Fluent Essays

You, your spouse, and your two young children, have recently moved to Texas and you are now the Human Resource Manager of an apple juice plant called Beech-Nut. It’s a great move, both for your career and family. Your first few months on the job have really confirmed that you made a great choice in joining Beechnut. Your relationship with your new peers, your employees, and even the president have been very positive. Thomas Rex Gibbs* is the President of Beechnut. He earned the nickname “T-Rex” because of an unfortunate accident that left him blind in one eye many years before. While it is barely noticeable and creates few work-related problems for him, it does mean that he is forced to move his head to and fro when entering the room due to limited peripheral vision, thus creating the stalking appearance of the popular portrayal of his deadly namesake. But he doesn’t mind the name at all. Instead, he seems to actually relish it. If truth were told, Rex not only approves of the moniker, he thinks it’s an appropriate symbol for one so dominant and firmly in charge. T-Rex believes in surrounding himself with talent. One of his first actions as President was selecting and hiring a new leadership team. He gave each team member freedom to run their respective areas (to his liking, of course). The leadership team’s first order of business was establishing the following core values:  People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be.  Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of products that satisfy customer’s desires and needs.  Planet: Be responsible citizens that make a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities.  Profit: Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities. This first step paid off - the company’s product sales have benefited from Beechnut’s carefully crafted image, and Beechnut is now the second-largest maker of baby foods in the country. In fact, Beechnut’s winning combination of competitive salary and core values allowed your predecessor (the previous HR Manager) to successfully recruit young, top talent to the organization. This not only lowered payroll and medical benefit costs, but also resulted in Beechnut being featured in Forbes magazine’s annual “Best Employers for New Graduates.” T-Rex was not all that supportive of the initiatives of the leadership team at first, but he did appreciate the positive press from the Forbes listing. The success of the company, T-Rex had become convinced, was inexorably linked with positive press through all mediums. All managers within the company knew that the slightest negative story would lead to attention you did not want. During your first few months, you have found that having so many young people in the organization is exciting in a company that had been around so long. “Work hard, play hard” was the unofficial motto amongApplying Ethical Theories: Interpreting and Responding to Student Plagiarism Neil Granitz Dana Loewy ABSTRACT. Given the tremendous proliferation of student plagiarism involving the Internet, the purpose of this study is to determine which theory of ethical rea- soning students invoke when defending their transgres- sions: deontology, utilitarianism, rational self-interest, Machiavellianism, cultural relativism, or situational ethics. Understanding which theory of ethical reasoning students employ is critical, as preemptive steps can be taken by faculty to counteract this reasoning and prevent plagiarism. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that unethical behavior in school can lead to unethical behavior in business; therefore, correcting unethical behavior in school can have a positive impact on organizational ethics. To meet this objective, a content analysis was conducted on the written records of students formally charged with plagiarizing at a large West Coast university. Each case was classified according to the primary ethical reasoning that the student used to justify plagiarism. Results indicate that students predominately invoke deontology, situational ethics, and Machiavellianism. Based on these findings, specific recommendations are offered to curb plagiarism. KEY WORDS: academic dishonesty, ethical reasoning, history of copyright, historic views of plagiarism, Internet plagiarism, teaching academic integrity, theories of ethics Introduction While the use of the Internet has led to improved efficiency and effectiveness in teaching, it has also created an explosion in student plagiarism (Fialkoff and St. Lifer, 2002; Groark et al., 2001; Rimer, 2003). Through online term paper mills (http:// www.cheater.com, http://www.schoolsucks.com), Google searches, as well as access to library databases, students literally have a world of information at their fingertips. In a 2001 survey, conducted by McCabe, 41\% of undergraduate students admitted that they had engaged in one or more instances of ‘‘cut and paste’’ plagiarism involving the Internet [Center for Academic Integrity (CAI), 2002–2003]. Addition- ally, non-Internet plagiarism continues to be a problem. While instructors and students have tools such as Turnitin.com at their disposal, a better ap- proach would be to understand student reasoning about Internet plagiarism and to devise methods to stop it before it happens. Past research has demonstrated that when faced with an ethical dilemma, individuals will form their ethical reasoning and moral intent based upon dif- ferent theories of ethics (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993; Mengue, 1998). Several researchers have This research is the result of a long-standing interest in new technology and plagiarism. Very early ideas on this subject were presented by the authors at the ABC West Conference in New Orleans in March 2003. Dr. Neil Granitz teaches Marketing at Cal State Fullerton. He has published articles in the Journal of Busi