Citation

Gonzalez RO, Walter R, Morote ES. Coll. Aviat. Rev. Int. 2011; 29(2): 21-46.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, University Aviation Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article reports on a study of ethical attitudes and practices among aviation students at school that have or that do not have an ethics course for pilots in training. The authors explore academic and ethical misconduct in various forms and consider the role of students' perceptions. The study included data from second-year professional pilot students (n = 150) in four year academic disciplines from five accredited universities across the United States. Four components were considered to better understand the behavior and perception of students' conduct in professional pilot education across the United States: attitude towards academic dishonesty, attitude towards neutralization behavior, attitude towards normalization of deviance, and ethical standards. After a brief literature review, this article reports the preliminary findings from the students' pre-tests. The data indicate that as a group, students enrolled in an institution without a mandatory ethics course perceive the specific unethical behaviors tested to be "very unethical" while students enrolled in institutions with an ethics course perceive this action to be slightly more acceptable than that of the first group. The unethical behaviors studied include providing services to passengers while under the influence of drugs (including alcohol), recording flight time that was not flown, inaccurate reporting, attempting to perform procedures without adequate training, and not reporting violations to the appropriate authorizes. Additional data on academic honesty and professional conduct are also provided. The authors conclude that their study indicates that a simple ethics course will not alter student behavior toward academic or ethical conduct, as no significant difference was found between the groups of students who had or had not taken an ethics course as part of their aviation training. However, students who participated in ethics courses were less likely to neutralize their misbehavior and were also less likely to deviate from the norms. Thus, the authors recommend that aviation ethics courses should be implemented as part of the professional pilot curriculum in the interest of increased safety.