Finalised MGT 351 Report

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

August 06, 2010

Muhammad Faisol Chowdhury

Lecturer

Department: School of Business

North South University

Subject: Submission of group report

Dear Sir,

The purpose of this letter, as stated in the subject is the submission of this group report, on the topic

Unethical issues faced by the NSU student while they are in campus, as given in class as part of the

requirement for the completion of the MGT 351 course. In the process of bringing this report about, the

members of team (respective names Stated below), have endeavored to their utmost to maintain the

highest of qualities, in terms of writing, information collection and analysis of acquired data. The

members have furthermore striven to make this report as comprehensive and relevant to the course as

possible and hopefully their efforts have been amply demonstrated in the report.

We would also like to take this opportunity to put forward our most heartfelt thanks for giving this

opportunity to create this report and in turn have one the most memorable experiences of our lives. If any

assistance is required in the comprehension of this report, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

_______________ ______________ ____________ ______________ ______________

Sabrita Mawla Safa Md. Sanzid Ahsan Salman Ahmed Md. Foizul Hossain Md. Iftekhar Alam


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Acknowledgements

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Almighty for blessing us with the patience, the

determination and the fortitude to finish what we started. Secondly, we would like to extend our heartfelt

gratitude to our Course Instructor, Muhammad Faisol Chowdhury for his guidance, his ceaseless energy

in egging us on in our venture in creating this report and of course his invaluable teaching throughout the

BUS101 course.

Furthermore we would like to express thankfulness to our friends and to our classmates without whom

this reps ort would not have been possible. Their support and their suggestion in creating this report have

helped this team tremendously in bringing this struggle to fruition.

DECLARATION

We hereby declare that the project work entitled Unethical issues faced by the NSU student while they

are in campus submitted to the North South U niversity, is a record of an original work done by us under

the guidance of Muhammad Faisol Chowdhury, Faculty Member and senior lecturer of North South University, and

this project work has not performed the basis for the award of any Degree or diploma/ associate ship/fellowship

and similar project if any. This research paper may not represent the true results because of time constrain and the sample size

we took for the research purpose. We hope that it at least represent the approximate results of the true facts. At least we hope we

do our best to get the real picture of the subjects of the research. The findings of these results can be use on other research

purpose, of course ethically and these results could not be used as fact or prove in any real world case.

_______________ ______________ ____________ ______________ ______________

Sabrita Mawla Safa Md. Sanzid Ahsan Salman Ahmed Md. Foizul Hossain Md. Iftekhar Alam


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Executive summary:

This HRM (Human resource management) project is going to present unethical issues faced by the

students of North South University in the university s premises , the scenario after the incidents occurred

and provide suggestions on how HRM can contribute to create an ethical and fair environment for the

students.

For conducting the survey, we first prepared a questionnaire based on our personal experiences and the

records of common unethical happenings of university. Generally, this questionnaire compiled major

unethical activities which are faced by the students of North South University, actions taken and role

played by the students to resolve the incident, actions taken by the university against the complaint lodged

and the impact of the incidents in their lives. There were 30 students who participated in this survey.

Among all unethical occurrences, unfair practice at the re-advising procedure, student getting admitted

into NSU through means, sexual har assment, biasness of teachers/teachers assistants to certain students,

rude behavior by the NSU administration, registrar and office employees, harassment by security guards

of NSU, plagiarism, peer pressure, gender discrimination and presence of outsiders in NSU compounds

got importance in the questionnaire. Sometimes student and authority took actions against the incidents

through the different effective ways and sometimes they did not.

After evaluating the survey papers, we came up with some suggestions on how HRM can contribute to

create an ethical and fair environment for the students. We have recommended some ways such as

creating a competent coupon system for re-advising, restoring faith in the evaluation process, Informal

Association to monitor unethical activities and holding awareness seminars and workshops for all, prompt

student s counseling and creating hotline facility to accept the complain from students which HRM can

apply to eliminate unethical happenings from North South University.


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1.0 Introduction on Ethics

A set of principles of right conduct is ethics. On other words a theory or a system of moral values. A

code ethics often focuses on social issues; it may set out general principles about an organization's beliefs

on matters such as mission, quality, privacy, or the environment. It may explain proper procedures to

determine whether a violation of the code of ethics has occurred and, if so, what alternative should be

required. The effectiveness of such codes of ethics depends on the extent to which management supports

them with sanctions and rewards. Violations of a private organization's code of ethics usually can subject

the violator to the organization's remedies (such as restraint of trade based on moral principles). The code

of ethics links to and gives rise to a code of conduct for members. Basically ethics deals with the moral

beliefs of the owners of the business or organization towards its stakeholders. In a non-profit

organization s there is an ethics manger by HR department. Ethics officers have and continue to play a

vital role in ethics for human resource management. Research suggests that successful ethics

management depends more on members' perceptions of fairness, ethical leadership at all levels, and the

alignment of multiple formal and informal cultural systems to support ethical conduct than it does on

formal ethics programmers . HR professionals must play a key role in ethics management using HR

systems to invoke fairness and ensure organizational harmony. Typically an ethics officer is responsible

for developing an organization's ethics policies, creating communication related to the organization's

code, planning ethics training programmers , and overseeing the ethics reporting function. An effective

ethics officer knows that it is also critical to operate as part of a team that brings together many different

partners: finance, marketing, operations, and especially human resources. This trust is dominant in

drawing on their knowledge and resource in order to infuse ethics throughout the organization as well as

the external business environment.


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5.0 LIMITATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH

This research had several limitations; number one being that this research was heavily dependant

on data from primary research. Some other limitations were that the time period of study was for one

month so it was not possible to cover all the areas and go into the depth of the problem and make analysis

as a result. A relatively small sample size has been used. Some amount of error exists in the data filling

process because of the following reasons:

Influence of others.

Misunderstanding of the concept.

Hurried filling of the questionnaire. Chances of some biasness could not be eliminated

6.0 Literature Review:

(Dessler, 2011) Stated, Ethics refers to the principles of conduct governing an individual or a

group; specifically the standards you use to decide what you r conduct should be. He also suggested that

ethical decision involve two things; first it involves normative judgments which means that something is

good or bad right; or wrong better or worse. Second, ethical decisions always involve questions of

morality. Morality is society s highest accepted standards of be havior. The issue of business ethics has

been abuzz in business schools for the past few decades. Despite business ethics being a hot cake for the

B-schools, it is really thought provoking where one sees the corporate scandals done by managers who

were trained in top B-schools. The case of Enron and Lehman Brothers can be used as examples.

Ethics are moral guidelines which govern good behavior. So behaving ethically is doing what

is morally right. Behaving ethically in business is widely regarded as good business practice. An

important distinction to remember is that behaving ethically is not quite the same thing as behaving

lawfully:


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Ethics are about what is right and what is wrong

Law is about what is lawful and what is unlawful

A question might arise in one s mind; how do businesses ensure that its directors, managers and

employees act ethically?

A common approach is to implement a code of practice. Ethical codes are increasingly popular

particularly with larger businesses and cover areas such as:

Corporate social responsibility

Dealings with customers and supply chain

Environmental policy & actions

Rules for personal and corporate integrity

Much of the recent focus on business ethics has been directed against financial corruption,

especially a concern with accounting standards. The scandals involving Enron Corp. and WorldCom are

two recent examples. But concern has been raised over a very broad range of issues, for example:

Abuse of the world s physical resources, and the global ecological balance ( Esso);

Abuse of human rights (Shell/Nigeria);

Animal rights (KFC, McDonald s);

Aggressive treatment of competitors (Wal-Mart);

Exploitative and unscrupulous marketing (Philip Morris) (Klein, 2000).

Throughout the world, unethical conducts are threatening the human race by undermining the

activities of organizations both public and private. (Radda, 2009) Universities in Bangladesh, particularly

North South University is not spared of unethical practices that appear to be threate ning NSU s mission

and vision of providing quality education for national development. (Radda, 2009) stated, The central

purpose of a University in any given society is to offer an atmosphere for learning for the benefit of the


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learner, the society and hu manity in general. Hence, a University must strive to identify itself with the

local as well as the international needs of society. (Horn, 2009) suggested Universities are in the business

of education; most professionals gain their qualifications at universities.

Whistle blowing in NSU: Although Grossi (2004) suggests that whistle blowing is not a

desirable business practice, conscientious employees may perceive it as the only ethical choice. (Horn,

2009) explained in an example, when academics in Australian Universities have to teach increasingly

larger classes without adequate resources, severely impacting on the quality of education, their options are

stark: persevere with an increasingly compromised situation; leave and let the problems fester; or speak

out to expose the problems. (Horn, 2009) also stated, Many whistleblowers pay a huge price for their

exposs. Their careers are often severely damaged, for example by promotion blockage, reprimands,

demotion, dismissal, difficulty in gaining a new position, suspicion and shunning by peers, divorce,

attempted suicide and bankruptcy.

This paper found some strong evidences about unethical practices in North South University and

it has also been found that despite facing these type of incidents students choose not to become

whistleblowers due apprehension. NSU needs a whistleblower protection act to ensure fair operational practices throughout the campus.

7.0 Data Analysis

The Data Analysis process involved evaluating the questionnaires and noting down the feedback, to

compile data for drawing up bar charts for each questions asked, to help provide a graphical comparison

of student pinions and response.


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i. Q.1 Which of these unethical incidents, if any, did you face while you have been in North South

University?

Unfair practice at the re-advising procedure

Student getting admitted into NSU means.

Sexual harassment

Biasness of teachers

Rude behavior by the NSU administration,registrar and office employees

Harassment by security guards of NSU

Plagiarism

Peer pressure

Gender Discrimination

Presence of outsiders

0 5 10 15 20 25 30


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ii . Q.2 What actions did you take/ role did you play, in order to resolve the incident?

0 5 10 15

Asked for justice through faculty evaluation

Whistle blowing

Talked to a senior faculty member

Talked to parents

Asked everyone in the Faculty Review Group inFacebook to be aware of the particular faculty

member

Facing/Warning the offenders directly

Spread negative word-of-mouth

I took no action


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ii i. Q.3 What actions did the NSU authorities take against the complaint lodged?

i v. Q.4 What was the impact of this incident on your life?

0 5 10 15 20

Called the student/faculty involved

Warned the student/faculty

Fired the faculty

Expelled/suspended the student

Authority reprimianded me

Did nothing

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Became de-motivated

Relation with faculty decides grades

Became frustrated and did unethicalactivities

Became scared if retalliations

Became strong and motivated

No impact


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8.0 Findings

i. Findings for Q.1 Which of these unethical incidents, if any, did you face while you have been in North

South University?

Out of the 30 respondents - 28 marked unfair practices at the re-advising procedure, 8 marked Student

getting admitted into NSU means , 1 marked Sexual harassment , 14 marked Biasness of teachers , 18

marked Rude behavior by the NSU administration, registrar and office employees , 4 marked Harassment

by security guards of NSU , 6 marked Plagiarism , 6 marked Peer pressure , 4 marked Gender

discrimination and 10 marked Presence of outsiders .

From the response we can see that over 90% of the respondents have faced or observed malpractices

during the re-advising sessions. This is a cause for grave concern as these unethical activities seems to be

affecting almost the whole student body. The second most prevalent unethical activity is the misconduct

by NSU s administrative department ; the department that is supposed to be responsible for clearly

communicating and answering any student queeries. Biasness of teachers and faculty members also had a

high response rate, as some teachers seem to be giving grades based on non -academic elements. The

presence of outsiders in the NSU campus is another activity to cause concern as IUB students have been

seen loitering in campus. Other listed unethical activities - Sexual harassment, Harassment by security

guards of NSU, Plagiarism, Peer pressure, Gender discrimination were not so frequently faced by the

respondents and had a lower response rate.

ii. Findings for Q.2 What actions did you take/ role did you play, in order to resolve the incident?

Out of the 30 respondents - 9 marked Asked for justice through faculty evaluation, 3 marked Whistle

blowing , 6 marked Talked to a senior faculty member , 12 marked Talked to parents , 5 marked Asked

everyone in the Faculty Review Group in Facebook to be aware of the particular faculty member , 3

marked Facing/Warning the offenders directly , 10 marked Spread negative word-of-mouth , 14 marked I

took no action.


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Most respondents preferred to turn a blind eye towards the unethical activities they had been facing, and

mostly resigned to confiding to their parents in hopes of them filing a complaint to NSU authorities. A

third had looked to raise awareness through faculty evaluation and warning their friends through word of

mouth and social networking sites, with only 3 respondents willing to file complaints directly to

authorities.

iii. Findings for Q.3 What actions did the NSU authorities take against the complaint lodged?

Out of the 30 respondents 6 marked Called the student/faculty involved, 7 marked Warned the

student/faculty, 7 marked Fired the faculty member, 1 marked Expelled/suspended the student, 0 marked

Authority reprimanded me, 16 marked Did nothing.

Most respondents saw their complaints lead to no actions being taken by authorities; this trend may

answer why so students are reluctant to go to authorities to lodge complaints. But there were cases where

the guilty parties have been summoned and were warned, suspended, fired (in case of faculty member),

and expulsion. It is encouraging to see that those that did lodge complaints were not reprimanded for

doing so.

iv. Findings for Q.4 What was the impact of this incident on your life?

Out of the 30 respondents- 16 marked Became de-motivated, 9 marked Relation with faculty decides

grades, 7 marked Became frustrated and did unethical activities, 2 marked Became scared if retaliations,

2 marked Became strong and motivated, 9 marked No impact.

Majority of respondents were de-motivated due to unethical activities on campus and the lack of initiative

shown by authorities to take any form of action against these activities. Some came to the conclusion of

complaints being futile and decided to participate in the unethical activities themselves. The 9

respondents that did mark No Impact were mostly those that decided not to take any action at all.


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9.0 Recommendations:

We have done a survey based on our topic that was Unethical incidents that occurred to our classmates

while they were in North South University . Undoubtedly, this survey revealed the most pointed unethical

issues which occur in university s premises. Among all unethical occurrences, unfair practice at the re-

advising procedure, student getting admitted into NSU through means, sexual harassment, biasness of

teachers/teachers assistants to certain students, rude behavior by the NSU administration, registrar and

office employees, harassment by security guards of NSU, plagiarism, peer pressure, gender discrimination

and presence of outsiders in NSU compounds poked the most of the students of North South University at

a remarkable rate, but the matter of sorrow is that the result of these unethical activates drew a negative

impact in students mind. Even, in some extend, students became de-motivated, frustrated which badly

affected in their studies. That is why , to eliminate these unexpected conditions, to hold the legendary

reputation of North South University , we have come out with some suggestions that how HRM can

contribute to create an ethical and fair environment for the students.

i. Create a competent coupon system for re-advising :

In finding part, we have notified about that over 90% of the respondents have faced or observed

malpractices during the re-advising sessions. Without delaying more, we have dedicated our whole

concentration on finding a solution to this problem and have tried to come up with a new way for the re-

advising process. It is a compe tent coupon system for re- advising . Under this system, students who need

to do re-advising will get a coupon. Certain conditions apply, which should be strictly maintained, such

as: one coupon per student and student s id number will be printed in the cou pon. Students will be

required to type their id into the system to receive coupon. Therefore, HR department has to enrich the

HRIS (Human Resource Information System) to ensure the application of competent coupon system. The

system should be maintained and monitored by security personnel. Furthermore, a schedule should be

provided and the time of re-advising will depend on coupon number. Another important fact is that


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coupon numbers should be carried onto following day and will not be renewed at the start of each day.

Moreover, student will not be allowed for re-advising more than two times. If any student tries to access

in the re-advising for the third time, he/she will be caught by the system. In this competent coupon

system, time management has to be ver y effective. Authority has to fix the time slot for each student s re -

advising. For example, authorities will take 15 minutes to complete the re-advising procedure for every 5

students. Students who will miss his/her scheduled time will not be allowed for immediate re-advising.

He/she has to take another coupon that means he/she will take the last chance of the re-advising.

Hopefully, this competent coupon system will minimize the rough situation which students and faculties

face during the re-advising moment. At least, students do not have to go to seek help from the faculties

who deal with the re-advising or the members of YES club members who take the responsibility to

maintain the discipline for the period of the re-advising, so that, they can re-advice many times, can break

the queue and without waiting can access in re-advising venue. All of these discrimination and unethical

behavior will be under control as re-advising procedure will be done under a proper system.

ii. Restore faith in the evaluation process:

Faculty evaluation process is done by students at the last week of each semester. Students are required to

evaluate the course and faculty s overall performance. Does the faculty follow up to date teaching

method? Does he/she invigilate the exam hall strictly or flexibly? Does he/she express biasness towards

some students? And does he/she check the exam scripts properly and submit these on relevant time? All

of these questions are included in the evaluation sheet. If students properly take participation on teacher

evaluation, they can get relief from some unethical activities such as biasness of teacher, not providing the

feedback of exams. But students are careless in this issue. There are so many students who are not doing

evaluation from last three/four semesters. The main reason for their indifference is because the teacher

evaluation is viewed as nothing more than being a prerequisite for getting their final grades, and their

evaluation has no real impact on how NSU evaluates faculty members.


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That is why; there should be a system that will not allow the students to do advising if they do not take

participation in faculty evaluation. Moreover, faculty evaluation sheet should be more precise. Authority

overlooks a considerable issue that is duty and responsibility of teaching assistant. In the evaluation sheet

a note should be included that does the faculty monitor his/her TA s duty or responsibility? or does

faculty s TA deal with unethical activities? We are concern about that issue because there are some

teaching assistant of some faculty s who give preference to their friends and even his/her siblings friends

also in the grading policy.

In addition, university s authority should analyze the completed application of evaluation with due

responsibility and within a minimum time, so that they can create an ethical and fair environment for the

students and provide visible results for the whole student body to see.

iii. Informal Association to monitor unethical activities:

The students of North South University participate in a whole gamut of activities under 14 different clubs.

Clubs are run by students and supervised by faculty advisors. So, there is room for another club or

association named Ethics Club . This club will pursue unbiased decision making an d it will be formed by

ethically sound individuals. Like other clubs, this club will be supervised by faculty advisors too. The

main motto of this club will be to support the authority to create an ethical environment in the university.

Students who will be troubled by unethical conditions in the university, they can share their problems and

seek help from this club authority to come out from unexpected environments.

iv. Holding Awareness Seminars and Workshops for all:

Under the Ethics Club s supervision se minars and workshops based on ethical topics can be held to raise

awareness among the students, faculties and everyone associated with NSU. It can clarify ethical rights,

can teach students how to face ethical dilemmas and highlight NSU s ethical guideline s and code of

conduct. Teacher should be made aware of these ethical guidelines as well and how to conduct


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themselves with their students. NSU staff members that are in charge of cleaning and security should also

be made to attend these seminars on how to interact with students and faculty members.

v. Promote student counseling:

At level #4, in the NSU s Administrative building, we have a counseling office. Unfortunately, most of

the students are unaware of its existence in NSU. On the other hand, many are shy and reluctant to meet

the counselor. Whether, it can help students to cope with unethical incidents and can provide advice on

what to do. University s authority can mention about this facility during the orientation program and

faculty members also can inform the students about this counseling office in class, so that students can get

mental support, get relief from frustration and motivated towards their duty during the critical situation

they face in their life.

vi. Create a hotline for student complaints

HRM department can create a hotline for student s complaints. Students can complain to the HR

department directly and this can be done unanimously over the phone. Now the question can arise that if

HR department gets blank call then what would be the situations. Yes, blank call will definitely ring in

hotline s numbers. Whatever, HR departments only will take actions when they will justify the

complaints and come up with result that yes, this unethical activities have been practiced . And they will

achieve this competency through the working experience. For example, if any unethical activity really

occurred, obviously, they will receive more and more complaints on same issues. However, it is a quite

lengthy process, but in the long run; it will be one of the successful steps to provide fair and ethical

environment for the students.

10.0 Conclusion

According to the guideline, we have surveyed among our classmates and revealed the major unethical

incidents faced by students of North South University. After observing the unethical issues,


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Appendix

Human Resource Management (MGT351)

Survey on Ethical Dilemmas faced in NSUGender: _______ Age:______ Semester: ______ Major:______ Home District:______

Q.1 Which of these unethical incidents, if any, did you face while you have been in North SouthUniversity?

Unfair practice at the re-advising procedure. Student getting admitted into NSU means. Sexual harassment Biasness of teachers/teachers assistants to certain students.

Rude behavior by the NSU administration, registrar and office employees. Harassment by security guards of NSU. Plagiarism. Peer pressure. Gender Discrimination. Presence of outsiders in NSU compounds. Others

________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Q.2 What actions did you take/ role did you play, in order to resolve the incident?

Asked for justice through faculty evaluation. Filed complaint against the person to the Dean/Chairperson [Whistle blowing]. Talked to a senior faculty member. Talked to parents regarding the problem. Asked everyone in the Faculty Review Group in Facebook to be aware of the particular

faculty member. Facing/Warning the offenders directly.

Spread negative word-of-mouth to peers. I took no action. Others

________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Q.3 What actions did the NSU authorities take against the complaint lodged?


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Called the student/faculty who were involved in the unethical activities. Warned the student/faculty member. Fired the faculty member Expelled/suspended the student.

The authority instead reprimanded for making these types of complaints. Did nothing to resolve this matter. Others

________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Q.4 What was the impact of this incident on your life?

Became de-motivated and it affected my studies. Came to believe good grades can only be earned through good relations with the faculty. Became frustrated and got involved with the unethical activities myself. I became scared of retaliations as a result of my whistle blowing, and stopped coming to

NSU. I became strong and motivated as my complaints were received and acted on. Others

________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Finalised MGT 351 Report

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