A Typology of University Ethical Lapses: Types, Levels of Seriousness, and Originating Location
We have little empirical research on university ethical lapses. To address this problem, Bruhn, Zajac, Al-Kazemi, and Prescott (2002) developed a typology of such lapses. In this article, we build on their work by presenting typologies developed from media- and Web-based data and supplemented by ethical lapses uncovered in other research studies.
Introduction
Scandals ranging from NCAA violations to falsified research results have fueled criticism of America's universities. Sports violations, research manipulation, gender discrimination, and other ethical lapses affect an entire institution as they have a spillover effect on its reputation (Cullen, Latessa, Byrne, & Holman, 1990; Gerdy, 2002). The results of these problems include declining credibility and deteriorating public trust in universities since such lapses are difficult to resolve (Lederman, 1992; Turner, 1999).
For example, American University's October 2005 $3.7 million severance package for Benjamin Ladner set off Senate Finance Committee and IRS investigations. In that same month, MIT dismissed Dr. Luk Van Parijs for falsifying research data. Schools manipulate admissions data for ranking purposes (Kersten, 2000) since rankers use school-provided data in their evaluations. Having ranked institutions provide this data creates a clear conflict of interest (Cressey, 1997). These and other problems increase public suspicion and criticism of universities (Knight & Auster, 1999).
Some researchers believe that these ethical lapses spring from employees putting their own needs above honesty (e.g., Agle & Kelley, 2001; Howe & Moses, 1999). Others question whether universities have [End Page 402] clearly delineated parameters around expected behavior (Baumgarten, 1982; Bruhn, Zajac, Al-Kazemi, & Prescott, 2002; Roworth, 2002). In addition, the many and varied pressures affecting university employees may encourage ethical lapses (Goodstein, 2002; Howe & Moses, 1999). However, we do not know the full range of lapses that occur, the organizational areas from which they originate, nor their impact on stakeholders.
Research in business ethics (e.g., Hill, Kelley, Agle, Hitt, & Hoskisson, 1992) demonstrates that addressing such questions requires identifying as full a range of organizational ethical lapses as possible. We also need to know where these behaviors occur (Anderson, Louis, & Earle, 1999; Goodstein, 2002; Iyer, 1999; Morgan, Korschgen, & Gardner, 2001), the affected parties, and the behaviors' impact on them. We attempt to provide such information in this article. We first present our literature review and definition of ethical lapse. Next, we discuss our research methodology and its limitations. We describe our findings and present the propositions we generated. We end by discussing changes that could support ethical behavior, the limits to this study, and future research directions.
Literature Review
Building on the Work of Bruhn et al.
In this paper, we work from the intriguing and well-conceived typology Bruhn et al. (2002) developed. In their work, they presented the definition of university ethics lapses that guided their study, examined the relationship between ethical behavior and professionalism among academics, developed a typology of academic ethical lapses, and discussed this typology via vignettes. They then discussed factors contributing to and solutions for the ethical crisis facing universities.
Bruhn et al. (2002) defined academic ethical behavior in terms of professionalism and citizenship. Discussing the self-policing nature of professions, professional codes of conduct, and the importance of ethical citizenship to academia, they then noted the difficulties inherent in ensuring that academics enact professionalism and ethical citizenship. Among those difficulties are self-policing problems, resistance within the academy that prevents it from reaching consensus on unacceptable faculty conduct, and the role of academic freedom in protecting those who engage in ethical lapses. They also identified the dangers that exist when academics do not meet their professional ethical obligations.
Bruhn et al. defined an ethical failure as "any act that results in harm to others" (2002, p. 476) and that is intentional and willful. They presented vignettes of ethical lapses relating to the noncontractual side of [End...
