ABSTRACT
To better understand the development of ethical communicators, this study applies the framework of Jones’ ethical decision-making model to explore how students in a first-year public speaking class deal with an issue related to plagiarism during a speech assignment. A modified model with five components was developed. An ethical scenario was presented to student participants (n = 383) in multiple sections of a first year general education public speaking course. Moral intensity was found to have a direct impact on three other components of the model: recognition of an ethical issue, making an ethical judgment, and ethical behavioral intentions. Course content and policy related to plagiarism affected students’ ethical behavioral intentions. The interrelationships among these five components are discussed.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to express our gratitude for the instructors of first year speech classes and their students who voluntarily participated in this research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Yang Lin
Yang Lin (PhD, University of Oklahoma) and Kathleen D. Clark (PhD, The Ohio State University) are professors at the School of Communication, The University of Akron, Ohio.
Kathleen D. Clark
Yang Lin (PhD, University of Oklahoma) and Kathleen D. Clark (PhD, The Ohio State University) are professors at the School of Communication, The University of Akron, Ohio.