The growth in Internet courses (E courses) and degrees is continuing but controls to insure academic honesty do not seem to be keeping pace with the growth in offerings. Responses to a questionnaire distributed to chairpersons of accounting departments relating to the use of controls for controlling academic dishonesty in E courses indicated that respondents strongly favored requiring students to provide a digital photo ID and audio capabilities when registering for an E course but rejected the idea of requiring them to provide a web cam that might be used for verifying their identity. Respondents strongly believe that students taking an E course should complete some, but not all, examinations on-line and, whenever possible, on the university web site and that they should complete some, but not all, homework assignments on-line and at the university web site whenever possible. They also tended to believe, even though they did not endorse requiring one, that students should use a web cam when completing examinations on-line and that faculty should compare the photo ID with the web cam image. However, they do not believe that students should be required to use a web cam when completing homework assignments or that faculty should compare the photo ID with the web cam image. Respondents believe that students should be required to participate in on-line chat rooms with both the instructor and with the instructor and other students. The use of a web cam and the comparison of a photo ID with a web cam image were not seen as desirable. Overall accounting chairs endorse requiring the student who enrolls in an E course to obtain some existing technology, except for a web cam, that might help control academic dishonesty. They expect the student to be prepared to spend more than $100 to obtain the technology.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;">Researchers have conducted various studies in an attempt to gain insights into the ethics of business leaders to postulate possible reasons for unethical behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recent scandals such as Enron, Worldcom, and Adelphia indicate an ethical problem still exists in the business community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business ethics are typically discussed at length in university business programs, sometimes with one or more courses devoted to the topic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very often students are used as surrogates for business leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such study by Ahmad and Fadzly (A & F, 2004) posited that when a person observes what they consider to be an unethical act they will try to explain (<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ethical judgment</span>) why the individual acted unethically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The person would then either endorse the action as acceptable in the circumstances or reject it as unacceptable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ethics principles</span> and <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">personal values</span> would supposedly influence that decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, the authors suggest that the perceived consequences of the unethical act would have an influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This study is an attempt to replicate the A & F study, using accounting and business students in the United States (their study was conducted with Malaysian students). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ahmad and Fadzly’s questionnaire was modified and administered to 418 university business and accounting students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The questionnaire contained 19 questions, randomly arranged, that related to five factors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Respondents in the present study indicated a high level of <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ethics principles</span> and <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">personal values</span>, and females displayed higher level <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">personal values</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ethical judgment</span> scale reflects the level of acceptance of (making excuses for) unethical acts and less than 20% of the participants in the present study indicated that they would agree that the unethical acts contained in the scale were acceptable in the environment described.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost 60% of the respondents in the present study believed that they would experience positive consequences from unethical actions and a similar number, 56.13%, believed that they would experience negative consequences from unethical actions.</span></p>
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