The Relationships between Personal Values, Justifications, and Academic Cheating for Business vs. Non-Business Students

Abstract

In this study we examine college cheating behaviors of business students compared to non-business students, and investigate possible antecedents to cheating in an effort to better understand why and when students cheat. We specifically examine power values; we found that they were positively related to academic cheating in our sample, and that choice of major (business or non-business) partially mediated the relationship between power values and cheating. We also considered the extent to which students provide justifications for their cheating, and found that business students were more likely to justify (rationalize) their cheating behaviors. Finally, we update the literature in terms of the ways students cheat. We assess newer forms of academic cheating, as increased accessibility to information via the Internet and smartphones may have changed the ways and ease with which students cheat – a particularly relevant topic currently, as many classes have moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our study, cheating was especially prevalent when taking quizzes or tests or completing homework online. We found that only 10% of participants reported never engaging in any of the cheating behaviors we examined.

Cheating Behavior Perspectives among University Students

“…These time pressure, difficulty keeping up and lack of preparation play a role in bringing the cheating behaviour among students. Students face time pressure usually at the end of semester when they have to submit many assignments, projects and presentations before the imposed deadline [19].…”

Academic Dishonesty and the Diamond Fraud: Attitudes of UAE Undergraduate Business Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Some methods of the common academic dishonesty practices by students include buying assessments, answer sheets for exams, using texts in examinations, taking pictures of assessment materials and facilitating distribution to students (Chala, 2021;Ebaid, 2021;Hendy & Montargot, 2019). A major point of concern is business students cheat more compared to students in different majors (Parks-Leduc et al, 2021). This view is further supported by research which suggests business students have lower ethics than other students in other fields of study (Hendy & Montargot, 2019).…”

“…Academic dishonesty also referred to as academic fraud is the actions taken by students through devious means for personal gain (Djaelani et al, 2022). Most of the research conducted on academic dishonesty has focused on examining its prevalence than the relationship between student attitudes within the academic setting and the need for ethical behaviour in the real world (Abel et al 2020;Hendy & Montargot, 2019;Parks-Leduc et al, 2021). Combined with the exponential growth in technology students now have more access to different tools to aid cheating (Djokovic et al, 2022).…”

“…The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the reliance educational organizations have on new forms of technology for learning to take place, without it teaching would have been impossible (Golden & Kohlbeck, 2020;König et al, 2020). Although numerous studies in the West have explored the theme of undergraduates cheating in an online context, few studies in the Arab World have researched this area (Hendy & Montargot, 2019;König et al, 2020;Parks-Leduc, et al, 2021). More so, there has been minimal research focusing in business students.…”

“…Academic dishonesty remains a serious issue among university students and a burden for administrators (Chala, 2021;Hendy & Montargot, 2019). Students taking business-related courses have a high propensity to teach compared to their peers in other disciplines (Khalid et al, 2020;Parks-Leduc et al, 2021). Further, business students are likely to find cheating problematic.…”