethics using the case-study method. The
information in this article suggests that
the case study method is a promising
technique for enhancing students’ abil-
ities to identify the presence of ethical
issues. Not only does the case-study
method acquaint students with a large
number of ethical issues-many of
which are likely to be included on any
survey instrument-but the identifica-
tion of ethical issues also depends on
the ability to process and analyze infor-
mation, which is a skill developed by
the case study method.
Conclusion
Although this study has offered sev-
eral methodological refinements over
previous studies assessing the effec-
tiveness of teaching business ethics,
much remains to be learned on the
subject. Further studies are needed, in
particular, to validate the results for
other sample populations and teaching
methods.
Because the current study is based
on a survey of junior and senior un-
dergraduate students, most of whom
are business majors, future studies
could investigate younger undergrad-
uates, nonbusiness majors, and MBA
students. Furthermore, our study was
conducted among students enrolled in
a business ethics course at a small
Catholic university who had had at
least one previous philosophy course
and some prior exposure to ethical
theory. Would the same study (i.e.,
pretest and posttest of the same 25 sce-
narios), presented to students with
more diverse backgrounds at a secular
university, yield similar results?
The current study used a pretest-
posttest of 25 scenarios that was ad-
ministered to students instructed by
the case study method, which assures
that some of the ethical issues depicted
in the scenarios would have been dis-
cussed at some point during the
course. It would be instructive to com-
pare the results of this study with
others that survey students taught by
different instructional methods.
Finally, we designed this research to
measure only one possible outcome of
business ethics instruction, namely, an
increase in students’ abilities to iden-
tify the presence of ethical issues. Fur-
ther research could assess the effec-
tiveness of a course in business ethics
in achieving other possible objectives.
NOTE
1. Feldman and Thompson (1990) unsuc-
cessfully attempted to match their respondents
through the use of student identification
numbers.
REFERENCES
Arlow, P., & Ulrich, T. A. (1980). Business
ethics, social responsibility and business
students: An empirical comparison of
Clark’s study. A k r o n Business and
Economic Review, f(Fall), 17-22.
Arlow, P., & Ulrich, T. A. (1985). Business
ethics and business school graduates: A
longitudinal study. Akron Business and
Economic Review, f6(Spring), 13-17.
Bok, D. (1976). Can ethics be taught? Change
Magazine, October, 26-30.
Boyd, T. P. (1981-1982). Improving ethical
awareness through the business and society
course. Business and Society, 20-1 and 21-1,
27-3 1,
Bunke, H. (1988). Should we teach business
ethics? Business Horizons, jf(July-August),
2-8.
Burton, S., Johnston, M. W . , & Wilson, E. J.
(1991). An experimental assessment of alter-
native approaches for introducing business
ethics t o undergraduate business students.
Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 507-517.
Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of cor-
porate social responsibility: Toward the
moral management of organizational stake-
holders. Business Horizons, 34(July-Au-
gust), 39-48.
July/August 1994 331
 Clark, J. W. (1966). Religion and the moral
standards of American businessmen. Cincin-
nati: South-Western.
Feldman, H. D., & Thompson, R. C. (1990).
Teaching business ethics: A challenge for
business educators in the 1990s. Journal of
Marketing Education, 12(Summer), 10-22.
Green, P. E., & Tull, D. S. (1978). Research
for marketing decisions. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Martin, T. R. (1981-1982). Do courses in
ethics improve the ethical judgment of
students? Business and Society, 20-1 and
21-1, 17-26.
Morrison, D. (1974). Discriminant analysis. In
R. L. Ferber (Ed.), Handbook of marketing
research (pp. 442-457). New York: McGraw-
Hill.
Randall, R. M., & Gibson, A. M. (1990).
Methodology in business ethics research: A
review and critical assessment. Journal of
Business Ethics, 9, 457-471.
Rest, J. R. (1982). A psychologist looks at the
teaching of ethics. The Hastings Center
Report, 12, 29-36.
Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 15:11 08 January 2015
Rest, J. R. (1988). Can ethics be taught in pro-
fessional schools? Easier Said Than Done,
Winter, 22-26.
Stead, B. A , , & Miller, J. J. (1988). Can social
awareness be increased through business
school curricula? Journal of Business Ethics,
7, 553-560.
Thurow, L. (1987). June 14). Ethics doesn’t
start in business schools. The New York
Times, Section 4, p. 25.
Weber, J. (1990). Measuring the impact of
teaching ethics to future managers: A
review, assessment, and recommendations.
Journal of Business Ethics, 9, 183-190.
Wynd, W. R., & Mager, J. (1989). The busi-
ness and society course: Does it change stu-
dent attitudes? Journal of Business Ethics, 8,
487-491.
APPENDIX k
ETHICAL SCENARIOS
1. A sales representative for a line of
women’s sportswear offers a IO%-to-15% dis-
count to a few favored buyers; other buyers are
not informed of any discounts. (“favored
buyers”)
2. Invited t o come t o New York for an in-
terview with all expenses paid, a recent grad-
uate with heavy student loans decides to stay
with a cousin in the area and report that he
stayed in a $IM-a-night hotel; he is not asked
to provide any receipts. (“expense account”)
3. A battery manufacturer, concerned
about the effect of lead on the fetuses of preg-
nant women, adopts a policy barring women of
332 Journal of Education for Business
childbearing age from jobs in areas where lead
is present. (“fetal protection policy”)
4. After learning that a chemical it manu-
factures can cause cancer, the company insti-
tutes new safety procedures and monitors
workers for the onset of the disease, but it does
not notify workers of the cancer-causing poten-
tial of the chemical. (“cancer chemicals”)
5. A bank loan officer routinely passes the
names of people applying for home improve-
ment loans t o her brother-in-law in the home
improvement business for contacting as pros-
pects. (“home improvement”)
6. Although Elaine, as head of the com-
mercial loan division, was the proper person to
conduct negotiations with a client in Mexico
City, her boss, aware of the reluctance of the
client to deal with a woman, chose her male
assistant t o conduct the negotiations instead.
(“Mexico”)
7. Upset at not getting the promotion he
felt he deserved, an insurance agent contacted a
rival firm, stressing the good working relation
he had built with his current clients and his
knowledge of their needs. (“insurance agent”)
8. A supplier that had always been reliable
was in temporary financial trouble and could
no longer submit the lowest bid; a sympathetic
purchasing agent revised the specifications so
that this supplier would have the successful
bid. (“supplier money trouble”)
9. A secretary is fired for failing t o follow
instructions from her boss t o secretly record
telephone conversations with callers so that the
information can be used for follow-up solicita-
tions. (“secret recordings”)
10. An executive who travels extensively
uses frequent flier coupons from one airline on
vacations for herself and her family; the cost of
her business travel on this airline is no more
than it would be on any other. (“frequent
flier”)
11. A geologist, hired by an oil company to
conduct a survey, discovers that one well is on
land not owned by the company; the geologist
informs the company of this fact but does not
disclose it to the owner of the land. (“oil
wells”)
12. A large tobacco firm builds an advertis-
ing campaign around a cartoon character that,
according to critics, is designed to appeal t o
children. (“tobacco ads”)
13. A major appliance manufacturer knows
that it will be forced t o close a plant in a small
Iowa town at the end of the year, 6 months
hence, but decides not to inform the workers or
town officials for fear of disrupting the plant’s
operations. (“plant closing”)
14. Arriving in an East Asian country t o sell
turbines for a new dam, the CEO learns from
an intermediary recommended by a govern-
ment offical that for a “fee” of $1.8 million he
guarantees that the contract (worth $32 mil-
lion) can be obtained. (“international bribes”)
15. Applying for his first job at a bank, a re-
cent graduate finds that the form for prospec-
tive employees asks such questions as whether
the applicant is married, owns or rents a home,
has any serious medical condition, and has ever
been charged with a crime. (“hiring questions”)
16. A diversified food company markets a
brand of peanut butter with the words “NO Cho-
lesterol” in bold print, even though all peanut
butter is cholesterol-free. (“peanut butter”)
17. A computer manufacturer makes it a
point to interview recent graduates who have
worked summers with competitors; most of
these applicants are not seriously considered
for employment, but the company occasionally
gains some valuable information. (“compet-
itive information”)
18. A printer who does work for a large in-
vestment bank learns of an impending takeover
that the bank is financing and decides t o buy a
small amount of stock (all he can afford) in the
company being taken over. (“insider trading”)
19. In order to lower its tax bill, a multina-
tional company sells a drug t o its Brazilian sub-
sidiary near the retail price, so that virtually no
profit is recorded in Brazil. (“tax manipulations”)
20. A sales trainee discovers that when she
mistakenly quotes a lower price for cosmetics,
customers d o not change their mind after being
informed of the correct price; she decides t o
continue making “mistakes” of this kind and
her sales increase. (“lowballing”)
21. As part of a cutback, all executives over
the age of 50 years in a company are offered
generous severance packages t o take early re-
tirement; executives who decide t o stay run the
risk of being terminated with only a small sev-
erance package. (“age discrimination”)
22. After a long search, a chemical company
finds a country in West Africa where the gov-
ernment is willing to allow the dumping of
toxic waste in return for some much needed
foreign exchange. (“toxic wastes”)
23. A major soft drink manufacturer con-
tributes $3.2 million to political action groups
that are lobbying against bills in three state
legislatures that would require a deposit on
bottles; the contributions are all perfectly legal.
(“bottle laws”)
24. A prominent American chemical firm
fills an order from a repressive Middle Eastern
government for a common fertilizer ingredient
that can be reprocessed t o form an ingredient
for poison gas. (“poison gas”)
25. Threatened with a boycott by a conser-
vative religious group, a national fast food
chain agrees to stop advertising on a television
show on a major network that, according to
the group, depicts ‘‘sexual depravity and lust.”
(“religious pressure”)