Faculty Research

Action Research into Business Conduct (ARBC) Assessment

What do your students know about ethics in business? Has your ethical instruction made a difference in their level of awareness? These are the questions the ARBC assessment will address.

The ARBC, developed by Dr. William Black, is a 10-15 minute online assessment that presents students with different business scenarios and then asks them to rate how acceptable they think the conduct is. With the support of the truist Center for Ethical Leadership, the tool is freely available to instructors and professionals interested in measuring awareness related to ethical issues in business conduct.

Uses of ARBC

In conjunction with an individual course (any subject area)
Before and after ethics instruction
Over the course of an academic year or a student’s undergraduate career

Sample Questions

Chief Executive Office Phoenix give the top salesperson in each region a special award and recognition in the company newsletter. Three of the top performers this quarter have been submitting inflated reimbursement requests for meals and entertainment expenses.

Rate - 1 (Completely Unacceptable) - 7 (Completely Acceptable)

Glenn organized a company in a foreign country to handle distribution for Glenn's line of technical products. The foreign company is instructed to "Do whatever it takes" to make sure that Glenn's shipments are not delayed at the border.

Rate - 1 (Completely Unacceptable) - 7 (Completely Acceptable)

London insists that no new clients can be accepted until they have passed extensive scrutiny, including background checks on the key employees of the potential client.

Rate - 1 (Completely Unacceptable) - 7 (Completely Acceptable)

What Instructors Will Receive

An aggregated summary of the responses
Comparative analysis of your student's responses to a reference group of seasoned business professionals
If a follow-up assessment, comparative analysis of your student's first responses compared to their follow up responses

How to Leverage ARBC's Results

Assess whether your intended message regarding ethics has been absorbed by students
Determine whether the instruction produced the desired results
Readdress or rework any of your ethics content
Reach out to the creators of the assessment to further interpret your results