Business society& ethics essay

The Situation

As a student, there are many situations that I have faced that have made me make an ethical decision. One of the most distinct of these situations was that I took a class my sophomore year that was known to be easy due to “resources” from prior students. These “resources” were exams from previous semesters. The professor was known to change these exams minimally, so these previous exams were basically an answer key to the upcoming exam. These exams were generally available to the entire class, and everyone planned on using them instead of studying and taking the class seriously. I was unsure about whether I felt ethical making taking these exams. However, I decided to use the past exams as a way to study while studying on my own.

Ethical Principles

During the decision making process, there are many ethical principles and biases that formed my decision. Most of these factors were not something I consciously thought about, but built into my decision framework. When I decided to take the past exams and use them for my class, I felt as if no one would really get hurt by my decision. I benefitted because I could spend more time on other schoolwork, and the professor would be happy with higher test grades, it would be the best outcome for everyone. The utilitarian approach towards ethics is similar to this mindset because the approach tries to find the solution that causes the least amount of harm to all the people affected (Velasquz). However, this approach can still cause harm to other parties, and takes a large amount of assumptions from the decision maker. Additionally, there are a number of biases that taint the decision maker’s opinion of other stakeholders in their decision.

Personal Bias

As a decision maker, I am not aware of the biases that affect my decisions in the heat of the moment. However, after reflection there are many biases which led me the “wrong” answer. My tunnel vision on my academic goals and not the consequences of my actions on myself and others contributed to my decision. Tunnel vision is when someone is so focused on their goals they do not see the other environmental factors in their decisions (Nisen). Not unlike many other college student, I am very worried about my grades and the GPA on my resume. My intense focus on maintaining my good grades to get the best job after school distorted my perception of the reality.

Another contributing bias was how I perceived the use of past exams as not cheating. When facing tough decisions, the “power of names” concept can affect the perception of the decision maker. Cheating or plagiarism, both have a negative connotation, but using the phrase of studying past exams seemed very different than those two words. The use of different synonyms with different connotations is the “power of names” concept because disassociating from a bad phrase can make the decision maker feel better about their decision (Nisen). In a Yale Daily News survey, they found that thirty-three percent of students thought certain actions weren’t cheating that were defined as cheating in their school’s code of conduct (Heibutzki). One of these actions was submitting a similar essay to different classes, which sounds much less negative than plagiarism, contributing to the percentage of acceptance in these students of the action as not cheating.

The pressure to conform to the actions of others provides another bias. Since I knew most of the students in the class would be using past exams, I felt better using the past exams myself. There is a group mentality that causes people to make abnormal decision for themselves if the group approves of their decision, which is the pressure to conform (Nisen). In an Arizona State University survey they found that 15 percent of students cheated if they knew others would also be cheating (Heibutzki). No one wants to be disadvantaged and I felt that if everyone was able to use the same past exams, it would only be fair that I would use them too.

“Right” Outcome

The “right” outcome would have been to not take the answer key and potentially to tell the professor what was going on with the other students in the class. This would be considered the right outcome because it follows the student code of conduct. In the Student Code of Conduct, one of the definitions of cheating is “the acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the university faculty or staff “ (University Code of Conduct). As a student at our university, we agree to follow the code of conduct as part of the university community. These rules are put in place to give the university and their students a reputation to the greater community. By breaking this code, students are dishonoring their promises to the university and give them a false reputation. Additionally, it is unfair to all the other students that are following the code because they are put at an unfair advantage by following the rule, and their grades look bad in comparison.

Wrong Outcome

After reflection, I realize the bad decision was to take the past exams and use that instead of studying for the exam myself. When considering why this is the wrong outcome, I considered the stakeholders in this decision and how it adversely affected them.

Professor

The professor of the class would face negative consequences if people decided to take the past exam. Professors build a bond of trust and respect with their students, and using past exams breaks this bond. Even though this is an unspoken bond, it is a connection that is an implicit value we hold as students and teachers. Additionally, using the past exam undermines the professor’s authority and questions their ability to teach. Though most students want to take the easiest route to the best grade they can get, professors spend a large amount of time preparing their classes and exams to suit their students. Lastly, professors use exam grades as a way to gauge ways to improve their teaching techniques and content of their lessons. If most of the students are cheating it skews the results and the professor does not know if they need to improve to make the course better.

Other Students in Course

Though I assumed most of the students in the class had access to these past exams, my decision could affect them also. One way students would be disadvantaged is if they did not have access to the past exams, and would then have to study themselves. Also, even if students did have access to the past exams, they could have chosen the right decision and decided not to use it. Both of the groups of students would be put at a disadvantage because they had to put more work into studying, and their grades possibly would be lower than the other students’ grades. This is especially detrimental to them if the professor decided to use a curve because it would be an inaccurate grade curve.

Future Employers

Future employers would also be affected wrongfully. When applying for jobs employers take your courses into consideration and consider the skills you have acquired from your classes. By cheating on the exams in this class and not studying the material, most likely the skills the employer thought someone would possess would not be true because the student did not take the class seriously. Additionally, if cheating was acceptable now then it is unleashing the potential for unethical conduct within the workplace. Even though cheating on exams for one class does not seem like a big deal, the decision making process that resulted in that decision is important to future ethical decisions in the workplace. There is an escalating commitment problem that results in a “slippery slope” of bad behavior that will follow from undergraduate cheating to bigger workplace decisions (Nisen).

Remedy to Situation

Though I personally made this decision within my own ethical framework, the organization culture affected my decision, and there are ways we can change this culture to curb cheating. Cheating is considered a serious offense in the code of conduct, resulting in a failure in the class, or possibly academic suspension (University Code of Conduct). However, the enforcement of these policies and the ability to discover wrong doing prevents cheating from becoming a serious issue to students. In an Ohio State University survey, they found that 70 percent of professors discovered cheating, but only 40 percent reported these offenses (Heibutzki). This trend leads students to think of cheating as something not to worry about because they will not get in much trouble or they will not get caught at all. The solution to this perception by The University is to strictly enforce even small offenses of cheating and make a better definition of cheating to students. The University needs to replicate the “broken window” theory, which is to crack down on smaller wrong doings to establish a strong authority on larger issues (Nisen). This solution would hopefully convince students that cheating is not worth the consequences.

Works Cited

Heibutzki, Ralph. "Statistics on Why College Students Decide to Cheat." Everyday Life. Globalpost, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Nisen, Max, and Aimee Groth. "27 Psychological Reasons Why Good People Do Bad Things." Business Insider. N.p., 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Velasquz, Manuel, Dennis Moberg, Michael J. Meyer, Thomas Shanks, Margaret R. McLean, David DeCosse, Claire Andre, and Kirk Hanson. "A Framework for Thinking Ethically." A Framework for Thinking Ethically. Santa Clara University, May 2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.