Inculcating ethical practices in students: the impact on their future professional lives.

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 26th April 2017

Introduction

Following the recent ethical lapses in western corporations, colleges and universities have focused greater level of attention on inculcating ethical responsibilities within its sphere and the graduates they train. (Clifford, 2011) noted in in the book titled Chronicle of Higher Educations that professional ethics s something that starts from the wall of the university (p. B20). As such, it is clear that colleges and universities must take responsibility for some of the corporate scandals, in line with de Russy’s assertion; as majority of the future accountants, legal practitioners and other professional acquire their first exposure to ethical standards and traditions within the wall of these universities.

In line with the assertions above, (Butler, 2009) did charge those controlling academies to exercise necessary corrections on the faulty organizational structure that bring about irresponsible actions from the practitioners (p. 8). In accordance with his discussions, it is important that the governing boards of these institutions create a detailed standards that should guide ethical behavior within their institutions and enforce full compliance with these standards from all parties, develop the right approaches to encourage honesty in scholarship and integrity in academics, implement necessary safeguards that will eliminate the chances of faculties exploiting their power relationship with students, and offer necessary funds for ethical education systems.

It is important to note that this increasing calls for universities to take ethical issues serious within their spheres is not something new. Over 2 decades ago, Derek Bok, the President of Harvard encourage institutions of higher learning to recommit to the conventional learning process when development of moral in students were viewed as an important aspect of their academic missions (Harcourt & Quennerstedt, 2014). Thus, ethics in the corporate world is starts from the academic institutions

Literature review

In the review of literatures, it has been discovered that a number of universities now adopt varied codes of ethics with core emphasis on core ethical principle instead of adherence to rule and regulations. A good example is the code of ethics recently adopted by the University of Southern California (USC): which noted that the university always try to ensure that it does what is right even in cases no one is watching or compelling them to the right thing (University of Southern California (University of Southern California (USC) , 2004). Code of ethics are specifically adopted for the purpose of promoting ethics within teaching practices. These codes are based on the basic understanding that teaching is an ethical undertaking. Thus, majority of the universities across the world adopt ethical teaching principles that are developed by the governing bodies responsible for such(Harvey, 2011). Additionally, certain universities have proceeded to adopt ethical codes for dealing with specific business transactions. The Duke University is a good example as it is the first American university to develop code of ethics for conduct by companies that it has licensed to manufacture apparels for the university. More universities have followed the foot-steps of Duke University (Maldonado, Lacey, & Thompson, 2007).

As such, it is necessary that universities and colleges pay attention not just to what they say, but also to what they do. Alexander Astin (1989), a professor at UCLA made the suggestions that universities normally have two forms of moral values – those that are explicitly expressed within its formal policies and pronouncements; and those that are implicitly valued for driving the institution’s practices in relation to issues such as recourse allocations, personnel decisions, courses offered, definition of excellence, and the kind of assessment data that the instruction wishes to college. Ethics within academic world has been well researched.

Objective

In line with the understanding above, the objective of this research is to prove whether the situation being analyzed is ethical or not based on the literature review. In the course of delivering the objective, this research will shade light on the following areas:

·         Understand the importance of inculcating ethical behavior on students and how they affect the professional performance of these students in their working life.

·         How ethics can be inculcated across all spheres of the university and offered necessary qualitative experience for both the teachers and students.

·         How to hinder or limit the chances of unethical behavior from the teacher’s point of view towards the students.

Ethical situation

The first case is a situation in which I enrolled for a study by a researcher (one of the students from my university), who was conducting a study to understand how students interact with each other. In this study, I signed and agreed that the researcher should record my interaction throughout the university as the need demands. I was one of the 50 students that signed for to become subjects of such researcher. As time passed, I started becoming more conscious and worried about the outcome of the whole process because the researcher I come cases secretly recorded my activities without me being aware as I have already signed to such. Thus, I decided to withdraw from the program and have all videos about me cancelled due to my continued worry about the effects of such on my personal life and privacy. The researcher did explain to me that cancelling the video was not possible as it would amount to cancelling that of other students since they were all recorded with the same tape. However, I didn’t see that as a reason not to delete my footage so I urged the researcher to effect deleting as I was entitled to such based on the agreement signed. Clearly I understand that deleting my coverage would mount to deleting the whole research outcome and would result to unwanted inconveniences for the researcher –as well as countless losses. However, I was increasingly worried about my privacy and security based on the footage. The researcher had no choice and proceeded to delete the video, resulting in cancellation of the whole research. I confirmed this as he initiated a new research and I was invited in the course of the deletion process to confirm that he would never have a cop of it.

Discussion

Basically, I would like to point out that I regret my actions as it is totally unfair but I had no choice than to have my footage deleted. I did not know that the researcher was combining all footage in one tape, so I think he should take blame in that area. However, his actions are totally overwhelming and ethical. He clearly understand the importance of respecting consumers’ privacy and sticking with agreed terms of any deal notwithstanding what he stands to lose in the process. This is vital for mutual benefit of both the company and its consumers, and what it implies in effect is that he is ready to protect me at any cost – and I am ready to offer necessary assistance for his future researches.

Linking up with earlier understanding on the importance of adopting necessary ethical measures with the academic sphere, it is obvious that such should be the case and it would positive effect the adoption of relevant ethical practices in the professional world. This is because this researcher has been trained and educated through varied lecturer, notes and practical work to respect the respondents and represent their view exactly as presented in a research – which is the primary ethics when it comes to conducting research. He understood the importance of these education carefully and abided by it when the time case. As such, one can easily say that when given the right opportunity within the corporate sphere, the researcher will likely abide with established ethical measures in his place of work – making consumers happier in the process and delivering quality brand image for the company (which will bring about continued and sustainable positive performance due to enhanced consumers face).

Recommendation

Ethical research issue have probably created the most researches and debates in relation to raising people in the right way (Morrow, 2009). In these literatures, the consent are based on four major principles as: consent involves explicit acts (such as verbal or written agreement; consent can only be offered to participants that understand the relationship and discussion informed; consent must be made voluntarily without coercion; and consent must be renegotiate in order to allow participants withdraw whenever the they desire (POWELL, FITZGERALD, TAYLOR, & GRAHAM, 2012). This implies that any agreement reached between consumers must be such that is clearly written, understood by the consumer, and offer the consumer right to withdraw whenever desired. This is what ethics is all about. It offers equity to the parties involved and does not put any party under the control of another. Everybody is equal and can influence decisions that affect the outcome of the process(R, 2008).

From the case analyzed above, it is clear that inculcating ethical culture within the university is very critical for successful implementation of the practice in the corporate world. For instance, the researcher might have declined my offer to delete the video even though it contained footage based on the whole entire research (and would force him to cancel the entire research) because he was part of a school where ethical research process is continually preached and practiced. This would have been a different case if he did not understand the value of ethics and decided to affect them when the necessity called for it. If more students are inculcated on the value of ethics, it is expected that a larger percent of them (at least) would implement ethical decisions within their working life and this would create more value for the corporate world (reducing scandals associated with unethical decisions).

Conclusion

The main focus of higher education is to foster development of intellectuals and productive personnel. Part of this focus is to help students with development set of ethical principles that define their professional and personal decision-making as time relates. In a recent report, guidance that can be used to challenge the task of producing quality graduates that are capable of adopting ethical leadership and responsible citizenship was offered by Behr et al. (1998). The report is based on the understanding that the ultimate responsibility of raising good citizens rests within the country’s development institutions (e.g. colleges and universities) and the kind of training they offer the young generations.

This argument has been validated by numerous researches adopted in this study, where it was noted that academies have a huge role to play when it comes to effecting responsible and ethical leadership in the corporate world(WILHITE & SILVER, 2005). This is based on the understanding that the first place staffs are exposed to ethical decision making (its procedures, importance and expected outcomes) are within the walls of the university. This was further confirmed with the case analyzed above, where a researcher had to cancel the whole research process due to the decision of one student not to participate in the research anymore. Thus, it is concluded in this case that is ethical decision making processes and the need to effect such decisions should be continually preached throughout institutions of higher learning and inculcated into the students in order to ensure that they become better person in the corporate world. This will reduce and potentially eliminate the scandalous issues associated with unethical decisions on the corporate world(Wallace, 2013).

References

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Clifford, M. (2011). MORAL LITERACY. Retrieved from Utah Valley University : https://www.uvu.edu/ethics/seac/Clifford_Moral_Literacy.pdf

Harcourt, D., & Quennerstedt, A. (2014). Ethical Guardrails When Children Participate in Research: Risk and Practice in Sweden and Australia. Retrieved from Sage Publications: http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/spsgo/4/3/2158244014543782.full.pdf

Harvey, W. B. (2011). Higher Education and Diversity: Ethical and Practical Responsibility in the Academy. Retrieved from kirwan institute: http://www.kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/reports/2011/11_2011_HigherEducationandDiversity.pdf

Maldonado, N., Lacey, C. H., & Thompson, S. D. (2007, 4 13). Ethical Learning and the University: Listening to the Voices of Leaders . Retrieved from American Educational Research Association. : http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED496212.pdf

Morrow, V. (2009, 8). The Ethics of Social Research with Children and Families in Young Lives: Practical Experiences. Retrieved from Younglives.org.uk: http://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-WP53-Morrow-EthicsOfResearchWithChildren.pdf

POWELL, M. A., FITZGERALD, R., TAYLOR, N., & GRAHAM, A. (2012, 3). INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE REVIEW: ETHICAL ISSUES IN UNDERTAKING RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE. Retrieved from Childwatch International Research Network: http://childethics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Powell-et-al-2012.pdf

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