Attitudes Do Not and Cannot Change Overnight! Investigating Attitudes Towards Business Ethics at the University of Malawi

Yamikani Ndasauka; Tawina Chisi; Grivas Kayange

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Attitudes Do Not and Cannot Change Overnight! Investigating Attitudes Towards Business Ethics at the University of Malawi

Abdalla Khidir Abdalla

Tatweer Education Holding Company, Saudi Arabia

Yamikani Ndasauka, Tawina Chisi, and Grivas Kayange

University of Malawi, Malawi

Volume 17: 2020 pp. 75-98: ABSTRACT

The study investigated the difference of attitudes towards business ethics between students who have studied a business ethics course (n=88) and those who have not (n=94) at the University of Malawi in Malawi. It was hypothesised that students who had undergone the course would have more positive attitudes towards business ethics than those who had not. We employed the Attitudes towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and used t-test to measure the difference. The results were surprising as most items (23/30) showed no significant difference in attitudes towards business ethics by students who had undergone the course from those who had not. Out of the seven that showed significant difference, five of the items showed more positive attitude towards business ethics by those students who had undergone the course than those students who had not. This shows that there is something positive as regards the methods of teaching business ethics at the University, but requires leveraging. The paper concludes by recommending three leveraging points that the University of Malawi can adopt in a teaching business ethics course.