John Cotton Dana Library, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 185 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102-1814, USA
North Carolina Wesleyan College, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
a b s t r a c t
The current societal and professional context presents a variety of ethical challenges to decision makers. The
importance of educational preparation for ethical decision-making and ethical leadership has been
addressed in the literature of library and information science (LIS), among other professions. However, it
can be quite difcult to measure the impact of professional ethics education on students. This article is based
on an evaluation of published original research related to ethics education in disciplines supported by
professional education, including education, nursing, allied health, journalism, social work, public health,
engineering, and LIS. The study considers data related to research design, methodologies used, populations
studied, approaches to measuring impact, levels of impact, and publication in the journal literature. Results
indicate more extensive research in education and nursing as compared with other elds, a lack of baseline
data gathering for comparison, a reliance on a limited number of data-gathering techniques, and a tendency
toward studying alumni over current students
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Many high-prole cases of unethical practice in business, higher
education, the public sector, charities, and professional and amateur
sports have drawn increased attention to ethical questions in recent
years. In recent years, several examples of the questionable use of
organizational resources, employee theft, nancial irregularities, and
other widely publicized controversies relating to professional decision-making have come to light. In many cases, new professionals
entering the workforce may be heavily inuenced by the prevalence of
unethical behavior that they see in the media. This can run counter to
what they were taught in their degree programs.
For professionals, particularly those in leadership roles, ethical
decision-making is necessary because of the need for accountability to
stakeholders both inside and outside organizations. In addition, the
research indicates that organizational success, measured in various
ways, is strongly associated with ethical practice (Is Ethics Good
Business? 2003, pp. 621). In service professions such as LIS, ethical
practice becomes even more signicant as the individuals who receive
service customers or patrons rely on the practitioner's judgment
and reective professional practice.
However, the nature of organizational and interpersonal competition and a perception that others are using unethical means to get
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: winstonm@andromeda.rutgers.edu (M.D. Winston).
0740-8188/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2008.02.007
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
223
224
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
225
226
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
Table 2
Disciplines of journals
Discipline
Number of articles
% of total
Education
Nursing
Allied health
Journalism/mass media
Social work
Public health
Psychology
Medicine
Engineering
Library and information science
Total
13
9
3
2
2
1
1
1
0
0
32
40.6
28.1
9.4
6.3
6.3
3.1
3.1
3.1
0.0
0.0
100.0
Table 1
Disciplines of the authors
Discipline
Number
% of total
Education
Nursing
Allied health
Journalism/mass media
Social work
Public health
Agriculture
Psychology
Engineering
Library and information science
Total
11
10
3
2
2
2
1
1
0
0
32
34.4
31.3
9.4
6.3
6.3
6.3
3.1
3.1
0.0
0.0
100.0
Table 3
Disciplines of articles
Discipline
Number of articles
% of total
Education
Nursing
Allied health
Journalism/mass media
Social work
Public health
Engineering
Total
12
10
3
2
2
2
1
32
37.5
31.3
9.4
6.3
6.3
6.3
3.1
100.0
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
Table 4
Study participants
227
Table 6
Approaches in measuring impact
Number
% of total
Method of evaluation
Numbera
% of total
Undergraduate students
Graduate students
Undergraduate and graduate students
Faculty
Alumni
Other
Total
4
1
1
10
15
1
32
12.5
3.1
3.1
31.3
46.9
3.1
100.0
22
10
8
15
14
1
68.8
31.3
25.0
46.9
43.8
3.1
Number of articles
% of total
Questionnaire
Content analysis
Interview
Total
28
2
2
32
87.5
6.3
6.3
100.0
a
The individual studies were not limited to one measure of analysis. Thus, the total
exceeds 32.
Number of articles
% of total
049
5099
100249
N249
N/A
Total
7
8
8
8
1
32
22.6
25.0
25.0
25.0
3.1
100.0
228
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
Table 8
Organizational context
Context
Number of articles
% of total
Single course
Single institution
Multiple institutions
Other
Total
6
1
24
1
32
18.8
3.1
75.0
3.1
100.0
Table 9
Years of publication
Year
Number of articles
% of total
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Total
2
7
5
5
7
4
2
32
6.3
21.9
15.6
15.6
21.9
12.5
6.3
100.0
M.D. Winston, S. Bahnaman / Library & Information Science Research 30 (2008) 222230
229
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