From Idea to Action

Abstract

The authors describe a semester-long action-learning project where undergraduate or graduate management students learn about ethics, responsibility, and organizational behavior by examining the policy of their college or university that addresses academic integrity. Working in teams, students adopt a stakeholder management approach as they make recommendations for improvements to their school’s academic integrity policy, its dissemination and enforcement. The authors detail their efforts facilitating this project at three universities. As students examine how an ethical conduct policy informs and is informed by individual and organizational behaviors, they come to more deeply understand the social processes through which all manner of responsibility-promoting outcomes are enacted. The approach to learning described in this project promotes students’ internalization of ethical principles and accountability for responsible behavior that is consonant with the core aims and principles of responsible management education.