Survey: M.B.A.s Are the Biggest Cheaters

[loosecannon]

The corporate scandals that have plagued Wall Street in recent history are setting a fine example for young students looking to make their mark in the business world: They are learning to cheat with the best of them.

Students seeking their master of business administration degree admit cheating more than any other type of student, from law to liberal arts.

"We have found that graduate students in general are cheating at an alarming rate and business-school students are cheating even more than others," concludes a study by the Academy of Management Learning and Education of 5,300 students in the United States and Canada.

Many of these students reportedly believe cheating is an accepted practice in business. More than half (56 percent) of M.B.A. candidates say they cheated in the past year. For the study, cheating was defined as plagiarizing, copying other students' work, and bringing prohibited materials into exams.

"To us that means that business-school faculty and administrators must do something, because doing nothing simply reinforces the belief that high levels of cheating are commonplace and acceptable," say the authors of the academy report, Donald McCabe of Rutgers University, Kenneth Butterfield of Washington State University, and Linda Klebe Trevino at Penn State University.

So that explains the current climate of corruption or what?

[Abbey Marie]

Students seeking their master of business administration degree admit cheating more than any other type of student, from law to liberal arts.
...

Nah. The lawyers are actually cheating more, but they are liars too.

[loosecannon]

Nah. The lawyers are actually cheating more, but they are liars too.

I won't argue with you on that point. The article is based on a poll.

What kind of lawyer is gonna admit they broke the law?

[-Cp]

So that explains the current climate of corruption or what?

Link??

[avatar4321]

Try going to law school someday. Its nearly impossible to cheat on exams.

[darin]

I wonder if we should link to the story from a year ago? Showing "Liberals are more-educated" than conservatives....twood explain some things.

[5stringJeff]

Part of it, I think, is that "plagarizing" in the business world is accepted, while plagarizing in school is not. For example, if I were going to write an annual historical report, I might look at what was written the previous 1-2 years, and adopt the format of that report to my own, changing what needed to be changed, but keeping some of the original wording that might still fit. This increases my efficiency.

OTOH, if you're smart enough to get into B-school, perhaps you ought to know that you're in the academic world, where things are a bit different...

[Abbey Marie]

Try going to law school someday. Its nearly impossible to cheat on exams.

I didn't necessarily mean in school, but I did know a girl who was sleeping with one of our 1st year professors. Guess who got best paper in that class that year? The grade/award was actually challenged by another woman who was by all accounts an excellent student.

Edited to add: The course was Criminal Law, lol.