What we learn today is how we behave
tomorrow: a study on students perceptions
of ethics in management education
Fernanda Duarte
Fernanda Duarte is a
Lecturer at the University of
Western Sydney, Penrith
South DC, Australia.
PAGE 120 j SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate students perceptions of studying ethics in a
business management degree.
Design/methodology/approach The method used is qualitative design with some quantitative
elements. Data were collected through an anonymous survey with 119 students from a management
subject, and analysed in the light of deontological and theological theories of ethics.
Findings A large majority of the students surveyed (95 percent) believed that the study of ethics in
management is important, and that they had personally benefited from studying ethics in the subject
surveyed (84 percent). Four major thematic patterns emerged in the responses: a teleological view of
ethics; a hybrid view of ethics; a link between ethical behaviour and leadership; and a gap between
the ideal and practice of ethics.
Research limitations/implications The study had a small sample and referred only to one subject.
Further studies should be done with larger samples, comparing different cohorts of students, or
students at different stages of a degree.
Practical implications The study draws attention to issues that emerge from the teaching of ethics in
management, in particular the need for sustained efforts to foster critical thinking and reflexivity among
management students.
Originality/value The paper is based on an original study that addresses the current gap in studies
investigating management students attitudes to studying ethics. It is particularly valuable for ethics
teachers.
Keywords Business ethics, Ethics, Leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The focus of this Special Issue of Social Responsibility Journal is on ethics and morality in
business practice, a topic which albeit not new has attracted a renewed interest in the
wake of the corporate scandals of the 1990s and early 2000s. Hand in hand with the practice
of business ethics is the training of ethical practitioners, an issue that has been the object of
extensive research from various perspectives since the 1970s (Allen et al., 2005; Lowry,
2003). While there does not seem to be a consensus on how business ethics should be
taught (Kochunny, 1994; Sims and Felton, 2006), there is a general agreement among
scholars in the field that ethics should be an integral part of curricula in business schools
(see, for example, Block and Cwik, 2007; Crane, 2004; Harris and Guffey, 1991;
Milton-Smith, 1995; Pamental, 1989; Sims and Felton, 2006).
A significant proportion of works on ethics in management education is concerned with the
role of the teacher in imparting knowledge to students, but not much research has been
done in recent times on students perceptions in relation to the study of ethics in
undergraduate management subjects. This paper contributes to addressing this gap
through a discussion of the findings of a qualitative study carried out at an Australian
j VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008, pp. 120-128, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1747-1117 DOI 10.1108/17471110810856884
university, which investigated the students perceptions of the relevance of studying ethics to
future managers. The first part of the paper provides a brief overview of the main theoretical
perspectives on ethics, and the second discusses the main findings of the study in the light
of the theoretical perspectives examined.

Ethics: key theoretical perspectives and concepts

In order to understand the nature of the students responses in the study, it will be useful to
briefly examine the main theoretical perspectives on ethics, and associated concepts.
Before anything, it is important to understand the meaning of ethics. Derived from the Greek
word ethos which refers to the conventional customs and norms of a given culture the
term ethics can be understood in two ways:
1. as a traditional field of philosophical inquiry dating back to ancient Greece, which is
concerned with values as they relate to human conduct; and
2. as the systematic study of norms and values that guide how people should live their lives
(Desjardins, 2006, p. G3).
The latter meaning is particularly relevant to the purpose of this paper, given its focus on
students understanding of norms and values within the context of management education.
The study of ethics can be either descriptive or normative (Boatright, 2007, p. 23). Descriptive
ethics involves empirical research or inquiry into the actual rules and standards of a particular
social group. Normative ethics is concerned not only with what people believe they ought to
do, but also with what they really ought to do. It therefore entails taking a position.
Nevertheless, it must be recognised that these two categories are in actual fact intertwined, as
even the most empirically minded individuals engage in prescription as well as description.
There is therefore no conceptual barrier to combining descriptive with normative ethics.
As this paper deals specifically with ethics in the sphere of business management, it will be
useful to provide a definition for the particular type of ethics characteristic of this sphere. For
the purpose of this paper, business ethics is defined as a specialized study of moral right
and wrong as they apply to business institutions, organizations and behaviour(Velasquez,
2006, p. 12). In short, it refers to values, standards and principles that operate within
business (Desjardins, 2006, pp. 8-9).

Main perspectives on ethics

This section is written with two caveats: first, what is provided below is only a very sketchy
overview of the key theoretical perspectives on ethics; the section is essentially descriptive
and will not appraise the perspectives examined. Second, the categories discussed are not
to be seen as discrete and mutually exclusive; in real-life situations involving complex ethical
issues, they often overlap.
For the purpose of this analysis, two major systems of ethics will be considered the
deontological and the teleological ethics systems. Associated with the ideas of Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804)[1] the deontological system is based on the assumption that actions must
be guided by universalisable principles and rules which apply regardless of the
consequences of the actions. For Kant, the moral person is one of good will, who
makes ethical decisions based on what is right. From this viewpoint, nevertheless, an
action can only be morally right if it is carried out as a duty not as an expectation of
approval or reward. From the Kantian perspective, ethical principles exist a priori; that is,
they are established by deductive reasoning, independent of, or prior to, the consideration
of the specific aspects of the situation at hand. For example, lying is seen as always wrong,
regardless of the context within which it occurs. People should not lie under any
circumstances, even if lying means that a human life will be saved. Kant believed that every
rational being is able to act according to their categorical imperative a set of principles that
can be prescribed as universal laws to be applied to the whole of humankind.
Virtue ethics is another type of deontological ethics, and refers to personal qualities that
constitute the basis for a person to lead a virtuous, noble life. It is not a formal system of rules,

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 but a set of personal traits that, if put into practice, will ensure that the right thing is done in an
ethically complex situation. From this perspective, the fundamental issue is what character
traits make a person a morally good human being (Velasquez, 2006, p. 110), and this is
determined by exercising judgement, rather than applying a universal set of rules like in the
Kantian model. Virtue ethics can be traced back to Aristotle (384-322 BC ), who devoted a great
deal of time and effort to grasping the essence of human virtue. For him, the good is
happiness, which is an activity of the soul (Russell, 1994, p. 185), and human virtues such as
courage, self-control, generosity, magnificence, patience, amiability, truthfulness and wittiness
(Fisher and Lovell, 2006, p. 103) are a means to happiness. Another deontological approach
to ethics is the perspective of religion (Hartman, 2005, p. 9), which is a rule-based enterprise
(e.g. the Ten Commandments). Here, principles and rules are believed to come directly from
God, and faith not reason, intuition or knowledge is the element that provides the
foundation for a moral life (Hartman, 2005, p. 9).
The teleological system of ethics includes theories which are based on the assumption that
the ethical implications of an act can be determined by looking at its probable outcome or
consequences (Hartman, 2005, pp. 6-7). In other words, the rightness or goodness of
ones action is not inherent in the action per se, but can only be judged by its consequences
(or ends). The philosophy most representative of this approach is utilitarianism, historically
epitomized by the work of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).
Bentham was of the opinion that the moral rightness or wrongness of an action is a function of
the amount of pleasure or pain that it produced. From this perspective, the greatest
happiness principle is the foundation of morals; that is, actions are ethical if they promote
happiness, wrong if they promote the opposite of happiness. Utilitarianism is the dominant
ethical perspective in the business sphere, and can be seen as a calculating approach to
ethics (Fisher and Lovell, 2006, p. 126), as it assumes that the quantity of happiness can
be measured[2]. It is also underpinned by the assumption that happiness stems from
material affluence which in the business sphere means profits.
A common example of business utilitarianism is the adoption of ethical principles not
because it is the right thing to do but because of the image enhancement which this may
produce, in view of societys increased demand for ethical conduct in the business sphere. A
positive company image creates what is known in the literature as reputational capital
(Firestein, 2006; Fombrun, 1996; Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Inglis et al., 2006; Jackson,
2005; Petrick et al., 1999; Suh and Amine, 2002) or advantages accruing to companies from
a good reputation which may lead to positive outcomes in areas such as improved employee
morale, increased strategic flexibility and enhanced financial performance.
Equipped with a basic knowledge of the key theoretical perspectives on ethics, we proceed
to examine the findings of the study on students perceptions of ethics in management
education.

The study
The study was carried out in May 2007, at the School of Management, University of Western
Sydney, Australia. The idea for the study emerged from a comment made by one of my
students, a couple of years ago, about what he perceived to be too much ethics and social
responsibility in our Bachelor of Business Management degree (from hereon BBM). The
students comment was a source of concern, as it made me wonder whether this was just the
personal opinion of one individual, or a general attitudinal trend among the students in the
degree. When our School invited expressions of interest for its annual research grants, I
submitted a proposal for a study with two broad aims:
1. to ascertain the extent to which students believe that ethics is a relevant topic for future
managers; and
2. to ascertain whether management students believe they have gained any benefits from
their study of business ethics in the BBM degree.
The proposal was accepted and I proceeded to recruit participants from a third year subject
called Power, Politics and Knowledge (from hereon PPK), which is part of the BBM. A total

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of 119 students with an average age of 25 years and from various backgrounds participated
in the study; the majority had work experience. The reason for using purposive sampling was
two-fold:
1. PPK is premised on the assumption that power is a normal feature of management, and
therefore managers must learn how to use it ethically. Ethical considerations are thus
embedded in this subject, which ensured that the participants had at least a basic
knowledge of ethics, in order to address the survey questions.
2. From a more pragmatic perspective, as the coordinator of PPK I am well acquainted with
this subjects structure, content and schedule of delivery, which gave me greater control
over the data gathering processes, carried out during the last week of session.

Methodology
The study was primarily qualitative, in that my interest was to identify thematic patterns
based on the students personal experience of studying ethics in a management degree.
However, the design also included elements of the quantitative method to establish the
broad numerical trends in the responses to the main questions of the survey.
The instrument of data collection was an anonymous questionnaire survey containing two
open-ended questions and one multiple choice question. The open-ended questions were:
B Do you believe that studying ethics is important for future managers? Why? Why not?
B Have you gained any benefits from studying ethics in the Bachelor of Business
Management? Please explain why or why not.
These questions were specifically designed to obtain information on the students
experience of studying ethics in the BBM. The multiple-choice item consisted of a polemic
statement, designed to elicit a more spontaneous response among the students. The
statement read:
Its all very well to talk about ethics in business management, but the reality is that, at the end of
the day, what matters is a companys ability to remain competitive and profitable.

Students were instructed to tick the appropriate box indicating whether they agreed;
disagreed or were indifferent in relation to the statement. Space was provided for further
elaboration if so desired.

How important is the study of ethics for future managers?

The qualitative survey yielded rich data which articulated a variety of themes associated with
the notion of business ethics. I was relieved to see that the findings in the study were largely
at odds with the comment made by my student who believed there was an excessive
emphasis on ethics in the BBM. The great majority of survey respondents expressed the
view that it is important for future managers to study ethics (95 per cent), and also felt that
they had benefited from studying ethics in the BBM (84 per cent).
In qualitative terms, the responses reflected a reasonably good grasp of the meaning of
ethics, and also a relatively high level of reflectivity acknowledging issues such as:
B the importance of morality and responsibility in managerial decision making;
B consideration of the consequences of ones action;
B empathy with stakeholders;
B compassion towards subalterns;
B recognition of peoples rights and justice; and
B the need for managers to do the right thing.
Only a few participants stated that they did not see value in studying ethics in the BBM, on
individual or deontological (religious) grounds. Below are three responses in this category:
Undecided studying it (ethics) wont really change much. I think ethics is largely individual . . .

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 I think it is important to some extent. I dont think it should be emphasised because its an
individual choice.
Not really, my Christian faith is the core influence.

Analysis of responses to Question 1 revealed two major thematic patterns informed by the
two systems of ethics discussed earlier: the first category of responses reflected an
essentially teleological (or utilitarian) view of ethics, and the second reflected a hybrid
perspective on ethics which incorporated elements of both the teleological and
deontological systems. There was also a third category, which included responses that
established a link between ethical behaviour and leadership. These thematic patterns are
examined and illustrated below.

Teleological responses
Most respondents conceptualised ethics in largely utilitarian terms as a means to an end,
which is not surprising in view of the fact that the study took place in the context of business
management education. Many of the participants expressed the view that ethics is a
response to societal pressures and expectations, and that it is important for society to
perceive business as doing the right thing. Here the operating concept is reputational
capital, discussed earlier and reflected in the selection of responses below to Question 1:
Yes, definitely, so that the company has a good reputation.
Yes. Todays society expects more from their business/industry. Clean/low emissions, green
practices, etc. Shareholders and stakeholders want to be seen as good corporate citizens also.
Yes, corporate ethics is becoming a highly scrutinised area of business, and it would be
beneficial for managers to study it, as it is becoming essential to hold good solid values.
Yes, I believe ethics is important for future managers. This is because satisfying society is the main
driver of contemporary business organisations; hence if a company is not ethical, then society will
not approve of it; so, survival for that organisation is difficult. Managers need to be aware of this.
Yes, ethics is important because society is demanding that organisations act more ethically now
than they used to.

Some students in the teleological category explicitly referred to the negative social impacts
of corporate collapses and other events involving unethical behaviour in the last decade,
and their effects on business:
Yes, societies will demand [ethics] from future managers. This would have been emphasised by
recent events such as the Qantas take-over and businesses collapsing in strange circumstances.
Due to mass media and the collapse of large multinational companies such as HIH, Arthur
Andersen and Enron, the public and institutions are placing greater pressure on business
organisations to act ethically. Thus as a manager, it is important to know what ethics is and what
constitutes ethics.

These responses reflect important consciousness shifts that have occurred in the past two
decades to a large extent due to the spread of the mass media which have created
greater public awareness of corporate malfeasance, and accordingly a growing demand for
ethical behaviour (Duarte, 2006).
In this category, there were also responses that conceptualised ethics more thoughtfully as a
tool for fair decision-making and effective management. Below are some examples:
Yes, I believe the study of ethics is an invaluable tool when entering the workforce in your chosen
career, particularly in higher levels of management where bigger decisions are usually made. It
also requires you to empathise with others and use your peoples skills.
Yes, I believe it is important, as in the future we all will be in a position of decision making where
these decisions will affect certain stakeholders in a way or another. So, having a good
background in ethics studies is significant.
Yes, as managers the decisions we make have ethical implications whether they realise it or not.
Therefore, studying it makes individuals reflect on the possible ethical implications their decisions
may create.
I strongly believe [studying ethics] is important as managers are constantly involved in
interactions and situations that often rely on individual moral conscience and judgement. By

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 means of studying ethics, future managers will be better equipped to handle these interactions
and situations.

Hybrid responses
Despite the predominance of teleological attitudes among the students surveyed, there were
also responses that incorporated elements of the deontological system of ethics. These
hybrid responses conceptualised ethics essentially as a means to an end, but also
incorporated a moral point of view (Boatright, 2007, pp. 8-9) or the assumption that the best
course of action is that supported by the best reason, and that the interest of others must be
considered. The excerpts below are illustrative of the hybrid category of responses:
Yes, it is important to understand how unethical behaviour can affect an organisations reputation.
As managers we should learn to be just and fair when making decisions.
Yes, as future managers and as citizens, it is our responsibility to ensure that business does the
right thing in the future, not only in economic terms, but in legitimate and responsible ways.
Yes. It is always important for managers to behave in ways that are ethical and consider the
greater good of the organisation and its employees. The study of ethics will help future managers
become aware of the positive and negative implications associated with ones behaviour, and
hence will allow them to think about how ethical/unethical behaviour has future effects.
Yes, as well as forming a personal basis of ethics, it is important for managers to take into
consideration ethical practices and not just profit and finances. Companies in the future need to
be ethically responsible.

Ethics and leadership

In addition to the two categories discussed above, there emerged a third thematic pattern
related to a notion that Boatright (2007, pp. 20-2) calls role morality in other words, the type
of morality specific to a particular professional role. Here the underlying message is that as
company leaders, managers are expected to meet the expectations of the companys
stakeholders, and also to set a good example to their employees. The link between ethical
behaviour and leadership is evident in the following responses:
[Ethics is] important because as a manager you are at times looked upon by those under you as a
role model and therefore by your demonstrating ethical behaviour, they can learn from you.
Yes, having high standards of ethical practices set role models for others to follow; one gains
respect from others.
Yes, because part of a managers job in organisations is to act ethically and lead others to act
ethically.

While there were only a few responses in this category, it was reassuring to see that some
students were able to establish the important connection between ethics and leadership.
This perspective goes beyond the simplistic assumption that being a good manager is
synonymous with being able to ensure profitability and productivity.

The daunting gap between ideal and practice

As evident in the above excerpts, the responses to the core question of the survey were
overwhelmingly positive, indicating a predominant trend towards a normative approach to
the study of ethics; that is, the view that future managers should study ethics in order to
achieve certain outcomes (e.g. to meet societal demands; to gain or maintain a good
reputation; to make fair decisions, or do the right thing). However, the responses to the
polemic statement, which implied that economic performance should come before ethical
behaviour, revealed traces of what Desjardins (2006, p. 9) refers to as the daunting gap
between ethical judgement and behaviour. Here, there is a clear fissure between the ideal
of ethics and the perceived difficulty for some the impossibility of achieving it in
professional practice. As noted by Boatright (2007, p. 22) many of the moral dilemmas
facing contemporary managers result from conflicts between their individual beliefs and
their role as professionals. Whereas as individuals they may honestly believe in ethical
practice, as professionals they often find themselves in an unsettling conundrum where

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 there is a temptation, or shareholder pressure, to place economic performance and
productivity above ethical principles.
This thematic pattern figured prominently in the survey data. While the majority of
participants responded positively to the question regarding the importance of ethics in
management education, and also to the more specific question regarding benefits from
studying ethics in the BBM, a significant number of respondents (42 percent) indicated
agreement with the polemic statement. My initial reaction to this was one of dismay: how can
my students be so thoroughly indoctrinated into conventional business dogma? How can
they still put profits above ethics after our numerous discussions during the semester about
the importance of ethical behaviour in business? Nevertheless, an examination of the
qualitative comments written by most of the respondents in the space provided below the
statement revealed that indicating agreement with it did not necessarily mean that they
condoned what was being said. Students were merely expressing their (somewhat cynical)
perceptions of the business world, and hoping that society would intervene to force
businesses to behave more ethically. Below are some typical statements given in
qualification of their response to the polemic statement:
I only agree with this statement because [I think that] a companys ability to make profits should
be hindered if they engage in unethical practices. Its societys role to disallow this.
Unfortunately, I have to agree . . . but as times change people are becoming less tolerant of
unethical behaviour . . .
It is unfortunate that most businesses are only concerned with profits and most leaders are
managers [who] will do whatever it takes to make a profit and reduce expenses.
Companies put too much pressure on managers and they are forced to deviate from ethical
behaviour to whatever is required to succeed or make profit.

In this category, there were also responses that revealed something akin to a feeling of
powerlessness in the face of ethical abuses in the business sphere. The following quotes are
illustrative of this perspective:
[I agree] because this is a fact of life. Business is exactly what it is, Business. People want to make
profits; that is the primary objective and it is common for people to act unethically. Unethical
behaviour is an extremely difficult concept to overturn (original emphasis).
Has a manager or an average employee any say when it comes to ethical dilemmas in an
organisational situation? The top management in all the companies want to make a profit and they
really dont care if it affects the management overall or not. There are many employees in major
corporations who do what they are told and they dont have a say in the ethical decision making.

Nevertheless, it was reassuring to find out that a slightly higher percentage of students (43
percent) disagreed with the polemic statement, suggesting that they may be taking
aboard the ethical concepts and issues studied in the course. The comments below reveal
a strong tone of disapproval of the profit motive as the main driver of business firms, and
awareness of the need to incorporate ethical principles in business practices:
I chose to work for a non-profit making organisation specifically to avoid fitting in with this
statement.
I dont agree with this statement; however it is still the mentality of some organisations, and if we
worked for them we would probably be easily swayed.
Making profits is essentially the role of business; however, ethics in business management is
something that has to be taken seriously . . .

A number of students who disagreed with the polemic statement explicitly acknowledged
the need for balance between profits imperatives and ethical behaviour, suggesting a link
between ethical behaviour and economic performance:
Sometimes a lack of ethics can cause a business to go belly up and then there is no way to make
profits. The best way is a balance of both . . .
While a company needs to make a profit it also has to be socially responsible and behave in an
ethical manner. By gaining profits via unethical practices the company is creating a negative
public image.

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 The ability to gain financial objectives gives an organisation power, thus it is their responsibility to
give back to society and improve the standards of society as a whole.
From studying corporate social responsibility I have learnt that an organisation has a
responsibility to all its stakeholders, not just shareholders/owners. Organisations need to balance
their focus on profits with their other responsibilities, e.g. environmental.

Summary and conclusion

This paper has discussed the findings of a qualitative study carried at an Australian
university on students perceptions of the relevance of studying ethics in an undergraduate
business management subject. The findings indicated that the great majority of participants
consider the study of ethics relevant to future managers, and indeed believe they have
gained benefits from studying ethics in the Bachelor of Business Management. The general
gist of the responses is aptly surmised by one of the participants, who stated: What we
learn today is how we behave tomorrow.
Three main thematic patterns emerged from the analysis of the survey responses, namely
responses revealing teleological (or utilitarian) attitudes to ethics, responses reflecting a
combination of teleological and deontological attitudes, and responses linking ethics to
leadership. It was clear from the findings that the predominant kind of ethics and morality
amongst the students is underpinned by the teleological system, which did not come as a
surprise, given the context of the study. Most respondents viewed ethics as a means to an
end as a means to foster reputational capital by enhancing the companys image, or as a
means to achieve leadership and fair decision making. However, many of the comments also
revealed an ethics of care (Velasquez, 2006, p. 60) the need to be mindful of peoples
wellbeing, to do the right thing. The findings were reassuring for a teacher who takes the
study of ethics in management seriously: it seems that my students have been listening.
There was, nevertheless, something disturbing about the responses to the polemic
statement, in that many of them conveyed an impression of resigned powerlessness and
passive acceptance of the status quo (Thats the way things are). This prompted a number
of questions for me as a teacher:
B Does this mean that the students have been so thoroughly indoctrinated into conventional
managerial dogma that they are unable to imagine more democratic alternatives to the
status quo?
B Does this mean that they are still unable to grasp the meaning of critical thinking?
B Does this mean that they have no sense of the role of human agency in social
transformation?
Fisher and Lovell (2006, p. 33) warn that in the process of dialectical transformation of society
there is always a risk of social capture that is, feeling trapped in a particular version of
social reality that is not particularly desirable. If this is indeed a trend among management
students, ethics teachers have a crucially important role to play in order to persuade students
that their individual voices do count in the shaping of more humane and equitable managerial
practices in the creation of a better society. The role of an ethics teacher is not to indoctrinate
students into a particular world view, but to treat them as active learners and engage them in
an active process of thinking and questioning (Desjardins, 2006, p. 9). An important
conclusion to draw from this paper is that continuous debate on ethical dilemmas and a more
explicit effort to foster critical thinking and reflexivity are essential features in the teaching of
future managers in order to avoid the paralysing effects of social capture.

Notes
1. Kant was not the only scholar to prescribe a moral system based on rules and rights. In the sixth
century, Chinese philosopher Confucius elaborated an extensive set of rules or maxims that seem
commonplace in contemporary society, stressing virtues such as compassion, kindness, justice,
fairness, patience, reflectivity, selflessness and honesty (Hartman, 2005).
2. Bentham (1982) believed that happiness could be measured in terms of intensity, duration,
certainty, extent, propinquity, richness and purity.

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