Ethics and Diversity are two of the four Capstone Learning Outcomes, and collaboration is one of the SLA competencies associated with the course outcome of Communication. You will collaborate with your classmates throughout this course by providing feedback and suggestions for improvement on several course assignments, as well as participating in group problem-solving. Like all the pre-assessments, this activity allows you to demonstrate your current strengths and identify areas you’ll need to improve to successfully complete the Capstone. Specifically in this group exercise you will consider the relationship between academic honesty and workplace honesty. We hope you will find this an accessible topic. It’s essential you demonstrate your best work, as we will use the results to determine individual remediation needs and your own readiness for the Capstone. In its most simple meaning, ethics is a system of moral principles. The study of ethics is a branch of philosophy examining standards of right and wrong. For a quick overview of major ethical theories, review the Ethics Resources [PDF File size, 26KB] document. It’s also important that you pause to consider your personal experience with—or study of—diverse cultures and contemplate how personal biases, emotions, and stereotypes can affect the way cultural issues may be perceived. For a quick overview of cross-cultural theory, review the Diverse Cultures Resources [PDF File size, 84KB] document. Achieving group consensus through collaborative communication is a skill employers increasingly find valuable. Learning with others is a synergistic process. Laal and Laal (2012) emphasize the potential value of collaboration as a learning tool, provided that individuals accept responsibility for their own actions and acknowledge the value of others’ contributions to a final product. The process of collaboration can help develop an individual’s critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills—skills employers tend to place on their “most desired” list for prospective employees. Directions for the Collaborative Activity Issues related to academic honesty and integrity are increasingly prevalent in higher education. When presented with the evidence of their academic dishonesty, some react defensively and claim they’re being falsely accused, while others allege discriminatory practices and blame anyone and everything except themselves for the situation. You’re probably most aware of plagiarism as an academic honesty violation. Here is a different type of problem. Smart Strategy or Slippery Slope A student thinks the degree "is just a piece of paper" needed to get a better job. The student decides to outsource capstone assignments, sends weekly materials to a ghostwriter saying "follow the instructions, don't plagiarize, and don't miss the deadlines." She submits the assignments and gets good grades, until the ghostwriting arrangement is discovered. When confronted, the stud.

1. Ethics and Diversity are two of the four Capstone Learning
Outcomes, and collaboration is one of the SLA competencies
associated with the course outcome of Communication. You will
collaborate with your classmates throughout this course by
providing feedback and suggestions for improvement on several
course assignments, as well as participating in group problem-
solving. Like all the pre-assessments, this activity allows you to
demonstrate your current strengths and identify areas you’ll
need to improve to successfully complete the Capstone.
Specifically in this group exercise you will consider the
relationship between academic honesty and workplace honesty.
We hope you will find this an accessible topic. It’s essential
you demonstrate your best work, as we will use the results to
determine individual remediation needs and your own readiness
for the Capstone.
In its most simple meaning,
ethics
is a system of moral principles. The study of ethics is a branch
of philosophy examining standards of right and wrong. For a
quick overview of major ethical theories, review the
Ethics Resources
[PDF File size, 26KB] document.
It’s also important that you pause to consider your personal
experience
with—or
study
of—diverse
cultures and contemplate how personal biases, emotions, and
stereotypes can affect the way cultural issues may be perceived.
For a quick overview of cross-cultural theory, review the
Diverse Cultures Resources
[PDF File size, 84KB] document.
Achieving group consensus through collaborative
communication is a skill employers increasingly find valuable.
Learning with others is a synergistic process.

2. Laal
and
Laal
(2012) emphasize the potential value of collaboration as a
learning tool, provided that individuals accept responsibility for
their own actions and acknowledge the value of others’
contributions to a final product. The process of collaboration
can help develop an individual’s critical thinking, problem
solving, and communication
skills—skills
employers tend to place on their “most desired” list for
prospective employees.
Directions for the Collaborative Activity
Issues related to academic honesty and integrity are
increasingly prevalent in higher education. When presented with
the evidence of their academic dishonesty, some react
defensively and claim they’re being falsely accused, while
others allege discriminatory practices and blame anyone and
everything except themselves for the situation. You’re probably
most aware of plagiarism as an academic honesty violation.
Here is a different type of problem.
Smart Strategy or Slippery Slope
A student
thinks the degree "is just a piece of paper" needed to get a
better job. The student decides to outsource capstone
assignments, sends weekly materials to a ghostwriter saying
"follow the instructions, don't plagiarize, and don't miss the
deadlines." She submits the assignments and gets good grades,
until the ghostwriting arrangement is discovered. When
confronted, the student has difficulty understanding what she
has done wrong, since the work she submitted is original. After
all, she says, successful business professionals know how to
delegate tasks to achieve success.
Emerging research suggests such dishonest acts aren’t limited to
the classroom, and that academic dishonesty may be a predictor
of unethical behavior in the workplace. We wonder what might

3. happen to that student in the work world.
During this collaborative discussion you will need to draw upon
the following articles and other scholarly sources to support
your work in this discussion. These are the sorts of articles
you'll be needing to use for your research. It's all right if you
don't understand all the intricacies of social science research;
you should be able to pick out the key points in these articles:
East, J. (2006). The problem of plagiarism in academic culture.
International Journal for Educational Integrity
, Retrieved from
http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/view/88
Elias, R. (2009). The Impact of anti-Intellectualism attitudes
and academic self-efficacy on business students’ perceptions of
cheating.
Journal of Business Ethics
,
86
(2), 199-209. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9843-8, Permalink:
http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/l
ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=37321611&site=eds-
live&scope=site
Fawley
, N. E. (2007).
Plagiarism Pitfalls: Addressing Cultural Differences in the
Misuse of Sources
. [PDF, file size 538 KB]
International Journal of Learning
,14(7), 71-74.
Introna
, L., Hayes, N., Blair, L., & Wood, E. (2003).
Cultural attitudes toward plagiarism
. Lancaster University. Retrieved from
http
://
www
.academia.

4. edu
/1362321/Cultural_attitudes_towards_plagiarism
Martin, D. E. (2012).
Culture and unethical conduct: Understanding the impact of
individualism and collectivism on actual plagiarism
.
Management Learning
, 43(3), 261-273.
Excelsior College
Permalink
:
http
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.excelsior.
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/login?
url
=
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.com/login.
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?direct=true&db=
tfh
&AN=77340053&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Martin, D. E.,
Rao
, A., & Sloan, L. R. (2009).
Plagiarism, integrity, and workplace deviance: A criterion study
. [PDF, file size 140 KB]
Ethics & Behavior
, 19(1), 36-50.
doi
:10.1080/10508420802623666 Excelsior College Library

5. Permalink
:
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/login?
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Maxwell, A., Curtis, G. J., &
Vardanega
, L. (2008).
Does culture influence understanding and perceived seriousness
of plagiarism?
International Journal for Educational Integrity
, 4(2), 25-40.
http
://
vlib
.excelsior.
edu
/login?
url
=
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://search.
ebscohost
.com/login.

6. aspx
?direct=true&db=
edo
&AN=35848987&site=eds-live&scope=site
Nonis
, S., & Swift, C. O. (2001).
An examination of the relationship between academic
dishonesty and workplace dishonesty: A multicampus
investigation
. [PDF, file size 2.6 MB]
Journal of Education For Business
, 77(2), 69. Excelsior College Library
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Payan, J., Reardon, J., & McCorkle, D. E. (2010). The effect of
culture on the academic honesty of marketing and business
students.
Journal of Marketing Education
,
32

7. (3), 275-291. doi:10.1177/0273475310377781
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ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=54651786&site=eds-
live&scope=site
Teixeira, A. C. (2013). Sanding the wheels of growth: Cheating
by economics and business students and ‘real world’ corruption.
Journal of Academic Ethics
,
11
(4), 269. doi:10.1007/s10805-013-9192-9
Permalink:
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ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=91859448&site=eds-
live&scope=site
Walker, M., & Townley, C. (2012). Contract cheating: A new
challenge for academic honesty?
Journal of Academic Ethics
,
10
(1), 27. doi:10.1007/s10805-012-9150-y
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ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=72246352&site=eds-
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Initial Post
: Why does academic integrity matter? You must frame your
position within the context of ethical theory and cross-cultural
research. Substantiate your position using a minimum of two
scholarly sources, chosen from those provided for this activity
or other scholarly resources you wish to share. Cite your work
properly using APA format. In 300-400 words, post your
contribution by 11:59 PM ET
Wednesday
, addressing the following, then move into response mode for

8. the remainder of the week:
Identify the integrity issues presented in the ‘Smart Strategy or
Slippery Slope” case study.
What are the ethical implications of such behavior?
How might cultural differences affect perceptions of academic
integrity?
How might these same perceptions carry over into the
workplace?
Group Collaboration
: Some research suggests that academic dishonesty may be a
predictor of unethical behavior in the workplace. We look at
that finding in the collaboration phase of this discussion. Read
group members’ posts and respond only to those assigned to
your group. Ask questions and challenge assumptions and
unsubstantiated claims. Collaborate with group members to
address the following by
Sunday
:
What’s common among group members’ ideas?
What are points of disagreement?
What strategies might help to reduce unethical conduct in the
workplace while respecting the norms and values of diverse
populations?
As a group, brainstorm and work toward consensus on the top 3-
5 strategies. Substantiate your suggestions by drawing upon the
sources cited by group members and other scholarly sources as
needed.
Note
: It is essential that you be proactive in contributing to this
collaborative discussion. Ask questions, seek clarification
where needed, and extend the conversation by building upon
classmates’ ideas. Do not rely on restatement of others’ ideas or
quotations from sources. (Quotations should not exceed 10% of
your total post.)
Failure to post contributions by Wednesday will lessen the
group’s ability to work together effectively. Likewise, minimal

9. participation, arguments, and groupthink will also affect the
group. Do not ignore such behavior! Address the resulting
conflict in a productive manner.
Your individual and original contributions to the group
discussion will be used to assess your readiness for this
capstone course. Your work will be evaluated using the
collaboration/ethics/diversity pre-assessment rubric. “Yes”
scores on 4 or 5 of the rubric criteria indicate that you show
adequate competency in collaboration and grasp of ethics and
diversity principles. “No” scores point to areas where you
should brush up your skills to improve your chances of success
with later course assignments. You are responsible for checking
out the relevant materials in the Student Resources folder to
help you improve.
Consult the
Discussion Posting Guide
for information about writing your discussion posts. Work
offline
, proofread carefully, and correct any spelling or grammatical
errors before you post it. Posts must be properly organized in
logical paragraphs with appropriate transitions linking each
paragraph. All citations must be in APA format. We expect all
Capstone students to demonstrate senior-level college writing
skill
.
When you are ready to post, click on the "Create Thread" button
for a new thread or "Reply" to respond to a previous post. Then,
copy/paste the text from your document into the message field,
and use the formatting tools in the message box to edit your
work. Before posting, use the ‘preview” icon in the upper-left
corner of the message box to view your work. When you’re
ready to post, click "Submit."
Do not post your work as an attachment for any reason.
References
Laal
, M. &

10. Laal
, M. (2012).
Collaborative learning: What is it?
Procedia
- Social and Behavioral Sciences 31
(World Conference on Learning, Teaching & Administration -
2011), 491 – 495. Retrieved from
http
://
www
.
sciencedirect
.com/science/article/
pii
/S1877042811030217 Excelsior College
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