Business Students’ Perception Owards Social Responsibility and Business Ethics.

Abstract

In  light  of  innumerable  recent  business  scandals, sensitizing  business  students  to  the  importance  of individual and collective actions seems increasingly warranted. The business students  should not only be provided with opportunities to build business skills, but also to help them to understand the powerful effects that business decisions and actions can have on society and the potential collateral damage they can cause. Unfortunately, business education traditionally has been delivered in a way that emphasizes economic rather than relational impacts which reflects the typical business myopia on short-term goal. Individual   differences  in   ethical ideology  are  believed  to  play  a  key  role  in  decision  making. Business students must first perceive ethics and  social  responsibility  to  be  important  before  their  behaviors  are  likely  to  become  more  ethical  and  reflect  greater  social  responsibility.  However,  little  research  has  been  conducted  concerning  business students  perception  regarding  the  importance  of ethics  and  social  responsibility  as  components  of job decisions. A  critical  step  towards  helping business  students to realize the balance between maximizing the  careers  in  business  and  minimizing behavioral harm is the understanding of ethics and social responsibility. The current study focuses on the research conducted in management colleges to determine the differences among business students gender-wise in first and second year, in the ethical views and personal values. The findings reveal that business students views were not favorably predisposed to believing CSR was important. The relationship between males and female students’ perception towards social responsibility was also examined. Several directions for future research are identified.