Understanding Student Perceptions of the Value of Ethics Training

In this paper, we attempt to replicate and expand a set of studies conducted by Tormo-Carbó, Seguí-Mas, and Oltra and published in Journal of Business Ethics and Procedia (with Klimkiewicz) in 2016 by conducting an experiment focused on directly addressing similar but refined research questions and contradictory results from their set of studies using improved methodology and question construction. Tormo Carbó and co-authors engaged business school students in a survey of their orientation towards ethics learning and discussion and generally found that those who had taken a business ethics class were more likely to express interest in and an appreciation for ethics training, this result was not robust in across locations more time when further studies were conducted using similar methodology in new settings and with different students. Using a student sample of 653 respondents enrolled in two introductory business and economics courses, we explore the influence that short ethics learning exercises have on students’ interest in and appreciation for ethics training. We find that students’ interest in ethics training does not increase after exposure to short training opportunities. We further find these students do not indicate an increased willingness to engage in that training or express an increase in the belief that ethics training should be required in degree programs.


Introduction
Business ethics and how to teach it has increasingly become a subject of public, academic, and curricular focus (Fawson et al, 2015;Albrecht, 2017). Demand for improved ethical behavior by future managers and businesspeople has increased, especially in light of the ongoing questions about the behavior of corporations and those who run them.

Background on business ethics
We use the commonly accepted general definition of ethics as being a set of moral principles that are used to guide an individual's behavior. This definition is consistent across the wider Business Ethics literature. (Sparks & Pan, 2010). We look at ethics as a set of values to which individuals adhere, and business ethics seek to apply these values to business settings. While the study of business ethics is not a recent innovation and the the importance of the literature highlighting is substantial, discussion regarding how to better engage and teach students has expanded and grown in urgency (Bampton & Cowton, 2013).
Central to the study of business ethics are examinations of what factors influence decisions to engage in unethical behavior. One approach to identifying these factors focuses on the systems and incentives that are associated with unethical behavior. Albrecht (2017) looked at the conditions that give rise to the opportunity to engage in unethical behavior. This has been referred to as the Ethics Compromise Triangle, which includes perceived pressure, perceived opportunity, and rationalization. Albrecht (2017) finds that to become more ethical and make better decisions, we need to reduce three aspects of this compromise triangle. Brass et al. (1998) studied how social networks influence the ethical decision-making of an individual, and how social interactions impact those decisions. Social relationships provide both constraints against unethical behavior and opportunities to engage in unethical behavior. An individual may not care about how they behave towards a stranger, since they probably won't interact with them again, thus the risk of acting unethically is comparatively small. Within organizations, however, where individuals expect future interactions the reputational impact of unethical behavior is substantial, and the cost of losing these relationships may restrain some unethical actions. Despite this general reality close relationships where high levels of trust exist may create opportunities for unethical behavior as well as possible payoffs for that behavior. The nature and structure of the social network impact the incentives for ethical and unethical behavior.
Other theories focus on the individual in questions of ethics pressures. The individual is the primary actor, and their unethical decisions can be thought of as "bad apple" issues where the individual acts unethically and influences others to behave similarly. Ferrell and Gresham (1985) examined how these factors might lead to unethical behavior and found evidence for this hypothesis. Other research in this same area has suggested that dishonesty is perverting the results of market actions and (Hodock, 1984), and some researchers have found evidence that an absence of a clear consensus about what ethical conduct is may lead to harmful outcomes (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985). More recent examinations across fields have suggested similar explanations for the spread of unethical behavior in business situations (Gino et al., 2009;Chui et al., 2021). Hunt and Vitell (1986) created a model that appears to validate the theories that focus on the individual and this model has been cited extensively in explanations of ethical decision-making. They designed an approach that demonstrated in scenarios testing ethical decision-making that respondents who perceive ethical content and recognize it as important can identify multiple possible alternatives to resolve the ethical obstacle. As a result, respondents were better able to evaluate whether the presented alternatives are ethical. While the results of this approach do not always produce singularly ethical behavior, the evidence suggests that ethics must both be valued and used as part of a cognitively intensive process to result in ethical decision-making.

Business ethics training and study
Ethics in business schools receive substantial attention because of the perceived negative consequences that would happen if unethical student behaviors, such as cheating, were allowed to spill over into the business practice (McCabe et al., 2004). Teaching business ethics has been used to prevent future business corruption and improve general ethical decision-making in business practice (Cummins, 1999). Business schools have focused intensely on this area partly in response to research that has suggested that business students were more likely to cheat than any other academic discipline (McCabe et al., 2004). Others disagree, stating that business students don't cheat any more than any other students, but that ethical breaches in the form of cheating are relatively common in the academic environment (Klein et al., 2017).
Despite the seeming agreement on the importance of ethics in business, a relatively small number of business schools have chosen to target ethics as a core part of their mission. Even in the schools that have focused on it, it tends to be viewed as a desirable characteristic rather than a core principle that should be taught throughout the curriculum. Fawson et al. (2015) argue that ethics should be taught by an active, learning by doing mindset, and included across the business curriculum. This view contrasts with the reality of how most ethics classes are taught today which is lecturebased and often a solitary sidestep in a four-year degree. Bampton and Cowton (2002) suggested that schools should adopt business ethics in the required curriculum, but they note that the structure of these courses and their content remains an area of open debate and disagreement. Maclagan and Campbell (2011) argue that when designing business ethics courses, there is a need to center the curriculum on an individual's moral deliberation. Earlier work by De George (1987) reinforces this idea and argues that ethics needs to be thoroughly engaged with. Dellaportas (2006) found that purposefully designed ethics interventions can have a positive effect on the evolution of moral judgment during college. The findings of his paper suggest that the development of moral judgment can be impacted by certain types of ethics intervention.
While there have been some attempts to explore how the curriculum might be designed, there have been few coordinated attempts to create curricular innovations that improve both the ethical retention necessary, and students' perceptions of the value of that training. Yonk et al. (2017), explore some of those challenges and argue that without support during and after the implementation of the new curriculum design, change is unlikely and any change that does occur is unlikely to persist.

Exploring previous studies
This project seeks to explore the results of the study conducted by Tormo-Carbó, Seguí-Mas, and Oltra, Accounting Ethics in Unfriendly Environments: the Educational Challenge, published in the Journal of Business Ethics in November of 2016, and a study How Effective are Business Ethics/CSR Courses in Higher Education? by the same authors (with Klimiewizc). These studies, and others like them, have been widely used to argue for both the efficacy of business ethics training and their placement in the wider business school curriculum despite the lack of consistent results regarding the value students place on that training. We began this project with an interest both in replication, and in validating ongoing discussions about increased business ethics training that we experienced internally to our college. This focus was driven at least in part by a focus by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and at least the discussion of the Business Ethics requirements during reaccreditation processes (Franks & Spalding, 2013;AACSB, 2013;AACSB, 2020). These accreditation requirements have focused on exposure within the curriculum rather than measured ethical outcomes. Our study attempts to conduct similar research to Tormo-Carbó that better isolates the direct impact of exposure to ethics training, and as a result better evaluates the efficacy of such training on the value students perceive of ethics in the curriculum, and the value of such requirements in accreditation.
We structure our study as an attempt to replicate the findings of Tormo-Carbó et al.'s Journal of Business Ethics Study (2016) largely because their findings confirm the accepted curricular norms that have dominated business education. However, because there have been some discrepancies in empirical results on this subject, using an experimental design with treatment and control and better isolates the impact of the training itself. Better establishing the causal link is an important step to understand how students value ethics training.

Replication and expansion
The primary study we seek to replicate using a different methodology,  surveyed 500 European business school students on their perception of ethics education in business schools and analyzed the results and differences in opinions. These results along with others in the literature (Adkins & Radtke, 2004) explore the overall perceptions business students have regarding business ethics and arrive at similar conclusions.
Tormo-Carbó et al. (2016) tested three hypotheses regarding how students view ethics training, and how well they retain the information from that training. They first explored the role of gender, age, and work experience and whether they influence ethical understanding and the perceived value of ethics and ethics training. They theorized that older, female, and students with more work experience would show a greater understanding of the significance of many general ethics issues and the overall goal of business ethics education. Of the 10 sub-variables that characterize students' ethical understanding and their perception of them, only the need for ethical behavior for dealing with business tasks was higher in the case of older students and females. Considering these outcomes, their first hypothesis was only partly confirmed, and the perceptions of the value of ethics training were only moderately influenced by these demographic realities.
Their second hypothesis proposed that exposure to business ethics courses would positively influence perceptions of the importance of business ethics. They found significant impacts on perceptions of ethics training. Three of the objectives were found to be substantially correlated with having taken previous ethics courses. Further, they found that having previously taken ethics courses improved perceptions of ethics training.
The third hypothesis from Tormo-Carbó et al. (2016) was that the intensity of exposure to business ethics courses and the recency of completing an ethics course positively influence business students' ethical knowledge and the perceived importance of business ethics education. Overall, they largely found that exposure to ethics training did significantly increase a student's perceived value of ethics training issues.
We set out to further explore, and partially replicate  in this regard. Our core interest is in better understanding the link between having participated in ethics training, and the perceived value of that training. Thus, while replicating in part Tormo-Carbó et al. (2016), we make important changes to both the research design and the general goals of the study to more directly test this question. Further, the contradictory evidence between, studies conducted by them, warrants an alternative research design focused on this area. Using an experimental design, we explore the perceived value students place on ethics training and focus primarily on how an ethics training exercise might influence perceptions, rather than focus on either the demographic or recency hypotheses.

Methods and approaches: experimental design
Our experiment engaged 653 students enrolled in two introductory business courses, across four different course sections. We tested the influence of a short ethics learning exercise on the interest in and appreciation for ethics training. We divided the sections into treatment and control groups with sections from each course number designated treatment and control. These courses were taught by two professors, with one of each professor's sections assigned to the treatment and control groups, to better control for professor-level effects in the perception of ethics by students.
All surveys were anonymous and requested no individually identifying information, and course instructors had no access to the survey results. This experiment was conducted under the supervision of Utah State University's Institutional Review Board.
Consistent with the approaches outlined above, which suggest that exposure to classroom activities focused on ethics is likely to spark ethical thinking and increased appreciation for ethics we use exposure and test experimental design to test for this proposed effect. Students in the treatment group were asked to complete the activity Ring of Gyges, which explores ethics through a hypothetical question focused on ethics in business and then discuss and report to the class on their discussion and then complete the anonymous survey instrument. The control group did not complete the activity or discussion and only completed the survey instrument in the course of a regular class meeting. We include the activity guidelines in Appendix A. Table 1 includes the hypotheses of this study, which are all largely based on the exposure leading to effect approach that dominates the literature as described above. We do not modify the survey instruments to test the treatment group. Subjects that are exposed to an ethics learning activity or a previous ethics class will be more likely to report that ethics training is important H2 Subjects that are exposed to an ethics learning activity or a previous ethics class will be more likely to report that ethics should be part of the curriculum in their degree program

H3
Subjects that are exposed to an ethics learning activity or a previous ethics class will be more likely to report that they are willing to enroll in an ethics course in the future Null Hypothesis

H0
Subjects that are exposed to an ethics learning activity or a previous ethics class activity will exhibit no difference in their propensity to value ethics training or their willingness to enroll in that training To analyze the results of the experimental survey, we use Logit Regression, in an attempt to tease out potential relationships. Our regression analyses focused on the answers to four key questions that probed the perceived value of ethics training, as well as willingness to enroll in future ethics training opportunities.

Dependent variables
The questions from our survey instrument that were used to generate our dependent variables were: 1. Would having an ethics course in college be helpful to those in business professions in solving the moral and ethical issues they face?
2. Do you think that having an ethics course in college would aid you in solving the moral and ethical issues you will face in your chosen profession?
3. Do you think that it is important that ethics course be offered in the Business School? 4. If an ethics course were offered as an elective course in your selected major, would you enroll in it?
We base these questions on the Tormo-Carbó study with modifications that better refine the different potential situations in which students might value ethics training. Our interest in these modifications was primarily to attempt to tease out if the perceived value of ethics varied by the type of situation students considered. We then include a question that asks students about willingness to engage in a specific activity, taking a future class to better ground the questions in concrete action rather than just perceived value.
For each of these questions, the respondents were asked to respond yes or no, coded as 1 for yes and 0 for no. The response frequency to each of these questions is included in Table 2 below. The raw pooled responses from students to these questions are interested in their own right and reveal substantial differences in the perceived value of ethics training. When students are generically asked if they think having a course in ethics would be useful in solving moral and ethical issues nearly 61% respond affirmatively, likewise over 62% of students' response is that they were willing to enroll in an ethics course if it were offered. When asked about the importance of ethics courses to their professional work or the importance of having a course offered in the business school, students' responses indicate much less support with only 29% of students agreeing that it is important for ethics courses to be offered in the Business School, and just over 18% agreeing that ethics courses will help solve ethical issues in their professional life. This divergence indicates that while students view ethics as important generally they may not necessarily believe they are relevant or important in the business-specific context. We further explore this divergence in our regression analysis below.

Control variables
We asked for information about many control variables, including socioeconomic indicators of age, marital status, number of children, parents' education, and race. We also ask about religious affiliation as the location of the university is in an area that has a high percentage of adherence to the Latter-Day Saint faith tradition and may have an effect on ethical consideration. In each of these cases, responses were structured so that only one answer could be selected and the response to the question was used to create dichotomous variables. These variables have been shown to potentially affect how individuals perceive ethical questions and training, and those perceptions are at the core of this study.
We also include information about the profile of each student academically. These variables including class standing, GPA, Major (represented as Business Major or Not), and the primary source of tuition payment. Like our demographic variables, we believe controlling for student profile is an important part of identifying the impact of the ethics exercise independently. Again, the responses were structured to result into dichotomous variables.
We also asked students about their political ideologies as an ideology has been hypothesized in some of the literature to be relevant to the valuation of ethics and ethics training. We measure ideology by asking each respondent where on the political spectrum they identify. We then code these data so that responses provide dichotomous variables for Liberal, Conservative, and Moderate Ideology. We include ideological measures in our analysis because of the potential for impact on perceptions about ethics and the importance of ethics training.
The frequency of response for each of the variables we included in our Logit Regressions is included in Table 3.

Sample
This study used a non-random sample of students enrolled in four courses in the business school, but section assignment to treatment and control was done to minimize instructor level effects. Because it is designed primarily as an experiment, this sample selection is appropriate. This experiment seeks to evaluate the propensity of individuals to value ethics training in their degree programs. This sample of students allows the impact of the treatment to be compared with a subgroup of the population of interest that is similar across other axes.

Results
Our first test explores the perceptions that students have on the value of an ethics course for those in business professions in solving the ethical issues they face. This question probed the generic value that students placed on those ethics courses in assisting those in business, and not necessarily their future position or expected career path. Table 4 provides the results of this analysis. In contrast to , the results of our analysis of this question found no effect of either past ethics courses or the ethics exercise in our experiment on their perception of how ethics courses might be useful to those in business professions. Only Females returned a coefficient that was significant at the 0.05 level. However, we did see business majors appeared to have a slightly higher perceived value of this training, although that effect did not reach the 0.05 level of statistical significance. Given these results, we cannot reject our null hypothesis.
Our second test addressed students' own future career plans and the perceived value of ethics training on solving ethical and moral issues in that more personally relevant circumstance. These results are presented in Table 5.
Again, our results do not confirm the  conclusions. We find no statistically significant effect from the treatment. However, in line with their Procedia findings, we find some, albeit relatively weak, evidence that a previous ethics class may be associated with students being more likely to perceive that ethics training might have value in their professional endeavors. Having previously taken an ethics class returns a positive, but only marginally significant coefficient. Thus, we cannot conclusively reject our null hypothesis of no effect. Our third test explores the importance that respondents place on an ethics course being offered in Business School. Sixty percent of our pooled respondents indicated that they viewed it as important. The results of this test are provided in Table 6.
The results for this question provide the strongest evidence for the impact of previous ethics training on the increased perceived value of ethics training. While we cannot identify a statistically significant effect of our treatment, we do find a statistically significant effect of a previous ethics course on the perception that ethics offerings are important. Those who had previously taken an ethics course were somewhat more likely to express that such classes should be available. This result suggests previous ethics training has the potential to improve students' perceptions that ethics training should be available as part of the curriculum.
Our final test explores the willingness of respondents to enroll in an elective ethics course within their own major. Our results are provided in Table 7. The results of this regression provide a divergent finding from . Most clearly, those who had previously taken an ethics course were less likely to indicate they would willingly take a future ethics class. This result was significant at the 0.05 level. Likewise, it was in this analysis that our treatment came closest to even marginal statistical significance (0.105) but like having previously taken a course in ethics the coefficient was negative.
These results do little to confirm our general hypothesis and do not provide conclusive evidence suggesting that previous ethics training experience has substantially improved students' perceptions of the value of ethics training.

Discussion
Taken together the results of our experiment find some statistically significant effects of previous ethics courses, although those effects are directionally divergent and thus do not provide evidence for our general hypothesis. We further find no statistically significant effect from our treatment that exposed participants to an ethics learning activity on their perceptions of the value of ethics training in their degree program. These results are not particularly encouraging for those interested in engaging students in ethics course as a means to improve or explore questions about ethical decision-making are surprising as they deviate substantially from the results of . They are however more closely consistent with Procedia results by . We view the replication of the finding and the more granular responses where students are asked about a variety of circumstances in which ethics course might be used as an advancement of the larger literature, albeit one that largely suggests that exposure to an ethics course or ethics activity is not likely to be sufficient. A larger-scale study which longitudinally follows students both across collegiate experience and into professional practice might better reveal whether course has a longer-term effect.
Our approach and the experiment we conducted probed both general perceptions of the value of ethics training overall the perceived the value of ethics training within their professional ambitions. Our results leave open the question of how to move the needle on student perceptions. We find that at best no conventionally statistically significant effect can be identified of previous ethics training, and in the case of wiliness to enroll in future ethics courses that effect might be negative.
Despite these findings we do not necessarily believe that ethics training, especially if it is hands-on and directly connected to students' professional practice, should be excluded from or removed from curricula where it currently exists, rather much as Tormo-Carbó and co-authors suggest, we believe that digging deeper in how to better provide ethics training is of particular importance. The value of ethical behavior as we highlighted in earlier sections has been well demonstrated and exploring how best to conduct that training, and how to engage students in ethical learning should be at the front of any discussion of ethics in the business curricula. Our findings suggest that crafting and convincing students of the value of ethics training will require more than simply offering the courses and creating the classes. Rather, more in-depth pedagogical study and research are necessary given both the inconsistent findings from Tormo-Carbó et al.'s two studies and our findings from our independent experiment. It is increasingly clear that simply relying on the inclusion of ethics training in the curriculum is insufficient to achieve the goal of increased ethical behavior and focus among students, and that further research is needed that explores how different approaches to teaching ethics might impact those perceptions and evaluate whether those approaches yield positive results in the curricula.