Citation

Piotrowski C, Guyette RW. Coll. Student J. 2014; 48(2): 231-233.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Project Innovation)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on the nature of business ethics education during graduate-level training is somewhat limited. One approach in determining advanced students' research interest in the area is to examine the selection of "business ethics" topics for dissertation research. The current study addressed this issue by conducting a topical "content analysis" of dissertations indexed in the premier online source: Proquest "Dissertations & Theses" database. This analysis surveyed 263 dissertations from 2012-2003. The findings indicated that the majority of dissertations focused on a narrow range of contemporary domains, i.e., moral awareness & development, values, leadership, pedagogical issues in business education, ethical climate, CSR, and undergraduate business instruction. Topics like whistle-blowing, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and corporate scandals were not major areas of focus. Moreover, issues like outsourcing, employee abuse, workplace safety, and tax evasion were rarely selected as dissertation topics. These exploratory findings indicate that, from a research perspective, graduate-level students tend to focus on a limited range of business ethics issues to the neglect of a host of ethical concerns in the corporate environment.

Language: en