Ethical Dilemmas and Emergent Values Encountered by Working College Students

Abstract

A large body of pedagogical research exists on developing curricula and ethics training tools to prepare college graduates for entering the workforce. However, many college students are already in the workforce while they attend school. Many of these jobs are entry-level or frontline employee positions in retail or service industries, which can be ripe opportunities for ethical misconduct. However, most research on ethics and employees has focused on upper-level managers and CEOs. Although insightful, ethics scholars contend that there are more low-level employees who face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Given the increase of working students and the paucity of research on entry-level job ethics, this study investigates, categorizes, and analyzes ethical dilemmas faced by college students who work while attending school. This article considers ethical decision-making models and corporate ethical values as its conceptual base. A qualitative approach for this study was taken due to the scarcity of research on ethical issues faced by entry-level employees and the call by ethics researchers for qualitative research to explore the complex and psychosocially embedded nature of business ethics. The implications of the emergent ethical issues and values from this study are then discussed for marketing educators.