Influence of Ethics Education on Management and Entrepreneurship Students Attitude

Ivana Bilic, Associate Professor of Management at University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism (Croatia), participated in the Learning Mobility at UBI University in Portugal (17-22 November 2019) for the CSB project. In this article, she explains the choice of the topic in connection with the Cultural Studies in Business project, underlining the importance of culture in all its aspects which influences the ethical behaviour.

Here below the abstract and the presentation of her contribution in Portugal titled "Influence of Ethics Education on Management and Entrepreneurship Students Attitude Toward Ethical Behavior: Case of Croatia".

When we discussed the content of Culture in Business Study content, Croatian team agreed that ethics should be an integral part of the course. Why? If you make a deeper glance into the factors which influence the ethical behavior of an individual you will find culture as an important factor. Ethical behavior is usually influenced by:

1. Origin and demographic characteristics

2. Personal characteristics, motives and moral profile

3. Rewards and penalties that may result from a particular action/behavior

4. Social and cultural context/standards of ethical and moral behavior are not the same in all cultures.

So exploring ethics as a cross-cultural phenomenon, particularly in an international business environment is very important especially in a global economy, where cultural differences may be even more visible than in one in-country business.

Abstract

In a modern society business ethics has become very important and emerging issues especially as a characteristic of the company’s management. The complex and dynamic modern business environment driven by globalization of the economy and supported by technology has launched a new era of disclosure of companies in terms of companies' ethical behavior. The advent of the Internet has changed the way companies do their business and how they communicate with all interested stakeholders. The ability of stakeholders to communicate with one another, social networking, etc. makes companies more vulnerable than ever before. In response to the ethically oriented conscious environment, companies need to assure that their employees; especially the company’s management does their business with respect to high ethical standards. This paper aims to provide evidence of influences of the education process on students’ ethical attitudes, furthermore, we try to find out how the integration of ethics into the academic business curricula influences on students’ ethical behavior. In this research observed students will be students of the second year of business school and undergraduate students in the Faculty of the Economics University of Split. The sample was chosen from the students who attended Management and Business Communication class where business ethics is integrated into curricula. We can assume there is a positive link between gender and ethical attitudes. The second assumption is that there is a positive link between higher students’ ethical attitudes and having previous working experience. Statistical methods will be used to explore this hypothesis and to research previously mentioned correlations between working experience and gender and students' ethical attitudes.

Written by

Prof. Ivana Bilic, Associate Professor of Management at University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism (Croatia). Participant in the Learning Mobility at UBI University in Portugal (17-22 November 2019) for the CSB project.

Source Bilic, I. & Sustic, I. (2011): Influence of Ethics Education on Management and Entrepreneurship Students Attitude Toward Ethical Behavior: Case of Croatia, The Business Review, Cambridge, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2011, pp. 197-204. ISSN 1553-5827.