The Research On The Relationship Between Students' Trait And Attitude Change In Business Ethics Teaching

Currently more and more domestic and international universities take business ethics seriously in undergraduate and MBA education. But for the teaching purpose, teaching content, teaching methods and teaching effectiveness there hasn't been conclusive result yet. For researches on teaching effectiveness, the macro impact of business ethics teaching has been discussed but there is no paper exploring relationship between the specific factors of students and their personality traits.In this paper,"animal protection"was selected as teaching content and film-watching followed by discussions as teaching method. The teaching effectiveness was measured, and then relationship between students'trait and teaching effectiveness was explored.Firstly, the literature review was conducted, and four variables Machiavellianism, preference for money, universalism and empathy inclination were chosen as personal traits. It was hypothesized that Machiavellianism and preference for money have a negative impact on teaching effectiveness, and universalism and empathy inclination have a positive impact on teaching effectiveness.In this study, MBA students and undergraduate students were selected as subjects. During the experiment, prior to film-watching, the students'attitudes towards animal rights and personal traits, including Machiavellianism, money preferences, universalism and empathy inclination were measured; then the film "Earthlings" was played and supplemented by explanation and discussion; one week later, the students' attitudes towards animal rights was again measured.In data analysis, the teaching effectiveness was analyzed by using paired T test; the impact of demographic variables on the teaching effect were analyzed by using covariance analysis; the relationship between personal traits and the students' attitudes towards animal rights before the course, as well as the relationship between personal traits and the students' attitudes change towards animal rights, was analyzed by using multiple linear regression.From data analysis, it was found that the business ethics teaching had great effectiveness, MBA and undergraduate students' attitudes towards animal rights both changed dramatically; Before the course, students' attitudes toward animal rights can be predicted by preference for money, universalism and empathy inclination: universalism and empathy have a positive impact on the attitudes of animal rights, while preference for money has negative impact on the attitudes of animal rights. After the course through anylisis it was concluded that Machiavellianism has a negative impact on teaching effectiveness, and empathy inclination has a positive impact on teaching effectiveness.In addition, the demographic factors has some influence on teaching effectiveness: gender has no significant effect on teaching effectiveness; and grade (MBA/Undergraduate) has significant effect on teaching effectiveness, business course are more effective for MBA students than undergraduate students .This study helps understand the influence of personal traits on the effectiveness of watching animal-protection films and related discussions. However, this study is restricted by specific teaching content and teaching methods, the possibility of generalization should be further explored.