Response

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28, New International Version).

While in the Doctorate of Strategic Leadership (DSL) program, to achieve and maintain academic integrity it is important for me to keep my career goals in mind: 1) to become a well-respected, contributing member of the academic community 2) to lend my expertise as a consultant in strategic leadership to better organizations. Through keeping my career goals in the forefront, I am able to remind myself that the challenging academic assignments and tests in the DSL program will assist me in gaining knowledge of course content and my grades will show how well the goal of knowledge is fully achieved.

In addition to keeping my personal goals in mind, the awareness of Liberty University’s academic integrity and honor codes will assist with my achievement and maintenance of academic integrity while navigating through the DSL program. Universities and colleges pen the requisite of academic integrity and honor codes into syllabus but rarely engage the student in instruction regarding academic misconduct and how it can be avoided. There appears to be an assumption among public and private schools, colleges and universities that students should have an understanding the meaning of academic integrity but few professors explicitly address what plagiarism means and provide explicit examples of plagiarism (Evering & Moorman, 2012).

In this digital age, the avenues by which students access written material and information are limitless. No longer are the days of only performing research in a library setting and looking up information in a card catalog. For example, today’s students now have the ability to purchase course notes via the internet from other students, buy written essays and dissertations, pass an online course by someone else completing and submitting assignments. Scanlon and Neumann (2002) surveyed 698 students at nine colleges. 8% of surveyed students reported that they frequently copied text without citing the source, 3% copied a paper and never cited a source and 2% of surveyed college students purchased a paper online.

When it pertains to academic misconduct, faculty, students and administrators all point the finger at one another. The real issue is not the frequency of plagiarism or academic misconduct. Moreover, the real issue why students risk their academic and professional career by compromising their academic integrity by plagiarism. An easy answer to why students plagiarize is that they are lazy and do not work to put in the effort to complete the assignment. After close analysis of research on academic misconduct revealed several reasons that contributed to plagiarism, including underdeveloped sense of integrity, lack of maturity, one’s perception of online ethical practices, inexperience writing in a particular genre, lack of interest in topic and pressure to earn and maintain a high grade (McCabe, 2005).

The same reasons found to explain why students plagiarize or experience academic misconduct can be transferred into a vocational setting. If it is my goal is to become a well-respected contributing member of the academic community as well as, strategically lead organizations I must maintain integrity. Therefore as a leader, I should remain abreast of and implement best practices in discouraging plagiarism approaches. Research shows that the following strategies are effective best practices in discouraging plagiarism:

Education- Individuals need to be provided with real-world examples of plagiarism and the consequences of such actions. Engagement in a discussion of integrity and honor policies are shown to be effective.

Self-Management – Teach individuals how to pace their work and balance life outside of work.

3. Engage Interests – Allow individuals to focus on topics that interest them. Allow individuals to use varied platforms to share their work such as, but not limited to, video, blogs, social media (Fischer & Zigmond, M.J., 2011).

Reference

Evering, L.C. & Moorman, G. (2012). Rethinking plagiarism in the digital age. Journal of

Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(1), 35-44.

Fischer, B.A. & Zigmond, M.J. (2011). Education approaches for discouraging

plagiarism. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 29, 100-

103.

McCabe, D. (2005) It takes a village. Academic integrity. Liberty Education, 91(3), 26-

31.

Scanlon, P. & Neumann, D. (2002). Internet plagiarism among college students. Journal

of College Student Development, 43(3), 374-385.