| The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate faculty and student perceptions of business ethics education by matching undergraduate faculty and student perceptions at a specific institution. This study builds upon research conducted at the community college level in Tennessee (by C. S. Cole in 2003) and Michigan (by R. R. Lynn in 2006) which examined faculty perceptions of the effectiveness, importance, and faculty responsibility of business ethics education. In addition, this study builds upon research that considered faculty and student perceptions of ethical education (by N. Adkins and R. R. Radtke in 2004). Five research questions were considered in this study. First, what are the demographics and business ethics education characteristics of business faculty at an undergraduate college? Second, what are the demographics and business ethics education characteristics of business students at an undergraduate college? Third, what are the differences in business faculty perceptions of business ethics education at an undergraduate college based on demographics and business ethics education characteristics? Fourth, what are the differences in business student perceptions of business ethics education at an undergraduate college based on demographics and business ethics education characteristics? Fifth, what are the differences between business faculty and business student perceptions of business ethics education at an undergraduate college? Appropriate statistical analyses were conducted in order to address the research questions. These analyses found that faculty and students have differing perceptions of business ethics education in two areas. Specifically, faculty members perceive there is more importance placed on teaching business ethics than students perceive and faculty members perceive that they have a greater responsibility to teach business ethics than students perceive. In addition, further analysis found that faculty and students also have differing views of business ethics education. For example, students reported that faculty spent a greater proportion of time teaching business ethics than faculty members reported. Furthermore, responses to open-ended questions in the faculty and student questionnaires provided additional qualitative data to supplement the quantitative data collected. |
