Students 'lose ethics' at work

There is a need for early ethics lessons, academic says

Business students who go on work placements during their courses might return without their ethics, a study suggests.

The research suggests that students are morally aware early on in their courses, but by the time they have returned from work experience, their attittudes are very different.

The study was carried out at Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University by Dr Diannah Lowry.

She says, in the light of the Enron scandal, her findings are very worrying.

"These students are losing their ethical awareness at a stage when it should be becoming stronger," she said.

"Although the reasons for this decline are not entirely clear, it appears that many students develop a tendency to disengage with ethical issues while they experience the pressures of organisational life."

She said previous research suggested students thought they had to "sell their souls" to make it in business.

Enron scandal

Dr Lowry questioned nearly three hundred students, some in their second year, who had received no tuition on business ethics and some in year four, who had been on work placement and had been given lessons on ethics.

She gave them scenarios which called on them to make decisions about who to hire.

Some of the candidates had inside knowledge of a rival company and students were asked to think about damage which might be done the rival company.

Dr Lowry was suprised by the results: "I thought we would find that moral awareness would increase over time, but it was the reverse."

She believes business students should be given lessons on ethics early in their courses, something which was now happening at Nottingham Business School.

"Since part of Enron's downfall was apparently due to artificially-inflated profits and dubious accounting, both of which have ethical implications, in the light of this research the potential that another situation like Enron occurring again is possible," she said.