Ethical Dilemma in an HR Class

I teach a junior level course in Human Resource Management in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management. One of the pillars of that course is ethics. We have had worksheet questions from the assigned text that are completed as homework and discussed in class. We have case visual case studies that the students watch concerning human resource ethics that they then analyze, discuss, and then hand in to be graded. We have had essay questions on two exams that pertained specifically to ethics. I have even pose ethical questions to students now and then that based on current events concerning the financial meltdown and its impact on the hospitalitya and tourism industry.

Here is the ethical dilemma, or lack thereof...

We are now watching and evaluating video case studies that are produced by student teams (about six students per team) pertaining to various chapters we have covered during the semester. I will provide details on this assignment in a future blog post. In effect, teams present their video case study before the class and the students grade their efforts using a rubric that I prepared and they approved before using. The grade for the team's presentation is based on the average score produced from all the evaluations. Yesterday, I discovered that while one of the teams was presenting its case to the class they had filled out their evaluations on their own presentation and given themselves all perfect scores with open-ended comments, like "Fantastic job!" In effect, they were trying to cheat the average score by giving themselves perfect scores. I now suspect that others have done the same thing!

Meanwhile, my TA came to me at the end of class with a grave concern. After we collected all the evaluation forms she found that one was completed and turned in for a student that was not in class that day!

This is quite unnerving to me. What does it say about the character of students who can pass assignments dedicated to defining and detecting unetchical behavior and then turn around and act unethically by cheating on assignments? I am not alone in my concerns given the recent editorials in the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek about B-Schools that should be partly to blame for the current financial mess for graduating students who may have taken a few classes on ethics but do not behave that way when in business.

I do not have any answers today. I have lots of questions about how a student can reconcile knowing the definition of ethics, able to analyze it by watching a case study, but then turn right around and cheat on assignments. I can guarantee you that these concerns will be addressed in class tomorrow. I fear it may not make any bit of a difference and that is not good for the future of our industry.