Assessing IT Students’ Intentions to Commit Unethical Actions

Aasheim, Cheryl L.; Kaleta, Jeffrey P.; Rutner, Paige

doi:10.1080/08874417.2019.1584544

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, the academy is still struggling to bring them to undergraduate classes. Some studies raise doubts regarding the ability to train soft skills in the workplace (Stevens & Norman, 2016) and raise the need to develop those skills during undergraduate studies (Aasheim et al, 2009;Jiracheewewong, 2022;St. Louis et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Get Ready for Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project

2023

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Aim/Purpose This study aims to explore undergraduate IS students’ employability skills development while performing their final capstone project during their academic studies. Background The importance of soft skills in the Information Systems industry is not an arguable fact and has been broadly discussed both in the industry and the academic literature. The ability of professionals to collaborate, communicate, manage time, negotiate, solve problems, make decisions, and self-learning, called employability skills, are essential skills needed in today’s industry. The development of these skills during undergraduate studies is essential for graduate students’ readiness for work. Methodology A mixed methods approach was employed using exploratory research de-sign, including qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, a qualitative analysis of 156 reflections was performed, resulting in the conceptual framework of facets. Then, a quantitative analysis of the data was per-formed to examine the facets and the differences between the stages of the capstone project. Contribution This study contributes to both academy and industry. The former may use this study’s findings to upgrade academy courses and capstone projects in order to raise students’ readiness for the industry. The later may learn the approaches the academy use and give appropriate feedback. Findings The results showed that students’ reflections on their motivation, knowledge, and skills (teamwork, time management, and inter-communication) demonstrate the importance of those facets in the process they underwent, especially since the reflections collected were unstructured. Recommendations for Practitioners Information Systems undergraduate academic programs should develop structured capstone projects to provide the students with a better platform to learn and experience the employability skills the industry requires. Recommendations for Researchers The study presents a conceptual model based on students’ reflections on their experience performing a capstone project. The impact and influence of each of the model’s components should be further researched and measured. Impact on Society Moreover, it is very important to prepare the students for employability by including a “real-life” capstone project at the end of their undergraduate studies to prepare them to be valuable in the workforce, even at their start point as juniors. Future Research To evaluate the process of employability skills development, a further study can examine students’ perceptions prior to the capstone, during, and after to assess the progress and changes. To generalize the results, it would be valuable to investigate whether the findings of this study are consistent across different institutions and disciplines. Keywords employability skills, capstone projects, soft skills, motivation, information systems studies, student reflections

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Get Ready for Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project

2023

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“…More recent studies have incorporated a myriad of ethical, criminological and socio-psychological theories to expound the factors underlying unethical ICT-assisted behaviour. Aasheim et al (2019) implement dual process models based on inclusive TRA/TPB theoretical foundations to investigate the relationships among socio-psychological factors influencing IT-connected unethical practices. The partial least squares regression test verified significant negative effects of ethical desire on the intention to commit unethical actions regarding intellectual property rights and information privacy (Aasheim et al , 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aasheim et al (2019) implement dual process models based on inclusive TRA/TPB theoretical foundations to investigate the relationships among socio-psychological factors influencing IT-connected unethical practices. The partial least squares regression test verified significant negative effects of ethical desire on the intention to commit unethical actions regarding intellectual property rights and information privacy (Aasheim et al , 2019). Meireles and Campos (2019) indicate that while attitude had a strong positive effect on the intention to digital piracy, moral obligation had a strong negative effect on the attitude to piracy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parameters of ICT-associated deviant behaviour among Omani undergraduates

Al-Nuaimi

Bouazza

Abu-Hilal

2020

GKMC

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Purpose This paper examines associations among the socio-psychological determinants of information and communication technologies (ICT)-assisted deviance-related practices within a group of Omani undergraduates. Moreover, this study aims to evaluate the explanatory burdens of such socio-psychological factors on actual behaviour. Design/methodology/approach The study implements a predictive research design applied to a cross-sectional sample. At the outset, a theoretical model was built based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Thereafter, structural equation modelling was implemented to test the TPB model on the response data collected from a cluster sample of undergraduates from six universities in the Sultanate of Oman. Findings The results of the path diagram overwhelmingly support the TPB hypotheses. Specifically, intention is the most influential and immediate predictor of behaviour, while at the same time partially, though markedly, mediating the influence of cognition on behaviour. Practical implications This study has implications for the design of inclusive measures of the intrinsic dimensions of ethical self-efficacy as designated by the social cognitive theory of moral thought and conduct, which include moral judgment, self-monitoring of conduct and affective reactions to conduct. As the study reveals the importance of the explanatory power of cognition to explain variance in intention and behaviour, it has implications on the development of ICT-ethics-education. Originality/value This study fills a gap in the empirical literature on how intention mediates the relationship between ICT-ethics-connected cognition and behaviour. Moreover, the study addresses the direct relationship between cognition and behaviour – a relationship that is considered equivocal in both theories of planned behaviour and reasoned action.

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“…In the light of the economic and societal consequences of massive violations of information privacy described above, the importance of ethics in organizations and management has become critical (Aasheim, Kaleta, & Rutner, 2019;Larson & Miller, 2009). IT professionals, employees of multinational companies, and students in universities around the world will almost certainly find themselves facing ethical dilemmas sometime in their career.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ethics has become a part of many IT and business classes at colleges and universities. However, the way of teaching ethical behavior towards IT is sometimes narrowed to a list of rules that leave students rather untouched, and yet, as Aasheim et al (2019) argue, many current ethical issues related to emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence are not considered in college curricula at all. At the same time, students who disregard ethical behavior would probably become employees that disregard ethical behavior too (Elkin-Koren, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do college students do and think about IT ethics?

Ulman¹,

Harris²,

Marreiros³

et al.

EPiC Series in Education Science

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Ethics has become a part of many Information Technology (IT) and business classes at colleges and universities. However, the way of teaching IT ethical behavior is sometimes non-effective. Yet, many current ethical issues related to emerging technologies such as big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are not considered at all. The paper aims to explore relationships between students’ demographics and inclination towards unethical behavior. The study presents results of a multinational survey conducted with convenience samples of college students at public universities in seven countries from Europe, Africa and North America between October 2017 and January 2018. The survey instrument contained items reporting on perceived importance of IT ethics issues, personal experience with them, and several demographics questions. Data analysis is done with descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and F-tests. We conclude that nationality, gender, degree year, computer skills and perception of the importance of IT ethics are significantly related with behavior. Perceptions and behavior of students evolve with the rapid pace of technology, which should be a major concern both for educators and business managers as they would recruit prospective employees from the current students.

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Assessing IT Students’ Intentions to Commit Unethical Actions

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

Let’s Get Ready for Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project

Let’s Get Ready for Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project

Parameters of ICT-associated deviant behaviour among Omani undergraduates

What do college students do and think about IT ethics?

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